instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
|---|---|
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | jonallanharper: 1. If you don't already have one, set up a gold-backed IRA and contribute the max.2. Then, I'd personally either invest in gold or silver 1 oz bullion. Apmex.com is a great site to buy from. Chances are extremely slim that you'd lose the cash your making, if you convert to gold.3. Keep some in a money market account, like EmigrantDirect. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | Poiesis: Nice problem; I hope to have it someday.First: I echo the previous posters urging you to reconsider the stock market. It's low maintenance and is a nice way to diversify away from your business if you feel it's not sustainable.I just reread your post and noticed the implication of "I do not want to invest...long term like bonds or property". If you plan to need/use the money within, say, 5 years (preferably longer) the stock market isn't for you--so you're doing something right there by not wanting to go with stocks. I just think that people are urging you to think long termThat said, you want to make money fast short term. I will add to those pointing out that this is generally difficult. However, you do have at least one good idea proven to work at the moment: your success in the app store. Your best bet to make more money quickly in the short term is to attempt to scale what you're already doing. Note: this may not be possible. I still think it's your best bet given the constraints you give. You're worried about time investment, but that's nothing that hiring someone can't alleviate (but not remove).Finally, care to answer a few questions about your success? I imagine you're hesitant to share more identifying info, but how about things like what you do for marketing? Or how much time it took to get to this level, how many apps, and how much time it takes? |
What's your favorite scientific paper? | abyssknight: Robust Real-time Object Detectionhttp://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/viola/Pubs/Det...This paper describes a visual object detection framework that is capable of processing images extremely
rapidly while achieving high detection rates. There are three key contributions. The first is the introduction
of a new image representation called the “Integral Image” which allows the features used by our detector
to be computed very quickly. The second is a learning algorithm, based on AdaBoost, which selects a small
number of critical visual features and yields extremely efficient classifiers [6]. The third contribution is a
method for combining classifiers in a “cascade” which allows background regions of the image to be quickly
discarded while spending more computation on promising object-like regions. A set of experiments in the
domain of face detection are presented. The system yields face detection performace comparable to the best
previous systems [18, 13, 16, 12, 1]. Implemented on a conventional desktop, face detection proceeds at 15
frames per second. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | mrtron: Be wary of trying to recreate the success using a similar but different model. Many people fall into that trap and fail.For example, if you carefully built apps and they seem to be selling well hiring a bunch of people to build more apps may not work. The apps may not be of the same quality, you may not be able to communicate your vision adequately to them, and maybe just timing is incorrect now.Personally I would continue doing everything you are now and completely ignore the money side of things. Pay your taxes and pretend that money doesn't exist. Keep progressing forward and see if you can continue increasing revenue.Use some money to cut corners if you can, but throwing a bunch of money at a problem doesn't tend to have a good success rate.edit: Also by looking at your uploaded image - it looks like you half your income this year is from the last month. Try to keep pushing growth forward, whatever you have been doing is working well. |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | evlapix: It took me a moment to find the "Sign Up" button/link. I checked in some of the usual places.. At the top of the page near the "Sign In/Have an account?" link, the main navigation, and in the actual slide show to no avail. I eventually found it and felt stupid for not seeing it earlier. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | Mz: I have been, in effect, "working two full time jobs" -- one for a paycheck, and the other spending a great deal of time resolving my health problems. Getting more efficient and healthier has gradually started providing me some time, energy and mental focus for doing more than just getting through the damn day. For many people in this trap, I think that general approach may be the only way out. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | stewiecat: 1. Taxes
2. Retirement savings.Max out your IRA, Roth, etc to take advantage of your (I'm assuming) youth and the magic of compound returns. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | rufugee: Rather than advice, I have questions....namely, is there a list of your published apps somewhere? I'd like to understand the types of simple applications you're developing.Thanks! |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | hedgehog: Market yourself. Write a book & give talks about your process for making winners. Lots of people want to know how to make money in the App Store. There might be a higher-priced corporate training market for how to make popular apps for marketing purposes (think packaged food or sports apparel industry).On reading your blog it looks like you're already going down this road? |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | daok: Positive : I like the guided Tour. It's not a traditional video and it's quite interesting.Negative: I found the color a little dark but this might just be me. Nice website keep the good work. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | perlpimp: Convert your apps into chinese. Even tiny fraction of possible market like that is huge. Conversion should be more or less trivial, translation effort is cheap :) |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | cognomen: What is the software you used for the graph? Thx. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | portman: "What I know how to do best is the app store"Set yourself up as an _angel investor for iPhone apps_. Like a mini-mini-mini YCombinator.Based on your experience, you should be very good at evaluating an individual's chances of creating a successful app. Solicit pitches (HN would be a great source) and make 5 small investments of $5k each.If you make another $25k next month, do another 5 investments. Rinse and repeat.You probably can't produce 5 apps per month on your own. But you can use those same skills to invest in 5 apps per month. There is greater risk (you could lose all 5 investments) but also greater reward (each investment could in turn become its own $25k-mo company).Good luck! |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | mahmud: I build stuff quicker, and better after taking some time off to learn. