lquist

A product that encourages anonymous HS bullying? Great.

I don't because I want to be able to track competitor advertising :)

hypothetical :)

The Microsoft press release says, "Microsoft expects the acquisition to be break-even in FY15 on a GAAP basis", which means that on a P/E basis, they are valuing $1 of Mojang profit at $1 of Microsoft profit. It's a game studio with 1 hit, so I'd probably only pay half that, but it's within an order of magnitude of what I'd pay.

So basically you made an agreement with one set of investors and then went back on your word because another, "better" set of investors wanted to put money in? Maybe it's just me, but this doesn't reflect that well on you.

I think most Stanford alums/Stanford Law alums and Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers could raise $1M for a hedge fund.

First: Thanks for creating this!

Second: IMHO, I really do think this suffers from being a single page app. It's essentially an HN clone. Would HN be better if it was a single page app? No, it would probably be worse.

A guess, but I think he lives in India and probably cares more about INR return than USD return.

I second this recommendation. Also, you only need ~$60k, as long term INR denominated fixed deposits yield ~10%.

This shows a lack of understanding of the structure of late stage VC deals. These are convertible notes, not straight equity. Also, what is the liquidation preference on this round? My guess is that this $20M note is the most senior debt, so if there is a wind down, they get their $20M first. So, KPCB has hedged some of the downside. And this is the important bit: their hedge increases as the percent they take in the round decreases. In a bankruptcy, they could probably at least get $20M out of the company.

It was shown next to the byline, but has now disappeared!?

Incidentally, this article is paid for by Metlife.

Hi Julia! A few questions:

* How much is Zidisha levered?

* A 10% default rate is very high. Can you get this down?

Thanks!

The New Yorker wrote an amazing article on ITER and the pursuit of nuclear fusion: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/03/a-star-in-a-bot....

As a fellow bootstrapper, congrats!

A few recommendations:

* I recommend A/B testing a pricing structure 3x what you currently charge. I'm guesstimating this to be the sweet spot, but I think you're underpricing significantly.

* Hire a professional designer to make the site look less amateurish.

* Advertise to web developers/consultancies. Again, I don't know too much about your customers, but I think marketing to web developers/consultancies will have a high ROI

What is the source of the data? It seems crazy to provide EPS estimates (etc.) without the source.

Thanks for sticking with InQuicker! It's a great product!

> Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

Yes

> How did you do it?

Started a bootstrapped, profitable small/medium-sized business (not a startup in the traditional sense). Don't really want to go into more detail than that as I still run it.

> What did it feel like when you first realized it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to?

It didn't really have any impact. I will definitely continue to work and because of an accident of birth and a "strong background", I've always had the luxury of choosing what I work on, so that hasn't changed. I do have more credibility and capital, so that definitely helps for my next startup.

> How old were you?

26

> Do you feel happy in your life?

Business-wise, mostly yes. Thankfully it hasn't changed social aspects of my life.

Flatiron did a $5.5M round at a $15M (guesstimated) valuation, and DBC is probably 4x bigger, so this was probably in the $60M range, with a bit more thrown in for being a big player?

My startup is in a relatively new industry that has had multiple investments/acquisitions in the past year or so, and we've not been able to pursue conversations with some of these acquirers because we don't have financials in order. We're bringing on an accountant now, but it's never been a priority for us historically as we're in a high margin business with great cash flow. If I could do it again, I'd hire an accountant/hr/operations person a year ago (1yr after starting the company) rather than today.

As an American with little knowledge of British politics this is a bit surprising. Do you mind going into the reasons that lead you to be on the Royal side?

I know you're joking, but you're comparing the one-off sale of an entire business to (very possibly repeatable) annual income.

Here's the Spotify link for the Bostridge recording: spotify:album:5ZHCqltda5ywYkHPqFIUQJ.

That's because Bloomberg moved all the homeless to the Bronx and outskirts of the city...

My bet is that Google and Amazon will come out on top. My thesis on each of the big 4:

Google: Some investments in Google X and other technologies will pay off and Google revenue stream mix will change. Size of pay-off will offset or eclipse current ad revenues.

Amazon: Revenue growth will continue for the foreseeable future. They are still a tiny fraction of their addressable market, and have a humungous moat. Amazon will achieve profitability not by raising prices, but by squeezing suppliers (a la Walmart).

Facebook: Zuck does not think the best use of capital is reinvestment into core Facebook (see investment in WhatsApp + Oculus). That's fine, but has no track record of success with this. Oculus is very promising, but I was much more excited about it when it was a standalone company and John Carmack et al were equity compensated. The addition of Abrash is exciting though. I think this could be Facebook's Youtube if they play it right, but still not going to change Facebook's 5yr+ trajectory.

Apple: I largely agree with Fred Wilson about commodification of hardware.

40x 2013 Revenue. Probably 20x 2014 revenue.

Still seems to be a problem?

I'm still able to submit more than once. I find that polleverywhere's sms based voting is a good way to get around this (but kind of annoying for voters).

There seems to be nothing to prevent multiple submission. I would expect meaningless data as bootcamp founders + staff hang out on HN.