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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#122

Post by goodJobWalrus »

overcast wrote: post #120
sixQuarks wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that these sites chronicle just the tip of the iceberg. I run a successful solo online business and would never agree to be profiled as I don't want to invite competition.

In my opinion, those site are just advertising for your business.

Which means it only makes sense being profiled if the readers of those sites are your potential customers.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#124

Post by jgh »

gkya wrote: post #119
_xzxj wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense but Pieter Levels seems like a bit of a bastard, and you can see it in that thread. I don't pay much attention to him, but when I do come across his social media posts they're pretty off-putting. He's pretty successful yes, but €50k/mo is not exactly f-you money.

Frankly all the messages he has to put up with are plain stupid, so if he's being a bit of a bastard, rightly so. I just found about his websites, bookmarked nomadlist.com already. It's funny, to say the least, how people exaggerate taking some data from a database and spitting it out as HTML. The important bit here is the data and the presentation, nothing else. WRT $50k/mo, for any sane person that's two times more…

So I'm going to reply here because I think this is a good one (of the replies I've gotten) to express my thoughts a little bit more clearly:

1) I was wrong about what was going on in that thread. I sort of scanned it at first and saw that snarky "this is why I build companies and you do contracts" post and it rubbed me the wrong way.

2) The $50k (or €50k, im not sure which it is now) number is a lot, but given the way I originally interpreted the thread my initial reaction was more of one like "who does this guy think he is?"

3) I later went back over the thread and saw that people were being needlessly critical of a tiny webapp.

All that being said, I do agree with the replies that are being critical of my thinking here -- I just can't go back and edit it on HN!

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#125

Post by mindhash »

mperham wrote: post #121
lmcnish14 wrote: post #107

Sidekiq is a one person business. The creator, Mike Perham, gave an interview about what it was like building his business: https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/sidekiq-6e71309457

AMA!

Most of my worry with one person business is what happens when you are not well or need to take personal vacation. How to arrange an ongoing support ?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#126

Post by fecak »

For the past 20 years I've been a recruiter, and a few years back I started a resume writing and career consulting business called Resume Raiders (http://resumeraiders.com). It's a literal mom & pop operation and I do 99% of the projects myself.

I started the business because I've always loved writing, am good at navigating tricky job search and career situations (I've seen it all after 20 yrs in recruiting), and I enjoy it more than recruiting. I also noticed most resume writers didn't really have a background in hiring, but rather were just trained writers that probably had a hard time making it in journalism or other areas.

I'd been writing resumes for my recruiting candidates for many years, and many of those candidates would rely on me for career advice as well. It was odd to provide career advice as a third-party recruiter, as there were times when I might have some financial interest in what a person does. As an example, if someone approached me and said "Should I leave my job?", a recruiter might say "yes" with the thought that if this person leaves I might get a placement fee if I help them find work.

Resume Raiders is now my primary focus and has been quite profitable since it started. There is very little overhead. I live in a pretty expensive area, but my clients come from all over the world. I also offer a discount to HN'ers (see my profile page).

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#127

Post by brandfountain »

https://brandfountain.com

I have curated a stellar portfolio of brandable domains geared to startup community, allows me to dev other projects without raising seed. I succeed by being flexible/sympathetic with early stage companies, expect to reach six digit sales on almost autopilot.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#128

Post by iUsedToCode »

cperciva wrote: post #115

Tarsnap. I have an employee now, but I ran the company myself for the first ten years and from ~2011 onwards Tarsnap has been the vast majority of my income. I got started by... well, sitting down and scratching my itch. I wanted good backups, and it turned out that other people wanted them too.

Tarsnap is great. I love supporting it.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#129

Post by fetus »

sixQuarks wrote: post #118
filipm wrote: post #13

Here's a couple of links you might like, although not all of them are exactly what you're looking for: - https://www.indiehackers.com/ (of course) - https://www.starterstory.com/ - https://www.authorityhacker.com/undercover/ - https://failory.com/ - Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses? (Jan 5, 2017): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13326535 (thanks @jbonniwell) - Ask HN: Successful one-person online…

I would say that these sites chronicle just the tip of the iceberg. I run a successful solo online business and would never agree to be profiled as I don't want to invite competition.

If that's honestly your attitude, good luck! Its only a matter of time before your customers realize you aren't adding any value.
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