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Comment by umvi | Hacker News Reader

> Weighing 5.2 ounces, ... [the type of truffle] frequently sells at prices that range from $800 to more than $1,000 a pound.

So he planted an orchard of trees containing truffle spores, waited 9 years, and then found a single $300 truffle. Hopefully he finds more because otherwise that's a very bad ROI (unless he's doing it purely for the flavor/hobby in which case it's a good ROI).

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If that freaks you out, what until you hear about tech start-ups these days!!

we are all but a truffle in the rough

You may have a point. Here in the Périgord, hazelnut trees are reckoned to decline in truffle production when they are around 10 years old. Oaks go on producing for decades. If he's planted solely hazelnut and he's waited nine years, he may have a problem.

In financial terms, it's even worse than that, because he ate the truffle instead selling it.

Think of it like spending a million dollars on developing an app and signing up your first customer.

I don't see how that applies. Finding a truffle now doesn't mean the rate at which he'll continue to find truffles changes.

maybe the trees of the orchard (hazelnut if I read correctly) are also used for their nuts?

Maybe hazelnut is main product and truffles are side projects.

Absolutely, Vasili. If waiting around for 9 years for truffles was the main pursuit of an entire orchard, that's probably a waste of time and land.

I think it is mostly validation of the concept, such that one might expect more in the future?

You all forgot that he owns two dogs that are the only breed to sniff out these truffles. That probably cost thousands.

I would say this guy might be a failure. He has earned $350ish dollars over 9 years. That buys like 2 bags of dogfood a year.

I can just imagine the conversation with his wife before he got the dogs. "Honey, I'm spending $2500 on a pair of dogs." And then inevitably later, "but they will pay for themselves with the truffles they find"

Lol

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