Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
$100k in One Month Challenge: Help YC News!
11 points by andrew_yates on Oct 8, 2007 | hide | past | favorite | 40 comments
Here's the deal:

I met this guy, Paul Charlton (http://www.linkedin.com/in/techguru), at a SuperHappyDevHouse party (http://superhappydevhouse.org/).

Long story short, I'm now "Director of Ventures" at Ventures by ByIQ. I'm 23.

While the fund is being raised (probably about 10MM), my first task is to "earn $100k in one month."

There's no catch, no reward, and no consequence. Just do it and win, or don't do it and fail.

The conditions are:

- 100k profit. Donations are OK, too.

- Selling equity doesn't count towards the goal. Neither does equity valuation of any ventures.

- 100k must be cash equivalent, US dollar.

BUT there IS a loophole. I don't have to earn the 100k myself. I merely have to be "responsible" for creating it.

That means I can get help. From you.

So how about it, YC News?

This is a concrete goal and it's the right kick to actually get your business started beyond just "thinking about it." I have a big plan to make this happen, but I'll need good brains on keyboards. If you don't have an idea but have skills, that's fine.

Our base of operations is at my office at in Mountain View (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q...)

Oh, and it starts NOON tomorrow (10/8/07 @ 12:00 PST).

There is a meeting at Neto Cafe (http://www.netocaffe.com/) on Castro in Mountain View noon tomorrow (Monday) for those interested. RSVP here or just show up.

UPDATE =================

I can spot up to $3k for expenses this month per person if you qualify.

UPDATE =================

You keep your own money.

Think "Profit Pledge Drive." You keep your own profits, but you do have to create them with something that you do within the space of the month. It's the spirit of the thing that matters.

Do you log the time you walked to the store in a "walk for cancer research" pledge drive?

My personal motivation is to simply see this happen for the hell of it. The company motivation is obviously to gather ambitious and intelligent people, which is significantly more expensive and difficult than spotting a few business expenses to try a few ideas.



Will giving you a bunch of money allow me to "Work at HOME! and earn $5000 a week!"?

Jokes aside... Can you elaborate on just what "this" and "it" is? Cause "this and "it" sound like giving your company money without provisions so that you can continue to remain in its employ.

Superfluous disclosure: I have no idea if I speak for anyone else here.


Haha, good point.

You keep your own money.

Think "walk miles for cancer research" drive. The catch is that what creates the profit needs to be made / done this month. It's against the spirit of the contest to log income from elsewhere.

Also, this has nothing to do with my employment, nor are you giving me or my company anything. It's merely a "profit pledge drive." Self reported.

BUT: something like this, in such a short time, is best done collaboratively. That's the objective. It's a goal, and nothing more or less.

Edit: see update.


The $987,345,897,349,875 question is...

<ultra bold>What, PRECISELY, is it that you want the members of this community to do?</ultra bold>

- Write code for you? - Write a check to you? - Let you invest in our startups and liquidate by the end of the month?

The X-Men should bring you on as a cofounder for your keen ability to stump people with your being vague. This may cause problems for Professor, though, because he'd then have nothing to read.


Seems like it involves making money in whatever we want and pledging this money to Andrew Yates's venture "in spirit" and he needs to get 100k worth of profit pledges. I think it has to be money that would have not been made if it wasn't for the challenge, but this point seems unclear.

He is apparently offering 3k to people that are willing to work at this under his direction. I would probably take him up on the offer but I'm on the other side of the USA and only have fake hacking skills.


Pledge profits "in spirit" in a collaborative effort to actually build something that makes money.


It was just kind of confusing because this type of challenge was new to all of us, like I imagine it was to you as well. Good luck with your new job, I'm sure it will be an interesting VC firm.

This is of course very bubble-tastic but there is a lot of money in popular Facebook apps. I saw an app for "Fans of Grey's Anatomy" that had 100,000 active users yesterday, there is definitely money in reproducing fan sites for popular TV shows and bands and movies as Facebook applications.


I'd love some numbers on that:

Does 'active users' actually equate to profit? I hear clickthrough rates for advertising on facebook is something like 0.05% If 100,000 users were active, that would equate to 50 clicks on adverts, which is probably going to make enough money to buy a coffee or something.


http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=58193

Apparently the advertising clickthrough rates are better in the apps, possibly because a lot of facebook app advertisements are paid ads for other apps.


Haha, yes, deliciously bubble-tastic.

Also, "VC firm" means something else that we're not doing. This is an angel fund run by bored geeks in silicon valley. That's it.


Does the money have to be freshly generated revenue (on top of either a $0 starting amount or $X existing revenue).

i.e. I have a business that generates $5k per month, saying you can use that towards your goal "in spirit" is pretty silly, right?

