It really depends on the service (if it solves a real problem) and on the niche (if market is rich and people want to pay good money for your solution); as for other ways related: public media content is done and dusted and facilitator gigs are often not worth the hassle.
Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
141–150 of 165 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Word. I started my current SaaS with the goal of working 10hrs a week and making 15k a month. I'm getting close to my monthly revenue goal but if I'm not sleeping, I'm working. I don't regret it. I'm enjoying the challenge now but it wasn't what I had thought I was getting myself into. I truly underestimated the gravity of emails and support requests. As a one man shop, it can grind entire days to a halt. Passive inf…
> I truly underestimated the gravity of emails and support requests. As a one man shop, it can grind entire days to a halt. Same boat - You can make the most detailed image based walk through FAQ tutorial documentation what have you and you'll still have days filled with customer support. You'll wake up one morning with multiple emails from billing to product support. The more you grow, the more they come. PS: You're…
Why don't you hire out support? Sounds like $15-20/h type of work which you shouldn't be doing if you can gain more value building features or marketing.
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#143I made Menutail (https://www.menutail.com) which creates nutrition facts labels for food vendors. Up time is definitely important, but if things go wrong, customers are understanding if you communicate honestly with them on what is going on.
The other thing to be careful of is feature creep to ensure it is valuable for your customer base. If one customer complains that they want something which would be super difficult and applicable to only one edge case, I'd take some pause to evaluate the feedback.
The other thing as ovidiup mentioned, marketing is the absolutely hardest. I would even consider it soul draining if you like coding, but it is super necessary. I would recommend reading this book to help think about your sales channel
https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Co...
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#144I had such a project that was making about $15k/mo at its peak -- it was me and my wife, barring a couple of spot contributions from contractors. It depended on data from a sole data source, a Fortune 100 company, which eventually cut us off by sending a C&D threatening to sue under the CFAA, Copyright Act, and various other statutes. They claimed we breached the contract entered automatically by using their site, as…
Would you be willing to sell the site/code to somebody who is willing to take the risk? A Fortune 100 in the US can't touch a Lithuanian Corporation. :)
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's pretty impressive actually! Have you considering hiring one or two people (e.g., freelancers) to remotely help with support? Also, a virtual secretary would be immensely helpful I'd imagine. I have a couple of ideas I've been wanting to work on, but time is quite scarce as a grad student. I guess it's partly because I tend to overthink (and over-design) my ideas, and end up getting overwhelmed before even touc…
I am not exactly qualified to gauge the viability of your idea but I believe an Uber-like service is pretty ambitious of a venture, especially given the fact that you'd go for it solo. Consider the fact that you need to fill both the demand-side and supply-side, and match them almost in real time for it to be useful. I feel that it's often underestimated how challenging this task is. I am not sure if a web-client wou…
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that it is in fact non-trivial to get automated ride sharing working end to end.
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#146Yes its definitely viable. I started my micro ISV 6 years ago, its been quite successful about $200k/yr. Its very niche. I do no marketing but get regular sales through mainly word of mouth and internet searches. Now some bigger companies have picked up my software and use it in house and OEM it. Took a lot of work to get started and a lot of learning Its difficult for competitors to make something similar in a reaso…
Do you mind sharing what space your product is in?
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Starting with an info product is a common suggestion (Amy Hoy is one advocate as a sibling comment noted). But in order to be able to offer an info product don't you need to be really knowledgeable about something? If you hadn't your experience with your SaaS would you be in the same position to write (and sell!) your tutorial?
I still battle with my inner dialog about "not being an expert" at anything. This is something I get caught up on but all you really need to be is more knowledgeable than your target audience. So sell something you already know to people who want to know it. There are still people out there that are basically beginners in web development. There are people one or more rungs down the ladder from you. You don't have to…
CEO of One Month Rails Mattan Grieffel taught himself to code (mind you his co-founder was teaching others to learn to code at General Assembly.) I think this post from Scott Adams will help you understand how you can be gain more confidence http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't but am considering selling one of the products next year. I plan to go through a Broker. I had a soft offer in the $3 mil range from a big company for that real estate product I mentioned. They reached out to me. I pretty much blew it off because it was in a growth phase and I felt I could grow it more. 6 months later, the real estate market crashed and that product lost 50% of its revenue within a year. In…
Unrelated point, but I would do anything (even put school on hold) just to be able to work with a mentor like you. Being a solo founder for niche Saas products is exactly what I aspire to be, and learning from someone who's been there and done that would be a terrific experience
these guys do an internship you might be interested in https://empireflippers.com/ (caveat: I don't know anything about them)
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#149I'll add something I wish I had realized several years ago: build a SaaS is not the only path to a product business, and for a solo founder, it's (in my opinion) probably not a very good path. I spent 5 years trying to get a micro ISV off the ground which made scheduling software for hair salons. It was a terrible idea for a large number of reasons (described in detail here: https://www.jasonswett.net/im-shutting-dow…
how did you go about marketing this, and what in your opinion would be a good way for a tech guy to start learning basics of marketing your product??
Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't but am considering selling one of the products next year. I plan to go through a Broker. I had a soft offer in the $3 mil range from a big company for that real estate product I mentioned. They reached out to me. I pretty much blew it off because it was in a growth phase and I felt I could grow it more. 6 months later, the real estate market crashed and that product lost 50% of its revenue within a year. In…
Unrelated point, but I would do anything (even put school on hold) just to be able to work with a mentor like you. Being a solo founder for niche Saas products is exactly what I aspire to be, and learning from someone who's been there and done that would be a terrific experience
I will reach out to you at the beginning of the new year. Honestly though if you are interested, I would put you mostly on advertising related stuff. Coding is the easy part, advertising and acquiring users is the hard part. Learning how to advertise a product and acquire users for less than what you are spend is one of the most important pieces of running a SaaS.