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babul

1,580 karma · joined May 8, 2008

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babul··on How do you generate passive income?
I have been working on my passive income streams for a few years now, in all 3 areas mentioned (and some others), I don't know how much value I can add but here is my real-life $0.02.

PROPERTY: Real estate generates good returns principally because the numbers are large to start with so even modest returns on the investment can be very substantial in real terms. It is low risk if you are sensible and crunch some numbers beforehand (to ensure affordability).

If you buy a good house at a good price (mortgage long-term affordable for you even at low occupancy/yield rates) in a good area you will generally be able to rent it easily at a good return. If the property increases in value, that should be treated as a bonus. Get a few houses in same area and options such as hiring agents to find/manage tenants and maintenance companies to look after the properties become cost effective (though even with many houses on rent I still found it was cheap and easy to manage these myself and still work fulltime, the key is to have a list of good trusted tradesmen willing to do jobs for you when you need them and pay them well (above market rate) for doing a good job – it is cheaper in the long run and property is best played as a long-term game).

Buy near places that always have good and constant footfall and preferably long-term renters e.g. near universities (students will rent 1-2years generally) or centers of commerce (office staff typically rent ~6months but will pay more rent and have less wear-and-tear on your house). Favour long-term tenants on cheaper rents less likely to bother you (usually they will appreciate you charge them less and do most minor DIY jobs themselves, plus you will have more candidates to choose from so can be more selective).

WEB: Websites/Online is far more hit-and-miss and frankly unless you are building a mass-market and scalable product/service, ideally something people want, it does not seem worthwhile to me. For better or worse (generally better), you are already competing on a globalised playing field (with more competition, copycats, lower barriers to entry etc.) and without the captivity intrinsic to property. I am sure many aspire to become the next FaceBook or social-network-thingy but that generally seems hard work and risky (er, Pownce.com?). Focus on a disruptive technology product (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology) making use of new advances as they emerge, ideally combining or converging two or more disciplines, aimed towards a fixed market willing to pay seems a better bet. However, as I gear towards that, I have initially opted for the easy-wins of technically less complex but almost totally automated and revenue generating product-based sites like http://www.sportingglory.com. So far this has been working very well. Once setup, they require less than 4 hours per week combined, and provide long-term passive value without further the need for major enhancement [if they were on a the BCG Matrix, http://www.12manage.com/methods_bcgmatrix.html, they would be cash-calfs ;)]. I am now at the stage I can start having a go at the more adventurous sites/products. Hence, for websites, I would treat them as businesses initially and go for things you know you can build and create revenue from, and convert them into passive streams later in the lifecycle (but you already know that).

INVESTING: Investing (stocks, shares, bonds, savings accounts etc.) has proved to provide constant but modest returns but that is primarily because I am not a risk taker in areas I know little or nothing about and hence have always invested in safe products/funds and stayed away from the stock market. This has by far been the easiest way to make modest amounts of money (4-8% p.a.) for almost zero effort (on my part) as most products can be bought/setup/created in a few hours/days (trackers, bonds, funds) and managed by a fund manager, or minutes (savings), with little more than needing to know what the rough interest rate will be. It is a good way to park cash for a while, especially if you are lazy.

However, given that many of the people with the largest passive incomes on the planet (as well as some of the richest) belong to the world of Finance, I am sure effort spent learning about how to operate and navigate in the Finance world and invest wisely would provide the best forms of passive income I can achieve, but sadly I have no real interest in it.

TRADITIONAL BUSINESSES: Bricks-and-mortar business in conjunction with a partner, and the understanding that later on they will run the daily business while you remain in a supporting role, has provided both the best experiences and passive income I have achieved so far. This works especially well in simple businesses e.g. restaurants/bars, where once things are up and running, they basically run themselves (and they are fun to set up). Eventually even your partner will basically just oversee staff and could run several outlets. If you apply this to several businesses e.g. an estate agents, a law firm, an accounting practice, and a I.T. services company, you unsurprisingly have a series of businesses that literally grow each other, requiring little or no extra time or effort from you.

(OTHERS: I'll save it for another day/thread. Way past my bedtime and it is showing in the writing...)

babul··on How do you generate passive income?
Sounds very Rich Dad, Poor Dad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad,_Poor_Dad, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kiyosaki) et al.

Also, once you have substantial passive income, or have people believing you have substantial passive income, don't forget to write the motivational book, follow-up video/DVD, and talks etc., and milk that passive cash cow.

Infact, mass market brand awareness and brand appeal should be the ultimate aim - if achieved, seems to be an excellent form of substantial passive income these days? Seems to work for celebs, popstars, sports stars, authors, and super-brands alike?

babul··on Poll: Turn off News.YC a few hours a day?
Analogous to the 24hr-licensing debates many countries (especially in Europe) seem to have regarding pub/bar drinking times (aimed at stopping binge-drinking and drink related crime/violence)?

Ultimately they too did not work as they failed to change the culture that creates the (unwanted) behaviour?

babul··on 12 Killer Ways to Make Extra Income On the Web
Most of these seem like wastes of time that are not worth the effort-to-reward ratio unless you start out doing them for fun or as a hobby.
babul··on Ask HN: Impact on sales of using external site for payment processing?
Just a word of caution on PayPal, being as unbiased as I can.

I have had first-hand experience, on behalf of numerous clients, with problems that can arise with PayPal and some of the crazy things PayPal do out of the blue and without reason (see sites like http://www.paypalsucks.com etc. for examples) and always suggest using other methods for anything but low cost products where a chargeback/dispute won't bother you (if you get 2-3 disputes in quick succession, PayPal typically freeze your account and all monies in it for 180 days and even if you jump through all the hoops they set thereafter, will in most cases not unfreeze your account for as long as they possibly can - which is very bad for cash-flow if you are a business).

Although low-cost products and small payments for web-services (which being intangible goods are not covered by PayPal seller protections anyway) may be less likely to incur problems with PayPal (especially chargebacks), mainly due to the buyers/users being less likely to complain over what are trivial or easy to resolve matters (e.g. shipping delays or miscommunication) and being more honest in general when compared to those in higher value transactions, I would always suggest using a merchant account or service such as protx for online payment processing and repeated billing.

These generally provide a better quality of service anyway, and when things go wrong respond faster, follow legal guidelines and regulations, and are more likely to fight for you than PayPal which will just cave-in and return any monies to the buyer/user on even the smallest issues and with almost no recourse to you or consideration of whether it is the right thing to do in the situation. To PayPal, it is about numbers and money and basically it is cheaper and in their interest for them to hand back money (your money, remember, not theirs) to buyers almost without any seller considerations than fight issues, whereas a merchant account has more legislation and obligation to protect you and will infact dispute chargebacks and other complaints if you so request. Also, unlike PayPal, they will not freeze your account or make other major demands that could affect your business, when customer related issues do occur (and eventually one will occur!).

babul··on edw519 & rms Interview with Andrew Warner from Mixergy about Hacker News
It is amazing how listening to people talk can then affect the way you read their comments. It is like you have a better/newfound understanding of the person they are based on their speech pattern, speed, accent, inflections etc.
babul··on Loopt (YC 2005) featured in iPhone TV ad
That is a very cool way to have your product demoed (and reach the mainstream masses).
babul··on Do you read?
I love bookshops that let you do that. Many near me even have in-store cafes, but I do wonder if this is effective in increasing sales or if the coffees subsidise those people who read the book but not buy.
babul··on How to Meet Your Next Cofounder
Thanks. Its still early days yet (<1mth). I am having a go at building one device that can access digital, terrestrial, satellite, and iPTV from one device, with a simple interface and full recording fetures.

I expect to fail (being such a crowded market with big players with deep pockets) ;) but am interested to see how far I can go. It also has a few other features akin to what picwing is doing but for video. Especially nice is the "virtual living room" function that allows no-fuss video conferencing while sharing a video/home-movie.

The forums/feedback sections will be up on the weekend, so I'd really welcome any thoughts insights you may have.

