Hello - long time entrepreneurial failure here!

Hello,

I am a_p_t, which stands for advanced persistent threat, which is a cyber security reference.

After college, I for some reason took a long of over 100K to purchase and operate a business in an industry I didn't have any experience or knowledge of because I thought the "fundamentals were good." They weren't - the owner lied about their numbers and I was stuck with the shittiest fucking landlord of all time who was a crook and is currently suing me for leaving the lease early.

Despite my retarded decision mentioned above, I have above average computer skills and created a website with a little over 10K+ views a month, but gave up for some reason even though I had automated most of my content through RSS syndication. I was actually making just a little money too (like $100 per month). I've created some other sites too - mainly WordPress sites - but didn't make any money really.

I've also had other business ventures, my most successful being a reseller of IT services. When Elance was called Elance (I think it's called something else now), I would bid on projects for price X and then hire someone else for price Y and make the difference on the cost of labor. I also did some of the work myself if I felt up to it. I made like $35K while in college. Why did I stop doing this? I think because I'm really fucking stupid.

So basically, here I am, trying again but a few years older now and starting a family. I also work a full-time job at home doing software engineering that pays the bills.

If anyone wants to message a self-hating failed entrepreneur to chat or whatever, I would love to hear from you.

Best,
A_P_T

Hey mate, welcome here.

That sounds terrible. But in the end, we only learn from the bad experiences in life and can make better decisions in the future.
I am sure that you will soon be able to recover the lost money through new possibilities.

I'd be glad to hear you've become a millionaire sometimes

seems like you already had a solid method, get back to it!

markmueller said:

Hey mate, welcome here.

That sounds terrible. But in the end, we only learn from the bad experiences in life and can make better decisions in the future.
I am sure that you will soon be able to recover the lost money through new possibilities.

I'd be glad to hear you've become a millionaire sometimes

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Hello, thank you for your encouraging reply. I think you are right about learning from the bad experiences - I do feel "tougher" now.

thescrrr said:

seems like you already had a solid method, get back to it!

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Yeah - it's a mystery why I would give up on something that seems promising. I'm trying to rectify this now

Looks like you have a cyber security background, how good are your skills?

healzer said:

Looks like you have a cyber security background, how good are your skills?

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Well it's tough question to answer because the cyber security realm is large and people are looking for different things. My experience is sort of broad. I have experience doing security engineering, incident response, vulnerability assessments and information assurance work. The security engineering is in the context of configuring IDS and IPS, creating shell scripts to be executed by security tools that focus on system integrity, and similar work. Incident response was administering SIEM products and the like. Vulnerability assessments were done using both automated and manual methods. I also have offered subject matter expertise on remediation, primarily for web vulnerabilities. Information assurance work was done to follow the compliance standards that our auditors want us to meet (this is purposely left vague for privacy reasons).

Before doing cyber security, I had experience in web development. Now I combine my cyber security knowledge with software engineering by doing full-stack engineering for a cyber security policy program in Java.

If you have further questions, can you please PM me?

Best,
a_p_t

a_p_t said:

Well it's tough question to answer because the cyber security realm is large and people are looking for different things. My experience is sort of broad.

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Your experience is broad indeed
The reason why I'm asking is because of new business opportunities created by the recent crypto/bitcoin hype.
Especially the many hacking cases involved, I believe the demand for security solutions/experts will increase in the coming months.
If security is your passion you could consider building a business around it.

Hello advanced persistent threat,
Your skills are very much in demand these days (but then, they always were). I'm sure someone like you can easily make a lot more than $100 pm. Keep believing in yourself and good luck!

Sorry for your bad experience but honestly you weren't stupid. You tried something, failed, but learned from your mistake which plays a big role in internet marketing. A lot of people on here are afraid to get to that step. If I were you I'd go back to the Elance method and give it another try but on a different platform.

healzer said:

Your experience is broad indeed
The reason why I'm asking is because of new business opportunities created by the recent crypto/bitcoin hype.
Especially the many hacking cases involved, I believe the demand for security solutions/experts will increase in the coming months.
If security is your passion you could consider building a business around it.

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Yes, I can certainly see where you are coming from. There are new cases basically everyday in the news. Literally the other day I was interviewed by Equifax and they said they were starting JUST NOW to assemble their application security team.

Perhaps this is due to lack of imagination on my part, but I have considered the idea of creating a vulnerability assessment/pen testing company and even advertised using Adwords before and didn't get any traction. Seemed to me like you needed "big money" to get the ball rolling. Where I live, everyone and their grandmother has a company specializing in IT security, usually claiming they are going to reinvent the SOC (security operations center).

