
Haven't got paid for almost 1 year.  Laptop, passport, months of code got stolen - treenyc
I never thought I would post this on HN, but at this point I thought why not.<p>I have being a web developer for over 14 years.  I am good at what I do, and I have being working for a startup that hasn&#x27;t paid me in almost 1 year.<p>The CEO is wonderful, I think the business is very profitable in the long run, just have no cash right now.  2 weeks ago someone broke into my friend&#x27;s place and stole my macbook pro, ipad, a lot of euros in cash, and my passport.<p>The laptop also has a lot of code that I didn&#x27;t back up.  Those were the code I was going to release for the startup to get paid.  We were going to a credit card process&#x2F;revenue sharing model going on.<p>Right now, I am stuck in Denmark, no Passport,  very little money, and no laptop.  The startup definitely has no cash to pay for anything.<p>I have started teaching donation based Yoga at Art Academy and Lindy Hop classes to get some extra cash.<p>I am not too bother by the event, but it would be nice to have a working macbook pro 15&#x27; to restore my time machine backup and some extra cash flow at the moment.<p>Any suggestions welcome.<p>If you are in Aarhus and want to attend some good yoga class.<p>Every Thursday 19:00 at
DJK ( DJK Det Jyske Kunstakademi  ) http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.djk.nu<p>Mejlgade 32-34 &#x2F; DK-8000 Århus C<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;H3HcR4V
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talmir
This stinks a little bit.

A web developer for 14 years? And you havent backed up your code in months?

I am not saying the story is false. I'm just saying that if your income
depends on your code, back it up frequently.

Also, how do you know the startup is going to be profitable in the long run?
Because the CEO who's getting you to work for him for free says so? What have
you been doing for cash the past year?

~~~
treenyc
savings purely saving. see my comments above about backup.

------
kintamanimatt
This really, really sucks.

If you have little to no cash, you've been robbed, and you've not been paid
for a year, you have to start thinking about self preservation. If you've lost
your work too this project is going to be inevitably and dramatically delayed
-- any payday from this start-up is far out into the future now. You don't
need me to tell you you're on the verge of a bad situation. (How are you
paying rent if you have no money, btw?)

I have no idea how donation-based classes will work out, but you should act
pragmatically and cut back your time spent with this start-up so you have time
to focus on other things, lest you starve. This is the reasonable course you
should take right now.

(On a side note: it bothers me that you've been working unpaid for a year for
someone else's literally bankrupt business.)

Freelance, get a McJob, claim some sort of welfare if you're eligible -- do
whatever you have to do to keep yourself afloat. Businesses, especially start-
ups are risky things, and while this may work out fantastically in the long
term there will be no long term if you don't take care of the short term.

Take care of the other issues, like getting a police report now. You'll
probably need that to report your passport stolen, so really, do this
immediately! I'm going to guess you don't have contents insurance, but if you
do, claim also.

Edit: if you're living off savings as you've mentioned elsewhere, why was your
money in cash rather than in a bank account?

~~~
contextual
Let's keep in mind that entrepreneurs are dreamers, delusional even. We take
incredible risks and are willing to suffer to create something we can be proud
of.

To wit: I once worked so obsessively on a project I forgot about making money
for rent. That's right, my mind was in a constant deep flow state for weeks on
end, and rent (among other things like exercise and socializing) slipped my
mind.

I ended up losing my apartment and being forced to sleep in a friend's
basement for a month.

~~~
kintamanimatt
I completely can understand that. We entrepreneurs have such an irrational and
excessive belief in our own future prospects that we tend to discount the
present, often to our own detriment. I know I've gone down this path before
myself which is why I'm giving the advice I'm giving.

OP must take care of today, as unsexy as it is, for the long-term to be a
possibility. It's a case of one career paying for the other until the second
is all that's required.

------
mattwritescode
Are you one of these developers who have been developing for 14 years and is
turning 17 next week?

I would recommend you cut your loses and run for the hills. Get a nice
developer job for a company which can pay bills, offers a free laptop and can
pay for source control.

(The question i have to ask is why not back the code up at lease in dropbox or
bitbucket which offers free accounts?)

