[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Solo founders, what's your got-hit-by-a-bus ...
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       Ask HN: Solo founders, what's your got-hit-by-a-bus strategy?
        
       If you're the sole person in charge of codebase, hosting, support,
       etc. - what sort of measures do you have in place to support your
       users/customers in the event that your life is unexpectedly taken?
       Apologies for the morbid question. I suspect this is a real concern
       that is shared by many solo founders.
        
       Author : herodoturtle
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2022-05-22 19:30 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
       | alvest wrote:
       | Putting your code and documentation into a third party source
       | code escrow is a common solution.
        
         | iqkznnft wrote:
         | Code is not a company.
        
           | notpushkin wrote:
           | It is still some legacy you can leave behind.
        
             | iqkznnft wrote:
             | I understand, but my point is that if your company as a
             | "got hit by a bus" problem, having the code in third party
             | escrow is probably not gonna solve that. It kinda suggests
             | to me that someone who believes that putting the code in
             | escrow is a solution to that problem, also believes that
             | the biggest problem with the founder getting hit by a bus
             | is that only the founder knows where the code is. That's
             | not the biggest problem, not even close.
        
       | iqkznnft wrote:
       | Look before you cross.
        
         | yourad_io wrote:
         | I grew up in a somewhat vehicularly lawless society where
         | mopeds going the wrong way down a one-way street are an
         | everyday phenomenon.
         | 
         | I legitimately look _thrice_ before crossing: expected traffic
         | side, other side and back once again.
         | 
         | I am paranoid about getting hit by a bus/car/...
         | 
         | I'll likely be done for by a falling piano.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | version_five wrote:
       | I think it's often a poor focus for founders, until you have a
       | real leadrship team in place and naturally have distributed
       | responsibility. Companies dealing with startups are assuming some
       | risks and should be aware of that. There are more highly probably
       | events (going out of business for example) that your time is
       | better spent mitigating. So my opinion is don't worry about it if
       | you're a 1 person or small operation, just accept that there is a
       | risk, and be honest with customers if it ever comes up.
        
       | Tretioh wrote:
       | Why?
       | 
       | I don't think you would be in any relevant position at all to
       | care about a startup which is run by you in case you die.
       | 
       | Your family can't run it, others can't just take it over and you
       | are 6 feet under.
       | 
       | Get life insurance and stop worrying about this if you haven't
       | brought the company far enough yet.
        
         | marginalia_nu wrote:
         | Once we are dead, our legacy is what is left of us. Since it
         | all amounts to nothing, might as well try to make a dent in
         | history. Maybe we'll be one of the ones people are still
         | quoting two thousand years later without even realizing it
         | ([... do]lorem ipsum dolor sit amet).
        
           | jstx1 wrote:
           | Sounds pretty vain and pointless.
        
           | altdataseller wrote:
           | Nobody even thinks about your legacy after you're dead.
           | Nobody has that much time. They're all worried about
           | themselves.
        
       | alvest wrote:
       | You can work with a lawyer to put your business in a trust so
       | that if something happens to you the trust and trustee take over
       | operations.
        
       | spacemanmatt wrote:
       | I feel like this is something that solo founders don't address
       | because continuity is a concept that attaches to shared assets.
       | Once someone else cares enough to be involved the founder is no
       | longer solo.
        
       | rozenmd wrote:
       | I run a business that entitely runs itself on cron.
       | 
       | I guess the customers that ask for support would just churn, but
       | the stable set of customers that know what they're doing would
       | keep enough cash in the accounts to keep the lights on until AWS
       | permanently shuts down.
        
         | ezekg wrote:
         | Or until your credit card expires and AWS switches your account
         | off.
        
       | altdataseller wrote:
       | No measures at all. If I die, the business will most likely die
       | as well. Since it's not a huge business that can support lots of
       | employees, the impact to my family will be negligible too
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | There is always _Apres Moi Le Deluge_.
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-22 23:01 UTC)