I love the enthusiasm on your part and appreciate the suggestion - I would just need to see where I can find a niche that I can enter without spending my future child's money for food. In terms of capitalizing on the blockchain hype, I would need to do more research but it seems like a good idea.

Are you personally somehow involved in crypto/blockchain/cyber business? I see "crypto predictions" in your signature.

Dank_Cena said:

Hello advanced persistent threat,
Your skills are very much in demand these days (but then, they always were). I'm sure someone like you can easily make a lot more than $100 pm. Keep believing in yourself and good luck!

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thank you!!

Welcome on BHW apt.

Dresden said:

Sorry for your bad experience but honestly you weren't stupid. You tried something, failed, but learned from your mistake which plays a big role in internet marketing. A lot of people on here are afraid to get to that step. If I were you I'd go back to the Elance method and give it another try but on a different platform.

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Good idea, thank you very much

a_p_t said:

Yes, I can certainly see where you are coming from. There are new cases basically everyday in the news. Literally the other day I was interviewed by Equifax and they said they were starting JUST NOW to assemble their application security team.

Perhaps this is due to lack of imagination on my part, but I have considered the idea of creating a vulnerability assessment/pen testing company and even advertised using Adwords before and didn't get any traction. Seemed to me like you needed "big money" to get the ball rolling. Where I live, everyone and their grandmother has a company specializing in IT security, usually claiming they are going to reinvent the SOC (security operations center).

I love the enthusiasm on your part and appreciate the suggestion - I would just need to see where I can find a niche that I can enter without spending my future child's money for food. In terms of capitalizing on the blockchain hype, I would need to do more research but it seems like a good idea.

Are you personally somehow involved in crypto/blockchain/cyber business? I see "crypto predictions" in your signature.

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A few years back I worked with a security expert and we provided pen testing services right here on BHW.
We made some nice money, and it only cost us about $120 (JrVIP status and a sales thread submission).
So you don't need to even use adwords/facebook/whatever.
Hope this gives you some new ways to look at business.

PS: we stopped the service after about a year due to personal reasons.

healzer said:

A few years back I worked with a security expert and we provided pen testing services right here on BHW.
We made some nice money, and it only cost us about $120 (JrVIP status and a sales thread submission).
So you don't need to even use adwords/facebook/whatever.
Hope this gives you some new ways to look at business.

PS: we stopped the service after about a year due to personal reasons.

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That's helpful - thank you for taking the time to suggest this. I will be looking further into this because it would certainly make sense to capitalize on the skills I use for my day job.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the rate you charged? I live in the East Coast of the US and I don't know how the cost of living & wages compares to the average on BHW.

a_p_t said:

That's helpful - thank you for taking the time to suggest this. I will be looking further into this because it would certainly make sense to capitalize on the skills I use for my day job.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the rate you charged? I live in the East Coast of the US and I don't know how the cost of living & wages compares to the average on BHW.

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It varied a lot, but we had a rate based on the number of pages and complexity of the problem.
In the end we made anywhere between $100 and $500 for a 1-3 hours of work.
We didn't get orders every day, but between 1 and 5 orders per month. Which was an "okay" amount of pocket money.
But what's even more valuable were the people we got in touch, and some of them are still well connected with me to this day.

healzer said:

It varied a lot, but we had a rate based on the number of pages and complexity of the problem.
In the end we made anywhere between $100 and $500 for a 1-3 hours of work.
We didn't get orders every day, but between 1 and 5 orders per month. Which was an "okay" amount of pocket money.
But what's even more valuable were the people we got in touch, and some of them are still well connected with me to this day.

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Hey, those rates are comparable to freelance contracting gigs I've done. Happy to hear the rates are decent.

It sounds like you are interested in tech - what is your main line of work/business?

a_p_t said:

Hey, those rates are comparable to freelance contracting gigs I've done. Happy to hear the rates are decent.
It sounds like you are interested in tech - what is your main line of work/business?

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I've been in tech for quite some time already - had quite a few nice projects. But nothing worth six figures yet.
My current occupation is research/analysis of the crypto market -- you can find out more through my signature banner if you're interested.

healzer said:

I've been in tech for quite some time already - had quite a few nice projects. But nothing worth six figures yet.
My current occupation is research/analysis of the crypto market -- you can find out more through my signature banner if you're interested.

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Dude you used cowsay in your post!! I already liked you, but that seals the deal! I re-wrote cowsay in python before for fun ^_^.

Your project looks interesting and I wish you the best of luck.