How a Teenage Entrepreneur Built a Startup on Bitcoin Riches | Hacker News Reader

How a Teenage Entrepreneur Built a Startup on Bitcoin Riches

smallbusiness.yahoo.com

25 pointshaymills16 comments

This doesn't detail "how" a teenage entrepreneur built a startup on BTC riches. It's not a very exciting story, either.

Here's what happened: in early 2012, he put all his money into Bitcoin. Then he cashed out when they peaked (probably around December 2013). Then he used the money to start yet another e-learning business/service.

I don't see what the point of this article is. He used money that was given to him to bet on speculate on a wildly fluctuating asset, and came out lucky. Now he's trying to invest his money sensibly. So what?

To me, the only interesting part of this article is that he pays most of his employees in Bitcoin. The rest is just fluff.

To be fair, this is pretty much the typical entrepreneur-idolization media story:

1. Gamble someone else's money

2. Luck into winning

3. Use the proceeds to invest in something a little less risky

4. Rinse and repeat

5. Be pointed to as an example of how entrepreneurism is a path to success, ignoring the vast majority who don't get past step 1

Its an article on yahoo.com, are you actually expecting hard hitting reporting?

It's a link on Hacker News, so I would expect (or rather, hope) to not see links to uninteresting stories.

I agree. It's not like he's that smart. Just smart enough.

Who would have thought... I've read about this boy a few days ago on Reddit (subforum Entrepreneur). Someone suggested that he should get his story in the media, because it's rather interesting (especially his age, and Bitcoin is still hot nowadays). A month later, here he is!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/25u81a/im_15_a...

I just clicked on that and read the first root comment. The kid more or less admits to using fake reviews on his site. He offers to "fix" a review, which not only sounds incredibly fake, but in which the person claims to be in NY but then claims being in LA.

Err, not sure if this is off to a great start. The skills to speculate bitcoin may not be the skills that get you ahead running an e-learning company. The kid comes off as incredibly dishonest.

I'm not clear what the lesson is here, unless it's "you should have bought Bitcoin in 2012".

Who gives $1000 to a 14 year old grandchild for Easter? #JustRichPeopleThings

Not necessarily. It was given to him by his grandmother. Perhaps she's divesting herself of some of her retirement funds for whatever reason (e.g. maybe is actually not all that well off but she wants her grandkids to "have something" but is anticipating losing all she owns in end-of-life care).

That said, there is little to this story that seems impressive to me. Regardless of whether his family is rich or not, being given $1000 for easter is a big deal when one is 14, and therefore most of the rest of this kid's story is better attributed to good luck than talent. What's impressive is that he didn't spend all the bitcoin-windfall on video games, apps, and trying to impress his friends.

Totally agree. This kid is part of the lucky sperm club. It is not a skill. Nothing to see here.

$1000 is not that much money. Grandmothers might figure that it's better to gift money while they are still alive, to save on inheritance tax (among other reasons).

Maybe it's not a popular thing to say around here, but that $1000 in BTC could just as easily be worth $500 right now.

This title "How a Teenager Entrepreneur Built a Startup on Bitcoin Riches" is misleading.

The kid took his grandma's money and bought and sold bitcoin at the right time.

His startup consists of himself and two other dudes.

This isn't Shawn Parker Napster impressive to me.

Is he smarter than your average 15 year old or myself when I was 15? Yeah but not that smart.

> When 15-year-old Erik Finman turned a $1,000 Easter gift from his grandma into $100,000 after cashing in on his Bitcoin investment, he wasn’t all like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.

It would be kind of difficult to buy a Maybach with $100,000 given that even a used one costs more than that.

Putting the article's heavy dose of fluff aside, it would be interesting to know if Finman paid capital gains on the $100,000. Additionally, if he truly has "employees" that he's paying in Bitcoin, it would be interesting to know if he's properly doing withholding, since you have to pay that in USD.

fluff. How to build a business on finding a gold nugget. How to build a startup after you bought Google IPO. etc etc

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