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Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#51

Post by rmetzler »

landon32 wrote: post #37
john_moscow wrote: post #25

Just my 5 cents on making linux-commands-examples.com into an actual business: 1. Do a Google Trends research on the Linux commands people search for (and get trouble with/get confused with). Pick ~5 most popular ones. 2. Find 2-5 pages on the Internet for each command where people asked for help and didn't get a 100% satisfying reply. 3. Write a description page (or article) for each of those commands, explaining th…

This is a great process for becoming a nice-cashflow side project, but I doubt there's enough people searching for linux commands for this to ever be huge. Not saying this isn't a great idea, just saying that it's wise to hedge expectations and not expect this to be a get rich quick scheme. I think if you wanted to turn it into a larger business, the next step would be to determine an adjacent niche that your readers…

Check out the Linux command zines Julia Evans creates and sells online. I don’t know the exact numbers, but if I remember correctly she sold like 3.000 PDFs for $10 each.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#52

Post by earenndil »

landon32 wrote: post #37
john_moscow wrote: post #25

Just my 5 cents on making linux-commands-examples.com into an actual business: 1. Do a Google Trends research on the Linux commands people search for (and get trouble with/get confused with). Pick ~5 most popular ones. 2. Find 2-5 pages on the Internet for each command where people asked for help and didn't get a 100% satisfying reply. 3. Write a description page (or article) for each of those commands, explaining th…

This is a great process for becoming a nice-cashflow side project, but I doubt there's enough people searching for linux commands for this to ever be huge. Not saying this isn't a great idea, just saying that it's wise to hedge expectations and not expect this to be a get rich quick scheme. I think if you wanted to turn it into a larger business, the next step would be to determine an adjacent niche that your readers…

A friend of a friend owns and runs google ads on linux.die.net (linux manpages). It pays his mortgage.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#53

Post by PhilWright »

A common mistake I see is developers often view a big and well known service and assume that means the entire market is fully catered to. For example, 'Firebase' is a large Google service that handles backend-as-a-service (BaaS). Does this mean the entire BaaS is now off the table for others?

Of course not! Maybe you can create a specialised BaaS that works great for the unique demands of Ruby developers, with a seamless SDK for them. There will be multiple specialised niches that Firebase does not cater to because they are so large that small niche areas are not worth their effort. But that niche might make a nice little lifestyle business for a developer! Do a good job of it and you become known as the go-to place for the Ruby community. (This is just an example, I have no idea if the Ruby community needs a Firebase BaaS)

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#54

Post by goatherders »

The act of creating is entrepreneurship, not the result.

To add even more advice to a lot of good advice already posted, I would encourage you to learn about sales and marketing as much as anything. The building is just the start. If you build something you still have to sell it. Also, set some goals. If you havent had much success to date I would suggest setting a goal of $100 to $1000 a month or whatever suites you. Now, do the work with that goal in mind. Are you going something that moves you closer to that goal or just writing more code?

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#55

Post by felipemnoa »

Alex3917 wrote: post #35
keeptrying wrote: post #9

I've seen Mark Cuban use "wannapreneur" many times on his show and I've heard others use this term. I spent a good week trying to figure out what they meant because the term never seemed to correlate to the size of the success of the pitch they were hearing. At one point someone came in who has built some kind of underwater propulsion device which was the culmination of 3 years of work. He had a pretty polished proto…

You're a wannapreneur if: - You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything - You build something without first talking to people - You build something and never try to sell it If you build something that people say they'll pay for and then they don't actually pay for it then this is problematic, but also normal and doesn't make you a wannapreneur. At that point it's just part of the struggle.

