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GoRudy

1,115 karma · joined April 2, 2014

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GoRudy··on Show HN: Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app
I had this idea ten years ago. Told my parents it’d be nice to say “have a good day” and my moms initial reaction was she’d say “** you”. End of that idea.
GoRudy··on America.gov
Looks like this was developed and designed by the same team that handled the trump accounts and I found that very easy to setup and use for my kiddo. Shockingly functional and intuitive I had low expectations.

I’m cautiously optimistic for this simply bc of the team behind this.

GoRudy··on Perplexity's $1B build challenge with no investment terms listed
I might be missing something, but I couldn’t find any actual investment terms tied to this. I'd expect at least basic clarity on things like what investment terms (valuation etc) would be offered?
GoRudy··on The ROI of Exercise
Depends on the health issues. In the US, northeast and Florida at least there are many free courts almost everywhere. And plenty of older folks with small or medium health issues still find the time and motivation to play.
GoRudy··on G/O Media Epilogue
the reason G/O failed was due to leadership. Full Stop.

the audience that was assembled was actually impressive and the PE money was used correctly to build an interesting portfolio of sites.

From there it was an operational disaster. All the important sites they had have been acquired by better run companies which confirms that the underlying assets were pretty good, they just needed to be run by someone else.

On good authority here's a good example: They have one of the top car blogs in the world, and had zero dedicated auto ad sellers. Anyone who knows auto in advertising knows you need people in LA and Detroit full time on the agencies and OEMs.

GoRudy··on QSBS Limits Raised
Having personally invested in 100+ startups I can say the tax benefits are never part of the calculation.
GoRudy··on What Was Quartz?
they dont they've sold nearly everything. pe group that backed them was the source of funding
GoRudy··on What Was Quartz?
That's not how these things work. When a company sells an asset the funds go back to the company that sold that asset. So if the "seller" has debts or other obligations those still remain and proceeds from the sale would go towards satisfying those. However, in this case it sounds like the deal was largerly about the employee costs + some cash to the sellers.
GoRudy··on What Was Quartz?
Nothing about that article surprises me regarding G/O but there is one point that Zach makes about his transaction that he is wrong about:

"Thanks to G/O's stubborn insistence that it only wanted Quartz's assets and not the corporate entity"...

this is not stubborn it's quite common and is absolutely the right thing to do for many companies interested in another business. If they buy your entity (stock transaction) it comes with all the legal liability.

Zach probably doesn't understand how much more likely his deal was to close as an asset purchase rather than a stock purchase. A stock purchase comes with lots more diligence and legalese. If they are buying your stock they are buying all your baggage and potential legal matters, it requires a lot more work including a laundry list of representations by the seller. G/O did everyone a favor by sticking to an asset purchase and getting the deal done. that's where the positives end it seems.

GoRudy··on Show HN: I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital pianos
Same. Bought this immediately for that exact reason.
GoRudy··on Public offer: $5M for The Charlotte Observer
I love the way he's thinking about this. I think the subscription estimates are a little optimistic and the payroll is too high but overall it makes sense.
GoRudy··on Show HN: Wealthfolio: Private, open-source investment tracker
Looks like it only takes CSVs, how would we upload documents from brokerage accounts?
GoRudy··on We're Watching Facebook Die
I've had to report on users for previous media companies I have run. Using a daily number will make the overall number seem higher than the monthly total unique users.

Here is an example of one site I ran a long time ago to illustrate:

Average daily unique users: 111,000 Total unique monthly users for the same period: 2MM unique users.

I could see how the interpretation of the average daily might have someone inferring it's x 30 for a month so call it 3.3MM users during the month but the actual monthly total is lower.

I don't think there is anything wrong with reporting daily especially if it's the type of site or app where the user is likely to be there on a daily basis vs say the websites of the past two decades where half the readers only come once and the other half come 2 -10+ times.

GoRudy··on Ask HN: Is AngelList Legit?
I don’t think this is accurate. It’s usually not the company directly raising on AL. Rather it tends to be a syndicate with partners who have a connection with the company that is raising.

There are various reasons why a hot company might still have a syndicate including the syndicate lead was an early investor in the company so the founder is giving them an allocation in the subsequent rounds.

