Hacker News: “I might be going to prison soon, how to save my one-man SaaS startup?”

A Hacker News user is seeking advice on what to do with his one-man company as he might be going to prison for “for posting a religiously-insensitive photograph” in a Muslim country. The startup is Zuupy, which is run by Malaysian Alvin Tan, one-half of a controversial duo that is currently in legal trouble over posting a photo on Facebook that allegedly mocked Muslims.

Alvin and Vivian, or “Alvivi”, first made headlines for posting their sex video online. Alvin subsequently had his scholarship revoked by the National University of Singapore.

While the user, which goes by ‘3a0e8ff4e557‘, claims he is indeed the owner of Zuupy, it is impossible to absolutely ascertain his identity due to the anonymous nature of the website. I have contacted Alvin to verify that the post is indeed his.

However, the user’s past contributions on Hacker News seem consistent with Alvin’s identity. Here, the user writes that he runs the YouTube channel SexcussionsAlvivi. In other posts, he talks about feeling lazy after achieving “ramen profitability” and how his company has stagnated.

Regardless of whether it’s Alvin, his latest discussion has gone viral, receiving 305 comments ranging from the sympathetic to the practical to the absurd.

Here’s a sampling:

Jacquesm wrote:

I can see a few options:
– blindly trust some random stranger (probably a bad idea!)
– give the company in trust to your lawyer while you are away to run on your behalf
– get a friend up to speed in the time remaining and turn the site over to them before you go.

Mahmud wrote:

Escape the country.

Going into a foreign embassy is not gonna do you any good. “The Free World” spies on, and jails its own people, and it will not risk another Mohammad cartoongate helping you. So don’t even think about requesting asylum at an embassy.