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | anigbrowl: Good work. If this is solo, then I add my voice to others saying hire a few people with half and save the other half.You say you don't want to invest, but since California is in the first stages of being hit by an epic storm system that will play out over the next 2 weeks, civil engineering businesses on the west coast are about to be handed as much work as they can handle.Or talk to pg about putting some into ycombinator. With the relatively small investment to each selectee, you don't need massive amounts of capital. You could even stage your own little competition on HN and offer $500 or $1000 plus your (probably more valuable) management guidance to three worthy candidates whose apps impress you in exchange for a share of their revenue. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | kordless: Lots of people saying 'invest in yourself'. I'd take that a step further and say 'invest in your company'. If you haven't already, set a company up and hire someone to do stuff like customer support, basic marketing, etc. Do your books yourself, with a CPA's help (and with his financial planning), or have a relative do it. My wife does all our bookkeeping for our startups. Don't trust a stranger to do your books!Get a basic plan together on how you are going to grow the business, then take it out and talk to a) companies in the same space, and b) VCs. Get feedback and adjust accordingly to what feels right. If growing the business takes outside capital, raise it. If it doesn't, then start down the path of growing the business (according to your new plan).I think investing in other startups is bad advice. You aren't making that much net right now - maybe on the order of $14K net a month past taxes. It's a good living, but if your sales are dependent on continued development/advertising/luck/whim of Apple, I'd be REALLY careful about expanding spend to fill the income.Out of curiosity, which apps did you do? |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | nandemo: If you aren't doing it yet: translate and localize your apps, then sell them in other countries' App Stores. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | bucciarati: Donate 0.01 of your money to Wikileaks, like I did. Your 0.01 will make more difference than mine did. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | Ixiaus: I came to a similar conclusion as you have about seven months ago. My conclusion was that 9-to-5 takes far too much time and energy out of my own life; I'm essentially giving all of that time to someone just for the ability to pay bills and enjoy eating out on the weekends.I had very little time to do any of my personal self education or projects (not all of them are programming related either).I chose to resign from a great company and a great job to pursue my own interests. I've been pinching pennies everyday for the last seven months living off of what passive income I have. I've been (with more-or-less consistency) rising at 6AM every day, showering then meditating and running a spaced repetition program for thirty minutes. Three days are dedicated to projects and two days dedicated to self education.When I speak of self education I am not speaking exclusively of programming which seems to be the common interpretation amongst techies - it's a full fledged curriculum involving Mathematics, Logic, Rhetoric, Psychology, Physics, Philosophy, and etc...I've completed two major projects in that time and actually read more books in the last seven months than I ever did in the three years I spent in the work force. 9-to-5 is quite a sham, unless you happen to have a job working in the R&D department of some corporation where you have the opportunity to explore, learn, and be creative that the other cubicle workers do not share.After seven months though, I'm a bit weary of pinching pennies - I want to be able to eat out at a nice restaurant when I want to or buy that new computer because I want to; or go sailing for the weekend with my girlfriend and friends. Many things require money. My solution here? No job, but contract work - I now have a two month contract that will make me enough money to live for another seven months. I've also considered going into part time contracting so that I can continue to make money but also have enough time to pursue my polymath interests.Good luck, leaving the group mind is worth the risk (it really turns out there isn't much risk) - you will feel much more free with your intellectual pursuits, projects, and personal development. |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | zzzmarcus: Guided tour didn't work for me. It loaded but never started playing. I didn't immediately notice any other way to find out what exactly the site is or does. Clicking the links in the bottom columns just took me to other sites. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | robak: Whatever you do, remember about this rule: Capitalism separates fool from his money. Aka: invest only in things you understand (Warren Buffet's motto). |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | hyperbovine: I want to somehow use the money to make more money quickly (within a 2 year time span).As others have pointed out the best asset you have is your ability to crank out mobile apps that people are willing to pay for. Not to burst your bubble, but even $24k a month is nowhere near enough for you to kick back and watch the returns flow in. The investment opportunity you seek--short term, high return, low risk--simply does not exist. If anyone attempts to convince you otherwise, reach for your wallet, because you are being had. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | mschy: 1) I'd set aside enough money to live for a year in something that's boring, low-return and dead safe. And I wouldn't touch it. This will give you enormous flexibility when deciding what to do with your life and career.2) I'd talk to financial professionals to figure out how to structure things for maximum gain (e.g. what can you legally write off? can you create retirement programs for yourself? etc.)3) I'd take classes in my areas of weakness, so I'm better prepared for the Next Big Thing. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | iamelgringo: Expand, grow, conquer.- Hire a few contractors to grow your stable of apps. You seem to know what works. Expand on what you're doing so you can do more of the same.- Build your brand, that way you can use the market you've built to transfer interest from one app to other apps, (as you've been doing on line with your excellent blog posts).- Figure out a way to diversify your revenue stream. You're already concerned about the app store closing or changing. Hire someone to port the apps to Android. I think that's a long term play, but if Android takes off, I think there's a large upside potential. |
