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Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#21

Post by mksreddy »

harel wrote: post #7
aabajian wrote: post #4

wwww.cronote.com Simple website for sending reminders. It didn't make any money for 4 years until I added commonly-requested features (templates, recurring reminders, and variables for recipient names). Now I have about 60 paying customers and it makes about $600 per month after all expenses paid. It's been running essentially autonomously for the past five months. The iOS app is still difficult to use. I'm slowly re…

Chrome has issues with your certificate...

That's probably due to additional w in url.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#22

Post by quakenul »

osrec wrote: post #9

I started https://usebx.com/app just under a year ago. We now do a few hundred thousand GBP per month in revenue. Nothing fancy, just a solid accounting and project management app, solid service, and good sales to corporate customers (we look after the smaller customers too, but only actively market to larger corporate clients, where the returns are significantly better). We've just invested more in the code base to…

What is your niche? What is it that makes you succeed in this crowded space?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#23

Post by highace »

osrec wrote: post #9

I started https://usebx.com/app just under a year ago. We now do a few hundred thousand GBP per month in revenue. Nothing fancy, just a solid accounting and project management app, solid service, and good sales to corporate customers (we look after the smaller customers too, but only actively market to larger corporate clients, where the returns are significantly better). We've just invested more in the code base to…

Are you including the funds passing through your system as revenue?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#25

Post by osrec »

quakenul wrote: post #22
osrec wrote: post #9

I started https://usebx.com/app just under a year ago. We now do a few hundred thousand GBP per month in revenue. Nothing fancy, just a solid accounting and project management app, solid service, and good sales to corporate customers (we look after the smaller customers too, but only actively market to larger corporate clients, where the returns are significantly better). We've just invested more in the code base to…

What is your niche? What is it that makes you succeed in this crowded space?

We do in-house deployments for corporate clients, which many other providers do not offer.

Our app is loved by our customers, and especially so because it's a light PWA that feels native.

We also offer a free forever tier and are also integrated with UK tax authorities to submit company taxes online (this will be mandatory from 2019 onwards).

Our support is considered to be really good, because we bend over backwards for our clients. We listen to them and add features they ask for as quickly as we can.

We have in built project management and time tracking, and we're making this functionality better in our upcoming release.

Our quality of service and the easiness of our app seems to win us clients from the likes of Sage, QuickBooks and Xero. Try them all, and then try Bx - I hope the difference is obvious!

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#26

Post by osrec »

highace wrote: post #23
osrec wrote: post #9

I started https://usebx.com/app just under a year ago. We now do a few hundred thousand GBP per month in revenue. Nothing fancy, just a solid accounting and project management app, solid service, and good sales to corporate customers (we look after the smaller customers too, but only actively market to larger corporate clients, where the returns are significantly better). We've just invested more in the code base to…

Are you including the funds passing through your system as revenue?

No. I define revenue as what we earn before our costs/expenses.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#27

Post by rootusrootus »

dpcan wrote: post #11

I don't think many people are going to share their idea unless they are sure it's not something that can be hacked together in a week. It would be interesting to also see people simply saying "I do" and maybe the "space" it's in? That too would be encouraging I think.

If you can hack it together in a week then there are probably already a bunch of competitors. As has routinely been pointed out, many of the most popular apps can be readily copied in a fairly short time. The app is the easiest part.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#28

Post by westoncb »

osrec wrote: post #13
harel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideas are not worth much. Only execution matters.

This is very true. I happily discuss my ideas publicly for feedback. Helps with failing faster. Execution and luck are more important than the idea itself. In fact, I would say most ideas aren't really worth much (some are, but those are one in a million).

I think that's the difficulty a lot of people have with this: it seems to them like their idea might be one of those "one in a million".

Part of the difficultly for me has been realizing that the it's not just a rare, good idea that matters—but that it's a rare and good business idea specifically. For instance, I've had a couple projects that gained interest by researchers, which I took as evidence that they might be uncommonly good; but getting the attention of researchers is different from getting the attention of investors for a reason, and it's still questionable whether either has even above average value as a business idea...

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#29

Post by fipple »

rootusrootus wrote: post #27
dpcan wrote: post #11

I don't think many people are going to share their idea unless they are sure it's not something that can be hacked together in a week. It would be interesting to also see people simply saying "I do" and maybe the "space" it's in? That too would be encouraging I think.

If you can hack it together in a week then there are probably already a bunch of competitors. As has routinely been pointed out, many of the most popular apps can be readily copied in a fairly short time. The app is the easiest part.

Great niche markets are valuable secrets. I bought a house in Silicon Valley with money that I make with a side project. It has no competitors because people don’t know how easy it is to make money in this space. Someone with a tech background looking for project ideas would never find it. I’d never say what it is because then my shitty app would immediately be fighting for market share against competitors. Someone may discover the market eventually and kill my app but I’m not going to help anyone do it.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500+/month on side projects in 2018 – Show and tell

#30

Post by nickpsecurity »

dpcan wrote: post #11

I don't think many people are going to share their idea unless they are sure it's not something that can be hacked together in a week. It would be interesting to also see people simply saying "I do" and maybe the "space" it's in? That too would be encouraging I think.

I specifically look at these threads for business ideas. I probably wouldnt straight copy any of them, though. Better to differentiate. A side benefit is that the new offering might not even negatively impact the person I got the idea from.
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