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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

How hard is it to keep it alive? Can I do it for you while you get your stuff sorted out? Do you have a decent lawyer? Would that make a difference? Let me know (email in profile), I'll gladly help you if I can. I second the calls to leave your country but I can see that this may not always be an option.

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I have a decent lawyer. It isn't hard to keep alive; heck, I've been running it pretty half-assed for the past almost 2 years. Still, I cannot abandon it totally.

Also, I don't think it makes enough revenue to warrant hiring anyone to take care of it, I think. I'd make a loss. And since familiarising with the current code base etc. may require a lot of effort, way more effort than anyone would care to dedicate, unless they're paid a lot to get familiar with it.

My startup is http://www.zuupy.com.

I really want to keep the startup, because it's my main source of income that pays my rent, food, entertainment, transportation, etc. It's also my first startup -- it has great sentimental value.

For what it's worth, that's a nice startup!

Best wishes for your outcome.

What's the platform?

What is your (honest) estimate of the code quality / time to familiarize?

What about those bugs, are they things that you could conceivably still do before you go to jail? Would it be acceptable if they were there as long as you were gone? (after all, they are there right now).

You're in Singapore?

How do you intend to deal with the financial side of this? (I take it there is a small business to be run as well to keep the lights on).

I can see a few options:

  - blindly trust some random stranger (probably a bad idea!)

  - give the company in trust to your lawyer while you are
    away to run on your behalf

  - get a friend up to speed in the time remaining and turn
    the site over to them before you go.

Keeping the lights on is basically what you're asking for but the bit that I'm missing still in your plan is that you are right now probably promoting your site as well, which is one of the reasons it is working. Mothballing it with the marketing stopped will only work if the period without active work on the site is not too long, it may take more effort to keep it at the level where it is right now if the time is longer.

You'd have to expect that no matter what by the time you get out of jail (how long do you expect to go away for?) the business will have shrunk or will have died.

Good to see you at least have a decent lawyer, that may be an important part of the solution.

Singapore is 100% not a Muslim country. He's probably in Malaysia from the looks of it.

Let me leave this here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/alvin-and-vivian-ja...

oh wow. that is a bum rap.

Yeah I wondered if that was connected. God damn, what the Malaysian Chinese have to put up with. Every single organization in the nation, public and private, is completely run by Chinese managers, with a few bumiputra cronies as figureheads and a workforce packed with other laid-back Malays. Nothing in that country (and it's a lovely country, one of my favorite to visit) would ever get done without the Chinese. Yet many Malaysians' burning envy of Singapore seems to find its only outlet in abusing their own Chinese, either directly, through the rhetoric of politicians like Mahathir, or through the entrenched quota system. It's been over a decade since I was in the region, but I'll always have sympathy for the Chinese in Malaysia.

Not that Singapore is any shining beacon of freedom. I can certainly imagine the "Happy Ramadan" stunt drawing a stiff fine there. I doubt, though, that any minority in Singapore would need to speak "truth" to power in this way.

If you want to keep it up, taking a loss may be what's required.

If it's your main source of income, it must be making some money. Can you use that to pay someone to take care of it while you're away?

There's got to be some kind of middle ground between 'taking a loss' and 'main source of income'. Even if it's not as much as someone would make in a different job, I bet some people would be willing to help you out for a small stipend.

Good luck!!

the religion you have offended has great sentimental values to the people who follow that religion. yet you ask people to save your startup because it has great sentimental values to you. what a pity.

Their startup isn't putting someone in prison for posting an "offensive photo".

no it isn't. thanks i missed that point.

EDIT: for those who up voted, i was being sarcastic.

Could the loss you take from hiring someone to take care of it be a loss your business could handle for the duration of your incarceration? If the choice is loss and still kicking, or complete company failure, the loss might be preferable.

jacquesm is a real stand-up guy by the way. It doesn't count for much, but I'd recommend considering his offer.

I'll also offer to assist (preferably with one or two other people sharing the workload), but details would help a lot. An attorney should be able to ensure that your rights to the business are protected in the meantime.

My email's in my profile.

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