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Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#21

Post by tonyedgecombe »

AIMunchkin wrote: post #12

I'm going to post a contrarian viewpoint that unless your product is self-contained and it can continue on without you if you are hit by a truck or even acqui-hired for top $, I will avoid you. Too many pay apps and even games with DLC have gone poof in recent years because of the latter situation or because the cost of maintaining the DLC no longer justified itself.

It seems to me solo founders are far more likely to open source the product or do whatever they can to keep it going whereas a big company will drop something as soon as it makes a quarterly loss.

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#22

Post by wonderwonder »

bdavisx wrote: post #19
wonderwonder wrote: post #18

sure, i do it. Develop a custom system for a company and then charge a monthly use and/or maint. fee. If the original development was tested well you are essentially getting free money every month. I have a full time job but one client on the side. I built a system for them that I net $1,250 per month on and do 2 hours of work a month at most. Rackspace takes care of almost all host related items for me. I have a par…

What's your Rackspace hosting cost / month? I realize it would vary for different situations, but just curious if you don't mind sharing.

Sure, it's approx $500 per month. We gross $3,500 per month and pay hosting and business insurance as expenses. net is $2,500.

Edit: hosting includes daily backups

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#24

Post by jasonswett »

I'll add something I wish I had realized several years ago: build a SaaS is not the only path to a product business, and for a solo founder, it's (in my opinion) probably not a very good path.

I spent 5 years trying to get a micro ISV off the ground which made scheduling software for hair salons. It was a terrible idea for a large number of reasons (described in detail here: https://www.jasonswett.net/im-shutting-down-snip-heres-why/) and I never made more than about $430/mo.

My opinion now is that info products are a better way for a solo founder to get started with a product business. The reason is that a SaaS product can take a huge amount of effort (perhaps pre-traction effort, which is risky) to get off the ground whereas an info product business can be started with a tiny "guide" and then expanded outwardly from there, keeping effort in proportion with traction the whole time.

My current business is AngularOnRails.com, an info product business. In its third month of making money, it made $1580, over 3 times what the SaaS made at its peak. Here's a detailed income report: https://www.jasonswett.net/november-2016-angular-on-rails-in...

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#25

Post by tyingq »

Not the same thing exactly, but I'm able to run 2 ecommerce sites with non-trivial sales volumes, by myself.

The two biggest things that make this possible:

a) Email support only, no telephone support (sales or post sales). Not everyone likes it, of course, but if you're determined to be a one man band, it's essential.

b) Automation of every single thing you can. For you, it would be a different list, but I had to automate things like refunds, tracking numbers, inventory levels, fraud detection, etc.

Also consider having someone you trust have access to documentation, passwords, accounts, etc...in case of some kind of emergency, etc. If it's making money, it would be a shame not to be able to pass it on to a beneficiary if you were to die unexpectedly.

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#26

Post by codazoda »

tajen wrote: post #8

I do. As advised by others comments, I sell a plugin on a platform that takes 20-30%. It's great because they handle the invoicing to big companies, which removes the hassle of being a referenced provider. I'm ok on the sysadmin side (backups, Ansible, etc) and uptime. I'm subpaar on the support side, because I can't develop features fast enough and I have a problems prioritizing things that my various customers need…

You might want to try something like Pivotal Tracker if you aren't already. Estimating each "task" and then prioritizing them seems to help me see how long it will actually be before I will get to a specific feature. Pivotal is pretty good at estimating your future tasks based on your past tasks.

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#28

Post by desktopapp »

Running solo doing around $750k/year on a desktop app. The market is so huge and so many niches to filll. Make something you can sell for $50-300 with upgrades once in a while and set up a simple shop. It has never been easier to develop desktop software. If I was going to start this route today I'd 100% make an electron app and try to address and already large market that has stagnated or has shitty entrenched players making a ton of margin.

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#29

Post by jetti »

jasonswett wrote: post #24

I'll add something I wish I had realized several years ago: build a SaaS is not the only path to a product business, and for a solo founder, it's (in my opinion) probably not a very good path. I spent 5 years trying to get a micro ISV off the ground which made scheduling software for hair salons. It was a terrible idea for a large number of reasons (described in detail here: https://www.jasonswett.net/im-shutting-dow…

Info products can be a good source of relatively passive income. How are you marketing your info product?

For myself, I'm writing desktop software for developers which is a market I know and something that really interests me. On top of that, there is no need for continuous uptime

Re: Ask HN: Is the concept of a one-person software shop still viable?

#30

Post by jetti »

desktopapp wrote: post #28

Running solo doing around $750k/year on a desktop app. The market is so huge and so many niches to filll. Make something you can sell for $50-300 with upgrades once in a while and set up a simple shop. It has never been easier to develop desktop software. If I was going to start this route today I'd 100% make an electron app and try to address and already large market that has stagnated or has shitty entrenched playe…

That is some nice revenue. I would assume you have pretty high margins on that as well. How long has your app been released?

I'm going down this route and making dev tools that help replace the sucky entrenched big players. I haven't officially launched a proper version (early access is going on now) but I'm hoping that I'll be able to be as successful as you are.

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