41–50 of 164 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2% The real figure is more 2.1% (source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html )
Which is about the same rate that airlines lose luggage. (Unrelated comparison but analogies can help)
For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2%. And short of them dying, their business isn't going anywhere because keeping a SaaS startup online doesn't cost anything -- if you have the skills to do it yourself. Whereas the odds of a venture backed startup shutting down at any point over the next ten years is something like 30%. So from a r…
What does this statement mean? Are you implying to your potential customers that charging them extra translates into profits to entice you to continue the business or that the efficiencies allow for business continuity services like providing the source code in escrow?
Don't tell your prospects that all companies big and small can fail and don't use data to prove your point. It might all be true, but telling your prospects they are doomed whatever they decide is not getting you to a 'Yes'.
In my case I have niche products that are still largely unique and don't have to compete with bigger organizations. A competition I would lose in a heartbeat if customers had the choice regardless of price or chances of success. I still make sure that I have a decent solution for the 'bus' argument and I am generous with supplying access to the code they need to keep their application running when I do get hit by bus, financials ruin or old age. At best I can say: It worked up till now.
For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2%. And short of them dying, their business isn't going anywhere because keeping a SaaS startup online doesn't cost anything -- if you have the skills to do it yourself. Whereas the odds of a venture backed startup shutting down at any point over the next ten years is something like 30%. So from a r…
>On all of my sales calls, I tell people that I'm bootstrapped and that I'm going to charge them extra so that I can reduce the risk to their business by staying bootstrapped, and I have yet to run into anyone who doesn't seem satisfied by that pricing strategy. What does this statement mean? Are you implying to your potential customers that charging them extra translates into profits to entice you to continue the bu…
That I'm not going to dump product on the market below cost to gain market share. Since even though doing that is obviously saves customers a little bit of money in the short term, in the long term the money raised to do that needs to be paid back ten fold, which ultimately comes out of their pockets.
It's just much easier for a business to keep its interests aligned with its customers if there isn't some third party who is trying to extract money from both.
2) If what your offering is something that involves sensitive data, financial stuff or something I need to sell on to another company I'd probably be more inclined to go for a more corporate setup so if things go bad it's not going to reflect so badly on me.
3) I try to avoid getting locked in to anything so regardless of whether your solo or a corp I'd want to be confident that I'm able to continue if you/the corp drops dead.
4) As someone who has generally been a solo developer (although freelance rather than managing to get my own 'product' out there) I've seen first hand the +/- of this. On one hand my clients appreciate that they can pick up the phone or send an email and speak to me who has inside out knowledge of what they're talking about, I'll work my arse off because I've got a lot to lose. However that might be impacted by me having a bad day, a holiday, being sick, a new shiny project or just a general lack of motivation.
If you need to communicate with your customers this way just to get any then you need a different line of work.
Scrap every business idea you have until it rapidly iterates towards “users stumbling across an automated online service connected an automated payment processor” because thats what we do here
If “rapid” and “ideas” dont happen for you, get a job
and yeah, spinning up an LLC to shield any public records should be so ingrained in you that you never think about it
I'm the sole developer of www.castingcall.club and www.closingcredits.com. About 1M people use these two products a year and I've ran them for about 7 years. While I have no plans of stopping working on them in the near term, I have listed that in the event of my death, an entrusted tech savvy person will take over these two companies. That said, all my users have no guarantee that I'll continue to work on these prod…
Just a word of rec. On mobile (Android/FF) the post titles are vertically stacked, which is tough to read for people. If you keep the text horizontally aligned and rotate 90 degrees (or dont and make horizontal) it'd make it easier to read.
Edit: Just checked out Closing Credits too. Super cool work
For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2%. And short of them dying, their business isn't going anywhere because keeping a SaaS startup online doesn't cost anything -- if you have the skills to do it yourself. Whereas the odds of a venture backed startup shutting down at any point over the next ten years is something like 30%. So from a r…
For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2%. And short of them dying, their business isn't going anywhere because keeping a SaaS startup online doesn't cost anything -- if you have the skills to do it yourself. Whereas the odds of a venture backed startup shutting down at any point over the next ten years is something like 30%. So from a r…
I’ve considered writing up a worst case scenario plan or migration document to help with initial concerns that these apps will just go away.
Are there any funds out there that offer their name as a form of backing to give customers increased confidence? I think a big name would help, not just the money itself.
Thoughts?