4 ms·

Get Rich Slow

94 points by tortilla 18y ago

pg 18y ago
"Again, this is a get-rich-slowly scheme: the business generates enough money to house and feed its three founders, who live together in an apartment that doubles as their workplace." That part is a bit misleading. Airbnb happened to cross over into profitability about the time the article was written, but the graph is quite steep.
mynameishere 18y ago
The guy who made motormouths should have given it a more generic name. You know, so the site could expand to different products later on.
- MotorMouths 18y ago
  Hi. I am that guy. And we do have some generic offshoots to do other products. But the car thing is our first project, followed by international versions of it. (We're bootstrapping, after all.)
  - edw519 18y ago
    "Hi. I am that guy." This reminds me of the scene in "Annie Hall" where the guy behind Woody Allen keeps pontifcating about Marshall McLuhan until McLuhan shows up in person to refute him... MCLUHAN (To the man in line) I hear-I heard what you were saying. You-you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing. ALVY (To the camera) Boy, if life were only like this! Hey Alvy, it finally is thanks to hacker news. Another reason why I love it here!
    - mynameishere 18y ago
      I'm pretty sure I wasn't pontificating. Awful analogy.
      - edw519 18y ago
        The analogy was in the real guy showing up, not in any comparison with you and the guy in line. Sorry if I implied otherwise. My mistake. One of the things I love about here is that you never know who may suddenly pop up. I always thought that was really cool.
      - rjurney 18y ago
        Grow a sense of humor! :)
    - dasil003 18y ago
      I may have been watching this movie as you typed this message. That was one of my favorite scenes.
- tjic 18y ago
  A name that says "everything" says nothing.
  - mynameishere 18y ago
    Well, pricegrabber could have called themselves carpricegrabber, and that would have been a mistake.
  - jpwagner 18y ago
    I'm sorry this was too funny and relevant: http://www.fazed.org/forum/view/?id=24396&last http://www.fazed.org/forum/view/?id=24396&last
smoody 18y ago
"How do you get started? All that's required is a great idea for a product that will fill a need in the 21st century." Wow! So easy! Where do I sign up???? :-)
edw519 18y ago
Nice article, but like many mainstream sources, they leave a big gap in the technical center. a. great idea b. computer magic c. get rich Their examples of computer magic? "He visited RentACoder.com and Elance.com sites where you can find software developers." "they quickly enlisted as their partner a former roommate..., who had some technical skills" If only it were that simple.
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  I'm using an open-source script and part-time Objective-C developer. But yes, I agree with you in general... to become an AAPL/GOOG/MS requires significantly more emphasis on unique and progressive technology (or to move extremely fast). But to be a profitable web company, it's rather quite easy using secondary development resources. Sugar, Inc relies heavily on Drupal if I'm not mistaken.
- Alex3917 18y ago
  "If only it were that simple." If you are able to spec out how every single screen and interaction works before outsourcing your site then it is that simple. The reason most sites cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take a year to design is that entrepreneurs don't force themselves to thrash up front. I would posit that for the vast majority of non-technical would be web entrepreneurs, the one thing that is keeping them from being successful is that they don't do 100% of the design upfront. If you can actually write a completely unambiguous spec and then have the discipline to not change it at all until after the site launches, no magic is required.
  - edw519 18y ago
    Right. A thorough functional spec would eliminate the "magic" problem and introduce another concern: management. Having the perfect spec and the right talent guarantees nothing. You must still manage every single step of the dev process. Needless to say, this is non-trivial. OP glossed over this part. I would go even a step further. I think the "management of talent" concern is so non-trivial that, in many cases, it simply doesn't work. The world has plenty of people with the scars to prove this. For a tech start-up, I'd put a team of quality hackers on the most critical path. Something the rest of the world conveniently seems to forget.
ph0rque 18y ago
> It almost goes without saying that many more start-ups fail than succeed. When will this myth finally be put to rest?
- pg 18y ago
  It's not a myth. I would be happy if the success rate for YC's investments was over 1/3.
  - bd 18y ago
    "When we raised our first Union Square Ventures fund, I told prospective investors to expect 1/3 of our investments to fail. I always like the 1/3 rule, which is that 1/3 of the investments will fail, 1/3 will under-perform expectations, and 1/3 will meet expectations." http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/failure_rates_i.html http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/failure_rates_i.h...
    - ivankirigin 18y ago
      USV is one of the best VC firms in the country, and typically investing in a later stage than YC with less risk.
tjic 18y ago
> How do you get started? All that's required is a great idea for a product Harrumph.
brianculler 18y ago
I love how articles like this give the general public the perception that software development is akin to getting something heavy off of a tall shelf. Its okay if YOU can't do it, just find someone tall to do it for you, and viola, you'll make a million dollars.
Ardit20 18y ago
These days you'd do best if your idea either makes people money or saves them money You might do even better if you save them time, or perhaps fill their time with entertainment, or maybe fill their need for belonging, or self esteem, etc. Money is not everything, perhaps money in fact is nothing.

