montbonnot

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11456060

It was a fun distraction on a Friday...

A shorter and cheaper version of this would be to create an emotional connection between your users and your product. You need to become a user and figure out if you feel accomplished after using your own product.

This app is indeed the complete opposite of what you're looking for. The FrenchMeter is not meant to teach French. It focuses on the spoken aspect of the language, unlike most of the apps out there.

The accuracy is better if you maintain the same distance from the mic when you try several times in a row. If the distance is significantly different between 2 tries then you might get odd results. The recorded voice has to be used as a reference only. The pitch doesn't matter, I'd say don't speak too fast or too slow either and you'll be fine.

For people who're blocked via proxy, just go on the app store and search for FrenchMeter.

Yep, reality sounds like an nightmare. Thanks for re-clarifying :)

Interesting article. You can turn a small business into a corporate any time. So indeed, you can start small and grow from there. Going the VC route is more about having a huge support and resources behind you back. It's not only about money I think.. I agree on the fame though, you're right!

if they're already profitable (original co-founders) then I'd say you might be offered %5. Could go up to %10 if they think you can help double/triple that profit. If it's only to take care of the technical aspect of the company, then %5 seems reasonable. Salary might be competitive though I believe.

retaining earnings is a solution. And you're right I didn't mention it. Another solution is less taxes which sounds more reasonable to me. As I said at the beginning of this thread, Republicans seem to understand the problem and have a proper solution to it in order to avoid making other people richer trying to work around the legal system (e.g. CPA).

We're saying the exact same thing. "Income passes through the members" = members pay income taxes = federal + states + self employment tax = +%50 if your income is $1 million. You can eventually avoid the self employment tax filing as an S-corp.

"that's not going to happen if you want to rely on the systems those taxes pay for in the US.". That's what I'm saying, there's no way around it besides the republicans tax reform.

"spread income over multiple years". That's what someone mentioned already.

Am I still not informed? Should I need better tax advise?

Transform these %50 taxes (money you're giving away for free) into time. You're now working %50 of the time for free while you could spend more time with your family, kids, friends, learning things, etc. It's not a fiction, it's reality.

Welcome to my life. Where you're at right now is where I was not a while ago. So it's too early for me to tell you it's awesome just quit and go on your own... Though, I've worked as a SWE for 10 years going from junior all the the way up to staff level. At the end I was working for one of the best companies out there doing %80 bug fixing versus %20 feature work. %100 Micro-managed and absolutely zero motivation/innovation/future/control/independence.

I quit and started making Apps. Again, it's too early to say that it was the best decision of my life. But here is my only advice for people like you:

You're a SWE, the world needs SWE/developers/coder depends how you call it. There are not enough SWE in this world at the moment. So, you're set... This is something you've acquired already, why do you want to spend the next 10 years doing the same thing and not learning anything else? Now, look at Berkley university for example. They received $250 million in fundings from the silicon valley in order to help students starting businesses. That's where we're going. More Startups, new ventures, more entrepreneurs etc. This is the next SWE job that is coming faster than you think. Go out there and go learn how to be an entrepreneur and do it NOW. If you stay stuck in the corporate world you'll be downgraded to a worker working in a factory in a few years from now. Maybe software will be the Nike and you'll be that 14 years old kid coding in Asia for $1/day (sounded horrible sorry but that's my vision). These kids will write code for us. You'll be more than obsolete. If not, machines will do it for us. So, learning new skills and more specifically entrepreneur skills is crucial. I'd encourage every SWE to jump into the other side before it's too late. We're smarter than anyone else. Companies like Apple, Google, FB, Microsoft were built by people like you and I. Not by some BS product managers hiding in the middle of an organization who has no idea where the money is going...

That's what I told myself before I quit. Of course, like you, I have savings and can survive while learning all these awesome things thanks to 10 years of slavery in the corporate world. Good luck and sorry for my crude language.

I went over these options when I incorporated. Nevada, Delaware and Wyoming. Unfortunately, I'm the only member of my LLC and my office is my house. For a software company selling online it is not recommended to incorporate in a foreign state with these conditions. Usually more than 5 members and at least a physical office located in Delaware for instance. Otherwise the tax burden can become overwhelming and my tax liability may actually increase because I'd be viewed as a foreign entity operating in these states. It's easy on paper but when you start digging it's not that easy.

