Top all-time · #2034
Tony Wright
Personal blog · tonywright.comstartupsdesign
Tony Wright's personal blog at tonywright.com covers startups and design. Since 2007, 36 different Hacker News readers have linked it 67 times, most often “A Newbie’s Guide to Startup Compensation (or “Stock Options will Make Me Rich”)”. The last post was in 2010, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Commenters link his posts on startup equity, bootstrapping, retiring rich and free vs paid iOS apps, mostly as sources, and several call them good, helpful or well worth reading.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Called good, helpful or informative on retiring rich, bootstrapping, equity and startup advice; 'well worth the read'; 'most informative I follow'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- A Newbie’s Guide to Startup Compensation (or “Stock Options will Make Me Rich”)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-08-29
- Half-assed Startup - How to Start your Company and Keep Your Day Job4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-02-29
- Bootstrappers Beware3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-06-20
- How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-02-16
- Bootstrap Design for Hacker-Founders2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2007-12-16
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-07-15
- Startup founder evolution (or, the biz guy *is* valuable, just not at first)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-11-15
- Every Piece of Startup Advice is a Lie2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2008-03-09
- 5 reasons not to partner with an "idea guy"2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2007-05-18
- Should you move your startup to the Valley?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-06-12
What Hacker News says?
In this day and age, a million bucks is not even close to an economic freedom. @webwright has a good post on what he calls "Fuck you money", the amount you'd need to retire rich. Well worth the read. http://www.tonywright.com/2010/no-you-cant-retire-rich-at-30...
Comment linking /2010/no-you-cant-retire-rich-at-30-if-you-sell-your-startup/
on “My Startup has 30 Days to Live”Submitted No, You can't retire rich at 30 if you sell your startup as a story · 244 points
HN discussionRetiring on 900K? Here's a breakdown for 3-4 mil range and, no, it's not enough under conservative assumptions - http://www.tonywright.com/2010/no-you-cant-retire-rich-at-30... - though this is not to say that this analysis is accurate.
Comment linking /2010/no-you-cant-retire-rich-at-30-if-you-sell-your-startup
on “How I retired in 9 years on a corporate programmer salary”Submitted Rethinking 'Fuck You' money as a story · 164 points
HN discussionTony Wright has a good write up about free vs paid iOS apps here http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone...
Comment linking /2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-idea/
on “3 Weeks already, $0 income – what are we doing wrong?”Submitted How to Ask for an Introduction as a story · 93 points
HN discussion1) Find Deals - Find people who can resell what you have, promote what you have, etc. That's bizdev and sales. 2) Track any keyword possibly relating to you on Twitter, Google Blog Search, etc, and join in the conversation wherever you can without looking smarmy. 3) Design A/B tests. You sound geeky enough to change headlines, swap out images, etc. Figure out Google Analytics and Google Site Optimizer and start sque…
Comment linking /2009/software-and-making-money-presentation-slides-included/
on “Ask HN: What's a Non-Programmer to do?”Submitted Considering Applying to Y Combinator? as a story · 83 points
HN discussionYou really shouldn't feel tacky. You offer some great advice. This article from several years ago ( http://www.tonywright.com/2008/bootstrappers-beware/ ) was particularly helpful to us when we were just starting to profitable. Thank you!
Comment linking /2008/bootstrappers-beware/
on “How to Ask for an Introduction”Submitted Just How Important is the Valley? Let's Look at some Data. as a story · 83 points
HN discussionTony writes plenty of good stuff on his blog over here: http://www.tonywright.com/ In terms of amount-of-insight/word his blog is perhaps the most informative I follow.