Review our Business TV Startup | zen53: Hey All,Would love to get your feedback on a site I am working on at the moment. We just launched today so expect it to have a few bugs that need ironed out still.Thoughts on branding/UI/Site content etc very much appreicated - either positive or negative. Will take them onboard/review and implement.(Note: smart phone goodness a couple of weeks away) |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | drawkbox: Like others mentioned, keep in mind you owe about 45% taxes. 30% ish for actual taxes then 15% for self-employment tax. SO that 24K is really about 14K.Also keep in mind that was during the holidays it seems or maybe after a few game launches that did well. You won't see the same level of revenue steadily unless you keep releasing and have good pricing strategies.My advice, save it up or use it to reinvest in your own company for now. |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | alilja: It's a good start, but it feels like it's a bunch of unconnected ideas at this point. I think you need some better copy, but you also need to refine your layout.Overall, it feels too busy. Items are shunted together in a confusing way, and they don't feel like they related to each other. Look at sites like http://www.pixelmator.com/ and http://feedafever.com/ -- their sites are brilliantly executed.Focus on what you want your site to do:
1. Explain what you're offering
2. Convince people that they need it (especially as opposed to other, similar, services)
3. Make it easy to sign up and useAs it stands now, I feel like you have the rough beginnings of this, but it's not a finished, polished version.More technically, here's what I recommend. First, you need to snap things down to a grid. This will make the page flow and FEEL better overall, and allow you to control how the user views it.Second, you need to make everything more cohesive. It looks like you have seven different fonts now (the "favilous" name, "Bookmark Tools," the default body text, the sign-in button, the rotating text in the main box, the navigation links, and the "Follow Us" link), and a huge amount of colors. You should come up with a simple color scheme of maybe three main colors and a few shades of each, and cut the number of fonts you're using down to one or two. Yes, one or two -- the Fever page uses just one.There seems to be a lot of empty space. Not white space, which a good design needs, but EMPTY space. Your main box looks like it's three times as big as it needs to be for the content it holds. Fix that, because it distracts the eye and looks unprofessional.I would also recommend a color scheme that's black-on-white, instead of white-on-black you have now. It's much harder to read white text on a black background, especially for long periods of time, and since you're expecting people to be reading and browsing, you should probably focus on making it easy to read.Finally, there are some instances on your site where you have an extra space before the punctuation ends. This looks unprofessional, and to grammar-obsessed reader, it's distracting. |
Side Project Turned Turned Obsession - Please Review My Site | noodle: i actually really like the print catalog builder concept. i've not seen it on other (admittedly few) ecommerce solutions that i've looked at. i feel like if you were to develop this into a generic plugin for other ecommerce solutions, you might have something unique that people could purchase without having to make difficult decisions (i.e., switching ecommerce solutions). |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | kyro: You have the method by which you can generate lots of money in a short period of time; you just proved that to us with that $24k. But you say your problem is the time and effort expended to create your apps, so I'd suggest you take a portion of your money to hire others, create more apps, and saturate the App Store. What's it to you if the App Store won't last forever? You want something quick, so exploit it while it's there. |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | teye: I clicked the link and immediately thought, "How is this any different from Delicious? Why would I use this?"Sell me! On the front page, above the fold. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | tjoozeylabs: What apps are you flipping? |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | Vindexus: I'd move the "Take a Tour" link to a more prominent location and make it a button. It took me a while to find it. The tour was good at showing me what this was all about though. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | azf: So, you'll probably get about $100k until the income is gone. If you keep working, you have 50-50 chance to keep going for a longer periods of time - most likely less than that.There's no way to multiply that little money in just few years by investing it without jeopardizing it all. You won't even qualify as a professional investor as you don't have enough money for it, so your options would be limited anyway.If I was you, I would try to milk the app store as long as it's good and network like crazy while doing so. Focus on quality, not quantity - find out the guys who actually get top-notch shit done. Get yourself known, you should be able to build some steady secondary income by telling how you did it and how iPhone apps should be done.When your app store income is drying up, you should already have $100+k in the bank. Go through your network and find some other overachievers who are bootstrapping a startup with a solid business plan and who need your skills. Apply some of your capital as a seed money to get leverage. Work your ass off for a while. Profit. Retire or repeat. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | ax0n: I was recently laid off from (oddly) a Three-Letter-Corporation after a 3.5 year run of things, but probably not the one you work for. For the last 20 years, I've been passionate about technology, and for more than half of that, I've been publishing technical articles (or at least rants) on my findings. It's now been a little over a week since I was let go and you'd think I'd be up to my elbows in projects and knowledge... but now, I'm having trouble mustering up the drive and passion I used to have. It's like my soul is gone. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | Keyframe: Buy AAPL, they made you some money already - they will make you more with "iSlate" soon enough. </semi-serious> |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | tdupree: Congrats, delicious needs more competition in this space. I started working on something like this with a couple buddies of mine about two years ago with the read sites later stuff, syncing across browsers, etc. Our project, favtopia.com, ended up getting put on a semi-permanent hold as we had other things we needed to work on. I think you guys are on to something really useful, with a lot of great features other offerings lack. Just keep refining your landing page (and the rest of your site), making what you do really clear to your visitors, and I think you guys will do well. