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Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

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271–280 of 399 posts

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#271

I'm a single founder, I'm nearing $400k/y revenue. It started a side project on here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107222 and then grew over the last 2 years. 2014: ~$50k 2015: ~$200k 2016: ~$400k Also traffic also doubled every year, so revenue is tied pretty closely too that! This also includes about $7k/m from my remote jobs site which is also tied to Nomad List: http://remoteok.io . It's now a cost of li…

Super cool! Congratulations for the success!

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#272

I do, I run a small video games company, making games that one person can make, like this one: http://store.steampowered.com/app/386900 . I've posted about it here once before, but my 'thing' (if I have a thing) is that I do both the programming, but also the art side. Computer Science is my training, so I can do the software development, what is less common is that I also have some skill in painting, design, animati…

TODO: follow-up for brainpicking session EDIT: in the spirit of proper forum etiquette, I will add to the conversation. Currently spent 4 months 'funemployed' and aggressively pursued my side project full time, a side-scrolling action platformer. I became rather quick to pick up the necessary art skillset and have demo-ed my alpha at local venues. It's received solid praise regarding fundamentals and playability - pe…

I like side-scrolling action platformers. Programmer, game designer, producer, recently left EA. Email me if you still want feedback or just want to chat - aaron (at) nemo10.net

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like a very interesting tool, but I would reallllly recommend hiring someone else to narrate your videos. That woman has a very "unique" voice that made it hard for me to sit through.

That's a bit harsh. In case it wasn't clear from my posts or the website I am not a native English speaker nor is my friend or the woman in question. She is my sister and just wanted to help when we were starting. I didn't hire anyone to do anything in the website :)

Do you have bounce rate stats on the video? Those will tell you whether or not you should re-record narration with a professional. (And as far as costs go, that's not very expensive.)

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> single founder company...running multiple SaaS services This is the model I am biased towards. Mind giving out more information? What sectors do you operate? Do you currently have any employees? Any tips for a newbie?

All pretty niche services mostly in the real estate and home improvement type sectors. None have/had the potential to really be unicorns but all have/had the potential to be million dollar+ businesses. I didn't start off hiring employees. In the beginning I did everything myself (programming, marketing, customer support, accounting, etc.). A year in I hired my first customer support employee and throughout the years…

> You can make some serious money and build a very comfortable life running a $300k to $1m dollar business, and your chances of succeeding at that are much greater.

This is gold. This is an end result I can see a path to, which gives me clear goals to work towards.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#275

I'm a single founder, I'm nearing $400k/y revenue. It started a side project on here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107222 and then grew over the last 2 years. 2014: ~$50k 2015: ~$200k 2016: ~$400k Also traffic also doubled every year, so revenue is tied pretty closely too that! This also includes about $7k/m from my remote jobs site which is also tied to Nomad List: http://remoteok.io . It's now a cost of li…

Love your work with remoteok. Tried to emulate it with a solar-focused job board. What all did you do to start generating revenues from it? I liked the fact you gave credit to the original job boards, and focused on up selling existing listings.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#276
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example? Ways to reach you?

I don't want to give out URLs and names in a public forum, but I've started several 6-figure online businesses in different segments over the years. The one I'm focusing on now does about $400k/year in profit and I only have to put in about 5 hours per week, I'm basically retired at this point. I'm brimming with ideas - really good ideas, but I don't want to pursue them without dedicated partners. I want to build gre…

It's too bad you don't give URLs though.

"Several 6-figure online businesses" / "$400k/year and 5h per week" --> this is the kind of posts that make it look so easy to build this kind of businesses. And honestly, it seems unrealistic and almost bullshit. Why commenting if you don't give out your URLs?

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#277
I have spent the last 6 mos working on a music-creation app: http://doyt.io

The idea for the app comes from growing up with garageband and missing the hours spent messing around and making silly songs with friends and family. Trying to bring that fun to mobile in a social way (think smashing garageband into snapchat).

The hardest thing has got to be soliciting feedback and hearing criticism. I have the tendency of turtle response- stay safe, stay inside. Actively working on getting out of my safe zone :)

If anyone is interested feel free to email me at brendon at doyt dot io.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#278
post #249

I'm running http://lickcreator.com which is a web based music notation software. Still in Beta, so no revenue. Been at it for six months now, kinda slow, but I had some new stuff to learn like SVG and Web Audio API. Experimented a lot with AngularJS and React. Went back to Backbone.js and lost some time there. But good experience. My hopes are high for this product.

Looks really good (Looked at the video) Have you done any testing with real users ? What exactly are your hopes for it ?

Thanks. Its in Beta release and I've started advertising using Facebook and Google Adwords. So users can test and send feedback.

My aim is to first provide a complete web based music notation app. And ultimately a library of licks and phrases which users can utilize to aid in their compositions. Basically I've loads of ideas with this product. Build practice routines, i.e practice scales, maintain a practice schedule, etc. So yeah, lots of stuff I can build into this.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#279

My side project StatusGator, which monitors service status pages, has been running profitably for the last year. It took about 3 months to become profitable and it's only so because my time is "free". (But isn't that always the case?) I don't do anything to promote it so growth has been entirely organic. I get a few free sign ups every day. Although they very infrequently convert to paid, I keep expenses low so it do…

You can find out a lot of information about your customers by calling them. How did they find SG? Why do they need a meta status page? How much value does does SG provide over using disparate status pages? Why did they stop using SG after several days?

Once you've talked to all your customers you should have a lot more info you can use to market to new customers.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#280

I'm a single founder, I'm nearing $400k/y revenue. It started a side project on here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107222 and then grew over the last 2 years. 2014: ~$50k 2015: ~$200k 2016: ~$400k Also traffic also doubled every year, so revenue is tied pretty closely too that! This also includes about $7k/m from my remote jobs site which is also tied to Nomad List: http://remoteok.io . It's now a cost of li…

Why don't you open a company in Estonia? Its super easy
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