Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#11

Post by benmanns » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:32 PM UTC

jkeuhlen wrote: post #8

sergiomattei wrote: post #5

I'm making https://getmakerlog.com , which is currently doing $200 MRR.

Just curious, did you go about setting up a formal corporation for the product? I'm thinking about setting up my own SaaS product and I'm not sure if I need to do anything on the legal/business side.

Look up setting up a single-member LLC in your state. It's usually fairly simple and cheap (but state dependent).

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#12

Post by srecio » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:33 PM UTC

jkeuhlen wrote: post #8

sergiomattei wrote: post #5

I'm making https://getmakerlog.com , which is currently doing $200 MRR.

Just curious, did you go about setting up a formal corporation for the product? I'm thinking about setting up my own SaaS product and I'm not sure if I need to do anything on the legal/business side.

Just use Stripe Atlas. I've been very happy with them.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#13

Post by vital101 » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:35 PM UTC

I made https://kernl.us solo and it's making ~$1100 MRR and growing.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#14

Post by davidbanham » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

I run two SaaS products. Both are entirely my work and both are modestly profitable.

I split my time about 50/50 between the the SaaS side of my business and consulting. The consulting revenue stream is much larger than the SaaS one but it's growing.

https://takehome.io

And

https://clubman.app

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#15

Post by leozeba » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

We're a small team of 3 co-founders at @nazar_io currently doing $50k MRR.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#16

Post by lynnetye » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

Key Values (https://www.keyvalues.com) is a one-woman show (oh hi!). I started Key Values as a side project two years ago, but it quickly turned into my full-time passion and business. I'm doing ~$30k/month and it's almost all profit since I don't have an office or any employees. I recently talked to Courtland of Indie Hackers (already mentioned in the comments) about how I got here: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/086-lynne-tye-of-key-va...

I would never have started Key Values w/o Indie Hackers, so I highly recommend you spend some time there. It's a bottomless treasure chest of inspiration.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#17

Post by pawurb » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

I am running https://abot.app currently at $1500 MRR and growing. Still at full-time job apart from that.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#18

Post by simon_weber » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

I run a few projects for ~$400 MRR. Here's my numbers from last year: https://www.simonmweber.com/2019/01/07/side-project-income-2...

Since there are questions about company formation in the comments, here's my notes on US taxes/legal from when I got started: https://www.simonmweber.com/2016/07/11/launching-a-chrome-ex...

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#19

Post by PKop » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:46 PM UTC

lynnetye wrote: post #16

Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) is a one-woman show (oh hi!). I started Key Values as a side project two years ago, but it quickly turned into my full-time passion and business. I'm doing ~$30k/month and it's almost all profit since I don't have an office or any employees. I recently talked to Courtland of Indie Hackers (already mentioned in the comments) about how I got here: https://www.indiehackers.com/po…

Great interview on indie hackers podcast. Always motivating to hear from the perspectives of people not trying to grow at all cost, following SV conventional wisdom etc, aiming for more lifestyle type businesses.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#20

Post by _bxg1 » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:46 PM UTC

davidbanham wrote: post #14

I run two SaaS products. Both are entirely my work and both are modestly profitable. I split my time about 50/50 between the the SaaS side of my business and consulting. The consulting revenue stream is much larger than the SaaS one but it's growing. https://takehome.io And https://clubman.app

Clubman is so specific. This seems to be a pattern of many small, honest, successful software businesses: instead of trying to make a platform that will eat the world, they find a tiny niche that they understand, and hand-craft a solution that's perfectly tailored to it and meets people's real needs. It's inspiring. When software is too generic it becomes boring (and impossible to compete with as an entrepreneur).