jbduler · HackerTrans

hace 6 añosdiscuss

This another example of what is called the Master-Slave dialectic from Hegel, an 18th century philosopher. Something that I studied in a philosophy class and had a profound influence on my understanding of work. Please take 10' to understand it and it applies to the relationship between engineers and salespeople, to the relationship now between China and the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_dialectic

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

Me too. Products cycle too fast those days so there is less need for those great books.

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

Yes, taxes are related to IP of course. Parking your IP in a country where you have a super low tax rate guarantees paying no or very little taxes using transfer pricing shenanigans back to your home office.

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

For me it makes total sense to tax Google, Facebook and all others. Why not? What do you to lose? Parking your IP in some remote country, be it Ireland or Turks and Caicos, is fine until you realize that the IP protection is not as bullet proof as you thought. And please don't come to California to sue to protect your IP. I still can't believe that none of those companies are paying Federal nor state taxes. For now. Well, they do pay some insanely low taxes.

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

We were in the same situation 4 years ago for our computer vision company, same team size. We targeted the wrong industry (beauty) and that was a mistake. Lessons to be learned and plenty of contacts for you as we went through the process of an acquisition. PM me, I am easy to find.

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry about sounding cynical, that was not the intend. I have just seen a lot of BS over the years and I super careful trying to understand what is behind that smokescreen. Good luck with the venture!

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

This is a BIG space open for changes.

Technically this is not a new entrant, just a different way to recycle capital. Munich Re (one of the top three reinsurers in the world) will provide reinsurance/capital to Vouch or anybody who could bring growth to them.

The post is a bit misleading. A lot of startups in that field use the standard bashing of “middlemen”, “making the process more efficient”, etc when in fact they are just another broker. Just about EVERY startup in that field uses the same language (Lemonade, MetroMile, etc…).

In this case Vouch is an agent of Standard insurance, a subsidiary of Markel, a company in the business of providing “Fronting” for large reinsurers: https://www.statenational.com/fronting/ https://interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov/webuser/Licw_Agy_De...

An analogy would be emails: you can go directly to Gmail, Yahoo or whatever or you may access all those emails on your Mac Mail or whatever . What matters is the provider behind (their tech, spam capabilities, etc.)

Vouch is an agent of Standard Insurance, not really a top player in the field of insuring tech. Chubb and Hartford are.

Vouch is thin on experience with only two endorsed agents (I assume the founders) who only got their license one year ago: https://interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov/webuser/licw_endors... And have no classes/credit or whatever to back up the fact that they can “provide advice” to startups: https://interactive.web.insurance.ca.gov/licensestatus/licst...

This is public information. The fact that they are licensed surplus lines brokers is a flag as they may place your business with “non-admitted insurers” instead of established insurers in your state (who have experienced claims people, insurance wording approved in your state, and backed by state guarantees). “Non admited insurers” is an opaque field of various insurers, some are good, some are just shabby. Just be aware.

Most of the time you will be better off with admitted insurers (Hartford, State Farm, Chubb) for a number of reasons: they have the experience, they pay claims promptly, and are cheaper. The state will keep an eye on them if they don’t pay claims promptly.

I assume that Vouch will also farm out the claim process to contractors. I just don’t know.

I am not saying that Vouch is good or bad, just be aware, don’t buy into the BS and be an informed buyer.

Buying from a mid-size insurance broker provides some piece of mind: they know what they are doing, have the equivalent of a large enterprise team dealing with big, publicly traded tech companies, and they can call on those in house folks to help if needed or if you have a claim that the insurance company “initially” denied. They can apply “gentle pressure” because they have buying power.

Of course if you deal with Vouch, an agent of Standard Insurance, your options are limited if you get in trouble.

You may think “I will sue them”. You don’t sue insurance companies, or very rarely (and only if you are a consumer, not a company) because they have in house counsels they pay $50/hr against your $1,000/hr lawyers.

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

I love the work, and it is directly applicable to the work I am doing now. Have you published your thesis?

jbduler

hace 7 añosdiscuss

A good IP / trademark lawyer will cost $1,000/hr BUT no lawyer will meet you for an hour. They don't have any answer, need to do some research that is why they will ask for a $50K retainer. And at the end you will be $50K poorer. Sure they will send a "scary letter" to the offending party, blabla, but don't fall in that trap. You will get nothing.

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