Ask HN: Small product, single founder success stories? • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by senko » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:19 PM UTC

kayoone wrote: post #10

i met the guy who wrote the AroundMe iphone app last week. Top 15 overall downloaded app and i think over 30M searches a month. Hes running it all on his own since 2008, just his wife doing support stuff. Very humble and cool guy aswell!

Was that on HackFWD build07 event in Berlin? He did a presentation there last Saturday.

I think he mentioned 30M installations. Also, 15% conversion rate from ad-supported free to ad-free premium version of the app. Also, Apple featured him in a TV commercial.

Also, very humble guy. People basically had to pull the conv. rate info and the fact that Apple featured his app out of him. Massive respect.

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

#22

Post by philipDS » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:24 PM UTC

bignoggins wrote: post #7

I'm the single founder of Bignoggins Productions. I do sports apps for mobile devices. My apps have been pretty successful, reaching as high as #32 overall paid on iPhone and #60 overall paid on iPad. Been full time for about 9 months now. Made 75K last year, and on track for 250K+ this year. Almost all profit as my overhead is insanely low. Currently traveling the world with my wife while working on apps (our travel…

You're living the dream man. Awesome.

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

#23

Post by tsycho » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:26 PM UTC

gopi wrote: post #18

I am a single founder, made around $10 million in pure profits in the last 8 years from relatively few internet projects/products. The interesting thing is i am not even a professional developer (but can write simple scripts and understand technology)

Could you provide more details on your projects?

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

#24

Post by senith » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:28 PM UTC

I run a tutoring service http://graduatetutor.com/ and am loving it. It aint software or apps so Ive got to manage it more actively. One issue I must admit in a service business is that it is not as easily salable as software or apps.

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

#25

Post by gopi » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:29 PM UTC

tsycho wrote: post #23

gopi wrote: post #18

I am a single founder, made around $10 million in pure profits in the last 8 years from relatively few internet projects/products. The interesting thing is i am not even a professional developer (but can write simple scripts and understand technology)

Could you provide more details on your projects?

I like my anonymity so cannot give more details, hope you understand :)

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

#26

Post by WillyF » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

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-day-one-job-how-...

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

#27

Post by petenixey » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:33 PM UTC

gopi wrote: post #18

I am a single founder, made around $10 million in pure profits in the last 8 years from relatively few internet projects/products. The interesting thing is i am not even a professional developer (but can write simple scripts and understand technology)

Those are impressive figures - can you share more?

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

#28

Post by maranas » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:38 PM UTC

bignoggins wrote: post #7

I'm the single founder of Bignoggins Productions. I do sports apps for mobile devices. My apps have been pretty successful, reaching as high as #32 overall paid on iPhone and #60 overall paid on iPad. Been full time for about 9 months now. Made 75K last year, and on track for 250K+ this year. Almost all profit as my overhead is insanely low. Currently traveling the world with my wife while working on apps (our travel…

that's the life i want to live. just make sure not to forget paying your taxes

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

#29

Post by iconfinder » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

I'm a single founder who have run Iconfinder.com alone from 2007 until 2011, where I got a new business partner. The site reached 1,7 M monthly visits and gives me almost a full income. I won't define it as success since I haven't reached my goal yet, but I guess it shows you can build a large website alone.

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

#30

Post by DMcQ » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

I'd phrase it more like "single founder evolving towards success" with my own application, http://www.simplediagrams.com, which is earning about 2K a month.

Like many of you I designed, developed and marketed the app myself. (Although I've just recently hired some help for coding.) Biggest challenge is just to find more time to work on it, since I have other work that takes precedence.

Peldi and Rob Walling are big inspirations.