Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#21

Post by stevenwoo » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:47 PM UTC

anandkulkarni wrote: post #10

jkeuhlen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, did you go about setting up a formal corporation for the product? I'm thinking about setting up my own SaaS product and I'm not sure if I need to do anything on the legal/business side.

I wouldn't set up a corporation until you have either a reasonable amount of cash coming in or someone ready to give you a check. After that, I'd start with an LLC in your home state, unless you think there's a chance you'll take outside investment. If you do, conversion to a Delaware C-corp costs around $10K in legal fees.

I thought that an LLC in California required a yearly fee that was close to a $1000 the last time I looked. Is that no longer true or not true at all? Related - isn't it much cheaper in other states?

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#22

Post by mark-ruwt » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:49 PM UTC

I founded Are You Watching This?! (https://ruwt.tv) in 2006 and have been profitable since 2013. It's a Sports Excitement Analytics firm, licensing real-time data about the excitement of games by analyzing pitch-by-pitch and shot-by-shot data, to sports properties and cable companies.

I'm happy with where I'm at, but there's a lot I would've done differently. Holler if you'd like to chat about it at all: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markphillip/

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#23

Post by mark-ruwt » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:53 PM UTC

lynnetye wrote: post #16

Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) is a one-woman show (oh hi!). I started Key Values as a side project two years ago, but it quickly turned into my full-time passion and business. I'm doing ~$30k/month and it's almost all profit since I don't have an office or any employees. I recently talked to Courtland of Indie Hackers (already mentioned in the comments) about how I got here: https://www.indiehackers.com/po…

God, that's a brilliant name/logo.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#24

Post by davej » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:00 PM UTC

I'm close with ToDesktop (https://www.todesktop.com/), I've launched quite recently so expect to be there in the next month or two.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#25

Post by alphagrep12345 » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

lynnetye wrote: post #16

Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) is a one-woman show (oh hi!). I started Key Values as a side project two years ago, but it quickly turned into my full-time passion and business. I'm doing ~$30k/month and it's almost all profit since I don't have an office or any employees. I recently talked to Courtland of Indie Hackers (already mentioned in the comments) about how I got here: https://www.indiehackers.com/po…

Really good website. However, I'm wondering as to why this is a full-time business. Is most of your time taken by marketing and sales?

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#26

Post by Axsuul » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

I'm building a SaaS app (getting close to ramen profitable): Trunk @ https://www.trunkinventory.com which helps online sellers sync their inventory in real-time across their different sales channels (i.e. Etsy, Faire, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, etc)

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#27

Post by ohaideredevs » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

lynnetye wrote: post #16

Key Values ( https://www.keyvalues.com ) is a one-woman show (oh hi!). I started Key Values as a side project two years ago, but it quickly turned into my full-time passion and business. I'm doing ~$30k/month and it's almost all profit since I don't have an office or any employees. I recently talked to Courtland of Indie Hackers (already mentioned in the comments) about how I got here: https://www.indiehackers.com/po…

I thought this was going to be a storage service for private keys.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#28

Post by benmanns » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:05 PM UTC

stevenwoo wrote: post #21

anandkulkarni wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't set up a corporation until you have either a reasonable amount of cash coming in or someone ready to give you a check. After that, I'd start with an LLC in your home state, unless you think there's a chance you'll take outside investment. If you do, conversion to a Delaware C-corp costs around $10K in legal fees.

I thought that an LLC in California required a yearly fee that was close to a $1000 the last time I looked. Is that no longer true or not true at all? Related - isn't it much cheaper in other states?

Yes, the franchise tax. You can't get out of it by incorporating in another state. CA residents pay CA taxes.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#29

Post by _bxg1 » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:06 PM UTC

davej wrote: post #24

I'm close with ToDesktop ( https://www.todesktop.com/ ), I've launched quite recently so expect to be there in the next month or two.

Nifty! Elegant pricing model too.

Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?

#30

Post by srecio » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 9:09 PM UTC

I built out Pipefile (https://pipefile.com) as a one man operation. Bundle your PGP key into file upload forms to receive end-to-end encrypted files. Embed the upload forms into any html page to receive files without setting up any backend infrastructure.

You can try sending me something at https://pipefile.com/steve