from Hacker News

I created a $350M software company knowing nothing about software (2015)

by himoacs on 7/27/21, 2:23 AM with 63 comments

  • by ksaxena on 7/27/21, 3:13 AM

    This company was just acquired by Zoom for ~$15B
  • by vessenes on 7/27/21, 5:15 AM

    This is a kind of writing I think of as Silicon Valley mythos - in it, a plucky entrepreneur, a lucky angel investor and a hacker get together, and fail their way into an IPO. At the end they tell the reader he just needs to believe in himself more, and the SV myth will come true for him.

    There’s a lot of hate in the comments here, but I am personally more equivocal - it is definitely true that absolutely no centimillion or billion dollar companies get founded by people that refuse to found companies. And, I think the real moral of the story - persist and get lucky with a good team and a good market angle at the right time - is a very potent moral.

    But, I prefer the grittier SV myth stories a-la Ben Horowitz which mention all the times you’re vomiting in your bathroom worried about making payroll and fighting with your co-founders while your spouse is like “so, about that day job..” - I’m not sure there’s any company that gets truly valuable without some very difficult times.

  • by jakequade on 7/27/21, 3:22 AM

    > Knowing nothing about software.

    A few lines in:

    > I created a horse-racing simulation game in Applesoft BASIC in Manhattan Beach Middle School’s computer classroom and ran a small gambling operation.

    ... Ok.

  • by throwaway4good on 7/27/21, 4:41 AM

    “ After what must have been more than 2,000 cold calls, I finally reached a receptive voice on the other line.”

    Sounds like he is a solid sales person. That stuff is worth a lot ... probably more than knowing a lot about software ... even in a software business.

  • by dang on 7/27/21, 1:47 PM

    Discussed at the time (of the article):

    How I Created a $350M Software Company Knowing Nothing About Software - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10802194 - Dec 2015 (108 comments)

    On the recent acquisition by Zoom (thanks ksaxena for pointing this out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27968224)

    Zoom to Acquire Five9 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27878412 - July 2021 (24 comments)

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-19/zoom-to-b...

  • by peter_d_sherman on 7/27/21, 5:33 AM

    >"We then hired “The Machine” (Engineer #2) and I moved in with him into an apartment in the Twin Peaks neighborhood of San Francisco, mostly so I could harass him into programming day and night. And as my two engineers built a beta version of our call center software, I started dialing for dollars and calling call center owners with the pitch and promise of something cheaper.

    After so many rejections, I wanted to reject myself.

    After what must have been more than 2,000 cold calls, I finally reached a receptive voice on the other line.

    Joe owned a small but successful call center in Provo, Utah. He called my bluff and said that he knew we didn’t have anything solid yet, but he trusted we could get it built — but it had to be half the price I quoted him.

    And that’s the early lesson I learned about entrepreneurship, or maybe it was a lesson in America itself. That after so many rejections, I wanted to reject myself, but then found someone who would mail me a check for $40,000, even during a recession, because they were risk-taking business owners themselves.

    It made me realize that America was a magical place for entrepreneurs."

    [...]

    >"I’m not sure if I have any sage advice for other entrepreneurs, but out of this experience I did learn one important truth. Namely, you don’t have to be an Ivy League graduate (I’m not) or have a lot of money (we didn’t).

    You just have to believe in yourself against all reasonable logic,

    as trite as that sounds."

    PDS: What a great piece of writing about Entrepreneurship!

    Worth reading and re-reading in the future!

  • by spoonjim on 7/27/21, 3:23 AM

    The guy knew about multi-tenant SaaS and Voice over IP and built a company around that before his competitors, I would not say he “knew nothing about software” any more than Steve Jobs.
  • by bsder on 7/27/21, 3:41 AM

    Someone always hits the lottery. The probability that it will be you is zero.

    Most people are much better served working for a company and punching the 9-to-5 clock--especially since startups nowadays rarely give contributors sufficient stock to make the risks worthwhile.

  • by pmoriarty on 7/27/21, 3:20 AM

    It's not clear what this person actually did. It sounds like it's his employees/partners did all the work.
  • by ReFruity on 7/27/21, 3:00 AM

    This resonates well with Paul's "How not to die" [1]

    [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

  • by anonymouse008 on 7/27/21, 3:24 AM

    F me — I didn’t need to read this tonight. My ‘sewer pipe’ feels light years in length, and I’m in a row boat.

    Much love to all those burning the candle at both ends with a blowtorch, may you make it out alive

  • by high_byte on 7/27/21, 4:30 AM

    amazing story. I love the way he writes, as if he's still that 20 year old entrepreneur.
  • by egypturnash on 7/27/21, 4:11 AM

    I sure do love a good dose of survivor bias.
  • by pikseladam on 7/27/21, 5:00 AM

    It looks like a paid content for advertising.
  • by musicale on 7/29/21, 1:45 AM

    I thought Microsoft was worth more than $350M.
  • by bitcoinGod88 on 7/27/21, 3:43 AM

    Awesome story.
  • by ngc248 on 7/27/21, 8:19 AM

    This reads like the pilot episode of a quirky netflix show.
  • by vessenes on 7/27/21, 5:08 AM

    @dang, would be nice to add the year (2015?) to the title.
  • by mkmk on 7/27/21, 3:32 AM

    (2015)