Title: Original: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10813746<p>I wanted to share with HN what happened, since a lot of these &quot;hey, help me&quot; posts go unanswered.<p>I was able to successfully pay rent thanks to a few quick gigs that came my way. I was able to work about $2k, a comfortable position while I decide what my next move is.<p>Said invoice remains unpaid. I&#x27;m now a debt collector. There are options to consolidate, but the amount is in excess of $25k which makes things difficult. I do have contracts in place, and counsel I can lean on, but it’s an incredibly exhausting and lengthy process. As a 24-year-old dev-shop founder I have learned my lesson. I&#x27;ll require pre-paid invoices from here on. There’s more to the story, but in short, I&#x27;ve wound things down after my co-founder (design&#x2F;sales) unexpectedly left us in early Q2 2015.<p>The response was overwhelming. I was quickly playing catch-up with the number of emails I received. It brought tears to my eyes, especially coming from HN where elitism is often bred and found.<p>I&#x27;m unsure what my next steps will be. Obvious question of “why don’t you ask your clients?” My answer is either, “they don’t have a need for me where I can make a direct impact” or “they’re too big&#x2F;too corporate and couldn’t justify being billed by a one-man consultancy&#x2F;dev-shop, let alone a felon.&quot;<p>What other options may I have that I&#x27;m failing to see? As I said, I can&#x27;t pass a background check. It has rarely hurt me, but I’ve rarely put myself in a position to find out if it will matter. As you can tell, I’m pretty open and honest about it, but a little timid.<p>If you’d prefer to reach out to me directly, you can send me an email at ptftpd1ad6mz2iw@jetable.org and it’ll forward directly to my email.<p>All-and-all, I’m entirely thankful (albeit surprised) that HN came through with such a response. The elitism is still here, and I still get a little perplexed reading some comments, but for the most part we’re good peoples.
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