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

Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 156 posts

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#121

Post by Mizza »

rosariom wrote: post #107
Mizza wrote: post #37

Single "founder" - just a kid who writes apps, but I've written enough Android apps that I don't have to work a real job as they pay the bills. I could be making a lot more but spend most of my time working on non-profit projects. I'm working on a web 'startup' now that launched about a month ago, but it's not profitable yet, although I'm still moving it past MVP and I've received some good feedback. You should do it…

I am curious to know how well you are doing with your Android sales as I am looking to release an Android app soon. Is Android as hard to monetize as people say? Did you dual launch your apps on iPhone and Android? Are your apps paid or ad supported or both? How are you marketing your apps? Thanks in advance

I've never had any trouble monetizing Android, but I've never known anything else. I only do Android, not iPhone. Although I did just get a mac..

My apps are paid, ranging from 2.99 to 4.99. Some hits, some misses. I don't do any marketing whatsoever.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#122

Post by ztay »

I'm the solo founder of PrintFriendly.com

Two years ago I applied to YC, and was turned down in the interview process. They asked, "how is PrintFriendly going to make a billion dollars"? I'm still trying to answer that (or at least a more modest version of the question).

Today PrintFriendly revenue is about $10k/mo, 1.2M visits/mo, and slow but steady growth.

I'm happy with the results, delighted actually. However, I'm not travelling the world, or working from a beach. I work hard everyday and reinveste the capital, to try and build a stable/strong/significant organization.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#123

Post by WillyF »

kposehn wrote: post #89
WillyF wrote: post #26

I am the single founder of One Day, One Job http://www.onedayonejob.com/ I'm not quite ready to consider it a success, but it is profitable enough to cover my living expenses. I recently hired some part-timers to help me grow it into something bigger. I did an interview with The Startup Foundry a few months ago that is way too long but does a good job of telling my story: http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/03/02/one-d…

I'm totally going to advertise on your site :D

Here's our media kit: http://www.onedayonejob.com/media-kit/

You can e-mail me from the sidebar on the site.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#124

Post by runevault »

acabal wrote: post #19

I'm the sole founder, developer, marketer, and everything-else-guy for http://www.scribophile.com and http://writerfolio.com . They've funded my travels across the world for the past few years. Right now I'm living in Germany with my German girlfriend whom I met in Australia. Scribophile has since become one of the largest writers communities online, and we're about to have our 100,000th critique written (sometime in…

As a coder who writes, seeing someone having success with building writer tools makes me happy, since that's the path I see myself going down at some point.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#125

Post by bluekite2000 »

HowardRoark wrote: post #115
bluekite2000 wrote: post #57

People in Vietnam pay everything by cash. And they love US products. So I integrated my online bookstore w/ Amazon, enabling the Vietnamese to search and buy any book on Amazon in VND (aka the Dong). It is not a lot of money but its very fulfilling seeing my Amazon account and the books people order. Plus it enables me to travel. I m in NYC now but will go to Vietnam in winter. Surf is up in that part of the world :)

I have been brainstorming something similar for a different country and vertical, and I am seeking for some ideas. Do do have an email?

you can contact me at nguyenhdat at gmail dot com

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#126

Post by xackpot »

kariatx wrote: post #11

I started Blogthings.com (a personality quiz site) in 2004 by myself, and I've never had a job while working in it. It makes enough money for both my husband and I to live off of, and we split the work on it, which ends up just being a few hours a week (no more than 10). I spend my free time working on my programming / math and figuring out what's next.

wow that's great. An inspiring story. I am doing a similar casual location based quiz/queries site and soon a mobile app with findero.us and I am pretty excited about it. Whether it becomes a success story like yours or not, but I got to learn a lot out of it. I hope my passion pays off.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#127

Post by pghimire »

Founded of StartUpLift[http://startuplift.com] at the beginning of this year. Has been growing slowly but steadily. Revenue around $2k/mo. Recently introduced "Recurring Buzz/Feedback" subscription model that lets companies get featured, introduce their service/product to others and get feedback on a monthly basis. Also planning on adding "Startup/Small Business Deals" so that startups can offer deals to each other.

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#128

Post by jgamman »

bauchidgw wrote: post #54
z92 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only thing not in the equation is children.

well, i'm goingt to travel southamerica (i'm from europe) with girlfriend, kid, mac (and a thrieving consulting business) for 8 months - starting in two months. so it's possible, i's just that you have to be extra tough (this and no drinking, as your child wakes up too soon)

Was that a misspelled ,r, or ,e,? :-)

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#129

Post by mtoddh »

ztay wrote: post #122

I'm the solo founder of PrintFriendly.com Two years ago I applied to YC, and was turned down in the interview process. They asked, "how is PrintFriendly going to make a billion dollars"? I'm still trying to answer that (or at least a more modest version of the question). Today PrintFriendly revenue is about $10k/mo, 1.2M visits/mo, and slow but steady growth. I'm happy with the results, delighted actually. However, I…

Cool idea and it looks really useful for printing out online tutorials/guides without all the ads/cruft - saw on your webpage that it's free so what's your revenue model?

Re: Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories?

#130

Post by freemarketteddy »

gopi wrote: post #100
chops wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of this thread is to share the details. Coming in and saying "oh yeah, I also make a ton of money, but I can't tell you how" doesn't really do anything for the conversation. Even if it's minor details like the fantasy sports guy that uses the Yahoo API, that's contributing to the conversation.

Okay, Let me try to be a bit more specific :) In the start it was mostly SEO mini sites then its more PPC arbitrage and then when search marketing got tough i started creating sites that depend on word of mouth/viral traffic. At my peak i was making $400k per month! BTB, Most people with my kind of track record start to develop their personal brand and become a "Make money online Guru" and start sellimg systems and e…

Is mobile search a good platform to target now or would you stick to desktop pcs?
Post reply on HN