~~~
treenyc
yeah, I got lazy for a moment and didn't bother to do it. My time machine may
have a more recent backup but not sure til I restore it.

I wasn't aware of the free accounts. And there contain some sensitive data
which I didn't want to put in dropbox.

------
gexla
So, this start-up has been developing code for a year without releasing
anything. Has no money. Is relying at least partially on a developer who has
been on the edge of disaster with no payment from this project for a year.

Sounds like a recipe for a disaster to me. If you can't get to your code then
I assume that sets the start-up even further back.

How do you know the start-up could be successful? There is no way to tell
until you start trying to pick up paying users and get something out into the
wild. Until then, it's just one person blindly trusting another.

The bottom line here seems to be that you aren't really bothered and the
Macbook would give you extra cash. You have already been making cash from
other sources. So, what are you asking for? New students for your classes?
Someone to lend you a Macbook Pro? This probably isn't the best place to ask.

------
treenyc
Hey guys, this really happened. I am trying to keep it private because I donät
want to tell the name of the company, because I donät think the owner would
like others to know.

Donation is appricated, but I would have to setup a bitcoin account. I also
have a strip account.

But the most imporant thing is if you are in Aarhus or Denmark have a mac book
pro 15 inch, and donät mind me restore my time machine backup on it to get
some of my files back that will be great!!

I can come to you with my hard drive and you can watch me as I do my work.

~~~
treenyc
Indeed. It is also very interesting to see how I get offend by how people
think this is a scam, where for me it is just what just happened.

I am going to fine with or without anyone's help. It is also interesting to
see what kind of community it is here.

------
treenyc
Hey guys,

I wonät be able to tell you the name of the company till I reach some kind of
agreement with the CEO.

If you want to donat I just created a bitcoin accountÖ

1GUDbTJv7PuwDJDR4y2pHiY8ggyGnXbEx2

I really appricated it!

I also have a Danish bank account and an American Account, but not sure if I
want to post that here.

I can try to open a paypal account, but not sure if I can.

I am happy to give you guys the police report number if you PM me (can you do
that on hacker news?)

~~~
treenyc
I am also perfectly ok with pay you back the money once I get paid from the
company. And I really DONÄT know when that will be.

------
300bps
_I am good at what I do...The laptop also has a lot of code that I didn 't
back up._

I wish you the best of luck but these two sentences aren't really compatible.

Other than advertising your yoga class what are you trying to get by posting
here? These types of hard luck posts come up on reddit hundreds of times per
day and are often exposed as scams to get donations.

~~~
treenyc
you are right, I should have backed it up, but the owner forgot to pay the
bill on the backup server. So the only backup is on my time machine. Which
means I need a laptop with similar configuration to restore. And right now no
one is willing let me erase their mac book pro to restore backup.

I did not intended to be a advertisement, but I thought if you are in Aarhus
then why not. It would nice to meet some local programeer. I donät read
reddit, facebook or twitter.

~~~
kintamanimatt
> forgot to pay the bill on the backup server

I'm not sure I believe the "owner" is telling the truth. If he forget to pay
the bill (why isn't it a credit card recurring subscription?), or the credit
card failed due to insufficient funds, then he would have received multiple
emails warning of service termination.

Why aren't you backing up your code to private repositories, ones that can be
had for free from bitbucket.org? Even Dropbox would have been a good
alternative, although you might want to encrypt anything sensitive!

If you're telling the truth, I'm certain you need to walk away from this
sketchy owner and this bankrupt startup.

~~~
treenyc
yeah, I think that is a honest mistake, we both emailed the service provider,
they are still invistigaging why she didnät get an email alert

~~~
kintamanimatt
Be suspicious of this owner. She sounds like a shambles at the very least, and
possibly even dishonest.

