CatDancer

I may not be answering your question since I'm talking about usability instead of more powerful features, but I can't but imagine that there'd be a market for simple and easy to use, even if it turns out it's not going to be addressed by your particular startup...

I have a table, some data that I've laid out in rows and columns. Something simple. How much money I've been paid on my invoices to clients, for example, one invoice per row.

Then I want to sum the column, to get how much I've been paid in total. (Yes, I'm talking about a very simple spreadsheet. But that's my point, that something so simple is still messed up!) So I type in a formula: =sum(C2:C10)

Now I add a row, to put in another entry. Does my sum change, to include the new row? (C2:C11) No, it does not.

So I do not want to be saying sum(C2:C10). I want to say, here is my simple table, and give me the sum of this column. Which, I don't know what the language would look like, but if I named my table "invoices" maybe it would be sum(invoices.C) or sum(invoices.amount) or something.

Every time someone comes out with a new spreadsheet (Excel, OpenOffice, Google Docs...) I look to see if it is easier to use. Nope! Everyone is too busy being compatible with the last guy.

I would say AWS has a mildly steeper learning curve (various AWS command line utilities to install, etc.), but nothing I found difficult.

A really nice thing about AWS is that you can pick and choose which AWS services you want to use. For example, suppose you were doing a backup app where wanted to securely store terabytes of customer data, but the server requirements were really light. You could start off with a $20/month Linode server and store the data in Amazon S3. Then later you could move to EC2 at $70 per small server per month if you needed it.

Or, on the other hand, if you knew that you were going to need lots of servers sooner or later, and you have enough money that the price differential doesn't make a difference to you, you might start off with AWS to avoid needing to do a switchover later.

I'm working on an app of my own now, and I'll be hosting it on Linode to start off with. Then, if it becomes popular, I'll be able to measure what my server requirements are, and I'll be able to easily move it to EC2 if I decide to. (Though my app though isn't doing anything cpu intensive server side, so I wouldn't be surprised if I can run if off of a single Linode server for a long time).

For example, suppose I want to take a year off and go hiking. I could have worked that year instead, made 100K, invested that in the stock market, and be a multimillionaire by the time I retire. So from a financial point of view, going hiking is a really terrible idea.

Or, suppose, I feel like taking that year and doing a startup. And suppose I have a 90% chance of failure. OK, you can run the numbers, and probably show that, on average, I'll do worse than if I took a job for a year. So, yes, looking at it that way, you can say that my starting a business is an "exceptionally high risk".

Except... what if I'm working on a project that I feel like working on?

A part of the interview with Steve Wozniak that I found quite fascinating was that he said he didn't feel like he was taking a risk with Apple. Sure, he could have worked all those extra nights and weekends and had it come out to nothing. Yikes! Invest all those hours, that he could have been working to make money, and end up with zero. But so what? He was doing something he wanted to do, that he found really exciting, building one of the first computers that people could own themselves.

Is there a danger that one will become overly caught up in a startup, and do foolish things? Sure. I been there. I've done that. If I had found the right mentor they could have advised me to bail on my startup a year and half before I did, and saved me a lot of grief. Does that mean that you "have to" or that it is "realistic" that you're going to wildly over commit? No. Just because most Americans are overweight and unhealthy doesn't mean that it is "realistic" for me not to have a moderate exercise program and eat healthy food.

it makes sense to double-down with money

hmm, I've already responded to this point, as far as I can tell. I'd be happy to expound more if someone wants a more detailed explanation, but otherwise I think I'd just be repeating myself.

Starting a business is not a high-risk investment (unless you put your own money into it)

And if you truly believe in your business, then why wouldn't you want to invest everything into it?

Because, excuse me for saying so, that would be silly. Think about my business separately from me for a moment. If the business needs money, the best place to get it is from people who have money, not from me who has little.

So I want to be clear what my advice is... if you still think it's terrible advice, that's fine, as long as I'm not being confusing as to what I'm trying to say.

If I found myself in patryn20's shoes, or in my own shoes again, I personally would pay off the credit card debt before doing anything to upgrade my lifestyle. I'd stay bumming with my parents and friends, or, if that was starting to impact my productivity, get a really cheap apartment. No luxuries until the debt was paid off.

However, I wouldn't now make paying off the debt the very first priority. If I found myself in the same shoes again, I would not now stay in a contracting job just to get rid of the debt.

Absolutely I would want to see the debt going down. However I understand now the reason that is important is because it means that I'm now paying attention to the financial signals in my life.

The debt itself is only 30K, and if I paid even 30% interest on that, that's only 9K a year. That's not going to kill me.

What's important is the mindset, the understanding, that I'm now going to steer my business and my personal finances in the correct direction, and that I'm going to listen to the financial signals in my life instead of papering over them with debt. Get that right, and it won't matter if I end up paying off the debt in three months or two years.

For decision making purposes (such as, suppose patryn20 wants to start another business, should he do it or not?), I claim what's important is the time derivative of his net worth. Does the proposed business put him further into debt, making the derivative of his net worth negative? Then I would say, no, don't do it. If it is going to make money, leading to raising his net worth, and he wants to start a business, he's fired up about starting a business, he's excited by starting a business, go for it. I wouldn't base the decision on the net worth itself, I wouldn't say "don't go into business while your net worth is negative".