Filing as a C-Corp? :) I'd be taxed twice. The LLC would have to pay income tax on its earnings then I'd have to pay taxes during the distribution to all the members (myself). This will be viewed as income tax. Definitely not. Though, filing as an S-Corp would take away the annoying/abusive self-employed tax of %15. Problem, again, the IRS... they hate S-Corps and they will make sure I fail to comply. My problem with filling as an S-Corp is that the LLC wouldn't pay self employment tax but the member would have to. So if I make $1 million, I withdraw $1 million (which is the goal), I'd pay the full self employment tax anyway. Does it make sense?

Last but not least, regarding your 1st point it all depends on your goals. I'm not rich and I'm still alive. Obviously I already know I can survive with $100 k/y not a problem. Now, majority of the people are looking for security first, then comfort and finally, they want to become rich. I personally want to become rich first. Then I'll be looking for comfort then security last. I'm looking for freedom, that's my main goal. We have different goals so we can't argue with each other on that specific point unfortunately. I view taxes as an obstacle... some don't which is fine.

I do. But a police officer gets taxed. A fireman gets taxed too (a lot in my opinion). What are they subscribed to? Themselves? How about using big corporate money to pay for that? Look at Apple they run most of their offices outside of the US to avoid being ripped-off by the US government. If they get a fair tax bracket then they'd bring their business back in the US. Then we could use that money instead of our own money.

Regarding your last point, assuming you'd be an employee with a steady income of one million dollars per year. I believe you'd be a CEO in a large corporate or you'd have a very generous employer. Then yeah, you could chill and plan for the next 5 years. What if you're a small business with no regular income? You made a million dollars thanks to your hard work in 2015, which might not happen again in 2016. They took away %50 of that million dollars.

I agree, billionaire refers to wealth not income. At that level your income is the money you generate from your own money. Which is an income, which should be taxed at %50 if your wealth is in the billions of dollars. That's what I was referring to.

If you make $900k/y and you're fine losing $378000 then we need a flexible system. Where people like you you'd be working %42 of their time for free, while people like me would chose to earn each and every minute back. Time is more valuable than money. I'd be fine losing %42 of my annual salary working %42 less.

Sure.. what if you're an LLC making apps (single owner). How do you re-invest your million dollars into your business? Your business consists on a laptop and yourself. That's all you need to make apps and to sale them on the app store... You would most likely be working from home. So you have to file a regular income tax since you'd be a sole proprietorship. The business money is your income money because you have to "withdraw" that million dollars from your LLC to your personal bank account. If you leave it in your business it would be taxed anyway. So at the end it becomes regular income tax and you fall into the seventh bracket (federal: %39) + state tax + self employed tax (%15). It's more than %50... Sucks you made a million dollars and you have to give away half. That's why I don't get it when democrats think that millionaires avoid taxes. There's no way around for most of the small business owners.

I'd push the logic even further. How about taking away $100k from someone who's making $250k per year? If you reach $250k/y you're supposed to make a statement. Someone who studied hard (for example), got into student debt, etc. A doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, etc. You have to give away 2 times the salary of that person making $50K/y. I think it's not far. Progressive taxation should start way higher. If you make 1 million dollars a year you'll never become a millionaire because you'd have to give away %50 of it. You have to make 2 million dollars to earn one million dollars. I think it's unfair at any level. Unless you're a billionaire. Billionaires should get taxed %50. You still have half a billi left in your bank account to live your life like a king... you'll be fine trust me.

I agree with $100/hour for consulting, it's "easy" money. It depends on how you deal with micro-management. If you work as a consultant you'd be treated as an expensive external resource by your clients. Which is usually not the best place to be. On the other hand you have your corporate main job where your manager owns your life, which sucks. So he might end up going nuts. It all depends on how you deal with structures and bosses. If money is the main focus then yeah, Starbucks, consulting, any factory or freelancing is the right path for him. If he wants to use these 12h/week to learn something valuable and give himself the opportunity to not have to think about money anymore, then he should invest a couple of month in learning how to build an entire product from scratch, marketing, how to interact with his users, UX, business strategies, priorities, you know what I mean if you've done it already. He might not make money at all but he will acquire a lot of valuable knowledge. Knowledge = long term investment. It's like stock versus real estate.

