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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#91

Post by whatevsbro »

gmays wrote: post #5

I'm doing http://justaddcontent.com solo and self-funded. It turned into a bigger project that I anticipated, especially for my first product. I started working on it full-time in October. It started as a hobby project about two years ago. It took particularly long because I have a non-technical, military background and had to teach myself to code, design, write copy, marketing, etc. It's been a fun challenge. I stil…

>> This website is protected and guaranteed secure by a 100% hacker free security guarantee. This guarantee ensures that this website was scanned and deemed free from of any phishing scams, exploits, or malware that could infect your computer and jeopardize your safety.

So you're selling snake-oil too?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#92

Post by Blahah »

spiritplumber wrote: post #53

http://www.robots-everywhere.com I used to employ two people, but I automated them away. I am successful in the sense that I have clear title to my home at age 33, if that counts.

Did the employee contract include a waiver:

"The undersigned, for one, agrees to welcome our robot overlords."

Also, clear title at 33 should meet anyone's definition of successful. I just got a mortgage at 28 and that day is a long way off. Must feel good :)

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#94

Post by notahacker »

letstryagain wrote: post #71
zerr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think my dentist uses it. It's easy to forget an appointment that's 6 months in the future.

One of my colleagues commented earlier this week how impressed he was that his doctor's surgery sent him an SMS the day before the appointment, presumably driven by similar software.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#95

Post by brador »

raffi wrote: post #46

I run a business selling penetration testing software that I develop. It's completely bootstrapped. I do very little services work (I actively send this type of stuff to friend's companies). Right now, it's just me, although that's probably going to change. By most of my own definitions and the one you posted here... it's successful. How did I get started on this? Sort of by accident. I was working for Automattic aft…

When's the end of year money period?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#96

Post by tinco »

peterjancelis wrote: post #77
iagooar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a theme from WooThemes, a company with 2 South African founders and one Norwegian one and, as far as I know, an international customer base. Not sure what is so US American about this theme.

I think he's talking about the marketing style, or perhaps the art style of the eyecatcher.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#97

Post by jasonkester »

patio11 wrote: post #11

Even 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…

To underscore Patrick's point about just how many of these businesses there really are, he's one of the few folks I remember from the old Business of Software forums over at joelonsoftware.com that seem to have migrated over here.

That was a tiny little board where the owners of single player software businesses would get together to ask silly questions about how to update their shareware product's PAD files. There were a few hundred of these businesses represented there just among the regular users.

Most of them fly under the radar since, having products that provide a comfortable living with relatively low workload and no need to follow the latest hot technology trends, there's little reason your average Dot-Com-Thousandaire would ever stumble across a place like Hacker News.

Edit: forgot to plug S3stat (http://s3stat.com) and Twiddla (http://twiddla.com), my two main revenue generators, and FairTutor (http://fairtutor.com), hopefully the next one.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#98

Post by kewball »

patio11 wrote: post #11

Even 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…

Thanks patio11 and everyone else who has shared their story. I have been consulting for a few years and I plan on moving to a product based income. Built products in the past that have not been successful but hearing stories of others who have done it is motivation to keep trying.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#99

Post by blumkvist »

ivansavz wrote: post #3

I run a small one-man-show publishing house: http://minireference.com . I produce math/physics textbooks for adults. I'm the author, business person, marketing person, and strategic partnerships person. Revenues are not stellar, but they keep me off the streets... The value I provide is synthesis of a lot of educational material that exists out there into a coherent package (a book). In many ways, my work is similar…

bg?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#100

Post by balladeer »

cperciva wrote: post #81

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.

Are you planning to build sth on top of Glacier or include Glacier as an storage option (seeing it's on S3 anyway)? It will bring the cost down a great deal.
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