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | CalinCulianu: I have the exact same problem.And no, don't pay your taxes YET. I would actually invest in hiring some artists and developing even MORE apps. Maybe just outsource their development. It can be a lot of headaches but if you were able to code the apps yourself then likely you can extract decent work out of shitty Indian or Chinese consultants.Or, find some people here in the states and convince them to work for you.Keep growing your business. Become a player.Or, retire to a cheap country and fuck girls and and enjoy life.That's my advice.-Calin |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | webwright: Seems like there MIGHT be some real estate opportunities in some parts of the US. Short sales in Vegas or parts of CA might be interesting. Income properties (strip malls) might be available for cheap. Fourplexes, too.I tend to lean towards our current irrational spending/printing resulting in hyper-inflation (or at least inflation) though plenty of smart people support deflation, too. If you buy the inflation arguments, don't keep your money liquid. i.e. If you buy a $500k house and inflation drives it (any everything else) up 10x to $5m, you bought a $5m house for a song. If you keep $500k in the bank and there is 10x inflation... Ouch. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | CalinCulianu: BTW the dollar is going to tank in the next couple of years. The stupidest thing you can do is buy dollar-based securities. If you MUST invest, buy GOLD.No joke. |
Side Project Turned Turned Obsession - Please Review My Site | awa: Clickable: http://www.wizifi.com |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | jnovek: "I assume this problem doesn't only apply to people in a big corporation but even more so for people in a startup, where time is scarce and execution is king."I found that I stopped learning things when I started working for someone else. Then when I started working on my startup, I started learning things again.In a startup, getting stuff done is the most important thing. There's no one else to get stuff done, so if you need something and you don't know how to do it, you have to learn how. And unless you're an amazing programmer, it's usually predictably awful. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | rphlx: Why are you opposed to stocks/bonds? Not implying the trend will continue, but there are commodities and diversified foreign stock market ETFs that returned 50-100%+ last year with greater liquidity and less risk than nearly all startups.Also, there are bond ETFs/funds that are very liquid. I am a big fan of the JNK ETF (~11% interest). |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | bravura: Invest in my company (or another hner) in exchange for convertible debt. Micro invest to help startups pay for concrete little expenses like hosting.
It might not give a high return on investment but it would be personally rewarding, and help you evaluate potential future collaborators.Congrats by the way! |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | thinkbohemian: Thought Experiment: Give it to your 18 year old self...what would they do with the money? |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | colinplamondon: The ecosystem is pretty damn stable when you have a relatively up-market app. We've had stable growth with one application for the past six months, and crazy little variance in our category rank. Maybe develop a larger application, one that you can market for the long-term? |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | throwaway5566: Invest in yourself.You've already proven that you are capable of doing great things. Work to increase your capabilities.To generate wealth, in my opinion it's best to do things that are aligned with what you are interested in. Since you have demonstrated ability with business and technology, and some capital, start with that.One way to generate wealth is to start a company, then sell it. There are many skills necessary, but the essential one you already have - being able to just plunge in and do it.I'd say, dive in and see if you can learn to build a small company by bootstrapping it - without taking investment money or going into debt... take it slow and incremental, not going into debt or taking investment unless you think you have a winning team and product. Usually at that point you don't really need investment, but can use it to expand a lot.These days, software development done by yourself or a few friends and servers in the cloud are so cheap that you can build whole software or software-as-a-service companies with your existing cash flow. Learn the technical and business skills you need. Plan experiments that help you learn - that won't kill you if you fail. You can learn much more from failure than success, so make mistakes as fast as you can.Oh yeah, and find a good accountant and make sure you pay your taxes.Here's some resources:Cheat sheet on how to get people to change - and buy your products. The best summary I've read:http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/TheParadoxOfPain/Documen.... . . .My bible on how to learn customer problems and turn them into money. Also has a great annotated bibliography of other good books to read, and a methodology for becoming a self-taught entrepreneur. The author founded 5 well-known tech companies that did IPOs, generating a great deal of wealth, and now teaches at Stanford business school. I can't say enough good things about this book:The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09.... . . .The inside story on nitty-gritty details of how to start a start up, do the legal work necessary to create the machinery for wealth generation. Written from the perspective of helping tech entrepreneurs protect themselves. If I would have had this book when I was starting out, I'd have held on to much more of my wealth:High Tech Start Up - John L. Nesheim
