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Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#221

Post by pawelwentpawel »

philip1209 wrote: post #2

I've been self-employed for the last ~18 months. In the past I started two VC-backed startups, then was a PM at some later-stage companies before returning to entrepreneurship. This time around, I'm building a solo "digital product studio" [1] instead of a startup. So, I'm staying one person, haven't raised money, and have multiple revenue-generating products. Product revenue doesn't cover my costs yet, so I do occas…

Same here! I've been running my own digital products (https://flat.social and some smaller ones) and bridging the gap with consulting. For me, the flexibility lead to a fully location-independent lifestyle which allowed me to work from places where I feel at my best. Currently writing this from a tropical patio in Brazil :)

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#222

Post by sixQuarks »

I’ve been self employed since 2004. Never really had a “real” job even before that. Started a web site in 1997 and sold it a year later for 7 figures, worked as a “cofounder” at the company that acquired, then started more sites on the side until revenue exceeded my salary and quit.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#223

Post by derzan »

philip1209 wrote: post #26
asim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is super cool! I was/am a startup founder too, bootstrapped an open source project, raised VC money, but ultimately it didn't work out. Now thinking about a solo business again and the studio model was exactly what I was looking at. How did you decide what to build?

My first product Postcard [1] is a personal website builder. I built that because I thought a personal website maker made logical sense as an indie business, and I wanted a way to stay in touch with friends after I deleted social media. But, it's hard to scale - user acquisition is the name of the game, willingness to pay is lower, the product isn't super differentiated, and I don't have a lot of experience in B2C. S…

What avenues did you go through to reach VC funding? Prior connections, or other points of communication?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#224

Post by fakedang »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #146

I'm self-unemployed :D Helped a startup to exit a couple of years ago and had a small amount of equity. Been working on building a game since then. I don't think I'm going to make it to the finish line before I need to get another job, but maybe after that job I'll have the game finished and can build a more sustainable path from there. Definitely envious of those with actually sustainable business models, though, he…

I went through your profile and I just want to say, that idea of gamifying mental health with virtual pets (ants!) sounds super interesting! All the best!

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#225

Post by lifestyleguru »

V-2 wrote: post #79
KptMarchewa wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you earn enough, the savings can easily surpass the risk for a singular person. It's worse for society overall, but let's not pretend the high earners don't mostly subsidize the safety net.

The IT sector in Poland (again) is a booming one, and most of the services are effectively exported, as we're talking outsourcing. I guess it translates into the lack of political will to curb the practice, too, as the government would risk that self-employed programmers (and whatnot) may not fall in line, but mostly log out of the system instead, registering their companies abroad, for example. I guess the governmen…

In developed countries IP means submitting patents and real research which build the company's position on the market. That's why they have strong companies and brands. The Polish "IP box" is creating and submitting PDFs with git diffs of Java and TypeScript written for these companies. Just remember to remove passwords and secrets from them, guys.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#226

Post by SeanAnderson »

fakedang wrote: post #224
SeanAnderson wrote: post #146

I'm self-unemployed :D Helped a startup to exit a couple of years ago and had a small amount of equity. Been working on building a game since then. I don't think I'm going to make it to the finish line before I need to get another job, but maybe after that job I'll have the game finished and can build a more sustainable path from there. Definitely envious of those with actually sustainable business models, though, he…

I went through your profile and I just want to say, that idea of gamifying mental health with virtual pets (ants!) sounds super interesting! All the best!

Thank you! :D I appreciate the kind words.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#227

Post by petecooper »

>How many of you are self employed?

+1. Self-employed since 2006. Previously at Sophos.

>What do you do?

I'm a technical generalist, and it's slowly killing me. I need to specialise in…something.

>Curious to know what sustains people.

Fear of eviction & a broken anhedonic treadmill. Coming up to 20 years of that, there's a lot of damage to fix, frankly.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#228

Post by PH95VuimJjqBqy »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #42
upupupandaway wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of experience do you have to be able to credibly provide this service? Must be a lot!

I don't know. Usually clients talk to me to see if we click, ask questions and decide if I can help or not. On one hand I have been doing software development for a long time, 40+ years of coding (currently Go), 25+ years as a manager (CTO, DoE, HoD,...) in large enterprises and startups. Founded three startups, one fizzled out, one went belly up in 2001 and one sold successfully. But I learn something new every day.…

I generally call bullshit on coaches, but with that sort of experience you may be one of the few who can actually advise.

I always find it extremely difficult to believe a 20 or 30-something can provide meaningful coaching advice, most of it is going to end up being a combination of theory (what they think) and things they've read (their interpretation of others experience).

- a crotchety 45+ year old

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#229

Post by bart7782 »

darajava wrote: post #129

I 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.

I could not find any pricing options on your website.

In order to find how much your service would cost, i needed to create an account and also download the app.

You also did not specify which features would be locked behind a paywall.

Can you be more transparent about this? I like to know what i'm getting myself into before i start using a product.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#230

Post by defulmere »

Currently self-employed with a web hosting company started with some former colleagues when the company we used to work for was bought out and shut down. We were fortunate to be included in a list of alternate providers that the old company gave to their customers and had an early influx of a couple thousand customers. As a result we've got a ton of customers who we've been working with for 16+ years.

I handle the customer-facing stuff, ie service and support. That sort of work has the downside of dealing with occasional negativity, but for the most part our customers are happy and capable of producing complex problems that are fun to solve :)

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