GoRudy··on [dead]
Conclusion: Despite significant market rally, indicators suggest an absence of a bubble. Market conditions are continually monitored for changes.
GoRudy··on NYPD overtime pay in the subway went from $4M to $155M this year
Im assuming you don’t live in NYC because if you did you would know how uncomfortable it is to be waiting for the subway with clearly (a lot of) mentally unstable people walking and yelling in circles and you or your loved ones are relatively alone just trying to use public transportation.

100% im glad they spent that money, they need MORE policing in the subways until they find a way to help the mentally ill unhomed.

GoRudy··on Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger
Is not paying an option? Ran into this issue with a large software provider once but they had some actual account management negligence / weren't responsive so we used that to hang our hat on not paying and eventually they let it go.
GoRudy··on The future of air defense must be smarter, more affordable, and reusable
If they don't use cost plus pricing it would probably be a win compared to the entrenched defense contractors who are using cost plus pricing.
GoRudy··on Google Adsense is transitioning to per-impression payments for publishers
Google's premium ad network for professional publishers is AdX which is run via the google ad manager product and has been on a CPM basis for over a decade. Only small sites are on adsense which pays CPC.

The net change here is probably almost nothing, just the smaller sites that never use google ad manager will see the change but any publisher of note will have been operating with this for as long as they can remember.

With click through rates continuing to decrease it's likely they needed to make this change to keep the long tail sites happy and generating some revenue, they would back out the CPC to an effective CPM anyway.

Me:13+ years in digital publishing and advertising.

GoRudy··on The era of America’s subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers may be ending
I’ve been to low or no tipping countries like France and Brazil and the service is incredibly bad. Coming back to the states is a breath of fresh quality service air.
GoRudy··on J.D. Salinger and wielding copyright as self-protection
I grew up in Cornish. Most of us knew. Our plumber was his plumber etc etc. he was left alone, there’s a lot of interesting art in the community to see, his house not being one of them.
GoRudy··on ESPN signs gambling deal with Penn, which sells Barstool back to Dave Portnoy
Sounds like a sweetheart deal for Portnoy. I'm skeptical about ESPN being well aligned with Penn.

Barstool has a huge staff, I wonder if they will make some organizational changes the business should be very profitable overall.

GoRudy··on NYC Congestion Toll Could Cost Drivers $23 per Trip Starting Next Spring
The congestion downtown is outrageous. The honking from cars sitting in stopped traffic is noise pollution to a degree most people will never experience. Broome street from 3pm until 7pm is a nightmare. Endless honking and road rage. It’s a detriment to the neighborhood and the traffic cops are constantly getting verbally berated for traffic that is not their fault they’re just trying to keep the cross streets open.

I would love to see this price increased further + actual fines levied for mindless honking in stopped traffic.

GoRudy··on A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression
Same same. Also when not biking bootcamp classes get me to the same place of only thinking about the workout / excercises at hand. 50 min - 90 min feels like the sweet spot in terms of time.
GoRudy··on James Niehues Ski Map Artist
He had a kickstarter a few years ago. My neighbor friend and I used to draw our own ski maps of our dream ski areas and James was our inspo.

I bought my friend the ski map book as a gift, highly recommend it.

GoRudy··on Ask HN: WWYD? Built a company valued at $1B and may walk away with nothing
Are deep cost cuts an option? What meaningful changes to the business can be made?

The financing round doesn’t sound great and won’t last, just buying some time.

GoRudy··on Investigation on the effect of oral breathing on cognitive activity (2021)
What is this procedure called? How does one know if they are a good candidate?
GoRudy··on How to Sell Your Startup
I found anchoring on price early in the process has been helpful to understand who is serious and who is not. I've been through the process twice, well actually three times as the first time the deal fell through (we sold 20 months later). Some businesses simply are bought on a multiple of revenue or ebitda that is common in their industry and in that case I found it expedites the process to be clear on top line + adjusted ebitda and expected range of valuation.

I also negotiated salaries etc early in the process so it's all generally done at the same time before the term sheet.

GoRudy··on Ask HN: In-depth sites for various industries' news?
Adventure motorcycles & the motorcycle industry - https://www.advrider.com/
GoRudy··on Ask HN: In-depth sites for various industries' news?
https://www.bisnow.com/
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