You can certainly fail on the App store if you think like you do. Nothing is easy in life, people who succeed are people who start with a positive attitude and transform a failure into a learning experience. Anyone can make it on the app store with hard work and dedication. The more you fail the better you get. The 5th, 6th app might work out. Not the first ones for sure...

app store... write your own app, submit it, do some marketing by putting up a website (wordpress template = 10 min kick ass website), run some FB/youtube marketing for like $100 and you're set. If you end up having a great idea it'll pay off and you could make 10 times what you're making as a slave.. I mean, as an employee. It's like 1-2 month of development and the rest is passive income. You'll have 12h of free time looking at when you could quite your 9 to 5 to go full time on the app store. If you don't make a dollar with your app you'll get to learn all the process from A to Z which is gold. So you'll never lose your time.

I'm on linkedin but I used a different email address for that. I might have sent out a few resumes about 5 years ago... I believe emails are one of the best form of contact, not engagement.

If I were you I'd switch the main focus. I use iMessage to chat about where to eat. If we're in a place we don't really know then yelp is my to-go app. It has more info that I need and it works well. In zero case I'd need to download another app just to show me pictures of food or names of restaurants nearby. Do you get that one? So since you already have everything, your app is out, coded, showcase-able, etc. "All" you need to do is to tweak the use case a little bit in order to make it essential for someone who's looking for a place to eat. Bring value on top of what's out there. That's why an app with coupons would go viral before a scheduling app for example. Make it a game where the app picks everything for you based on people's tastes and in only one click you can book a spot and pre-order a meal. All you have to do is to get to that place and that's it. The app would be a personal assistant with an actual first name and it would be smart enough to do all the research for you in order to present a meal you and your girlfriend would like, different from what you guys had previously. It would give you price details, what people think about that meal and place, etc. Again, based on some settings/profile you would have to setup at the beginning in the app. It would also learn about where you went, liked and disliked and re-ajust the future choices. So your new use case would be something like: "Hey Siri-for-restaurant, what should we have today? I'm with Kate". "Hey Bob, how are you today? You guys should try that pineapple fried rice chicken at the new place called the Hipster Asian-fusion-Mexican Temple located on market and washington st. It would cost you guys $40 with desert and a beer. Do you want me to book it for 2 at 1pm today?". YES/NO. Done.

Amazed by some of the choices YC made. A social network for colleges??? in 2016? Random phone calls with strangers? Notification (spam) platform? The freakin Uber of birth control?

Oh my... the majority of these startups might not survive 2016. I think they should be more picky and not necessarily pick a team first. Yes you can pivot to another idea anytime and reuse the same people but I bet you a lot of the rejected applications could be worked around in the first place if the idea is really cool but a single founder. etc. (I've never applied BTW).

Thought, I have to say that they have 2 great ones like by-the-glass wine delivery and the personalized beauty products. That's what I'm talking about. Can't wait to see Day 2, hopefully it'll gradually go up in quality. It has to...

Include about 100K worth of stock in that 300K package, which will vest over 4 years. So your annual salary goes down to 200K + 25K (assuming the value of the stock doesn't move at all). 225K per year is slightly above what a 5y standard SWE makes here in the Bay Area working for a big guy. Really nothing exceptional here... By the way, 225K/y after income tax would be about 140-150K net income per year. Where are these $300K? :)

Also, any key hire like a scientist/data analyst/PhD working in a big company would easily get $1 million offers from other big companies.

You should learn how to monetize your skills and avoid being judged or scored by any employer. Your bonus could be much higher.

You're burnt out. I'm in a similar situation so I decided to leave my job without any backup plan but my savings. I do have personal projects, things that I've always wanted to work on (lack of time and energy). I also plan to visit the people I appreciate in life for the next month or so.

I was working in the hottest company in the game. Landed an onsite to the 2nd hottest company in the game :-) when I was quitting. They contacted me in the first place and decided to bring me onsite without doing any phone screen. I cancelled everything last minute and didn't even show up. I was simply burnt out.

I'd say, the rule is much simpler than you think: life is short and you're unhappy. Your job is not to work for anyone. You're job in life is to make yourself happy no matter what it takes. Quitting could be the best think you could do right now. Don't be afraid. We're coders and everyone is looking for coders... do what you like!

none... my life is unchanged.

Buy your house before you quit. You may get a lot of extra costs along the way before you get the ball rolling.

I have a house and i'm married. This is real "saving" money, not money that would turn you cash poor getting into a mortgage. Mortgage is half paid off still need money to pay it off. Getting another job won't fix my problem. What I need is to go fulltime on that for a few months and see how that goes. I code everyday all day at work, i am more interested in hearing similar experience, someone who was willing to give up a sweet spot to start from scratch with a %5-10 success rate