http://www.amazon.com/High-Tech-Start-Revised-Updated/dp/068.... . . .Last but not least, a very important short text on how money works. Written by the founder of MasterCard. Extremely helpful in thinking about money, how to work with it and think about it, what it's good for, not good for, and its capabilities and place in ones' life:http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Money-Shambhala-Pocket-Classics/...Bonus text - the classic manual on leadership - really helpful instructions on gracefully working with others. How to lead effectively and with a minimum of muss and fuss. This is my favorite translation.Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Stephen-Mitchell/dp/00608...- a serial entrepreneur |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | aaronblohowiak: The dedication to continual education is difficult and something that you have to fight for. Some employers are more understanding than others. If you fail to keep learning, your skills will be obsolete and it will be harder to find work. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | vessenes: Judging from responses here, and my own experience, I think you need first of all to make some life decisions.Here are the questions I'd try and answer first:1) What sort of life do I want for myself? Do I want to keep programming cool stuff as ecosystems come along? Do I want to manage programmers? Do I want to run a business, become an internet marketing guru, based on my experience, or try and live off of passive income?The answers to those questions will shape your decisions, whether or not you're thinking about them. If you do think about them, you'll have a better shot at structuring a good outcome for yourself.Based on your post, it sounds like you currently want to double down your current income on the hopes of getting 'rich'.Here's what I'd guess: I'd guess this is your first 'business' venture. It's gone really well. You are used to seeing such rapid returns in business because it's all you know. You are now trying to invest more money than you previously have (since your time was not previously worth $24k / month), and trying to get the same rate of return.You will do yourself a huge favor if you give up on this plan. It is incredibly unlikely to happen. I'll be clear: my guess is that you are currently experiencing the best ROI you will get in your entire life. Never again will you see these sort of _percentage_ returns on your money.That's of course very different from what sort of _dollar_ returns you may see.If you're able to give up on your high ROI dreams, you'll be doing yourself and your family someday a giant favor.Now, if you're still on board with me, you're wanting to invest this money, but you understand you need to follow the basic rules of capital, make sure you can preserve your capital at all costs, and need some way to deal with your total incompetence in the area of financial investment, while learning, and without losing your nest egg.Simplest advice here is to 1) choose some areas you're interested in, 2) give yourself a couple _years_ to fully deploy the capital in those areas of interest, 3) keep 3 to 6 months liquid assets in case your business blows up.If I knew no more about you, I'd probably go with some average of the advice here:Split up your money intoa) reinvestment, become an app store publisher or app store angel investor with 33% of your money. Stick with what you know here, and it will magically become investing rather than 'gambling'.b) cash -- 33% toward high liquidity cash alternatives until you've got 6 months or so set asidec) long term investment -- 33% into index funds, split up between national and international super low load index fundsDon't forget to hold onto .3-to.4x of (Revenue minus a) for taxes, or .4xRevenue depending on how you structure your investments.So that would equal like:$24k- 3k living expenses- 7k deductible investment (a-la signing up apps to publish them)- 7k taxes- 3k cash- 4k long term investments----------------------------super-smart young business person.That's not quite what my upper paragraph math was, obviously the more you can put into the deductible column, the more efficient you'll be. You could rebalance it to like 4.5/4/5 or so with the balance going to taxes, if my back of the envelope calcs are accurate. |
What's your favorite scientific paper? | greatfog: Lucas Kovar, Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass[http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~kovar/hall.html]Abstract: The exponential dependence of resistivity on temperature in germanium is found to be a great big lie. My careful theoretical modeling and painstaking experimentation reveal 1) that my equipment is crap, as are all the available texts on the subject and 2) that this whole exercise was a complete waste of my time. |
Please review my new website www.favilous.com | richcollins: Design feedback: That background needs to go.
Marketing feedback: Tell me what I get out of using it, not how it works. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | gojomo: Even if you know the app store flow is fragile, I doubt anyone can tell whether it'll turn in 6-months or 6-years.If you are an expert in making money there, ride that wave -- looking for something comparably-lucrative-but-different is a distraction. Optimize the hell out of your current flows -- find ways that spending $1 in marketing makes you >$1, create small variants, port to other platforms, outsource -- with careful metrics so you detect early when your strategies are played out.Meanwhile, on the side, sock some away in a completely safe non-distracting portfolio. When it makes sense to turn your attention elsewhere -- either out of the app store opportunity ending, or a desire for something new -- then that safe cache of money will help. But at this point, you've already got a lucrative place to spend your attention -- why dilute it with other plans? |
Review our Business TV Startup | johnrob: My first impression of the site was that it was a directory of videos featuring bosses ("meettheboss.tv" implies just that). However, the site looks overly complex given that mission... there are channels, articles, training, podcasts, etc.You should either make the product as simple as the name (i.e. simplify the site's navigation and content so that it only includes boss videos), or change the name/message to imply more than boss videos. |
Review our Business TV Startup | d4ft: So what extra does this provide outside of the numerous other startup/how to rule world video sites (Mixergy comes to mind), and will whatever that extra is make it monetizable? For instance, are you guys producing your own content, and if so, are the people saying different things than they have already said elsewhere? So in short, what value does meettheboss add to the already crowded "how to run a good business" market. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | joe_the_user: Great that you're making money with your business. Great that you can tell it's far form from guaranteed.Just about any other business you'd name is also risky. (and if folks in HN know about something, you know you'll have competition). So no matter what else you do, keep a cushion. There's story everyday about formerly successful entrepreneurs who lived beyond their means and wound-up broke. Don't be them. