Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 277 posts

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#32

Post by MattBearman »

I run BugMuncher on my own (https://www.bugmuncher.com), I've been working on it full time since October 2015, and it's been profitable since November 2016, providing all of my income.

If you're interested I've been documenting the entire process of taking BugMuncher from a side project to my full-time job on my blog starting here - https://www.bugmuncher.com/blog/from-side-project-to-profita...

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#36

Post by blunte »

maxxxxx wrote: post #28

PlentyOfFish was run by a single guy for a long time AFAIK.

True, but that was back in the day when standards and expectations were much lower. Now there are hundreds more dating sites, many built by skilled teams. So this ship has sailed.

But his (Markus Frind's) story is a fun one. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-markus-frind-bootstrapped...

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#37

Post by chrishn »

matte_black wrote: post #26
iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #6

Pieter Levels is the creator of: - https://nomadlist.com/ - https://remoteok.io/ - https://hoodmaps.com/ And he just broke €50,000/m a few days ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/96802754410347315...

*Revenue though, not profit

Not many expenses, though.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#38

Post by blunte »

ikeboy wrote: post #9

I sell random stuff on Amazon, buying wholesale. Current run rate is ~200k/month, more in Q4, figure profit somewhere between 5-20%. Started 2 years ago buying from stores etc, shifted to wholesale a year ago.

If you're referring to the "Amazon drop-ship" business, I think that space is probably already overcrowded. Those who got in and figured it out - and got a head start, probably still have an advantage. But you must realize that Amazon can, at their whim, change anything at any moment and kill that business.

Plus you have unscrupulous competitors who will throw a little money in to buy a bunch of your products as soon as they appear (if your products compete with theirs), and then leave negative reviews. I suspect that eventually the only way to be a winner is to be a cheater. Surely you don't do that.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#39

Post by _xzxj »

superasn wrote: post #25
iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #6

Pieter Levels is the creator of: - https://nomadlist.com/ - https://remoteok.io/ - https://hoodmaps.com/ And he just broke €50,000/m a few days ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/96802754410347315...

Yes, this guy is truly an inspiration. If you're a one person business, you will find this tweet very useful: https://mobile.twitter.com/levelsio/status/93870716650815488... (aka stop running after shiny new things and just do it!)

No offense but Pieter Levels seems like a bit of a bastard, and you can see it in that thread. I don't pay much attention to him, but when I do come across his social media posts they're pretty off-putting. He's pretty successful yes, but €50k/mo is not exactly f-you money.
Post reply on HN