Ask HN: Publicly Sharing Revenue? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Publicly Sharing Revenue?

22 pointsdutchbrit15 comments

I always enjoy reading how much projects make, for example Candy Japan (https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes), Side Projects earning more than 2k p/m (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35567822) etc.

I am planning on launching a network of sites & considering doing the same for all my projects, starting from day 1. Are there any downsides doing this though? To be more specific, I want to share amount of visitors, page views, hours spent on projects, expenses and revenue.

Who here shares their revenue etc. & what are your experiences/advice?

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Cory Zue wrote about why he stopped sharing his numbers in public: https://www.coryzue.com/writing/building-in-private/

I've also seen Jon Yongfook remark that public revenue can become misleading for readers once you have employees or cost-of-goods. You have to really spell out the profit/loss details (like Michael Lynch does), but people will still be tempted to do an apples-to-oranges comparison of your top-line revenue vs other public founders.

This reflects my experience. I'd also add that if you create content, some people will seem almost offended by your income, and use it against you.

I will never share my revenue. I like to talk about my website and how it works, but I don't like talking about money. It attracts people who only talk about money, and I don't like them. It also attracts the worst kind of copycats.

In general I don't want people to know how much I make, because it comes with assumptions and expectations I don't want to deal with. My income is and should stay a small part of my identity.

In my opinion it is best not to share anything. You want that your customers think things are going great (so they have more assurance on your survival chances) and you want that your potential competitors think you are in a very lousy business. You cannot do both if you share your numbers publicly.

Why? I would be careful with doing this not just for the risk of informing your competitors but also the dangers of this being a narcissistic trap. You might feel miss-understood as a person and this results in you oversharing so people can finally know the hard working successful person you are. Just sharing a little bit can be helpful but except if you dream of becoming a influencer I think it is better to play it cool.

this is called open startup.. you can see a list at https://openstartup.tm

Buffer were the original ones to expose their metrics I think

I’ve shared revenue milestones for a couple years but have been silent for a while now. It was an excellent way to attract some attention but also to motivate other developers that they can earn money building something they love.

Downside is that sharing revenue can attract patent trolls and it invites copy cats to clone your product.

Many companies in germany (depending what company form they are) need to share how much they have in their bank account, how much their possessions are worth, revenue, how much they owe etc.. This is all listed in the "unternehmensregister"[0]. This is very handy when you are doing business with a company, so they can't lie to you about their assets. I don't know if this also exists in other countries.

[0] https://unternehmensregister.de

If you are Indie & building a product to solve a problem - it always help you build a community.

I run a software consulting & development agency. I shared about our revenues & goals in public. I got reprimanded by my co-founder, mentor & few other folks in my industry. For agencies - sharing their revenue, profits or metrics are not advisable.

Not advisable because confidentiality is the norm, or another reason?

Just curious

> Are there any downsides doing this though?

I have a different question for you, which is: what are the upsides? If you're doing because you think it's fun to share interesting stuff say that, but let's be clear about it.

It's good for initial traction but if starts doing well then I don't see the point

What’s the upside?

Free "press" is probably the main selling point for these kinds of "build in public" things. Although I agree with you it's not that compelling... although it's similarly a little tricky to point out the downside (especially considering theres no real validation of the numbers) so kind of a wash imo. Not sure if that validates or invalidates your idea OP!

There are many clear and obvious downsides. Competitors who know whether your side of the market has value. Employees who will suck your margins. Providers who will adjust their prices if they know you have margin. At the minimum, they’ll reject rebates.

And all of those people will leave you once your figures aren’t rose.

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