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | toisanji: Can you share with us what apps you are selling on the app store? |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | hello_moto: Buy a house (or a couple houses). Rent some of them, live on the one you like the most. Let the rent pays for the mortgage.Start thinking about having a family. Save money for your kids education. Save money for your parents. Save money for yourself for the old age (retirement plans [whatever the shape and form is], hospital bills, traveling). |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | st3fan: Pension fund. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | gyardley: You've probably got enough money and enough of an analytical mindset to explore the cost-per-lead affiliate marketing space, figure out what works through test buys (like poker, you've got to play a lot before you get good at it), and then have enough cash left over to float your operation while spending at a decent scale.Downside - this can be an ethically-challenged business. But so are most 'make money fast' schemes. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | eraad: I work at my own startup where I manage my own time and usually, the best time to read/learn is when I get stuck in the process of building something.Reading hacker news, stack overflow or even researching ideas on how to get through the problem in what I´m building allows me to "merge" learning and building.It´s hard to build stuff in Erlang and learning Lisp at the same time, for example.Try to merge both activities in some way and you will be good. |
Why do you hate your IT department? | nailer: Hi Alexk,I'm a infrastructure coder and have worked on a lot of big automation projects for everyone from IBM to the worlds largest hedge fund. If you need a partner I'd be happy to apply.Mike |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | messel: I'd suggest angel investing in startups that compliment your view on where things are headed. It's more fun than the stock market. You have proven knowledge of what's selling now, and understand software.The turn around is probably longer than 2 years though.Can you do the same thing with the Android store? |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | richardburton: Stash half and experiment with the other. No harm in putting some away in a cushion account. |
What history of economics and technology book would you recommend? | TrevorBurnham: "Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations" by David Warsh (2007). It's really two books: It shows how the academic field of Economics works today, and covers much of the field's history; and it also examines Paul Romer's theory of economic growth, which (succinctly) states that technological advancement is the key factor. Talk to any economist about growth these days, and they'll talk about Romer.It's a very readable book, and I highly recommend it to a wide audience. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | iterationx: You could promote and seed a couple of stackexchange sites. I really have no clue what the revenue looks like but it seems like a dead simple idea. |
Can IP be shared on a custom software project? | noodle: i think the "right" answer kind of depends on their motivation for wanting IP. you know why they're asking for it? |
Review our Business TV Startup | callmeed: First off, the design of the site is fairly solid. I think you did a good job there.As johnrob stated, the name might be an issue–you don't want your brand to pigeon-hole you or give people the wrong impression.I have no idea what your monetization strategy is, but I would look into a paid section of the site. Offer the 2-10 min videos for free but have a "premium" area where you have collections of 20-60 min videos available for paid members.You could also organize premium videos into groups and offer some sort of "program" to entire organizations. Business training programs are big business–especially in areas like management, customer service, conflict resolution, compliance, etc. You could use something like Moodle (http://moodle.org/) to offer videos, content, testing, and tracking.Yes, I know it's expensive to create such content but if I were you, I'd go looking for a partner–someone who has created these programs in analog/DVD formats. Offer to repurpose their content for the web and share revenue.Anyway, that's my $.02 ... might be beyond what you had in mind. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | access_denied: Let's say you absolutely want to stay in 9-5... than I would constantly propose interesting projects inside the company. That way over time I would work on more exciting stuff. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | j_baker: The assumption is that learning things increases your execution time. In the very short term this is true. However, if you'd spent all the time learning the things that you wanted to learn, how much more productive would you be?It's like Jeff Bezos said:"I always tell people, if we have a good quarter it's because of the work we did three, four, and five years ago. It's not because we did a good job this quarter."This is a pattern that I've (anecdotally) noticed in successful entrepreneurs and programmers... the ability to focus on the long term at the expense of the short term
(but without sacrificing the short-term).Long story short, if you are in an employment situation where your employer will not let you spend any more time learning new things, you should consider employment elsewhere. |
Can my GPL webapp be a paid iPhone app? | roschdal: The web application in question can be tested here: http://www.freeciv.net/ |
Review my webapp (Dominion Set Randomizer) | adam-_-: I have absolutely no idea what it does (then again I've never heard of Dominion Set Randomisation?).Perhaps some more explanatory content would be good, or perhaps it is not aimed at me... |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | imp: I tend to alternate between two extremes. One extreme is "get shit done anyway you know how ASAP!" The other is "learn, explore, take your time, and do things right." I let my own ambitions determine which zone I'm in, and they last from a couple weeks to months. What I learn while I'm in the "take it slow" zone always helps me be more productive in the "do it now" zone. And the do it now zone helps keep me motivated to learn more stuff, and the cycle repeats :) |
Can my GPL webapp be a paid iPhone app? | jmount: I am not a license expert- but I am pretty sure if you can only release your app as GPL (either it requires a GPL component you did not write or you are unwilling to release it non-GPL) then you can not make it an iPhone app (Apple seems to be hostile to this). In principle there is nothing wrong with charging for GPL apps, so if it wasn't for Apple's license issues you would be fine. However, if you wrote the app yourself (or somehow own it) then there is nothing in the GPL preventing you from releasing a non-GPL version on the iPhone app store (dual licensing). |
