Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 243 posts

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#11

Post by arkitaip »

101008 wrote: post #6
stanmancan wrote: post #3

I’m a one man show. I made a SaaS targeted towards a specific company. I did all the work up front, got them to trial it, and when they loved it they singed a contract for just over $100k/year. I have a site with ads on it that makes ~$1500–2000/m in ad revenue. I also do some hosting/maintenance for clients. 4 clients and it’s about $1,000/m. All in it’s about $130k/year and it requires about 5 hours a week of my ti…

Wow, those number sound so high for a third world country that I can't help thinking that if I were in your situation I would give half of that salary (5k monthly) to my brother and father so they wouldn't have to worry about money again. Congratulations for being in that situation!

Parent didn't get where he is today by giving away half (!) of his salary.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#13

Post by inovica »

domlebo70 wrote: post #7

Sorry to hijack slightly, but figured it's related: I am trying to build a "lifestyle" side project into something profitable, as a goal to replace my job. I think I have a good product and niche. What I want is some sort of mentor network. Someone who has already succeeded where I haven't, and that I can pester with questions, check I am on the right track, vent, etc, every now and then. Does such a thing (or someth…

Drop me a message. I've started and run several ventures, a couple of which became more than lifestyle. Nothing is done alone though - there are always people who help you on your journey; employees, friends, mentors, family. Happy to point you in a direction

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#15

Post by akudha »

stanmancan wrote: post #9
akudha wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you broadly talk about how you came up with the idea, how you contacted the company?

An acquaintance worked for the company and asked for help replacing an existing paper process with an excel document. I helped, but mentioned a web app would work much better. The company trialed the excel version but came back with some concerns. I talked it over with the friend and decided to spend my free time building it out. Once I had a beta ready they trailed it in their location and they loved it. We got it i…

Beautiful! one again, "find Excel use case and replace with web app" seems to have worked :)

Thank you for responding.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#16

Post by stanmancan »

akudha wrote: post #15
stanmancan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An acquaintance worked for the company and asked for help replacing an existing paper process with an excel document. I helped, but mentioned a web app would work much better. The company trialed the excel version but came back with some concerns. I talked it over with the friend and decided to spend my free time building it out. Once I had a beta ready they trailed it in their location and they loved it. We got it i…

Beautiful! one again, "find Excel use case and replace with web app" seems to have worked :) Thank you for responding.

Absolutely, I think there’s plenty of money to be made finding problems companies don’t know they have. The hard part is identifying them, and picking one where the value added by a web app is worth paying for.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#17

Post by domlebo70 »

inovica wrote: post #13
domlebo70 wrote: post #7

Sorry to hijack slightly, but figured it's related: I am trying to build a "lifestyle" side project into something profitable, as a goal to replace my job. I think I have a good product and niche. What I want is some sort of mentor network. Someone who has already succeeded where I haven't, and that I can pester with questions, check I am on the right track, vent, etc, every now and then. Does such a thing (or someth…

Drop me a message. I've started and run several ventures, a couple of which became more than lifestyle. Nothing is done alone though - there are always people who help you on your journey; employees, friends, mentors, family. Happy to point you in a direction

Great, thank you. PM'ed via LinkedIn.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#18

Post by akudha »

stanmancan wrote: post #9
akudha wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you broadly talk about how you came up with the idea, how you contacted the company?

An acquaintance worked for the company and asked for help replacing an existing paper process with an excel document. I helped, but mentioned a web app would work much better. The company trialed the excel version but came back with some concerns. I talked it over with the friend and decided to spend my free time building it out. Once I had a beta ready they trailed it in their location and they loved it. We got it i…

Asking here, unable to reply to the comment below.

The hard part is identifying them, and picking one where the value added by a web app is worth paying for.

As someone who doesn't have any contacts with companies (I'd assume this is true for most people here), any pointers on how to go about doing this? I tried the cold email route (even made a friend this way, we still keep in touch after two years, though we haven't met and probably never will), but I didn't succeed. I probably could have, but it made me so uncomfortable writing to total strangers :(

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#19

Post by spottybanana »

101008 wrote: post #6
stanmancan wrote: post #3

I’m a one man show. I made a SaaS targeted towards a specific company. I did all the work up front, got them to trial it, and when they loved it they singed a contract for just over $100k/year. I have a site with ads on it that makes ~$1500–2000/m in ad revenue. I also do some hosting/maintenance for clients. 4 clients and it’s about $1,000/m. All in it’s about $130k/year and it requires about 5 hours a week of my ti…

Wow, those number sound so high for a third world country that I can't help thinking that if I were in your situation I would give half of that salary (5k monthly) to my brother and father so they wouldn't have to worry about money again. Congratulations for being in that situation!

Coming from scandinavian welfare state, it is really difficult for me to understand why someone would give to their relatives some of their income. Especially if you earn it by working, and the reasoning being so that they don't have to worry about money = have less pressure to work.

I don't want to judge anyone, just wanted to state that there is clearly quite a big cultural gap here. I don't know anyone around here who would do similar things.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the most successful one-person business you heard of in 2019?

#20

Post by bitcoinmoney »

101008 wrote: post #6
stanmancan wrote: post #3

I’m a one man show. I made a SaaS targeted towards a specific company. I did all the work up front, got them to trial it, and when they loved it they singed a contract for just over $100k/year. I have a site with ads on it that makes ~$1500–2000/m in ad revenue. I also do some hosting/maintenance for clients. 4 clients and it’s about $1,000/m. All in it’s about $130k/year and it requires about 5 hours a week of my ti…

Wow, those number sound so high for a third world country that I can't help thinking that if I were in your situation I would give half of that salary (5k monthly) to my brother and father so they wouldn't have to worry about money again. Congratulations for being in that situation!

Where in the post it says he is from 3rd world?
Post reply on HN