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Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

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Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#381

Post by tjholowaychuk »

joshdickson wrote: post #219
tjholowaychuk wrote: post #51

I started Apex a few months ago, first product is a little uptime monitor built on AWS Lambda: http://apex.sh/ping/ . Almost 2000 users already, not quite paying for itself since I have a free plan but it's almost breaking even at least haha. That said legal bills alone were ~6k, so it'll take a while to recoup that. Long-term plan is to have a bunch of products like this which are low maintenance, as long as they're…

1) I use Pingdom and hadn't seen Apex. Looks really good. Will definitely switch over. 2) Hey you're TJ Holowaychuk. I know you've since (mostly) moved on from doing a ton of Node contributing, but as someone who uses projects you've started and maintained for a long time, just wanted to say a big thank you for all your work in the open source community. I'm also going to link your photography site (a) for those who…

Thanks man :D

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#382

Post by udkl »

eappleby wrote: post #331
udkl wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech wouldn't be the edge here. Contacts with these high flyer publishers would make or break the business.

I actually don't value contacts very highly, and almost never ask for intros or leverage previous relationships. For a one-person company, intros are a time-suck, since the recipient of the intro will tend to take calls or meetings even if they are not interested in the product, just out of courtesy. Instead, I attribute a lot of my growth to building a product that addressed a clear need, and then using Linkedin to…

Awesome, thanks for replying. I would love to chat with you sometime to further understand how you worked on the service.

If you are up for it on slack or skype or just email, let me know here or on the alias email listed on my profile.

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Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#384

Post by madmadjo »

udkl wrote: post #354
madmadjo wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi udkl! Thanks for your comment. I am thinking about publishing something on themeforest BUT: 1. I don't think there is a section with UI Kits. I think that there is a section with HTML themes and I might (but just might) test that eventually; 2. it is very hard to differentiate yourself in a place where you have a lot of people doing something similar; 3. there isn't a lot of places on Internet where you could sell…

Hey, not a problem. 1) The fundamental question is, why do you think there is a market for non-free bootstrap ui kits ? When I search for "bootstrap ui kit", I get links to many free kits & see no advertisements related to ui kits (no one selling them). So why do you think there is a market for premium bootstrap UI kits ? 2) I don't mind having a quick chat with you on slack or skype to go over the site as a user. I'…

Hi udkl!

1. I Googled "bootstrap ui kit" and, indeed, have found a lot of free Bootstrap UI Kits BUT it seems that a lot of these kits (maybe not most of them - I don't know because I didn't check all of the kits I have found) are free versions of premium kits. As I already mentioned, I do plan to add enough elements so that my customers could use each Kit for most of their needs. Besides creating UI elements, I also plan on creating example pages, so that customers could just modify those if they want. I'm thinking about offering PS or Sketch versions (I'll see about this) besides HTML version. One more reason for which I believe that there is a market for non-free Bootstrap UI Kits is that I see a couple of companies in this space that are doing well, so that's always a good thing/indicator :)

2. Hey, thanks! I'd love to hear your opinion. I'm going to contact you soon on your email address from your profile page. OK?

Once again, thanks very much for your constructive comments and your offer!

Mladen

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#385

Post by azeirah »

udkl wrote: post #374
azeirah wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to increase the price because it's a tiny tool with a really simple goal. I honestly don't expect anyone to pay over at best 10€ for this tool. I certainly wouldn't. Entitling people to one year of free updates wouldn't be a bad idea however. Might look into a subscription based approach for continued updates.

Is that price point based off of your assumption or streamer feedback ? Are you a streamer ? I would love to have a quick chat with you over slack or skype or whatever to know more about the tool & your experience as a streamer. You can reply here or to the alias email listed on my profile.

I'm not a streamer myself, though I do stream occasionally, a week per year kind of occasionally.

I'd love to talk to you, but am unable to do that right now. Is it ok to contact you in ~2 weeks?

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#386

Post by judiso »

bert2002 wrote: post #112

I work on https://www.blabladns.co - a free dynamic dns service with an easy api and many integrations (e.g. Slack, PagerDuty, Messenger, etc.). Working Solo on it and its not profitably, because there is no paid plan yet. More premium features will cost and will be integrated soon. Growth? Very slowly with one to two user per week. Probably because I dont do marketing at all (only the blog).

Why wouldn't one use any of "dynamic dns free" services instead? How is yours better?

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#387

Post by udkl »

madmadjo wrote: post #384
udkl wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, not a problem. 1) The fundamental question is, why do you think there is a market for non-free bootstrap ui kits ? When I search for "bootstrap ui kit", I get links to many free kits & see no advertisements related to ui kits (no one selling them). So why do you think there is a market for premium bootstrap UI kits ? 2) I don't mind having a quick chat with you on slack or skype to go over the site as a user. I'…

Hi udkl! 1. I Googled "bootstrap ui kit" and, indeed, have found a lot of free Bootstrap UI Kits BUT it seems that a lot of these kits (maybe not most of them - I don't know because I didn't check all of the kits I have found) are free versions of premium kits. As I already mentioned, I do plan to add enough elements so that my customers could use each Kit for most of their needs. Besides creating UI elements, I also…

Yes, you can send me an email .... I love to interact with like minded HN users/developers/entrepreneurs.

Signature

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I use http://hnreplies.com to monitor for replies to my comments at HackerNews. How do you keep track ?

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#388

Post by udkl »

azeirah wrote: post #385
udkl wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that price point based off of your assumption or streamer feedback ? Are you a streamer ? I would love to have a quick chat with you over slack or skype or whatever to know more about the tool & your experience as a streamer. You can reply here or to the alias email listed on my profile.

I'm not a streamer myself, though I do stream occasionally, a week per year kind of occasionally. I'd love to talk to you, but am unable to do that right now. Is it ok to contact you in ~2 weeks?

Sure ... whenever ...

I love to interact with like minded HN users/developers/entrepreneurs... and these days have developed an interest in the Twitch eco-system and how it works.

Signature

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I use http://hnreplies.com to monitor for replies to my comments at HackerNews. How do you keep track ?

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#389

Post by madmadjo »

udkl wrote: post #387
madmadjo wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi udkl! 1. I Googled "bootstrap ui kit" and, indeed, have found a lot of free Bootstrap UI Kits BUT it seems that a lot of these kits (maybe not most of them - I don't know because I didn't check all of the kits I have found) are free versions of premium kits. As I already mentioned, I do plan to add enough elements so that my customers could use each Kit for most of their needs. Besides creating UI elements, I also…

Yes, you can send me an email .... I love to interact with like minded HN users/developers/entrepreneurs. Signature ----------- I use http://hnreplies.com to monitor for replies to my comments at HackerNews. How do you keep track ?

I see that that's your signature, but I'll definitely start using hnreplies too.

Talk to you soon!

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#390

Post by Pephers »

udkl wrote: post #248
Pephers wrote: post #86

I too was very inspired by the Pinboard numbers, and this story and others have inspired me to start my own business. I'm running a booking system SaaS ( https://zapla.co ) which basically allows embeddings a booking widget in any website. It's currently generating $1100 MRR after ~18 months in business. It's a solo side-business as of now, but I'm hoping for it to become my primary business.

Looks cool, how did you go about marketing it ?

Thanks, I appreciate it!

I must admit that marketing is my absolute weak side, but I've had the most success using organic SEO backed by some SEM campaigns. Since my product requires customers to have a website, I've created landing pages targeted at major WYSIWYG/DIY website builders. If they search for e.g. "booking system for " they'll have a chance to find a Zapla landing page for that platform :)

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