Can IP be shared on a custom software project? | jmount: In a lot of jurisdictions (California for instance) if you don't have any IP agreement then you are likely producing a "work for hire" that would mean the client owns everything (and you own nothing). So if you want to retain some ownership you will likely have to work out some (could be simple) IP agreement. |
Review our Business TV Startup | Vindexus: "MeetTheBoss TV is where future leaders learn."I think this is a bit ambiguous and sounds kind of marketingy. What does that it exactly? I think something along the lines of " learn how to be a better boss" or "how to climb the corporate ladder" or something along those lines would be better.I like the design though. It seems very clean. |
Can IP be shared on a custom software project? | jacquesm: You can go several ways on this: - work for hire (you sign over your rights)
- give them a license, a head start and a discount (you have the rights)
- make it a co-development and give them a stake in the
future proceeds (you create some vehicle that holds the
rights)
The difference between those should be reflected in the price, and that's how you can control the situation to your advantage.If I were in that boat I'd offer only two payment options, one that looks like they'll have to go and find a second mortgage on their building and another one that is very affordable indeed but gives you the right to sell the solution to others with the exception of their direct competitors in that locality, and only after some time has passed (say 3 months, 6 months or a year).Having a minority partner in a project like that that has a different core business is a recipe for trouble. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | osipov: If you are working in consulting for a big corp which used to be a hardware company, then became a services company and is now trying to be a software company, then you need to get out of consulting. The odds are stacked against you and chances are you'll waste your carrier being pushed around from project to project while being treated like a number.However, an advantage of a large company is that there are many opportunities to do very different things. Look for job rotation opportunities. Seek out R&D organizations and try to move there. If you are so inclined, look for opportunities in emerging products and try to hop on board to help with marketing, sales, or anything business related. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | lo_fye: The $ should be paid to your business, not you. Then pay yourself very little as a wage. Roll the rest back into the business (i.e. pay yourself to create apps/software that you think would be cool to build and sell). Repeat. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | arebop: I had a similar experience in my first year after college working for BigCo IT. I'm somewhat surprised that you went through this at a tech company, so I guess "big" is an important factor.Initially I thought that as with my high school programming job, I'd learn a lot at work. I also bought into a certain sense of obligation: "I'm salaried, so work doesn't stop after 8 hours a day!" I came to realize that work wouldn't be completely intellectually fulfilling, and that I value intellectual growth over corporate loyalty. I decided to explicitly dedicate time for intellectual advancement apart from my regular job responsibilities.So, my first antidote to intellectual stagnation was to apply for tuition reimbursement and enroll as a part-time grad student. I made arrangements to work half days on MWF or take very long lunches TT. Real-life lectures are better than online ones because you can ask questions, and the homeworks and exams are very helpful for giving you an objective reference on your progress.That didn't help my salary or my future job prospects (as far as I can tell), but I'm very glad I did it. I think it worked out well for my employer during that time, too, because it kept me happy enough stick around at a lowish salary for a couple years when I was performing very well but not feeling very challenged at work.The second thing is that I maintained my ACM membership and read Queue and CACM. I think that helps me to stay somewhat aware of the progress of the field. I've used the digital library several times to help me with particularly thorny programming problems at work.Finally, if you're not doing new stuff at work, try to motivate yourself to do something new at home. Maybe you just implement an algorithm you read about from CACM Research Highlights or whatever, or maybe you join a programming club and volunteer to teach a topic. I think it's very important to keep doing and not just reading. |
Review my webapp (Dominion Set Randomizer) | imp: Yeah, I'm really not sure what it's for either. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | teeja: Bank it and don't sweat it until you've got $250K lying around. Starting an IRA with part of it would be good ... but rewarding yourself is also good. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | jseliger: Go read The Millionaire Next Door: http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/d... , which ought to be mandatory reading for anyone.What do I do with the money?Invest it in stocks or bonds.How do I invest it in making more money quickly?You don't. That's the problem: there is no way to reliably do this. In fact, there's probably no way to _unreliably_ do this either. At the moment, bank savings accounts and CDs are paying next to nothing.As The Millionaire Next Door shows, most people who we might think of as "rich" don't actually get that way by being sports stars, or inheriting money, or TV, or whatever: they get that way by spending less than they make and saving as much as they can, usually in the form of investing in index funds. |
What key question would you ask a software engineering hiring manager? | jpluscplusm: 2 suggestions:1) Why not ask the question you asked here? "How much of this role will be new feature development?"2) Don't assume that the /manager/ really has the low-level information that will dictate how your time will be spent. Ask to meet the coders you'll be working with (not a bad idea in any interview process!) and pop the questions:"What state do you feel the codebase is in? How does new feature development tend to get divvied out across the team? Which part of the product are you most proud of? ... and least proud of?"HTH |
Can my GPL webapp be a paid iPhone app? | Someone: 1: I am not sure you understand what the App store is. The page you reference is not the App store; it is just a page where apple promotes URLs of web applications.2: You probably are the best to judge whether your clone complies with those requirements. Who wrote the code? Who created the graphics?3: Finally, there is the issue whether cloning an existing application infringes on somebody's rights. On the one hand the right holders probably are aware of the existence of freeciv, and haven't acted against it yet. On the other hand, you are saying you want to charge for using it. That may mve you over a limit the right holders have set. |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | imasr: Get yourself a woman. Problem solved. |