--never try to sell it

To me that should be the only criteria of a wannapreneur.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#56

Post by DonHopkins »

john_moscow wrote: post #25

Just my 5 cents on making linux-commands-examples.com into an actual business: 1. Do a Google Trends research on the Linux commands people search for (and get trouble with/get confused with). Pick ~5 most popular ones. 2. Find 2-5 pages on the Internet for each command where people asked for help and didn't get a 100% satisfying reply. 3. Write a description page (or article) for each of those commands, explaining th…

Expanding your Linux commands site to also covering Unix commands in general, Mac shell commands and Windows Linux subsystem commands specifically, might enlarge your audience.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#57

Post by datavirtue »

antoineMoPa wrote: post #27

Same. I started a multi-user calculator (now dead) hoping to get users and eventually offer paid plans. It never got more than 5 monthly users. Started a blog (now dead). Not much traffic. Made some contract work for people, but the projects are too damn boring so I'd rather focus on university. I think I am happier when I code free side projects without any capitalist aspiration. Still, the desire to stop having a b…

Worse. Much worse.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#58

Post by koolba »

felipemnoa wrote: post #55
Alex3917 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a wannapreneur if: - You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything - You build something without first talking to people - You build something and never try to sell it If you build something that people say they'll pay for and then they don't actually pay for it then this is problematic, but also normal and doesn't make you a wannapreneur. At that point it's just part of the struggle.

--never try to sell it To me that should be the only criteria of a wannapreneur.

The reverse of that is the hallmark of the greatest entrepreneurs:

Selling something that doesn’t even exist yet

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#59

Post by evbots »

landon32 wrote: post #37
john_moscow wrote: post #25

Just my 5 cents on making linux-commands-examples.com into an actual business: 1. Do a Google Trends research on the Linux commands people search for (and get trouble with/get confused with). Pick ~5 most popular ones. 2. Find 2-5 pages on the Internet for each command where people asked for help and didn't get a 100% satisfying reply. 3. Write a description page (or article) for each of those commands, explaining th…

This is a great process for becoming a nice-cashflow side project, but I doubt there's enough people searching for linux commands for this to ever be huge. Not saying this isn't a great idea, just saying that it's wise to hedge expectations and not expect this to be a get rich quick scheme. I think if you wanted to turn it into a larger business, the next step would be to determine an adjacent niche that your readers…

I actually disagree with this. As someone who uses linux as the primary build OS for my software projects, i need to know just enough to make things work but I don't necessarily want to be an uber linux expert. This results in me constantly googling "command for ubuntu", which usually lands me on a stackoverflow page with something that points me in the right direction. Now, i'm not saying a linux example commands website will be successful for my anecdotal reason, but i have to imagine there are many more devs just like me.

Re: Ask HN: Am I just a wantrepreneur?

#60

Post by Alex3917 »

bored wrote: post #40
Alex3917 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a wannapreneur if: - You talk to people about your ideas, but never build anything - You build something without first talking to people - You build something and never try to sell it If you build something that people say they'll pay for and then they don't actually pay for it then this is problematic, but also normal and doesn't make you a wannapreneur. At that point it's just part of the struggle.

Or if you fall in love with the initial idea and never iterate.

True, but hard to adjudicate. The problem is how do you differentiate between people who don't pivot because they think the next feature will make them successful and are justified in doing so, versus people who do the same thing but really should pivot? It's tricky because we have all of the following examples:

- People whose initial idea isn't working, but who pivot and immediately hit product market fit.

- People who launch the exact same thing once a year and it finally becomes a huge hit after the fourth time.

- People who pivot quickly and fail, whereas they would have probably been successful had they pushed the original idea to its logical conclusion.

- People who pivot after five years and become wildly successful, but where it's unclear if they would have been as successful had they had pivoted sooner.

- People who pivot and become successful when they would have been better off shutting down and starting over. (e.g. Derek Sivers)

This hits home a lot for me because I always strongly favor the strategy of building some optionality into the product, both for my own startup and when doing consulting, on the assumption that we're probably directionally correct but may be wrong on some specifics (e.g. how a feature should work, who the early adopters will be, what the economy will be like in the future, what the cash flow of the business will be like on any given day, etc.) And I take a lot of shit both for not committing 100% to one specific product and go-to-market strategy, and also for not pivoting fast enough when something isn't working. Go figure.

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