Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#11

Post by csomar » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:29 PM UTC

This is not an easy issue and this is why advertising exist. (and companies like Google with billions $$ of profit means that advertising is really a huge issue).

Unless your product is making people money, you need a strong argument so that people subscribe to your product. To show you the effect, offer two products: One free and the other cost as little as $9. Post the product (can be any crap) on a forum and watch the downloads/buy.

People are curious about products, but they are very unlikely to pay. They are serious about money. BUT for a _good reason_, they'll pay. Find that good reason, find the targeted audience, build the reason and they'll come and pay.

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#12

Post by drewcrawford » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:32 PM UTC

I spent literally 35 minutes writing my first iPhone app and it's brought in over $4k in sales over the last two years. That works out to ~7k/hour.

Alternatively, I've spent weeks or months on projects for zero revenue.

The moral of the story is: there is only weak correlation (at best) between effort spent and revenue received. Entrepreneurs do not get paid by the hour.

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#13

Post by cullenking » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:38 PM UTC

I was surprised to receive $5k in donations this year, while working towards our premium featureset. It has created high hopes for some real recurring revenue in the next 1-2 months when those premium features are released. But yes, the donate button along with a simple paypal payment setup was very easy and the amount of donors continues to surprise me.

Then again, if you count up the hours spent with no revenue, the $$$ per hour is very small.

We were recently surprised to be approached randomly by a second company (first company approached out of the blue as well) asking if we would license our stuff. I guess this is a decent example of an unexpected revenue stream, requiring a slight pivot in revenue model.

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#14

Post by qq66 » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:41 PM UTC

drewcrawford wrote: post #12

I spent literally 35 minutes writing my first iPhone app and it's brought in over $4k in sales over the last two years. That works out to ~7k/hour. Alternatively, I've spent weeks or months on projects for zero revenue. The moral of the story is: there is only weak correlation (at best) between effort spent and revenue received. Entrepreneurs do not get paid by the hour.

What was that app?

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#15

Post by edw519 » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:44 PM UTC

I continue to be amazed by 2 things:

1. How difficult it is to get a raw prospect to understand how my offering will benefit him.

2. How easy it is to get his money once he does.

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#16

Post by hockeybias » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:53 PM UTC

joeld42 wrote: post #10

People tend to overestimate short-term revenue, and underestimate long-term revenue. It will probably take you much longer than you think to get 200 users, but if you stick with it and your idea is good, you'll end up with more than you ever expected.

I agree and have heard the same from others...

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#17

Post by jon_dahl » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 6:57 PM UTC

If you've sold at full price to 5 customers at arms-length (people who aren't positively predisposed to you already), then sure, I wouldn't be surprised if you land 200 customers at $30/month. Dial up the marketing and repeat the process as prospects come in.

But until then, you have no idea what is going to happen.

(Plagiarized from Steve Blank...)

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#18

Post by SoftwareMaven » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 7:08 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #15

I continue to be amazed by 2 things: 1. How difficult it is to get a raw prospect to understand how my offering will benefit him. 2. How easy it is to get his money once he does.

I think that is the case for most good software. Many engineer-led companies think the engineering is the hard part, so get totally surprised by #1, to the point that their business fails.

Of course, there is a name for #1. It is a name mocked and derided by engineers world-side: Marketing

Learn it, love it, earn from it.

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#19

Post by Asa-Nisse » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 7:27 PM UTC

Asa-Nisse wrote: post #6

Most everything I ever did has been totally random. Things that I thought was safe bets went out the window. Stuff I did when hacking on beer and booze over a weekend has netted me $100/yr. Key is to not spend to much time thinking about it, just do it. The more you play the higher your chances of winning are.

Giggle @ self. $100k/yr :)

Re: Ask HN: Surprised by your revenue? Easier than you thought?

#20

Post by pbhjpbhj » Fri, Jul 16, 2010, 7:32 PM UTC

mahmud wrote: post #7

This morning I shopped our idea to 20 potential users. Cold-called them. They have been extremely nice and supportive, but it's been 4-5 hours since I sent them links and I am sitting on the edge of my chair staring at a blank tail -f /var/log/access :-| -- Edit: They have come! it's been 50 minutes since I wrote the above and already got two beta users. My other startup went for 43 days before I got a 2nd client, an…

B2C = business-to-consumer.

Contrast to B2B (business-to-business). Slightly confusing as he mentions his former employer as his first customer, I presume he means his boss in a personal capacity.