I run Tarsnap: http://www.tarsnap.com/
I got started because I wanted good backups and there were no solutions available which I was satisfied with.
Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
81–90 of 294 posts
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#82[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#83I sell a laptop battery meter ( http://batterybarpro.com ). It's not income replacing; it makes about $1,000 per month, but it's been crucial in saving enough for down payments one two houses. I've tried to get the revenue numbers up, but I've never been able to break a $2,000 month.
> I've never been able to break a $2,000 month.
Try charging $9.95 instead of $8.00? :)
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#84I run a product search engine called Dotmic http://www.dotmic.com/ .Recently we partnered with 60+ store and now we are profitable. :)
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#85Just launched Pinegrow Web Designer ( http://pinegrow.com ) two months ago. The company is actually run by my wife and me, but I do all the work with Pinegrow while she is taking care of our other projects. Pinegrow has been paying most of our bills since launch and I have a lot of expansions in the pipeline: full support for Foundation alongside Bootstrap, developer edition that'll work with templates, a similar app…
Pinegrow looks awesome. May I ask about what library you used to write it on the Mac? Do you have an embedded HTML renderer, or did you write your own?
Thanks! It's a Javascript app packaged with node-webkit. At first I packaged it as a Chrome App, but node-webkit was a lot more flexible and simple.
At the moment it uses Chromium to render HTML, but I'll add a custom renderer to support various templates.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#86Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say "This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect." I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card Creator ( http://www.bingocardcreator.com…
Pato11's stories are always inspiring and interesting to read. They were a huge motivator to start my own business, which I eventually did.
My first attempt in online business was GetSSL.me (https://getssl.me), which has been one-man shop most of the time. It was pretty simple to set up and run, but the biggest pain point was payments, because of my geographic location. Also marketing was a big issue, because I am not a marketer and had to learn everything on the go. To be honest it was more like trial and error approach.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#87Just launched Pinegrow Web Designer ( http://pinegrow.com ) two months ago. The company is actually run by my wife and me, but I do all the work with Pinegrow while she is taking care of our other projects. Pinegrow has been paying most of our bills since launch and I have a lot of expansions in the pipeline: full support for Foundation alongside Bootstrap, developer edition that'll work with templates, a similar app…
This looks great! The upcoming developer edition that will work with templates sounds really useful as well.
Any plans to support the SASS version of Bootstrap ?
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#88hey.
The good thing about a one man operation is that you dont have any overheads. I started my startup with 4 people, but later learned that one was enough to start off with and i should scale according to the profits im making - instead of putting my own money into it (which i didnt have much of anyway).
My startups: (http://opensource.com.pk) and (http://sells.pk/) are web agencies specializing in different areas. The former provides managed freelance outsourcing for larger projects and the latter specialized in e commerce for small/medium businesses.
The first few clients help you pay the bills and buy bread, but if you keep at it and be persistent after a year you will have more clients than you can handle, that is the time to get employees. I am almost reaching that point, and that is what excites me these days.
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#89Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say "This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect." I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card Creator ( http://www.bingocardcreator.com…
A little bit off-topic, but I find it really interesting how some American webpages have a look and feel that is recognizable in a fraction of second. The website https://www.appointmentreminder.org/ is one of these, the second you enter, the second you know it is a US American page.
Although patio is an American he lives in Japan
Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?
#90Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say "This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect." I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card Creator ( http://www.bingocardcreator.com…
It really requires a different mindset. For instance, while BCC makes sense, I can't imagine someone willing to pay for something like Appointment Reminder.
Suppose you run a professional services business where you have appointments. If people don't come to an appointment, you don't get money. You might pay an office manager to call people the morning of their appointment to remind them, so that they come into their appointment, so you get paid, right? Appointment Reminder is like an office manager who costs $200 a month, not $4,000 a month, is vastly more likely to successfully reach a customer, (virtually) never forgets to call, and does not consider boring, repetitive work to be an insult to her intelligence. For many of my customers, $200 is substantially less than they earn for a single appointment. (Think less "hair salon" and more "HVAC repair firm.")