94 points by tortilla 18y ago

pg 18y ago

"Again, this is a get-rich-slowly scheme: the business generates enough money to house and feed its three founders, who live together in an apartment that doubles as their workplace." That part is a bit misleading. Airbnb happened to cross over into profitability about the time the article was written, but the graph is quite steep.

mynameishere 18y ago

The guy who made motormouths should have given it a more generic name. You know, so the site could expand to different products later on.

MotorMouths 18y ago
Hi. I am that guy. And we do have some generic offshoots to do other products. But the car thing is our first project, followed by international versions of it. (We're bootstrapping, after all.)
- edw519 18y ago
  "Hi. I am that guy." This reminds me of the scene in "Annie Hall" where the guy behind Woody Allen keeps pontifcating about Marshall McLuhan until McLuhan shows up in person to refute him... MCLUHAN (To the man in line) I hear-I heard what you were saying. You-you know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing. ALVY (To the camera) Boy, if life were only like this! Hey Alvy, it finally is thanks to hacker news. Another reason why I love it here!
  - mynameishere 18y ago
    I'm pretty sure I wasn't pontificating. Awful analogy.
    - edw519 18y ago
      The analogy was in the real guy showing up, not in any comparison with you and the guy in line. Sorry if I implied otherwise. My mistake. One of the things I love about here is that you never know who may suddenly pop up. I always thought that was really cool.
    - rjurney 18y ago
      Grow a sense of humor! :)
  - dasil003 18y ago
    I may have been watching this movie as you typed this message. That was one of my favorite scenes.
tjic 18y ago
A name that says "everything" says nothing.
- mynameishere 18y ago
  Well, pricegrabber could have called themselves carpricegrabber, and that would have been a mistake.
- jpwagner 18y ago
  I'm sorry this was too funny and relevant: http://www.fazed.org/forum/view/?id=24396&last http://www.fazed.org/forum/view/?id=24396&last

smoody 18y ago

"How do you get started? All that's required is a great idea for a product that will fill a need in the 21st century." Wow! So easy! Where do I sign up???? :-)

edw519 18y ago

Nice article, but like many mainstream sources, they leave a big gap in the technical center. a. great idea b. computer magic c. get rich Their examples of computer magic? "He visited RentACoder.com and Elance.com sites where you can find software developers." "they quickly enlisted as their partner a former roommate..., who had some technical skills" If only it were that simple.

pxlpshr 18y ago
I'm using an open-source script and part-time Objective-C developer. But yes, I agree with you in general... to become an AAPL/GOOG/MS requires significantly more emphasis on unique and progressive technology (or to move extremely fast). But to be a profitable web company, it's rather quite easy using secondary development resources. Sugar, Inc relies heavily on Drupal if I'm not mistaken.
Alex3917 18y ago
"If only it were that simple." If you are able to spec out how every single screen and interaction works before outsourcing your site then it is that simple. The reason most sites cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take a year to design is that entrepreneurs don't force themselves to thrash up front. I would posit that for the vast majority of non-technical would be web entrepreneurs, the one thing that is keeping them from being successful is that they don't do 100% of the design upfront. If you can actually write a completely unambiguous spec and then have the discipline to not change it at all until after the site launches, no magic is required.
- edw519 18y ago
  Right. A thorough functional spec would eliminate the "magic" problem and introduce another concern: management. Having the perfect spec and the right talent guarantees nothing. You must still manage every single step of the dev process. Needless to say, this is non-trivial. OP glossed over this part. I would go even a step further. I think the "management of talent" concern is so non-trivial that, in many cases, it simply doesn't work. The world has plenty of people with the scars to prove this. For a tech start-up, I'd put a team of quality hackers on the most critical path. Something the rest of the world conveniently seems to forget.

ph0rque 18y ago

> It almost goes without saying that many more start-ups fail than succeed. When will this myth finally be put to rest?

pg 18y ago
It's not a myth. I would be happy if the success rate for YC's investments was over 1/3.
- bd 18y ago
  "When we raised our first Union Square Ventures fund, I told prospective investors to expect 1/3 of our investments to fail. I always like the 1/3 rule, which is that 1/3 of the investments will fail, 1/3 will under-perform expectations, and 1/3 will meet expectations." http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/failure_rates_i.html http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/failure_rates_i.h...
  - ivankirigin 18y ago
    USV is one of the best VC firms in the country, and typically investing in a later stage than YC with less risk.

tjic 18y ago

> How do you get started? All that's required is a great idea for a product Harrumph.

brianculler 18y ago

I love how articles like this give the general public the perception that software development is akin to getting something heavy off of a tall shelf. Its okay if YOU can't do it, just find someone tall to do it for you, and viola, you'll make a million dollars.

Ardit20 18y ago

These days you'd do best if your idea either makes people money or saves them money You might do even better if you save them time, or perhaps fill their time with entertainment, or maybe fill their need for belonging, or self esteem, etc. Money is not everything, perhaps money in fact is nothing.