Ask YC: Starting today, how would you most quickly earn $1M in profit?

14 points by sbraford 15 years ago | 13 comments

I know this is not the typical direction for YC startups. You'd normally want to build an app or service that could eventually generate tens of millions of dollars. But what if you could be satisfied with just one million?

i.e. would it be a new SaaS website, an iPhone app, an Android app, a multiplayer game, or what.

The more details the better, but if you have an idea that you'd like to keep on the downlow, maybe just mention the app/service type. Thanks!

diego 15 years ago |

If you are satisfied with 1M, here are some good bets:

- Take up a high-paying corporate job. I would join a pre-IPO company such as LinkedIn where you'll get a competitive salary, stock options that will likely be in the money and probably a good deal with the employee stock purchase plan.

- Join one promising startup per year as an early employee. Vest enough stock to be over the cliff, exercise your options and leave. This is essentially similar to what an angel investor does, except that you cannot do it in parallel.

- Start a "traditional" business. In the US making $1M in 5-10 years of running many kinds of businesses is pretty straightforward if you're willing to make the effort and can stick to it. I actually did this: my former consulting business made seven figures over four years.

If you want to create a new product or service, 1M is a completely arbitrary number. You should aim to build a business first, and once that's done think about ways to keep growing it until you're satisfied.

veyron 15 years ago |

My parents always told me: If you chase after money, you will never catch it. But if you stop chasing, it will come to you.

In context: You should be focusing on doing what you are good at, and money will come. I crossed the 1M line in finance, but there are many places to go. You would need to give more information about yourself to give a detailed answer.

tebeka 15 years ago |

You start with two million ...

amorphid 15 years ago |

Work hard and show up enough times to get lucky.

bradleyland 15 years ago |

I'd start by asking the right question.

Hint: It is not "how do I most quickly earn $1M in profit".

mdink 15 years ago |

craps table in vegas.

Partly joking here, I too think this is the wrong type of question to ask. So many times I get approached from people who have the next facebook/twitter/fucking-annoying-I-know nothing idea.. do they ever mention the implementation details? No. It's always about going viral and making millions. What do you end up with? Something as spammy as "honestly.com"

Seriously just find an interesting problem to solve, solve it well and see how you can expand on it. The money will come when you aren't focused on it!

rhizome 15 years ago |

not really a fan of all of these "magic bullet" posts lately. everything you mention can be turned into a real business, do some homework first before asking for the time and thoughts of people who have their own lives.

i guess my first piece of advice would be to stop being lazy. nothing you mention will come before that.

nhoss2 15 years ago |

well doesn't some of those iOS developers make a huge amount of money when their app somehow makes it to the top 25 or something and then get featured? Just have a fantastic idea for anything, an app or website or whatever and soon enough if your lucky you might make that random number of one million.

DrJ 15 years ago |

make 100 apps that rakes in 1000 per month and have it run for 10 months each. From the last $$$ post this seems to be the easiest method.

gorbachev 15 years ago |

Sell drugs.

ddemchuk 15 years ago |

Promote the latest affiliate offers with large media buys on demographically targeted high traffic volume niche sites.

CamperBob 15 years ago |

Start my own religion.

No, really.

IanMikutel 15 years ago | |

So does Kevin Rose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLyFUyZJ5ek&feature=youtu...