Thanks :)

babul··on How to Meet Your Next Cofounder
Yes, but building it with "be your own customer and everything" in mind, and have yet to see a single device that can recieve and record multi HD streams inc Sky (which in the UK can only be received with thier Sky box, and does not allow recording of programs) etc. etc. all integrated together.

There are many other features not mentioned on the site (yet), the most interesting being the accelerometer remote control for more natural control (akin to Nintendo Wii control). Plus this box is very quiet (no fans, passively cooled via heatpipe to the side fins).

Anyway, your website is down, twitter account rarely updated, so if you are doing something interesting, feel free to email me :-)

babul··on How do you test your web app in the various browsers?
The source code is available at this site too and may interest those wanting a Python based master-worker distributed processing pattern for thier own problems/tasks.
babul··on How to Meet Your Next Cofounder
...but you will have needed to focus and raise your game to get one?
babul··on How to Meet Your Next Cofounder
I have exactly the same thoughts but also think stealth-mode is bullshit.

Having just started on my first tech startup about a month ago, I am trying to go for the "be open and honest about everything" meets "release early, release often" approach on the basis that if the idea is crap, I would rather hear about it earlier and fail quickly (so I can change direction or reset and move on with the next idea).

I am also going with a hardware-based product and am still building the site (what you will see was put together yesterday afternoon as a quick draft as we work through the "presenting the idea" stage of things and refine and streamline the concept), which is very likely to change over the next month which is also a reason I haven't done a "Ask HN: Is my startup crap?" post.

"we're building this http://www.httbox.com, get ready for the storm^"

^hopefully.

babul··on How to Meet Your Next Cofounder
...better still, they should give you a deadline upon which they will throw you out (in a nice way, of course) or charge rent :-)

For most people (atleast that I have observed), becoming independent really focused them and helped raise thier game and productivity^.

Nothing is as motivating as neccessity?

^n.b. not applicable to Putnam winners ;-)

babul··on Weebly (YC winter 07) scores 1 million users, reaches profitability
Doh! For some reason I thought it was $4 per year. Must learn to read properly.
babul··on Tell HN: Our YC Interview Story and Advice
Our interviews went pretty well despite getting absolutely grilled by Pete from Songkick. It was probably one of the sharpest, toughest interviews I’ve ever had.

Pete is such a nice friendly guy it makes me smile thinking of him grilling someone (though, of course, he can). So who was being "good cop"?

babul··on The IntelliJ guys have created a dedicated Ruby IDE.
It is my favourite Java editor, but is expensive compared to the others which are free. However, you get what you pay for.
babul··on Weebly (YC winter 07) scores 1 million users, reaches profitability
Thanks, so using napkin calculation...

(1,000,000 users) x ("well over 1% conversion", we'll call it 4% to be generous) = 40,000 customers x $4 = $160,000 in revenue.

They have 6 people in the team, so allowing modest salary of $50,000 each = $300,000.

So, they must make the bulk of thier money by Adwords (11,000,000 uniques will generate $$$) as I assume the others services offered are not generating much cash yet.

Anyway, it is still a good and sustainable model and well done to them for turning a profit, something so many big(ger) name startups have yet to do.

EDIT: $160,000 x 12 months = $1,920,000. Also, allowing conversion rate of 2% rather than generous 4% = $960,000.

babul··on Using Dropbox to Track Bugs
Redmine (http://www.redmine.org/) is also a good choice (free, fast, easy to setup and use), especially if you want other project management features.

We use it, and are happy with it.

babul··on Ask HN: Suggestions for Mac Laptop
If you are buying a new macbook today, you are right, it does not matter, they will all be fine.

I was thinking about a 13" white macbook my colleague used to use which I thought had a processor that did not have VT support (as not all Intels do http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/chart/coreduo...) as there was an issue about it. But, frankly, it sounds like you are probably right and I have made a mistake or am confused (I won't be 100% sure until I can ask him on Monday, and Google is not doing much to help me other than to show how fast HN is being cached - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&#... returns this page as the top result minutes after these comments!).

