Ask HN: What do you say when people ask how much your company makes?

In America there's an acceptable level of opacity when answering monetary questions. I'd be vague while also communicating information. Unless you're answering legal questions during due diligence, an answer such as "profitable" would work well to communicate your success while remaining private about your worth.

I get that question all the time.. and my answer is always that my start-up is profitable. That means we cover all expenses (excluding salaries, but i don't mention that, it's a start-up!). So, even if we make $10 over the expenses.. we consider ourselves "profitable". And anyway, no-one should be entitled to a more deep answer unless they are seriously thinking to buy/invest. My2cents

Unless I'm discussing it with a mentor or someone else who I -want- to know my revenues, I usually just say "I'm very happy with how things are going".

I always find when startups say they are profitable they may as well say nothing. It is like showing vanity metrics up-to-the-right graphs. Having said that it is pretty tough to answer either way since "no comment" comes across as douche-y. Being completely transparent might not be a good idea either. In conclusion I hesitantly agree with the "we're profitable" crowd.

I don't own a company (yet). But if I were asked, I would probably say "Not enough, that's why I keep working."

I took a business class by the SBA, and while I forgot some of the finer details, the picture was: you shouldn't tell people how much profit you make.