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> This will no doubt annoy my friends Patrick McKenzie and Thomas Ptacek, who for years have been telling me that I should raise Tarsnap's prices. But while Tho
by johnchristopher 13y ago
> This will no doubt annoy my friends Patrick McKenzie and Thomas Ptacek, who for years have been telling me that I should raise Tarsnap's prices. But while Thomas accuses me of running Tarsnap like a public utility rather than a business, and thinks this is a characteristic to be avoided, I see this as a high compliment (...)
That's really nice. I'd rather have fair public utility rather than business for the sake of concentrating money.
I won't think twice about it the day I need to sign-up for tarsnap.
That is
- davidw 13y agoI wonder how sustainable it is though. cperciva could make a boatload of money doing something else for someone else. Right now maybe that's not an attractive option, but perhaps at some point he'll, say, marry, have kids, and want some more cash and financial security.
- cperciva 13y agoI did say that I'm paying myself what I consider to be a reasonable salary. perhaps at some point he'll, say, marry, have kids, and want some more cash and financial security. I am currently single, but if/when I find the right girl I don't expect finances to be the limiting factor.
- davidw 13y agoCould you replace yourself in the business for what you're paying yourself?
- cperciva 13y agoSubject to the usual caveats about no person ever being a perfect replacement for another person: Yes.
- pedrocr 13y agoSo to a first approximation you're valuing the business at 0. You're generating enough free cash flow to pay the salary needed to keep it running but no more. If you wanted to delegate that responsibility you, as the owner, couldn't get anything out of the business as the free cash flow would be 0. Nothing wrong with that really, but if you really want to strictly price it as a utility there needs to be some form of return on equity. Even amazon generates some free cash flow, they've just been reinvesting it all so not generating any income.
- throwaway7767 13y agoHe said he's in a good financial situation. He did not say he paid himself the lowest possible amount of salary he could live off, and let the business run without any safety buffer of money. I'm just going to assume that Colin is smart enough that he knows how to price his service. After all, he's the only one with the data to really know tarsnaps financial situation.
- johnchristopher 13y agoSorry for the poor wording and horrible grammar.