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Comment by orthoganol | Hacker News Reader

I remember when this guy was the moderator of the very large, r/digitalnomads, where his digital nomad products were copiously promoted. Most people didn't know this (I didn't), until I guess an inevitable backlash one day. I can only tip my hat, he is a hustler (not a bad thing), and it's rare to see such marketing acumen in a programmer.

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They made me a moderator on /r/digitalnomads after I launched Nomad List because the old mod quit and there was nobody left I think. Then I kept posting my own products (like I did before). But there was an obvious conflict of interest there, so I gave up mod status after it came up in the thread around 2015 I think. It wasn't some secret masterplan, but might seem like it indeed.

The first thing that jumped out at me when I was reading this was: "wow, this guy is devoting as much if not more energy to marketing the product as he is to building it"

Definitely a lesson a lot of the HN crowd (myself included) could take.

I had to lookup the name because I just remember his "Go Fucking Do It", which is one of the more ridiculous, low-effort, ingenious ways of making money from foolish first worlders enticed by a pretty landing page. "Set a goal, stake your money to it, and if you fail, you give your money to me; me, not a charity, and all of it to me, so you will have higher 'incentive' to succeed". The way it was spun as a "smart, incentivized way to accomplish your goals" was absurd, but I suppose enviable by other standards.

He doesn't accept VC funding, so I think he needs to be good selling his products. His companies need to make a profit to stay alive. And I think his best product is his lifestyle. Everything he does seems to be directly related to his lifestyle. I think that is pretty cool.

Yeah, he's also the 12(?) startups in a year guy. Hustle is definitely his strong suit.

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