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Tell HN: 1k MRR is not 1k salary

22 points by artembugara ↗ HN
My 2 cents to [1] and [2]

Let's talk about risk-reward.

I used to have a 6 digits job in tech. I've quit to start my own company. We're >1k MRR, my salary is $0/mo.

First, making money from your product/service is much more difficult than making money selling your time. So, I would agree that 1k MRR is an amazing achievement. Moreover, I hardly doubt that even 80% of top notch devs from SV can achieve 1k MRR working on a product from 0.

Second, I do realize that every day that I do not work for FAANG I lose money (by not being paid a salary). Still, I also understand that I have a chance to build 1B$ ARR company. I have a chance to start making much more than what I could working for someone. This chance is tiny but it exists.

Third, product's MRR and salary are different things. You might read this text having a $250k/mo salary while your company is doing bad. You're still paid your salary while your company is loosing millions every month. Does this mean you are a bad employe? Of course not.

Salary is not MRR.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25036526 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25047838

16 comments

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ezekg
Truth. When first starting out I always had the thought "OK, I'll go full-time once I hit $2k MRR", or 3k MRR, or 4k, "that'll be enough", but once I'd hit that mark, I'd realized I just couldn't do it because as my MRR grew my costs followed. I had to hit $8k MRR to be able to go full-time on my business, and even then that was taking a 60% pay-cut and a big leap of faith.
bxk1
With $1k MRR you can move to many cheap countries in the world and live there comfortably while working on your product, service, whatever it is you are offering. You can't do that with a regular job.
bot41
How if your salary from that is 0?
stevekemp
$1k MRR means you get $1000/month revenue, but if your costs are $900/month you're not going to be living anywhere with that money!

(And that's obviously ignoring other costs, which might not be monthly. e.g. supplies, hardware, domain-name registration, etc.)

Of course the hope is that costs fall, and don't scale linearly with revenue. Allowing actual profit in the future.

draw_down
> Moreover, I hardly doubt that even 80% of top notch devs from SV can achieve 1k MRR working on a product from 0.

Sure. And I’d hardly call myself top notch, so no doubt I’d be unable to achieve that.

Thing is I have no interest in doing that, partly because as it turns out I need quite a bit more than a thousand dollars in a month, and partly because I don’t like doing hard shit. Guess I’m just crazy like that. So it’s fortunate for me that I can make quite a bit more than that, with less risk and less effort, and a whole lot fewer sleepless nights.

quickthrower2
That’s understandable. I also understand why people want to make a side income. For all the hard work and small pay checks in the beginning, it’s worth it to have a business in the end. There is no guarantee though and I think putting in work into something with no pay and no guarantee of success is just not compatible with most people. It require some degree of craziness!
quickthrower2
When did working for FAANG become some sort of baseline normal thing to compare anything else you do to?
[dead] scott31
We are on hacker news, where median income is about $400k
Jugurtha
I think the original poster was communicating they were aware of the opportunity cost given they had such a job. I don't think the message was that it was a baseline normal thing, just their previous circumstance.
krishnanvs
Yup. For bootstrapped product firms, the founders really have to expect 2-3 years at the minimum before even thinking about paying themselves half of the baseline salaries( SF or NYC ) that they were getting during their employment years. Have personally seen so many of my peers getting burned out both professionally and personally with unrealistic expectations and quitting the software industry completely.

Tech people tend to underestimate costs associated with running a business. Hosting, marketing, sales, salaries, rent. 1k MRR is a great milestone but yes it really is $0 in salary for founders.

shoo
Yup, re: the third point, in essentially every business, owner-operator's profit will be a lot less than revenue.

For an arbitrary example, here are some numbers of a tiny public company that's been operating for over 30 years: $75m annual revenue, about half of which is recurring software subscription revenue. The net profit for the shareholders of the company after tax is $8m, so about 10% of revenue. Of the 90% of expenses, the C-suite and board are collectively getting paid around $2.7m, so call it 4% of revenue.

textread
I would love to dig deeper and see the SEC filing for this example. If possible, would you please name this publicly traded company?
seanwilson
> Second, I do realize that every day that I do not work for FAANG I lose money (by not being paid a salary).

You could argue you're losing money being on Hacker News, sleeping more, cooking, talking to a friend, watching a movie etc.

Life isn't all about money. Some people are happier with the freedoms they get running their own business compared to e.g. making more money working 9 to 5 with less freedom on what they work on, how they work on it and when.

2rsf
Not only that, working for FAANG might harm your mental and physical health due to stress, causing you to stop working earlier hence lose money
javajosh
It's a spicier life, but not necessarily a better one. Some people really need that sense of risk, of adventure to be happy. But most people seem to just want convenience, comfort, and predictable routine.