
Why I Sold My Company and Didn't Tell Anyone for a Year - superamit
http://amitgupta.com/something-happened
======
oddevan
Thanks for sharing. My wife is a big photography enthusiast, and I think we
may have both applied to work for Photojojo in the past. :) Anyway, I wanted
to say that I am incredibly impressed by this. It's not every day that I hear
the story of someone setting out to build a sustainable company^; and, from
what limited perspective I have, you seem to have succeeded.

Bravo, sir; bravo. I wish you all the best.

^edit: So I'm not misinterpreted here, by "sustainable company" I mean one
whose goal is to grow slowly and profitably on its own, not quickly in hopes
of an IPO or acquisition. Those companies have their place, and it's a good
place. I just like to hear the other stories too.

~~~
superamit
Thanks for the kind words, Evan. Glad to hear you guys are fans of Photojojo
(and photography)!

------
bjwbell
Amit's probability of death
[http://tumblr.amitgupta.com/post/85539436331/filed-under-
tab...](http://tumblr.amitgupta.com/post/85539436331/filed-under-tabs-i-keep-
open-in-my-browser) He's at about year 3 which looks a LOT better than the
earlier years.

------
FrankenPC
Congrats for making it through the valley of death unscathed. When I finish a
massive project I descend into depression for months. I can't move. Then, I
come out and am ready to give birth to the next great idea.

Frankly, you landed that plane so gracefully that I'm in awe. You're an
inspiration to me.

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srameshc
Congrats & Great story ! This level of passion is probably required to start
and run a company.

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cekanoni
Life has a lot of battles, and you just won one of the biggest. :)

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jasonmp85
Maybe I missed something in this article, but did the employees know? Or did
they essentially get their labor sold off to another boss a year ago and were
none the wiser? Can such a thing even be done, legally speaking (maybe if the
poster were the sole owner)?

Is it literally true that he didn't tell _anyone_ for a year?

~~~
superamit
By anyone I meant the general public. Everyone at Photojojo knew as soon as
the deal was finalized.

~~~
jasonmp85
Understood! Sorry, my programmer-brain took those words pretty literally.
Great story, by the way, and I've always loved Photojojo (and think companies
like e.g. Pinterest have a lot to thank it for in the design department).

------
phreanix
Glad to see you alive, battling, and bucketlisting, Amit. As a huge fan of
Photojojo (considered applying a few times even), I am happy see that it will
be in capable hands that you trust.

Make every second count and leave that shutter wide open. :)

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thatguyhughesy
Great read, thanks for sharing and best of luck with all your future
endeavours!

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gjkood
Congrats and thanks for sharing Amit.

Glad you have a bucket list and are ticking off items in there. Hope you have
the time to get them completed.

You only have one life. Make it count. Tomorrow may never come. Take care of
yourself and your family first. Don't keep important things pending if you can
help it. Don't leave home in a bad mood or saying things to your SO that you
will regret if you don't get the opportunity to remedy.

Also, try and take life insurance when you are young, healthy and are not
assailed by chronic ailments. Your family will appreciate the security that
you provide after you are gone.

When we are young, we feel invincible and forget the long range picture.

Sorry to sound morbid.

Peace.

~~~
gluecode
I know you!

Gluecode.

~~~
gjkood
Thats an understatement SK :).

------
ninebrows
Often lately, I have been hearing many people suffering from cancer especially
in US. What might be the reason for this? Why are so many people in US
affected by cancer?

~~~
__z
1) People aren't dying of other stuff. Stuff that used to cause massive
amounts of death just isn't as likely anymore. Infections are now routinely
cured with antibiotics. Vaccines prevent deadly disease. Hygiene and health
and safety standards across the board reduce death from other causes
dramatically - there has been an increase in laws regarding health and safety
in every facet of life.

People are living longer. The older you are the more likely you are to have
cancer. It is hypothesized that given enough time everyone develops some kind
of cancer even if microscopic (more on that later)

Automobile fatalities (the thing most likely to kill young adults) are down
dramatically. This is due to safer cars and a decrease of things like DUIs due
to public awareness and a huge increase in prosecution. My grandpa told me in
the 70s police would routinely pull him over, see he was drunk, and tell him
just to go home. New safety features are required almost every year on
automobiles. People take infant car seats very seriously nowadays. When I was
a kid as soon as I could sit upright by myself I was out of the car seat.

2)There's not a lot we don't know about cancer still. We know that it is a
combination of genes and environment that cause it and there are things you
can do to lessen your likelihood of getting it such as not smoking... but
overall we haven't done a whole lot to prevent most types of cancer and still
have a lot to go in completely understanding it. Which specific genes and
which specific environmental factors are still somewhat of a mystery, I mean
we know some stuff but still not enough. Some types like cervical cancer are
largely (but not completely) preventable with routine pap tests but that's the
exception.

