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

131–140 of 243 posts

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

#131

Post by sr3d »

quelsolaar wrote: post #92
codesternews wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you tell us more about yourself and project. How would you able to do without any coworkers when many big companies tried.

I kind of did it by accident. It was a side project that people started getting in touch over. I think I'm very suited to solve this problem for a few reasons. I used to be a 3D artist so I know what artists want. I'm a C programmers so I can make complex things go fast, and I have done a lot of procedural 3D stuff so I know a lot of mesh processing tricks. The complexity of this is substantial. its currently around…

Your work is amazing. Great job! I'm super impressed. I used to do a bunch of 3D stuff but then I switched to web/mobile dev and that was it for 3D. I can see why your software is successful because it solves a very exact pain-point that is very costly and time-consuming.

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

#132

Post by adele11 »

arkitaip wrote: post #11
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!

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

He didn't get there by not giving half of his salary.

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

#134

Post by v1l »

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…

where are you located?

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

#135

Post by Toss8675309 »

throwaway_29575 wrote: post #128
Toss8675309 wrote: post #127

I'm a one man development and consulting shop and have been so for almost 12 years. My 2018 gross revenue was $600K and 2019 gross revenue will be about $780K. I'm an extremely efficient developer, a very good salesperson, and I'm an absolute fanatic about delivering high quality work on time . I don't presume to have any special knowledge but would love to find a way to help other devs/tech people do what I've done.

Nice year on year growth. What are your sales channels? Is it mostly online (seo, ads, remarketing etc), b2b networking or word-of-mouth referrals?

Hey, thanks!

I work in a niche of sorts, so the sales channel is 100% word-of-mouth referrals.

My champions are executives that tend to move from one company to another every few years and usually bring me in when they've got a new gig. Also, each new company provides the opportunity to build new relationships with new people who themselves move on to new companies, and the cycle continues. :)

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

#136

Post by semireg »

I’d imagine that many users don’t comment because they feel their salary mix is too sensitive.

I’m a mobile app dev consultant that also maintains a few node/docker appliances for industrial IOT clients.

I make enough to dedicate 10 hours a week (sometimes nights and weekends) to build and maintain an electron app that I sell for $50 a license. My software is beginning to compete with other software that costs $500 a license. I have a lot of room to grow, and it’s super unsexy: label printers. I basically created the label design app I wish I had. You can check it out at https://label.live.

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

#137

Post by crikli »

throwaway_29575 wrote: post #124

My wife. She runs her own web/digital marketing company and is the only full-time employee (which includes time for school pick-up/drop-off). She has a few freelancers for graphic design and content writing and I help out as I can while working a full-time corporate job. Her company revenue is over 300k/year.

That is awesome. When did she start the company? What has her growth strategy been and how has she acquired new clients?

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

#138

Post by colinbartlett »

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…

indiehackers.com is a great source for advice, though it’s not quite as personal as a “mentor”.

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

#139

Post by throwaway_29575 »

Toss8675309 wrote: post #135
throwaway_29575 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice year on year growth. What are your sales channels? Is it mostly online (seo, ads, remarketing etc), b2b networking or word-of-mouth referrals?

Hey, thanks! I work in a niche of sorts, so the sales channel is 100% word-of-mouth referrals. My champions are executives that tend to move from one company to another every few years and usually bring me in when they've got a new gig. Also, each new company provides the opportunity to build new relationships with new people who themselves move on to new companies, and the cycle continues. :)

In the digital marketing space it's the ambitious marketing managers who move from company to company (and like to work with someone they know). My wife makes a point of keeping them happy.

The issue is that in a competitive market it works both ways as every incoming manager will often have "a friend", so they have to be won over quickly to keep the account.

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

#140

Post by palerdot »

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 common in asian cultures (I'm from India), where kids take care of parents and even extended families like uncles etc as they grow old. Though this pattern is shrinking in cities, most of them do keep aside money for their parents during their old age. In old times, whatever people earn is not for them to keep. The money from all the bread winners will be pooled by elders and will be shared by everyone for running of the joint family. This too is becoming uncommon but atleast people keep aside money (or some equivalent) so that it can be used for expenses of aged parents ...
Post reply on HN