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

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

#101

Post by errantspark »

quelsolaar wrote: post #73

I'm running MinistryOfFlat.com and I have made 7 figures this year. No investors or co workers. No marketing beyond my 2k twitter followers and a website. Solve a very specific and hard problem and the right people will find you.

I haven't really done any serious 3D work in a few years but my impression was that there are already a few popular UV auto-unwrappers and techniques like Ptex that avoid UVs entirely. I was looking at the maps produced in the demos on your page and they're definitely not like anything I'd produce or want to paint by hand. I assume that's not the point, but rather to use tools like Substance Painter or Mari right?

I guess I'm just surprised that this niche is worth 7 figures. That's awesome.

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

#102

Post by spectramax »

quelsolaar wrote: post #95
spectramax wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think good design/presentation and solid approach towards attention to detail on everything you do - it only adds and it doesn't take away from the core functional aspects of the product or service. Uber-functionalism, which is what you seem to be obsessed with, has its drawbacks. Imagine if Apple didn't care about design or aesthetics or presentation of their products. At the sametime, I see some contradiction to…

I'm a graphics nerd so that stuff is just fun for me, and most of it is part of existing toolkits I have already written for things like font rendering and UI. I used to think that quality was attention to detail and polishing everything, but now I think its a hump you have to get over. People stand in line for hours, in the rain and cold, and jump through a lot of hoops the stuff they really want. As a creator your…

I guess your product is B2B and perhaps that makes it different. Reminds me of Berkshire Hathaway's website: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

Zero fucks given.

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

#104

Post by ricardobeat »

quelsolaar wrote: post #73

I'm running MinistryOfFlat.com and I have made 7 figures this year. No investors or co workers. No marketing beyond my 2k twitter followers and a website. Solve a very specific and hard problem and the right people will find you.

That is amazing!

Love was so ahead of it's time, and has been an inspiration since I first found it maybe a decade ago. Happy to see you make a comfortable living in a related space. Cheers!

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

#105

Post by digianarchist »

iloveitaly wrote: post #89

Sidekiq makes ~1M/year in gross revenue. I believe the only full-time employee is the founder, and it doesn't sound like there are any material recurring expenses: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/016-mike-perham-of-side... It's the most profitable one-man show I know of, although there's many that I've run into that ~500k, albeit with a much higher operational burden.

Mike created a quality product that was much better than the alternatives at the time. I remember working in a Rails shop and struggling with Resque.

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

#107

Post by fnord77 »

spottybanana wrote: post #19
101008 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

American here, my retired mom gets only "social security", which is about $700/mo. I have to give her some of my income or she would sink. (I don't give her cash directly, but I take care of repairs on her house, new appliances, her car maintenance, etc)

I wish her pension would cover her real living expenses.

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

#108

Post by paulsutter »

spottybanana wrote: post #19
101008 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Every culture in the world considers helping family to be natural and positive. Many consider it a responsibility, and that’s a beautiful thing.

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

#109

Post by Strom »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #97
Strom wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know several Scandinavians personally who help their friends & family monetarily. It's also real common in Estonia, which is about a hundred miles from Scandinavia. Thus I don't think helping family is something that is missing in the region. More likely it's just a blind spot for spottybanana.

Most of Canada (population wise) is about a hundred miles from the USA. They even speak the same language! Yet ... assuming a similar set of moral archetypes and social behaviors on that basis would be a mistake. Geography is interesting, but not deterministic.

Do you think Seattle is more similar to Vancouver or to some city in Alabama?

It's not an absolute rule for sure, especially over a short period, just look at Korea. However I've found that distance generally plays a very large role in culture, especially if given enough time. Of course it doesn't determine everything. You can find completely different cultures in different blocks in New York city. People don't always see eye-to-eye with their neighbor just some meters away.

In the case of Estonia & Scandinavia the history is rather long and entangled. There are the Vikings, who liked nearby islands - including islands of Estonia that aren't Scandinavia. There have been periods where Estonia was conquered and part of both the Swedish kingdom and the Danish kingdom. Even the Danish flag is attributed to a battle in Estonia. [1]

Would I say that Estonian culture is a copy of Swedish or Danish culture? Definitely not, there are significant differences. There are also big differences between rural and urban areas. There's probably more similarities between Estonian farmers and Swedish farmers than Estonian farmers & Estonian software developers.

At the end of the day, you can't deterministically say anything at all about a group of people, even if it's a small group. Saying something general about people in an area as large as Scandinavia is always going to be probabilistic.

--

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lyndanisse

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

#110

Post by namirez »

spottybanana wrote: post #19
101008 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> it is really difficult for me to understand why someone would give to their relatives some of their income.

This is an interesting mindset. I don't want to judge you either, but I never understood the value of keeping my money and collecting wealth. If I were struggling, I wouldn't go out of my way to help my family. But if I had extra income, I would help my family if they were in need.

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