Selling yourself for fun & profit
trigger warning: open finances
Austin’s history of making money
| Individual work |
When |
Monthly revenue |
Yearly* |
| Learn Algebra |
2012 |
$30 |
$0.3k |
| Tech internships |
2015 |
$10,000 |
$30k |
| Google eng |
2016 |
$30,000 |
$400k |
| Consulting |
2019 |
$10,000 |
$50k |
| Streamlit tech lead |
2020 |
$30,000 |
$400k |
| (various side projects) |
2022 |
$200 |
$1k |
| One Word |
2020 |
$500 |
|
| —— now orgs —— |
|
|
|
| Manifold (prediction markets) |
Dec 2021 |
|
$18k/y |
| Manifest (conference) |
Jan 2023 |
|
$320k, or $60k |
| Manifund (charity funding) |
Feb 2023 |
|
$190k/y |
| Mox |
Dec 2024 |
|
??? |
- yearly doesn’t match monthly because not all things go for 1 year
Current stats
- Austin $1.3m liquid assets, plus $200k Rachel
- $300k-$600k on stock trades (lifetime earnings)
- Main illiquid asset is ~10% of Manifold stock, maybe worth $2m
- Donated: $200k
- aside: find it interesting that money talk is so taboo. rationalists will tell you all about their sex life but don't share their eg net worth, or salary
Should you charge for things?
- level 1: default capitalist world, charge for things
- level 2: EA kind & free world, everything is gratis (eg, EAG)
- level 3: Rationalist world, charge for value (eg, Lightcone)
- level 4: think carefully about transaction costs and charge appropriately
- patio11: “free, or very expensive”
- (fb messenger is free. maps is free. how does that work?)
Manifest as a case study in pricing
- default ticket is 500
- lots of "pricing discrimination" via early bird, volunteer tickets