I started park.io 5 years ago by myself and it has been profitable since then (and it has been just me the whole time)
Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
321–330 of 376 posts
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#322I'm running https://www.gosourcingwise.com - its not super profitable but growing. Companies using it find it very simple and useful so that motivating to keep building it better.
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand the context, but that logo doesn't give me a lot of warm feelings. I would likely skip the product just on that regardless of how awesome it might be.
Can you elaborate on why ?
1) It's associated with hacktivist groups bordering on actually criminal.
2) As a British person, it's associated with Guy Fawkes, who was a terrorist.
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#324Packetriot (https://packetriot.com) - around 4 months old and I haven't begun seriously marketing, but it generates $60/month and makes a tiny profit.
With it you can create a secure public endpoints (HTTP/TCP) from any network. The client can host static sites, reverse-proxy to other hosts, terminate TLS. It manages Lets-Encrypt for you. The higher-end tiers provides access logs, metrics, firewall rules, and service-health checks.
With a public endpoint you can pretty much do anything. I initially built it to reduce my hosting costs to something minuscule (which it did). I found alternatives as I developed it, but I was so interested in the problem I continued and created some features that aren't available in others. I still have more ideas in the pipeline.
I've been putting together video tutorials to showcase what you can do with it and how to use it. I'm focusing on people that self-host since most developers/hackers understand the concept. A lot of my registrations and customers have discovered Packetriot through my YouTube channel.
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#325so what can we learn from this?
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#326I'm a one-man team developing TAYL, a service that turns websites into podcasts using AI. I built everything in 3 months (while working full-time with other things) and it's been profitable since week 1 of public release https://www.tayl.app
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also noticed that a lot of successful solo projects seem to be network/directory platforms - i.e. building an audience through free content that you then monetize through commercial partnerships. As you said, these require a lot more on the marketing/partnerships side, rather than the technical side (in fact, one of the great things is that MVPs can be built in a couple of days on something like Wordpress).
> I've also noticed that a lot of successful solo projects seem to be network/directory platforms - i.e. building an audience through free content that you then monetize through commercial partnerships. Nailed it! What others have you noticed?
Startup directories like ProductHunt, BetaList, AngelList are all great examples.
Now that I think about it, that actually describes a lot of blogs/vlogs/podcasts too (create an audience with great content, monetize via advertising). Not quite SaaS, though, so slightly different from OPs original question.
Places like https://designacademy.io/ sit in the middle - content-first to create the audience, then use that audience to sell online courses in your given niche.
The takeaway - which applies to any business really - is that you need an audience and you need to be selling something that someone desperately needs (rather than something that someone "wants").
Recruiters need candidates. Advertisers need eyeballs. Companies need investor networks. Find the need, build the audience.
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure thing! Thanks for asking. We're closed to new signups now while we wrap up the last bit of feature parity from the old app (and make sure all is working smoothly for our current subscribers), but would love to have you check it out in a little bit: https://pearbudget.com
Oh, wow, I’ve been using your spreadsheet for over a decade now! It was my intro to personal budgeting and has served me well all this time. Have you ever considered creating a native mobile app? That’d probably tip me over the edge to become a paying customer.
Oh gosh, that is so awesome to hear! I love that it's worked so well for you!
Native mobile app! Absolutely have thought about it in the past, and will absolutely be thinking about it a little later on this year as we tune our roadmap.
If you shoot me a note (charlie@pearbudget.com), I'll let you know when we get a native app out the door. No pressure, though! Take care!
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#329https://carrd.co by aj - a Zapas That enables people build simple websites/landing pages.
Re: Ask HN: One-person SaaS apps that are profitable?
#330Two-person but close enough - We're building Leave Me Alone ( https://leavemealone.xyz ), an app that helps you unsubscribe from spammy mailing lists. Currently at ~$500/month (full stats are public here https://leavemealone.xyz/open )
awesome you are actually sharing numbers - love it!