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Ask HN: How did you start your business?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#71

Post by cabinguy »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #67
cabinguy wrote: post #57

I started buying broken laptops on eBay, fixing them, and reselling them with my best friend. We started with $600 each on credit cards. That turned into a large refurbished computer sales business. So large that I started shopping for a vacation home (lake home). Well, the process of buying a vacation home was frustrating. This was back in 2002 and most real estate brokerages did not have websites, and if they did,…

> When the used laptop market turned into the used VCR market… Meaning, it died? How did you handle the payments in those days?

Yea, the margins went from out-of-this-world to terrible as the price of new laptops came down. We used paypal and a few other (way worse) credit card processors. We also accepted checks and money orders by mail.

Edit: Another interesting tidbit. We were such a large paypal customer at the time that we were invited into their IPO. Bear Stearns (I think) called us 5 times trying to get us to buy in...but it was right after the .com crash and we chickened out. We would have doubled our money that day ;(

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#72

Post by graeme »

I was in law school, planning to start my own law practice. Then I read the 4HWW, fell in love with the automated business model, and realized it was difficult in law.

I left law school, using LSAT tutoring and teaching to cover expenses while thinking of an automated product idea.

I had reached out to online LSAT tutors for tips when I first started tutoring. A few months in, one of them approached me to ask if I would write some explanations for LSAT preptests. He needed them for licsening reasons, but didn't have the time to write them himself.

This seemed like an automated product (he would pay me royalties, I kept the rights). I wrote a bunch. These eventually also turned into print books.

I later made the explanations free online. This site attracted a lot of users, and I made video courses to sell to them.

That's where I'm at now, it's the 8th year.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#73

Post by greysteil »

lmq10 wrote: post #43
greysteil wrote: post #5

I left my job, took some time out, and then started building my business ( https://dependabot.com ). Financially, it's been tough - after 10 months Dependabot makes $2,100 a month (although that's now growing quite fast). I know I'm the kind of personality that couldn't have started it at the same time as working a full time job, though - I need to be really focussed on one thing at a time.

Nice, Love that you offer to free for open source, $50/month seems super cheap for enterprise through?

Yeah, this is going to sound mad, but I quite like only charging $50. I know some customers would be willing to pay more, but under the hood the product is the same and I personally feel good about giving people great value.

The above would have to change if I started doing serious sales, in which case I’d need a higher number to justify the time involved.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#74

Post by npezolano »

greysteil wrote: post #5

I left my job, took some time out, and then started building my business ( https://dependabot.com ). Financially, it's been tough - after 10 months Dependabot makes $2,100 a month (although that's now growing quite fast). I know I'm the kind of personality that couldn't have started it at the same time as working a full time job, though - I need to be really focussed on one thing at a time.

Awesome product, I reached out with some general questions

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#75

Post by graeme »

extrememacaroni wrote: post #11
jcadam wrote: post #2

I have had some side projects make a little bit of money, but never enough to make any sort of headway toward replacing my full-time job. My current effort is also a side business while I continue to work my FT job. It is definitely detrimental to the business to continue to devote 40+ hours per week to something else, but I need to feed my family (if I was young and single with no other financial obligations, I woul…

Depending on how far you take your business while young, you may find it difficult to go back to regular employment, especially in places where people expect you to be reliable and dedicated. I'm not sure young people can take financial risks, unless they're already rich. If they're not rich, I'd sooner advise people to work for long enough to have a safety net of cash, as well as cash to invest in their idea first.…

Hah, I worry about this. I started my business at 25. I've never had a job. I'm not sure how employable I would be if I ever needed one. I rarely work the same number of hours each day, and I don't keep a set schedule.

As such, a safety net is a bit priority. Enough so I could start another business if mine ever gets problems.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#76

Post by xur17 »

jcadam wrote: post #2

I have had some side projects make a little bit of money, but never enough to make any sort of headway toward replacing my full-time job. My current effort is also a side business while I continue to work my FT job. It is definitely detrimental to the business to continue to devote 40+ hours per week to something else, but I need to feed my family (if I was young and single with no other financial obligations, I woul…

This sounds very similar to my history. I've built a number of projects on the side, one of which my current employer purchased for a decent sum of money (and then hired me). I continue to build projects on the side, but I just don't have the necessary time to commit to them.

I finally bit the bullet last week and put in my 2 week notice to work on side projects full time. I have enough money to cover myself comfortably for several years, and I have no dependents - this is an opportunity I may never get again. I'm giving myself 1 year to see what I can build, and then I'll decide what to do.

Worst case I go find another job in a year.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#77

Post by Arubis »

tn_ wrote: post #26
csallen wrote: post #3

I left my job. Or, more accurately, the startup I was doing contract work for went under, and I decided not to look for another contract afterwards. I worked on a few projects before starting my business, Indie Hackers, which I grew to just under $6k/mo in revenue (in 8 months) before joining Stripe. I've done interviews with close to 300 founders. Recently, I added a sortable, filterable directory that can help answ…

That's awesome. What is the business model of IndieHacker?

Inspiring people to start businesses that are highly likely to become clients of Stripe, its parent co.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#78

Post by jallardice »

kypro wrote: post #60
jallardice wrote: post #55

A colleague and I left a large UK company and started orangejellyfish ( https://orangejellyfish.com ), a software consultancy with a focus on the web and JavaScript. The real push to start it came when we realised that much of what we both wanted to achieve in terms of craftsmanship, maintainable code and training in new technologies for engineering teams not yet exposed to them, was not going to be possible. We knew…

How do you typically find your clients?

We network at meetups, conferences and other events, so through word of mouth mainly. The active engineering community in London is fantastic at helping to spread opportunities.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#79

Post by fishbone »

Slaul wrote: post #34

I have a question about starting businesses...I'm getting ready to launch an MVP and it never occurred to me to research opening a specific bank account for it, whether or not I need to get a sole proprietorship (I'm in Canada, afaik this is our version of LLC more or less), etc. Anybody have any good resources for this stage of the process?

You might want to wait until you have some customers and some traction, but when you are ready, check out Stripe Atlas.

Re: Ask HN: How did you start your business?

#80

Post by remind_me_again »

cabinguy wrote: post #57

I started buying broken laptops on eBay, fixing them, and reselling them with my best friend. We started with $600 each on credit cards. That turned into a large refurbished computer sales business. So large that I started shopping for a vacation home (lake home). Well, the process of buying a vacation home was frustrating. This was back in 2002 and most real estate brokerages did not have websites, and if they did,…

Any links to your business?
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