So, good call :)

babul··on Twitter/Evan Williams is hiring a "Founder Associate"
Even if twitter fails, you will still have a a network of people/friends/contacts and experience that will be invaluable to you.

Even at employee #25+, given a significant rise in twitters value, you will still do well (e.g. the first employees at other services such as Amazon/Ebay/Paypal/other, which engaged in alternate or disruptive technology in thier time, did very well).

Beside all that, it is much more fun to do things that can fail and walk a differnt path.

babul··on Twitter/Evan Williams is hiring a "Founder Associate"
I don't understand why they have advertised this position given the network of people they know, talent they already have access to, and lists of exceptional that must be referred or apply all the time.

I hope they find that hidden rough diamond. It will be very interesting to see the person that is taken on this position and how they fare.

babul··on Ask HN: Suggestions for Mac Laptop
The cheap one does not have VT support on the CPU which means that virtual machines run much slower than on the CPUs that do have VT where they run at native or near native speeds (depending on the VM software you use).

This becomes particularly important if you want to run a virtual Windows under heavy load or run many virtual machines.

babul··on Codeweavers offer their software free today
or people with less time on thier hands.
babul··on Codeweavers offer their software free today
I never heard of them or the product either until Bob Lee twittered about it http://twitter.com/crazybob/status/978195842 17hrs ago.

I told my friend shortly thereafter (sorry, should have also submitted it to HN in hindsight), who then looked at the site and product features/comparison and costs(http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/), and for the last several hours has been building up a huge repository of serials.

Asking him what he intends to do with all the licenses, he replied "they come with full technical support from the company, so I will ebay each for $1, build up a fantastic ebay profile to market my other products and make $$$".

Most of this is done automatically, from harvesting the serials to automated auction listing and delivery, but none the less it seems extreme to me.

BUT, I guess, that is what being opportunistic and exploiting all the verticals is about. :-/

babul··on Don’t Mistake Ambition for Entitlement
You speak so much sense I wish I could give you more than +1 points.
babul··on My Facebook Interview
With all the institution name dropping, somehow I suspect a weaker candidate from a big(ger) brand name university would be hired over him and his main chance was to measurably prove he was better at programming, which sadly he failed to do. We all have our bad days.

Also, I really dislike the fact that FaceBook have yet to reimburse him, even after having >1year to do so and especially considering they have $MM and he was a student at the time! It reminds me of an interview I had at MXTelecom years ago, a company with ~40 employees that generated >$120M each year, which refused to reimburse interview expenses until "after" the interview process for them (read several weeks) was complete and which never did. Moral of the story: always be clear about payment of expenses before attending interview (especially if you are a student - do not be afraid to clarify and if need be force the matter), and chase up what you are entitled to.

babul··on Ask YC: UK VC and Mentoring
Come to the HN/news.yc meetup in London this Thursday as there will be many hackers and entrepreneurs there who have/had the same problem(s) and can offer detailed first-hand advice and guidance and possibly more e.g. introductions and practical help and finding mentors.

  Hacker Meetups London
  02 Cotober 2008
  Flat 1,
  103 Commercial Street,
  London
  E1 6BG
  (Five minutes walk from Liverpool St tube)
  (Google map: http://is.gd/4zZ)
babul··on Posterous: I went to etc., can I still work for you?
Maybe for today. But what about tomorrow as the product grows and they start to tackle other verticals?
babul··on Posterous: I went to etc., can I still work for you?
When reading that line, I too thought it was somewhat elitist but if you are hiring you want the best talent you can get and more often than not this means people who went to an elite school. Most of the early hires in all the outstanding tech companies followed similar pattern.

However, if you can prove strong or exceptional skill and achievement in whatever you have done tech related, I am sure it won't matter if you went to an elite school or not (and if it does, you probably won't like it there anyway).

For most businesses (startups in particular) that do not have the time or resources to filter candidates, an elite school is a general simple quality filter, but the world is full of examples of people who did not go to school let alone an elite school, from Richard Branson to Dyson to Jobs to the mass of not-so-famous.

Worry not, shine and hopefully you will be noticed.

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