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Comment by yesimahuman | Hacker News Reader

Strange that this dropped off the page so quickly, I think it's an interesting post.

I'd like to add that it's quite possible to have a high growth company that does not take on institutional investment. My company is neither a Lifestyle business (I also hate that term, I think it's an awesome thing) or a VC-backed startup, but we have lots of users and are making really nice revenue.

The costs have gone down so much, that I think the reason people still think fundraising is required is because they can't afford to live or hire in SF without it, and there is a lot of pressure by successful investors for young founders to make the "big" bets.

My goal is to have an id software, 37signals, MailChimp, Atlassian, GitHub, Campaign Monitor, etc. kind of company. Now those companies are/were fucking cool. Plus, they've actually stuck around for more than a few years!

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This line of thinking seems to be a small minority from those I speak with in the scene, but sums up my thinking exactly. I even get scoffed at sometimes that I am not going for the lottery-type odds endeavors solving 20-something first-world problems. To each there own, I suppose.

I'm seven years in, nice to meet a fellow "lifestyler".

Yea, it happens. But I realized it's often by people who have something to gain from you doing it, or don't have a lot of startup experience. Lawyers that make money by doing financing rounds are one example.

I used to bring this out in people. Some things I felt were truly nasty were said. As 'yesimahuman' says, mainly by people very personally, and/or financially invested in the startup scene.

Since I’ve stopped hanging out so much IRL with startup guys, and instead with wider circle of folk, and networking more with "offline" entrepreneurs this has completely stopped happening.

Additionally using non-startup terms like "business owner" (vs say "founder") to describe myself and my company, seems to reduce the friction even when hanging out with the most agro startup guys.

Let's come up with a better name. Howsabout "I built and maintain a personal freedom machine" or maybe "this is an FU business" or perhaps "I am a small business supported craftsman" or maybe just tell the truth proudly "I built and run my own small business".

How about calling it what it is? "Self-employment" is exactly what he's doing, we need no other name for it.

Lifestyle business, micropreneur, microisv, indie. None of them are great terms. I am still waiting for someone to come up with a better term for what I do.

You're a hacker, challenging the norms of what it means to start and grow a business. If software is eating the world, it's surely eating the capital requirements to starting software companies.

I quite like 'business hacker'. But 'hacker' comes with lots of other baggage (including the inevitable confusion with 'cracker').

I've always been fond of the label "living the dream."

Sounds completely unobtainable. Lifestyle at least sounds like a choice that a person could make, and have control over.

It's very subjective, but I find that what is described in the article is pretty much my dream. Of course, I'm not living it, so by that that standard it has so far remained "unobtainable".

Most of the people I know who use that phrase are being somewhat sarcastic. Most notably the helicopter pilot from Germany I knew who was getting paid absolute shit because until you make a certain number of flight hours, your options are extremely limited and you have to take a second job to make ends meet. Every time I said, "What's up?", he said "Living the dream, man!" then proceed to complain about all the shit he has to put up with. He loves flying, but the "dream" is anything but.

Poe's law strikes again!

I don't think there is a perfect term, but indieveloper sounds neat.

I like micro-isv. Still have a few of the t-shirts you used to sell.

They were a one-off Xmas charity special. I only sold about 100, so they are very exclusive! ;0)

"Self-employed" is the traditional term in the UK.

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