Do you know of a road conditions data source? | iterationx: http://developer.yahoo.com/traffic/ ? |
SpoofCard Clone | Spoofcard: SpoofCard.com is a patented technology http://www.google.com/patents?id=BJ-iAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&... but I believe they have licensing and white label reseller programs http://www.spoofcard.com/distribute |
Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com) | jayair: Clickable links:Site: http://thecadmus.comMore info about how we find top content: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2009/12/cadmus-keeping-yo....And about the Trending Conversations feature: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2010/01/cadmus-gets-trend.... |
I made $24k over the last month. Now what? | barmstrong: There are no 100% safe investments. But if you want to take the time to educate yourself on one of them, you can do well. Real estate is my preference over stocks.But if not, an ING direct savings account is a good start.And talk to rich people, to see what they are doing. |
Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com) | covercash: I've been waiting for someone to come out with trending topics for friends ('friending topics' perhaps?)... now I just need this integrated into Tweetie and I'll be a happy camper!Nice clean design, I especially like the background textures. |
How do you juggle time spent on learning vs. time building things? | chreko: I am struggling with that same problem since I started my first job after graduation. For many times I had the feeling to have sacrificed myself and my personal interest for my career (= someoneelse).Only recently, I realized that this was a good experience nevertheless, but which has to stop now. It was good because it made it clear to me, what my preferences were as well as my strength and weaknesses. In other words who I am. Now I am taking my time for my interests (meditation, art and self-consciousness). This leads me to the following main messages as answer to your questions:1.) You need to learn what you really want from life. And this, like every learning process, takes time and detours.If you want to learn technology-related stuff, then you chances are pretty high that you may find an employee that is willing to give you freedom for personal projects, where you can learn and experience on your own (i.e. google's "Innovation Time Off"). If this isn't possible where you are now, then you may consider looking for another job where you can bargain this as part of your contract.If, instead, we are talking about learning for personal growth or "self education" as Ixiaus wrote, then it becomes really interesting. Here I agree with Ixiaus. One way is to make some sacrifices for what you really want to do: e.g. earning less money but having more time for "self education". If your are ready for that, then look for a part-time job indeed, or build-up a sustainable startup were you don't have to make millions a year and report to a venture capitalist, but instead where earning some $10k is enough.2.) Admit and be aware of your weaknesses. Several times, I find myself blaming myself for not being able to do this or to do that in the way and speed I wish it to be done. And when I have the time, I sometimes find myself spending that rare time with whatever.But this is ok, as long as I continue working on my self, gradually improving the conscience use of my time. In particular, consider this: 6 hours of deep sleep are enough. This gives me some extra hours in the early morning and/or late evening for practising whatever I want to (meditation and yoga). Discipline is key, I always have to remember!3.) The more dependent you are (the more money you want or believe to need or need), the less time you will have for "self education".The dependencies can come from difference sources: your employees, your venture capitalist, your customers, your spouse, your children, ...., your expectations. Each of those relationships are chains around your neck. One first need to be aware of them, not imperatively avoid them. Then one can gently work towards reducing those dependencies, if one wishes to do so. |
Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com) | taitems: Setup was an absolute breeze!That is a really nice website design and UI, but your tagline (while great on a 24" Dell Monitor) is barely legible on older 17" Samsungs etc. |
What's your favorite scientific paper? | yu: - Codd 1969/1970 Relation algebra, operations, model papers
- Crick, Watson, (Franklin, Wilkin) Nature article on DNA.
- Shannon, Information Theory as listed/ mentioned. |
Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com) | dannyr: I like the app a lot.It would be useful if you can list all the links being shared on my stream since I don't want to go through the tweets one by one. |
Get together in Tokyo? | startupgrrl: I'd like to get together the next time in Tokyo on startup business. Drop me a line on my google voice! I promise I won't try to sell you anything! Thanks a bunch!Sincerely,
StartupGRrL |
What should you do ? | cmelbye: I'm wondering that too. I had an idea, and then I saw that a startup recently sprung up with some pretty big names on board. Not sure if I should go forward with it or discard it. |
What should you do ? | fungi: Guess it depends on the time you have on your hands, the work involved and the quality of the competition.If you have worked on it to some extent already then it seems like a waste to not at least release the code. |
Get together in Tokyo? | nandemo: I'm interested.How about setting up a meet-up at meetup.com or something similar? This post might not get voted up to front page, or it might disappear before we gather enough people. |
Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com) | newy: This looks neat, really dig the approach. Confused about one thing. It states that it filtered out some relevant tweets for me - where are these displayed? Are they simply the ones that are shown at the top of my timeline? |
What should you do ? | Vandy_Travis: This isn't a one size fits all type question, or one that somebody can really give good advice on without knowing the details of the situation. Here's what I would ask myself:
- is your market very diverse (e.g. is it very unlikely the new competitors can capture a dominant share?)
- is your market large?
- do you believe you can supply something more than your competitors?eventually, those questions should be used as input to the real question: can you still run your business successfully, or does getting beat to market by the competition prevent you from executing? |
Do you know of a road conditions data source? | mwerty: traffic.com owned by navteq owned by nokia is your friend. The data is not free though.
INRIX may have something but I'm not sure. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.