I'm technically self employed because I got into a toxic contractorship as my first gig, when I didn't have the knowledge to avoid getting taken advantage of. But it's really just a software shop refusing to hire employees and using "contractors" for everything (we're actually employees)
Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
121–130 of 446 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#122After working at various start-ups and Fortune 200 companies as a Product Manager, I am now working at my families niche consulting company.
The twist is my wife is also helping run her family business and while the two companies bring in similar revenue every year, that's about all they have in common.
It's been pretty eye opening seeing how my father and my FIL operate their respective businesses.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#123Been self employed for over 20 years already. Have my own software and hardware products that generate revenue. Over a time revenue has declined and complement by designing and implementing custom software products for clients.
I am registered as corporation so I am my own employee and pay myself a salary
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#124I don't often use the term 'self-employed' because I don't directly receive 1099 income, and I receive a W2 paycheck and benefits, although my employer's headquarters happens to be in my office. But in practical terms, yep I'm self-employed.
We (my wife and I) do business-development for our crazy schemes, sometimes alone, sometimes with the help of up to six contract developers that we love to work with. I fund those crazy schemes by doing contract software development myself. Benefits include 100% paid health and dental insurance, as much 401(k) matching as we can possibly have, and afternoon siestas.
We have no plans to hire anyone else, simply because it would be very important to me to give them a square deal: Equal ownership in the company, equal benefits, nice equipment, and so forth. But I don't mind enlisting other contractors who are already comfortable, and if one of our schemes really takes off, we incorporate a Delaware C-corp around it and make sure everyone owns a piece. That's only happened once, but I managed to quickly step down from the C-suite and become a SW dev contractor at that company.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#125After working at various start-ups and Fortune 200 companies as a Product Manager, I am now working at my families niche consulting company. The twist is my wife is also helping run her family business and while the two companies bring in similar revenue every year, that's about all they have in common. It's been pretty eye opening seeing how my father and my FIL operate their respective businesses.
I’m curious to know. Eye opening in what respects?
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#126I've been working on https://webhook.site since 2016 when I posted it here on HN. In fall 2023, I quit my job to work on it full time, and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. I have around 1400 subscribers, which is enough to pay myself a good salary. I've not done any funding or marketing so far.
Wow, I use your service all the time for misc testing and it's fantastic. Lean, responsive, and straight forward. I honestly didn't realize there way any paid option until I read this and took a look around the website to find it (I completely missed the upgrade button in the upper right).
I figured I'd mention that from a user's perspective to give you a data point. Great service!
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#127I've been self-employed for nearly two years. I work on a Chrome extension [1] that is used by a significant fraction of the US legal cannabis industry for compliance.
2/3 of my time is spent on consulting projects, which pay better, and the rest is spent maintaining the platform. At the moment, the platform is self-sustaining and the revenue from it is growing fast. I work some of the largest companies in the industry, which is great for network building. The flexibility in schedule it offers is terrific, and I have no need to fundraise or hire.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#128Self-employed for 24 years now. Mostly doing test management and project management, but also some coding on and off.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#129I am working on https://audiodiary.ai as a solo founder, I recently have been getting enough income to just about cover my living expenses and haven’t received any funding and didn’t do any marketing, with 9k users so far since launch last May. It’s fulfilling and great to see people use and love a product I’ve built. I’m obviously highly motivated to grow so it keeps me busy.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?
#130I'm self employed with https://stockevents.app as well as employed as the Head of Product Management for a construction software company.