How Selling My Startup Led Me to Take a Vow of Middle Class Poverty
In this 2011 acquisition retrospective, @flardinois reflects on the journey of bootstrapping and successfully selling their business.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Unsolicited buyer inquiries versus running a deliberate auction process require very different negotiation leverage.
Bootstrapping for years without external capital provides extreme freedom, but exits are often triggered by energy depletion as much as financial gain.
Retaining ownership of code and operations creates pride, but transitioning to an acquirer requires letting go of absolute autonomy.
Community Debate Themes:
Hacker News peers debated transaction structures (cash vs earnout), founder tax strategies, and life after liquidating a long-term indie asset.
CATEGORY Startup Exits →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 13 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 21 comments
As a person living in a very wealthy city in the united states you already operate far removed from the grim, dirt, and soot (not to mention the disease and starvation) inhabited by the rest of humanity.
I suggest joining the peace core.
This may be one of the most self-absorbed, egotistical, and subtly offensive things I've seen posted on HN.
Here's something to think about: Being connected with your fellow man has nothing to do with how much money you make or putting arbitrary limits on yourself. If you think limiting your income and taking away "luxuries" in your life is going to somehow change your connections with humanity, you have no sense of what connecting with the common human even entails.
It sounds to me like you're very out of touch with humanity, and that has nothing to do with money IMO.
The dude is a hypocrite. What is he actually hoping to accomplish by doing this? Who is he going to help? Instead of this BS, he should either live his life an enjoy his money, or, if he's feeling guilty or something, he should consider donating some of his money or volunteering for something he believes in.
He strikes me as being completely out of touch with the value of money. He's living as a single man on the median income of a family of four and he's acting like he can't have a single luxury? It's ridiculous.
I think he is seriously missing out on one thing both the rich and poor need - "a goal". Without that, people tend to go around in circles.