Comment linking /
on “ Lessons of Y Combinator: Things I’d do differently after 2 startups”Submitted A Newbie’s Guide to Startup Compensation (or “Stock Options will Make Me Rich”) as a story · 77 points
HN discussionHere's what I put on the post-- thought I'd repeat it here for those who don't want to wade thru all of the people bashing Matt Maroon. :-) --- Hehe. The obvious solution for this is to, uh, submit articles to News.YC. FWIW, a good percentage of my posts (which often appear on YC News) have to do with SEO ( http://www.tonywright.com/category/seo/ ). (Disclosure: I am a YC08 Founder) I think it's a "devil you know" i…
Comment linking /category/seo/
on “I'm Getting Pretty Tired of Startup Advice that Doesn't Include Any Mention of SEO”Submitted Every Piece of Startup Advice is a Lie as a story · 68 points
HN discussionSpeaking as a guy who just punted his iPhone for a Droid a few weeks ago, there was definitely part of me who has been saying "Why did I put up with that for so long?" 'It' being the awful call performance (data and apps were great). I'm sure I'm not the only one... So why DID I put up with it? Part of it might be a love-affair with Apple due to their exceptional marketing and the near mythical status of Steve Jobs.…
Comment linking /2007/the-fuss-about-macs-priming-and-racism/
on “IPhone users are suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome”Submitted Tumblr Doesn't Leave Posterous in the Dust as a story · 60 points
HN discussionWhy, exactly? Equity ain't free (I actually have a blog post on this: http://www.tonywright.com/2008/a-newbies-guide-to-startup-co... ). You "buy" equity with risk and lower/no compensation. What is this guy risking? They are funded, so really the only risk is that the owners lose interest or run out of money (a risk you have working ANY small business-- or any business at all in this economy). Here's some guideline…
Comment linking /2008/a-newbies-guide-to-startup-compensation-or-stock-options-will-make-me-rich/
on “I (the person working on dashboard) respond to HN et al ”Submitted Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas as a story · 58 points
HN discussionI realized my comment was too damn long, so I wrote a blog post. http://www.tonywright.com/2008/half-assed-startup-how-to-sta...
Comment linking /2008/half-assed-startup-how-to-start-your-company-and-keep-your-day-job/
on “Ask YC: How to start becoming an entrepreneur while still being an employee”Submitted How to Evaluate a (paid) iPhone App Idea as a story · 55 points
HN discussionThe OP hasn't asked the right questions, IMO. For most startups, the thing that causes success isn't just great hacking talent. Heck, a lot of startups really aren't solving a software problem so much as they are solving a market problem. But even if it is a really hard coding problem that you need a star for... The big question is whether he's an entrepreneur or not. Questions to ask him (and yourself): 1. How much…
Comment linking /2008/startup-founder-evolution/
on “Co-founder or employee?”Submitted Startup founder evolution (or, the biz guy *is* valuable, just not at first) as a story · 53 points
HN discussionWell said. 10 different entrepreneurs, will tell you 10 different things as the #1 most important characteristic. That article written by Tony Wright comes to mind:"Every Piece of Startup Advice is a Lie (including mine)" http://www.tonywright.com/2008/every-piece-of-startup-advice...
Comment linking /2008/every-piece-of-startup-advice-is-a-lie-including-mine/
on “The #1 most important personality trait of an entrepreneur”Submitted Bootstrappers Beware as a story · 50 points
HN discussionThere are three hurdles for bootstrapping ( http://www.tonywright.com/2008/bootstrappers-beware/ ): covering operations (ie hosting) ramen profitability salary profitability For a web startup, you should bootstrap or take very small investment (ie YC's $15K) to get to ramen profitability. At that point you can choose whether to grow slowly from revenues (like patio11) or seek growth capital (like DropBox did a few m…
Comment linking /2008/bootstrappers-beware/
on “What is the Right Amount of Money to Raise at a Startup?”Submitted Half-assed Startup - How to Start your Company and Keep Your Day Job as a story · 43 points
HN discussionYou read it wrong (or I was unclear in what I meant, more likely). YC and PG (and thus news.yc) has a STRONG valley bias. I personally think the Valley's importance is overblown (and that the domination of the Valley is fading). So the remark was more of a jab at valley purists than a statement that "secondary" cities like Boulder (and Seattle, where I am) are less solid. That said, of course, statistically more sta…
Comment linking /
on “Filtrbox acquired by Jive Software”Submitted Bootstrap Design for Hacker-Founders as a story · 38 points
HN discussionI just posted a blog post about this-- in response to a fellow YC Winter 08 founder asking about design resources on the cheap... http://www.tonywright.com/2007/bootstrap-design-for-geek-pow... That's for tight budgets only-- if you've got a budget, find a usability/UI god and pay what they are worth. :-)
Comment linking /2007/bootstrap-design-for-geek-powered-startups/
on “Who did you get to do the website layout?”Submitted Freemium Founders: Start Charging for Things Today – Tony Wright dot com as a story · 32 points
HN discussion