3) Increased screening leads to an increase in detection of benign and
asymptomatic cancer. This turns people into cancer patients who wouldn't have
otherwise been cancer patients without screening. This is kinda a new thing.
We used to believe that cancer runs one course - that it started at stage 1
and grew continuously until it spread all over your body and killed you - so
catching cancer while it is small and treatable will prevent it from spreading
and becoming deadly. We are learning from experience that isn't _always_ the
case, some can develop so slowly that there's no way it will cause problems in
your lifetime. Take prostate cancer for example - the PSA test is a blood test
that was developed to detect asymptomatic prostate cancer. The PSA test is no
longer recommended because it lead to an increase in cancer diagnoses but a
very modest corresponding decrease in cancer related deaths. That tells us
that _some_ men who would be diagnosed with prostate cancer if they had the
PSA test wouldn't ever be diagnosed without it. Routine mammograms have
detected thousands more very early stage cancer (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)
than ever before. The numbers tell us some of these new diagnoses wouldn't
have progressed (and maybe would have regressed). Everything requires
treatment though because we don't know which small tumor will become deadly
and which one won't. More info on this is here:
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-
atul-g...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-atul-gawande)

>we’ve assumed, he says, that cancers are all like rabbits that you want to
catch before they escape the barnyard pen. But some are more like birds—the
most aggressive cancers have already taken flight before you can discover
them, which is why some people still die from cancer, despite early detection.
And lots are more like turtles. They aren’t going anywhere. Removing them
won’t make any difference.

>Over the past two decades, we’ve tripled the number of thyroid cancers we
detect and remove in the United States, but we haven’t reduced the death rate
at all. In South Korea, widespread ultrasound screening has led to a fifteen-
fold increase in detection of small thyroid cancers. Thyroid cancer is now the
No. 1 cancer diagnosed and treated in that country. But, as Welch points out,
the death rate hasn’t dropped one iota there, either. (Meanwhile, the number
of people with permanent complications from thyroid surgery has skyrocketed.)
It’s all over-diagnosis. We’re just catching turtles.

The other thing is you may just be hearing about it more or it might just be
talked about more than it used to be.

~~~
shostack
Your third point is really interesting. Personally, I'd love to know if I had
cancer one way or another. Even if the advice was "let's watch this, and it
may not turn into anything" the mere fact that it is known to exist can make
sure my doctor is monitoring everything they can to do their best to get ahead
of things if it starts going down a bad path.

I'd rather have the knowledge than not, but I know that doesn't always make
sense from a large statistical POV.

Simply knowing you have a certain type of cancer though could also prevent
misdiagnosis for other things with similar/related symptoms. Beyond that, if I
knew I had a certain type of cancer, you can bet your ass I'd do whatever my
doctor recommended to reduce my risk for the future. So it could be a great
way to convince people to live a healthier lifestyle (albeit out of fear)
which I'd be willing to bet would cause them to live longer potentially than
if they had not made lifestyle changes.

~~~
__z
You would think you would _want_ to know but that leads to a lot of
overtreatment which is not only bad for you personally it is bad for everyone
because it raises healthcare costs.

>So it could be a great way to convince people to live a healthier lifestyle
(albeit out of fear)

That fear can't be discounted. Anxiety leads people to have symptoms of
anxiety - which are very significant from a medical point of view and a
quality of life point of view.

Take a look here:

[https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-skeptical-look-at-
scr...](https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-skeptical-look-at-screening-
tests/)

>Another doctor wrote about the opposite experience: his patient had insisted
on testing. He was diagnosed with low-grade localized cancer, the kind that
can be observed without treating. But he couldn’t face living with the
knowledge that he was harboring an untreated cancer. He was afraid of surgery
and opted for radiation treatment. He developed radiation proctitis and had
rectal pain and bleeding for years. He became impotent and lost bladder
control. He told his doctor he would rather be dead than live wearing adult
diapers.

>Prostate cancer is very common but isn’t always harmful. It is found in 80%
of autopsies where the men died of something else. Many more men die with
prostate cancer than because of it.

------
sqeaky
Congrats!

Giant font is giant. Is this some kind of style decision I am unaware of. It
is hard to read unless the window is maximized. What is mobile experience
like?

~~~
bigmonato
It's great to read on a 30" work monitor :-).

------
ohitsdom
Congrats, and good read.

Off-topic: referring to the business as "she" comes across as very weird to
me. Is this common? I know some women can find that offensive.

~~~
superamit
re: Gender-specific pronouns for inanimates - English is weird. It sounds
right to my ear as "she", but the opposite to others. Historically if a gender
is required, male is used, but some find that offensive. On the other hand,
certain inanimate objects (countries, vehicles of many kinds) are referred to
as "she" simply because of tradition.

My girlfriend is learning a little Hindi right now and she finds it maddening
that nouns are gendered male or female seemingly at random. I can tell her
which is which, but as far as I know there's no system. Some are just male,
some are female.

Anyway, "it" sounded weird in that sentence. I should have just rewritten it.
:)

~~~
bbgm
I grew up in India (admittedly in an English-speaking household), and even
today I get my genders mixed up all the time. It makes no sense whatsoever.

------
par
The amount of times you refer to the business as 'she' or 'her' is a bit off
putting to me.

~~~
FrankenPC
He's hetero and women are the object of his intimate love. It's natural for
him to attach female gender to the focal points of his love. In other words,
if you respect LGBT rights, you also have to respect hetero rights. Not making
a political stance here. Just stating the obvious IMO.

~~~
rudolf0
A woman referring to a company as "he" or "him" is just as weird, in my
opinion. This isn't a gender issue, it's an anthropomorphizing issue.

~~~
justathrow2k
Welcome to the English language. Enjoy your stay.