I wouldn't necessarily give the same advice to anyone. If someone had 30K of consumer debt from overspending, I'd be concerned at their successful ability to manage their business finances when they can't manage their personal finances. For such a person I probably would recommend getting a job and getting their personal finances under control (paying off the debt), before getting into a business. However patryn20 has a track record of a successful business, just in my opinion over leveraged, and right at the moment he reeling from a pretty hard blow. So my advice for him is different than it would be for a hypothetical person who was in 30K of credit card debt for a different reason.

I assume you are personally liable for the business credit card debt. (As you generally can't get a business credit card without personally guaranteeing it). So, just to be clear on your situation, you are 30K in debt. (Regardless of what happens to the "business", you, personally, have 30K of debt).

Step one is to get yourself stabilized emotionally and financially. Good job on selling your car and moving out of your apartment.

These four servers that are sitting idle? Are these the ones that cost a total of $600/month, and you are contracted to keep paying $600/month through the end of January? (Am I clear on the situation?) Go and talk to the hosting company (the company you owe the $600/month to). In person. Not email, not phone, go sit down with a manager in person. Ask for mercy. Lay out the facts of your situation, just as you've done here. Say, "I know I owe you $600/month, and legally you have a right to that out of my last $6k check. Since I'm in this bad situation that I didn't expect, I'm asking if you would have mercy on me and let me out of my contract. Is there anything you can do to help?"

Next, write down a minimum monthly budget that contains the bare necessities: food, gas for the car, small gifts for your parents and friends to thank them for letting you bum off of them, the minimum payments on your credit cards. I mean this literally, write it down. On a piece of paper, or in a spreadsheet. You need to be able to look at the number, "$X/month", and say, "I can survive on that". Temporarily. While you catch your breath, and decide what next to do.

Next, I recommend you stop using debt as a tool to build your business. If you have a great money making idea that needs some capital, go get investors. Yes, you will pay the investors more in their share of the business than you would on interest payments, but you're making lots of money anyway, so what? And if the business fails, you walk away free and clear.

From a business point of view, the problem with debt is that is deadens the signal that you'd otherwise be hearing that you're on the wrong track financially. It's like some who suffers from leprosy, who loses the ability to feel pain in their extremities. The greatest damage comes not from the leprosy itself, but that people accidentally wound themselves (leave their feet in the campfire or something), and don't notice because they don't feel pain. Run your business on a cash basis, and you'll feel the pain of not being profitable right away, and make course corrections immediately. Run your business of debt, you rationalize things like you "have to" pay for ads upfront and invoice in arrears. Then you don't notice you've gone off course until you've gone over the edge.

You have a lot of ideas for things you can do now, and that's great! Find one that is going to be cash flow positive from the beginning. For example, those customer sites you could finish, or that product you could launch? Talk to people and bang on doors until you find someone who will pay you in advance, at least that portion which will be enough to pay for your minimal monthly budget for however long it will take you to get the project done. If your idea is good enough, if someone really wants it, they will pay upfront. If not, that's a signal that you need a better idea, something that your customers actually want. Don't go further into debt so that you can ignore the signal, instead pay attention to the signal.

OK, the 30K in debt that you're in now? Don't worry about it. Pay the minimum payments, and forget about it. Don't go further into debt, but for now don't worry about paying off the debt (aside from the monthly minimums) either. Sooner or later you'll get yourself back on your feet, make some money, and write a check to pay off the 30K. Until then, ignore it.

The CS degree? Don't worry about it. Employers and clients only care about what you can do for them. Now, if you haven't done anything yet, and you have a CS degree, then the CS degree is evidence that you're able to do things. (You at least made it through graduate school, and you're at least fairly smart). But you can show what you've done, and only a tiny, tiny percentage of employers or clients are going to care if you have a CS degree or not, as long as you can show them, as you can, what you can do.

But again, the very first thing to do is to put together you minimum monthly survival budget, and say, "OK. All I need to do, for now, is make this much to survive. I can do that". Once you do that, once you have your survival needs taken care of, then your stress lifts, your creativity comes back, and you will find it easy to start making money again.

Displays content in a smaller, harder to read font than my default.

No button to give feedback "you messed up, I can't read your 'readable' version".

If you do decide to borrow money, you do not need to have built up your credit score. All you need to do is talk to a lender who has the intelligence to look at your actual situation. (As Dave Ramsey likes to put it, a credit score is lending for dummies). To get a mortgage for a house, for example, to qualify for the best rate, all you need is to have paid your rent for two years early or on time, to not to have bad debts, and to find a bank that does manual underwriting. You do not need to have borrowed a dollar before in your life.

A VISA debit card will give you exactly the same level of protection against theft and fraud as a credit card will. Look it up on their web site.

There are a few minor inconveniences to not having a credit score. For example, yes, I did have an insurance company initially want to charge me a higher insurance rate because I hadn't "established my credit". But all I had to do was call them up and explain that I didn't have a credit score because I didn't borrow money, and if they didn't give me a good rate I'd go to an insurance company who would look at my actual situation. And they gave me a reasonable rate. A five minute conversation. (If you want to be an entrepreneur, this kind of negotiation is trivial).

So if you don't need to "build your credit", why is everyone you know (and all the comments here on Hacker News) saying you should? Propaganda from the credit card industry is pervasive (their advertising budget, iirc, is second only to the auto industry). They have spent a great deal of money, time, and effort coming up with plausible sounding reasons why you should buy their product (credit), and ensuring that everyone has heard of them.

Your "credit score" is in fact a measure of how much profit you are making for the credit industry.

Maximizing your credit score isn't going to help you, making products or services that people want is what is going to make you successful. Don't spend your time optimizing the wrong thing.

(Though do your actual programming in a more powerful language such as MzScheme if you have any choice).