Pretty sure GP is saying that making those decisions for which healthcare to get, which credit card to get, etc. take a lot of time away from high level thinking, and I’d have to agree.

If I understand, your argument seems to be “just pick any and don’t worry” or “only care about success, not the risks of having bad/no healthcare, bad credit cards, etc when your startup fails”

A youtuber debating what camera to get usually doesn’t impact their livelihood in the long run, healthcare, finances, and other aspects of running a business definitely can.

Trivia decisions aside, there are also seemingly trivia things that you just didn't even know you had to know or make a decision on. You don't know what you don't know, so having someone who had done it to guide a future entrepreneur on things beyond just high level guidance would be immensely helpful.

Part of me agree the attitude of "you should be able to figure out things on your own".

My point is that since some tools & trivia things really don't matter, we just need good defaults and move on to do things that matter. Where to find good defaults? You can ask around in your network, or figure out these things on your own. Or just pick whatever have good social proof.

> If your tech startup should succeeds or fails in spite of the particular corporate credit you choose.

I'd have to agree.

Instead of "company", think "domain name."

Instead of "health insurance", think "I'm in my 20's and don't need it."

Instead of "company credit card", think "don't spend anything."

Instead of "design/eng. help", think "no budget, DIY", "co-founder" or at most Craigslist gigs.

Or just keep working the day job until the above is obvious.

Telling someone they don’t need health insurance is irresponsible, there’s plenty of things that can go wrong in your 20s, like a car accident. If they decided not to have that while running a startup not only would they potentially lose their first mover advantage, they’d be saddled in crippling medical debt. One’s health should always come first, you don’t appreciate it until you don’t have it.

I'm surprised private healthcare isn't more of a drain on the American economy. I often wonder how many businesses aren't started because of that cost.

It’s not a requirement to offer health insurance in the US. If you make someone an offer and it doesn’t Include health insurance, and they accept, and the individual mandate isn’t enforced anymore, then theres no additional burden on the company.

I’ve been offered jobs without health insurance and didn’t accept them. I’ve contracted for those companies as I’m my own company and have had a group health plan for myself and others/partners. Figure the premium can be $1000-1200/per.

Getting it is easy. You call a broker (usually for group plans you need to go through a broker), fill out a couple of forms, produce a few paystubs, apply, and enroll.

$1000 - $1200 per person per month? I know some consultants who can’t find health insurance that cheap. Are those high deductible plans?

PPO with moderate deductibles.

Are they doing individual or group plans?

And sorry, this wasn’t SF proper, though when I managed a plan for 30+ employees in SF it was about $1500/per. That was high deductible with a roll-over HSA match. The broker was helpful in giving us a decent menu to choose from.

$1,500 for an individual HDHP is way on the high end, even for SF. Was the group full of 60 year olds? If it’s young people, it should be in the $500 range at most.

This was the quickest data I could find:

https://www.valuepenguin.com/best-cheap-health-insurance-cal...

Also, what is a rollover HSA match? Any HSA contributions don’t come from the insurance company so I don’t see why that would affect the premium.

Thanks for the clarification, they’re on individual plans outside of CA, so probably not an apples to apples comparison.

$1k is way too high for an insurance premium for a young individual, even in SF.

Here’s a list of NJ insurance premiums available at healthcare.gov, and you can multiply by the age factor shown at the bottom:

https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcra...

SF is more expensive than NJ, but not 2x to 3x more expensive for healthcare.

The pre-ACA rate was $250/month for one working person. ACA plus inflation doubled that to $500/month, which is out of the reach of flyover country blue-collar wages.

For planning purposes, use $500-$1,200/month for a young single person now.

Historically it goes up around 20% per year, so I'm sure HN readers can do the Rule of 72 in their heads and realize where this is going.

This is false.

Health insurance premiums for HDHP should be around $500 at most for a young person in the highest cost of living areas of the US.

As a reference, these are the monthly premiums in NJ:

https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcra...

I often wonder about the impact of a private healthcare system on economic activity too. The truth is, we’ll never really know until there’s some sort of public option.

You can look at Europe for example

Personally I didn't start a company in one country (but moved to another) just because of the high bureaucracy cost and high taxes.

I know plenty of Europeans that are entrepreneurs who do well for themselves. The American attitude of the European system being incapable of producing anything meaningful because it doesn’t capitulate completely to corporate interests is overplayed. Just look at Arm and the U.K. for example.

> Just look at Arm and the U.K. for example.

Wow, one whole example. And it's owned by the US now.

Most UK "technology companies" are box-shifters retailing American products. Pathetic.

> Telling someone they don’t need health insurance is irresponsible

Unless you're offering to pay it, I don't see how your opinion can be taken seriously. Most startups take about 7 years of runway, and at $500-$1,200/month for a single person, those startups won't happen.

being young, broke, and healthy helped me get my first company going without being distracted by decision fatigue because often times the decision was made for me.

having a handful of mentors who can tell you "you're asking the wrong questions, ask yourself X instead" saved me a lot of time early on.

Yes, "focus is the new IQ."

A couple of founders have said, "Almost any choice works out fine." meaning don't waste a lot of time doing analysis.

I agree with you on all but health insurance. Catastrophic life events are uncommon, but they do happen. Any founder owes it to themselves and their company to be insured so they don't become bankrupt from medical bills or die because they're unable to get proper treatment.