------
kfk
I lived up there for a year and half, how are things going in the city? Still
no people on the street after 8pm?

If you are a EU citizen, it is easy, just get one of those manual jobs with
the temp agency. It's paid 10 EUR/hr, it is enough to live a comfortable life
there and you only need to work 2 or 3 days per week.

~~~
hellerbarde
4 weeks * 2-3 days * 8 h * 10€/h = 640-960€ is enough to live comfortably in
Denmark? With rent and everything?

~~~
svennek
As a dane, no 1000 € is nowhere close to being alive "comfortably" ...

It is slightly higher than "kontanthjælpen", a last-ditch governmental grant
to keep you alive (where you are also entitled to a lot of rebates (childcare,
and stuff)) and special purpose grants to make ends meet

An unskilled worker earns about 2300€/month and that is not even close to
comfortably.. Median income (still not comfortable) is 3500€/month

A confortable one is probably bigger than 5000€/month..

Denmark is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in...
(especially in the four major Citites (Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg)

~~~
treenyc
I know!! My friends are wonderful here. I have also learn how to dumpster
dive. So no food problem at the moment.

------
revolly
Hey!

Try to restore your work using your friend's computer. Here I dig up some info
about this: [http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/44803/restore-
from-...](http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/44803/restore-from-time-
machine-without-a-mac). Good luck!

~~~
treenyc
hey, I'll try that, but I got the feeling since my HD is encrypted. I can only
do it by restoring. I may try to get a 2.5 1TB HD here in denmark. Anyone know
a cheap place where I can get that? I know everything is expensive here.

------
alexhawdon
I don't want to sound abrasive, but if you are a developer of 14 years'
standing then why not list your skills and experience and ask if anyone has
any actual paid work they could send your way before soliciting for donations?

~~~
treenyc
Sorry, my roommate need his computer back. I'll type what I can do once I get
to a computer. on my phone now.

------
benrmatthews
However this thread plays out, will be interesting to see how the HN community
responds. Suspect most see this thread as spam/fraud, but interesting to see
people taking the OP seriously and giving advice to try and help.

------
lauremerlin
You might check couchsurfing.org for generally helpful folks in your place.
And definitely Denmark is a welfare state, do check out the many helps. Good
luck!

~~~
treenyc
hey thanks lauremerlin, I have a place to stay right now thanks for my good
danish friends. They even got me a 600 DKK laptop running linux, but it burn
out yesterday.

------
mattwritescode
Such a spam story

------
pyalot2
1) Always source revision your code, free private repos are available at
bitbucket.

2) Never work without compensation

3) Preferably make a contract

4) Agree to incremental delivery or milestones

5) Prepare regular invoices

6) Follow up on outstanding invoices

7) be strict about getting paid, on time, or fire the client

You may be good at what you do, but that doesn't help if you screw up the
business part of freelancing.

~~~
treenyc
Hey thanks a lot Pyalot. We do have a contract, and the owner really knows
about it. The cash just have to pay for some urgent expenses at the moment.

Yeah, it was my fault for not git push origin after the backup server was
restored.

But the shutdown introduced a few problem in the work flow, and I just got
lazy and didnät do the system admin stuff and just kept on programming. A
lesson well learned.

------
contextual
Do you have a PayPal account people can send money to, like an email address
or a link to donate?

~~~
kintamanimatt
This story is setting off some alarm bells for me so I'd be wary of forking
over anything more than advice right now.

~~~
contextual
Why on _earth_ would you discourage others from helping because _you_ are
suspicious. Like I said earlier, I believe this person because similar
experiences have happened to me.

Never, _never_ try and stop people from trying to do good. I would rather be
scammed than be complacent.

~~~
kintamanimatt
Whoa! There are a ton of pity scams online and there are other people in this
thread that are suspicious too. It's your prerogative what you do with your
money but certain things about the post just make me feel off. I might be
right, or I might be wrong.

I'd never knowingly try to stop someone from doing good, but by the same
token, warning that this might be a scam is prudent.

