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Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

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Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#311

Post by menckenjr »

fny wrote: post #228
Bjorkbat wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll throw in that this doesn't necessarily mean just use Ruby on Rails and get coding. I mean, that will probably allow you to ship a bare bones MVP pretty quickly, but making improvements to said MVP in a timely manner may be a different story. Case in point: I used to work for a company that developed a product that was made in RoR and was probably actually pretty nice looking at one point. Unfortunately customers…

> Case in point: I used to work for a company that developed a product that was made in RoR and was probably actually pretty nice looking at one point. Unfortunately customers had ideas for what sort of improvements should be made to the MVP, and very few suggestions were turned down. So, after some time, the codebase grew pretty hellish, and it became harder to release substantial improvements in a reasonably timely…

Ultimately you're in business to convince customers to pay you money in order to use the thing you built. If the code base goes to hell after making customer-requested improvements to the MVP then that's a problem with the design of the MVP code base combined with a lack of refactoring to improve said design. It could be that management didn't want to spend the time or money to rebuild the codebase to let those new features be added in an organized way; that's a management problem. A very experienced developer/lead could translate from nerd to English and from English to Management so the people in charge could understand why they needed to not get new features for three months while the code gets refurbished. If management still says no, because there's no money or they've got impatient customers then that's a different issue.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#312

Post by beeenawhhhhhi »

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Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#313

Post by andrewjrhill »

cpfohl wrote: post #289
andrewjrhill wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that but adequate sleep, regular exercise and healthy eating contribute enormously towards healthier cognition. As a developer, I tend to find myself far more productive and successful in a shorter period of time when I am living on the healthy side of things. Everything that is me just works better when I go for a run three days a week, eat clean foods and get in a solid 8 hours of rest a night.

Tee hee. 8 hours of sleep. Sounds like someone doesn't have kids. Mostly tongue in cheek, but also slightly serious. There are plenty of life circumstances that preclude all those things.

You are 100% correct - I have no kids and have the luxury of not having major life commitments blocking my ability to do these things.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#314

Post by komali2 »

GoodbyeEarl wrote: post #267
gressquel wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country I work from 08-15, excercise 1 hour. I still have 6 hours left for cooking food and coding before i go to sleep 22

Let's say you have half of this spare time to work on your side project, that is 3 hours. Excluding weekends, how much time would it take to build a business out of your 15-hours-per-week side project?

Well, typically building a business is a full time job. I'd recommend someone make extra money in their spare time to facilitate a work-break rather than trying to do two "full time" jobs at once.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#315

Post by mindhash »

Most common advice is find a customer and then build...This is like most difficult and could turn out to be time consuming...I would twist it to say..Find a prospect, talk to them and then build...With so many people trying to do stuff or saying they want to..A lot of trust on whether someone will really come back with a software is less...And being first timer very few will pay you.... There are exceptional cases where you might find a customer..But then it turns into a service contract than a product development..

Having a a prospect, a channel for repeat feedback on your MVP could be a good start...and mid way through your dev..start looking to convert prospects into beta and then paying customer.. Spending 6 months just to find a customer and not touching product work isnt a great idea for me...

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#316

Post by mindhash »

mattjaynes wrote: post #112

Since this is an audience of passionate technologists, here's the top piece of advice I have: Do not be seduced by the technology! I killed one of my startups this way. I've seen many many die this way. It can hurt your pride as a passionate technologist to choose non-cool but mature and easy-to-hire-for tools. But it's those tools that are the most economical. Remember, your customers care 0% about the backend techn…

Second this...do the boring work that no one else is willing to do..

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#317

Post by tech3ad »

afshinmeh wrote: post #61
jargnar wrote: post #20

It's a skill that can be learned like every other skill. You can take the "in 21 days" route or the MOOC / University course route, or constantly read business articles, Steve Jobs videos, etc. But some top tips stand out for me over time: * Talking to people, networking > Not talking to people * Bug free > Elegant code * UX > UI * Simple products that do one thing well > Complex products * Understanding entire marke…

Nice, but I'm not entirely sure about this one: > * Sleep, exercise & healthy food > late night coding Looks like it's against other points. I have a full-time job and I'd like to create a brand, too. Thus. I have to do late night coding.

You need around 7-8 hrs of sleeping to focus and proper brain functions. Only 3-4% of world people can survive and work perfectly with 4-5 hrs of sleep.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#318

Post by naasking »

agentultra wrote: post #276
mattjaynes wrote: post #112

Since this is an audience of passionate technologists, here's the top piece of advice I have: Do not be seduced by the technology! I killed one of my startups this way. I've seen many many die this way. It can hurt your pride as a passionate technologist to choose non-cool but mature and easy-to-hire-for tools. But it's those tools that are the most economical. Remember, your customers care 0% about the backend techn…

> You're running a business, not a technological showcase for other engineers (who are not even your customers!). Unless you are building tools, products, or services for other engineers. > Build your business for your customers, not for your technological pride or to demonstrate your technical prowess to friends. I'm going to assume that if someone is going into business for themselves then they are planning on havi…

> I say: be seduced by technology. Programming is beautiful. Hard problems are a joy to solve and bring great value to the world. Do what pleases you. Life is short.

It's far easier to fall into a hole of technical debt this way. The extra costs incurred could be too much for your venture to bear. Among all risks new ventures take, this is probably has one of the least cost:benefit ratios.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#319

Post by hd4 »

rohitv wrote: post #223
hd4 wrote: post #33

If you are working a day job as a programmer (while setting yourself up to go down the startup route), go with contracting as soon as you can, the rates are what you set them at and you should always set them high. The other advice that has been invaluable to me is NEVER EVER reveal your salary to recruiters. Always state what you want to be paid and go from there. When you reveal what you are earning, you are immedi…

Any advice on how to transition from a day programming job to contracting? Any useful resources? Where to find contracting jobs/ through agency or directly approaching clients?

Only just noticed this, I guess if you check your comments you can pick this up at some point.

Best advice is do it early, use your usual job sites (Monster etc.). Resources will depend on your country but the only real administrative hurdle is insurance and taxes so you will need to look up what your country's business rules are. Most people tend to set up as a small limited company or something of that nature and then get the necessary insurance and taxes once you actually land your first contract.

Re: Ask HN: Best business advice for software developers

#320

Post by adeelraza »

pmarreck wrote: post #308
adeelraza wrote: post #79

I wrote a post on this topic back in 2013. Can a software developer be a successful entrepreneur: http://adeelraza.co/blog/can-a-software-developer-be-a-succe... 4 years later, happy to report that I have a successful startup.

It's rare that I ask someone to self-promote, but what do you do? :)

I founded an email marketing / lead generation startup, MailMunch. We saw 1 billion unique pageviews in the last year :)
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