BTW have you heard of Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment? http://www.stevepavlina.com/million-dollar-experiment.htm

This sounds a bit like it only for startups.


Count the profit difference from changes you made in your business.

Million Dollar Experiment: I haven't heard of this, but you're exactly right. I'm glad I core dumped this idea here first. Wow, risk is hard in practice as a tech guy.


Ok. I'll pledge mine.

It would be nice to have some kind of buddy system to help encourage one another and share strategies / techniques.

Current profit: ~ $3k between my various businesses.


Step One: Hold the meeting somewhere other than Neto Cafe. Put the money saved by not buying $13 salads toward your $100k.

Why is it that googling for "ByIQ" doesn't turn up any useful hits?


www.byiq.com

The DNS will be resolved by sometime Monday.


God damn, this is the most incoherent crap I've read in a long while. Can we get a downmod arrow?


But this is supported by Paul Charlton who has lots of connections on Linked-In and is in the 'Who's Who of Who's Who' !


I'm not sure I understand, but it sounds interesting, you talked about giving people money, and I think I'd be a candidate, so maybe you can help me with an example :) Actually, this might even be the best way for you to illustrate to everyone, so if you can make some kind of canonical statement, it'd be awesome -- the rest of what's written is kinda scattered.

I've been building something in my spare time for the last few weeks, and it could be making money in the next month. (It sounds like that's what you're looking for.) So... what would happen now, exactly? It sounds like all you want me to do is email you some proof of profit at the end of the month or something, is that right? You talked about spotting expenses, how would we arrange that?


Can you post an email address? If you have one on your user page, it doesn't show up publicly which is a "feature", you need to retype in the about area of your profile page. Or email me at the address in my profile.


My email is andrew.yates@byiq.com.

Thanks for the tip.


Just a minor nitpick:

There should probably be a comma between "Help" and "YC News".


Clarification: Pledge profits "in spirit" in a collaborative effort to actually build something that makes money.

If it can be done for hacking projects, it can be done for business.


Let me get this straight. You want a startup to go from $0 to $100,000 in revenues in thirty days and prove it to you guys, in exchange for funding?


He wants n number of people to go from 0 to $100,000 in profit in exchange for nothing explicit except a mention of paid living expenses, though I imagine an investor relationship could certainly develop.


Does it have to be legal?


Does it have to be run where it'd be illegal?


No. ;)


Yes.


My 2c: At best, this is a prank. Nothing adds up, including the LinkedIn link. If andrew_yates were serious, he would have explained things in a simpler manner.


I'm in a hurry. I'm making this up as I go. I'm in the luck business of diversifying risk over lots of stupid ideas very quickly.


"I'm in a hurry. I'm making this up as I go. I'm in the luck business of diversifying risk over lots of stupid ideas very quickly."

That sentence says volumes, both about you and the organization you're representing.


Then again, if startup founders knew exactly what they were doing all the time that would be a counter to innovation, which is a function of adaptation and serendipity.

He knows where he is starting and where is going but not the journey inbetween. I think thats pretty fair. Give him time.


We can help him in discovering the journey.

1. It is quite similar to Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment.

2. My interpretation is that this is a sort of a "club" where anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and work on their own or in ad hoc collaborations to increase the value to the world and as a by product report their earnings so that Andrew Yates can add them to his total as being the trigger for this whole thing. This is like the butterfly effect in chaos theory or a leadership training in the real world. This month will be fun for the participants and is achievable.

I won't be able to come to the face to face meeting (I'm in Israel) but will participate if there is a website. waiting for byiq.com


http://byiq.com/1m1m/


Oops, did you just add a zero there?

Instead of 100K you're aiming at 1MM?

I'm working on a subscription based web site, I like the challange and this will help me to motivate myself to work extra on making it fast!

Thanks! I like the idea.


Nice bait. I can't wait to hear what the switch is.


That his last name is actually Ponzi.


--Grabs a cup of coffee and joins you on the bench--


Do you have any non-human capital for this challenge or does it have to be created from scratch?


"from scratch" is not specified. Part of the challenge, I assume, is not inventing assumptions that don't exist.

I'll see how much capital I can get on short notice. Seed amounts (a few thousand for equipment like PCs and office stuff, base living expenses) I can spot. Office space too, though we're in the process of moving from a small office to a larger one, so I can't spot you a private office this month.

Real capital, what you would need to hire and whatnot... that's a process that takes longer than a month, so it's not immediately applicable. There's no reason not to raise capital, though.


You also seem to be "in the process" of getting a website. Some fund...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: