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Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by ryanSrich on Friday March 12, 2021 @11:47AM (#26437729)
I don't get when people say $X/month is too much. Too much for you maybe. But for me, if I can save 1 hour per month, that's worth $500. That's the top of what I've charged per hour for some consulting gigs. So $10/m is literally nothing for me if I can save time. Time is your most valuable asset. Money is nothing. Focus on time.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by wtmt on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:01PM (#26437908)
If every comment has to be suffixed with “for me” or “IMO”, it would be quite tedious to read. In most cases it’s clear. In cases like this, it could also be that the writer isn’t earning a six figure USD income or is in a country where even a $10 here and a $10 there add up relative to one’s income.

It’s also very easy to say that X is most valuable and Y is nothing when you have very limited X and have a lot of Y.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by leetcrew on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:09PM (#26438008)
on the contrary, it's very important for people to distinguish clearly between statements of objective fact and personal opinions. they ought to do it more often. imo.

more on topic, time is inherently more valuable than money due to its fundamental scarcity. there are only 24 hours in a day, and only so many days in a person's life. if you have time, you can always trade it for money. but if you have money, you can't always exchange it for time.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by tshaddox on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:46PM (#26438526)
I think it’s very clear that different people have different amounts of money and thus different ability and willingness to pay certain amounts for certain things.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by frenchy on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:27PM (#26438258)
That's overly reductive. In many cases, it's easier to make more money from existing money than it is to make money from just time.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by monkey_monkey on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:01PM (#26437906)
Great, I'm hoping you'll sign up for my upcoming weather widget which tells you the weather in a single location. It's only $30 a month, and it will save you time as you will no longer have to use any other weather widget.

At some point in the future I plan on offering additional locations (at a compellingly low per location monthly service fee TBD).

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by Gorbzel on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:17PM (#26438114)
As great as the endless possibilities software offers are, it really obscures the amount of effort necessary to bring real world products to life. The jump in hubris from “Great, I can code!” to “Well, I could build a tool to do that, so no one deserves to make a living/profit/native app/business doing it” is waaaay too prevalent around here.

Of course none of the people who say such things could actually do so. Instead, they continue to post the aforementioned type of comment along with the following:

- Ask HN: Where are all the profitable ideas? - Show HN: I built some half-assed idea that no one will ever use to learn the latest technology fad. - Who’s Hiring: I hate my job at some random SaaS firm because I hypocritically don’t assign worth to building software.

Anyhow, where is this mythical weather widget getting its data? How reliable are its forecasts? What makes it better than the tools Apple/Google build into their OSes after spending millions acquiring formerly indie weather tools?

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by hellomyguys on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:56PM (#26438653)
I pay for this its called Forecast bar (https://forecastbar.com) and I love it. Basically Dark Sky for your Mac. Not $30 a month, but there's different tiers of service depending on your needs.

Would I pay for this startups calendar? Probably not, but it seems nice, and I can definitely see people paying 2 cups of coffee a month for it.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by monkey_monkey on Friday March 12, 2021 @01:11PM (#26438838)
Yes, I'm well aware that services like this exist and for a lot less than $30 a month. That's exactly my point.

To make it crystal clear – it seems odd to launch a product that's much more expensive than your competition and delivers much less.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by haltingproblem on Friday March 12, 2021 @08:11PM (#26442978)
I have been looking for a dark sky replacement for a while! Thank you, I just installed forecastbar. If it is even marginally approximate to the original dark sky, I am subscribing!
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by blacktriangle on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:11PM (#26438030)
If I lived in that location, and that widget had a great UI, maybe combined some reminders (good morning, 70% chance of rain today, don't forget your umbrella!), maybe it integrated with my calendar and let me know I need to leave early if I'm in a location far away from where I need to be and it's snowing really bad.

And all of that is ignoring the possibility that the idea is to build into some other thing, but there's minimal advantage to waiting.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by monkey_monkey on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:13PM (#26438052)
No, it just tells you the weather in a single location.

If you want those features, you'll have to look at my competitors' more economy priced offerings, I'm afraid.

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by ryanSrich on Friday March 12, 2021 @08:15PM (#26442994)
Luckily, I live in a place where the weather is the same for 6 months, before it changes and is the same again for 6 months. The ultimate time saver ;)
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by evanlivingston on Friday March 12, 2021 @11:50AM (#26437768)
erm, isn't that assuming an income of $1,040,000 after tax based on a 40 hour work week?
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by nilsbunger on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:04PM (#26437948)
Not exactly. To make it equivalent first you need to consider employer side of FICA, which take about $100k. Then health insurance and other benefits. And vacation, sick pay, and any equipment you need to do the work.

Finally, maybe the biggest variable is non-billable hours. Maybe there isn’t 2000 hours of work available at that rate. And a lot of people who charge that much spend a substantial time finding new clients, writing new project proposals (many of which don’t get executed), and doing things to promote themselves like conference talks or speaking to press.

It would typically net out to anywhere from $500k-$900k depending on how much of those overheads you have. Nothing to sneeze at but similar ballpark as senior FAANG comp

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by bartread on Friday March 12, 2021 @12:00PM (#26437897)
Well, GP did say that was the top end of their hourly rate, so maybe not that much, but I think it's safe to say they're very solidly into six figures. Under those circumstances the calculus does no doubt change/ I don't think it reflects the reality experienced by the majority of people with less otherworldly remuneration, families, etc.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by ryanSrich on Friday March 12, 2021 @08:18PM (#26443005)
I don't do consulting anymore, but I know plenty of consultants that gross over a million per year. Of course, business expenses, taxes, etc. bring their net income down considerably.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by behringer on Saturday March 13, 2021 @12:05AM (#26444128)
Don't forget expensive recurring calendar costs.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by jeffreyrogers on Friday March 12, 2021 @01:26PM (#26439031)
I don't get it either when you consider most people drop $10/month on plenty of other things. I'm pretty sure I spend a decent multiple of that on coffee.
Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by tanseydavid on Friday March 12, 2021 @11:56AM (#26437843)
How many failure states does a conventional Meat Thermometer have?

How long of chain of dependencies on other technologies does a conventional Meat Thermometer have?

Re:Has Y Combinator lost its way when the latest company is ... by koonsolo on Friday March 12, 2021 @05:53PM (#26441943)
If you charge per hour, your customer will pay for that lost hour.

However, if you work on your own product, you might save more than $10 per month indeed.