Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> I’m amazed that you noticed our margins Neil.

Why is that amazing? Isn't it plainly obvious?



I'm surprised that people don't look at financials beyond the top and/or bottom line.


But at that point in the interview you've just mentioned that you made $1-$3 per user, with millions of users active each month, and you were paying 10 cents for a portion of those users. Of course the first thing people are going to is the math and realize there's a lot of money right there.

But back to why I posted my original comment, it was more the condescending tone of the "I'm amazed" part of that sentence. My gut reaction would be: "Why yes, I can multiply in my head and it is amazing, Andrew."

Thanks for your reply though, nice to see you in this discussion.


Wasn't it that they paid $.10 per user, and then, if they converted, got $1-$3? Without knowing the conversion ratio you wouldn't be able to say what the margin was.


Great point. We didn't have 100% conversion.

I kept things simple to explain how the business worked. There were other factors like this at play.

By the way, a big one was fraud. I remember seeing my first washed check. That's where someone took a check our company made out for $25 or so. Washed our ink of it, and rewrote the check for much more money.

Crazy.


Supposedly there are special inks that help with that. But even so checks are hard to control, and the company I worked for switched to paypal for international payments.


If you can't determine profit margins from those two numbers alone, there's something wrong with you. :-)


I hate this phony exuberance. Along with all the "Great question!" openers.

I once had a sales guy say "here's what I'm going to do for you" and I walked out on the spot.

I simply can't deal with unctuous people.


I once heard Michael Milken interviewed by Barbara Walters. Every time he answered a question, he used her name.

I thought, he must do that habitually because it works well in one-on-one conversations, but it comes off obnoxious when you're watching it.

And now I did something similar. Thanks for the feedback.


I found the various commenting on the questions he was asked quite interesting because they were coming from someone who does a lot of interviews.

I didn't take the "Great question" as phony exuberance at all because of that, but that could just be me. Different strokes for different folks I guess.


A touch of salesmanship exuberance.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2027 batch! Applications are open till November 2.

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

Search: