Not a start up per se, but my Medium blog is fairly profitable, ~2k on a good month.
Can't tell if you're serious or not. Is there a way for people to monetize their Medium blogs? If so, what's yours about?
Medium Partner Program!
Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
101–110 of 193 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#102I built stratascratch.com working a full-time job and teaching at a university 1-2x a week in the evenings. The idea came from the amount of headaches and inefficiencies I experienced trying to teach non-technical students how to code. I built a platform that made my life easier. It's fairly profitable but not at a scale where I can quit my day job. Since I don't have much free time, I have to hire several freelancers to help with product improvements and sales.
For the record, I don't charge my students to use the platform :P
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#103Not really a startup in the sense of a VC backed multi million dollar company but three working friends and me have bootstrapped a fitness websites with science based health advice, mostly free, to basically the largest fitness related website in the Netherlands. Currently employing people, which i think still sounds insane for a hobby project. https://www.fit.nl . 700.000 pageviews a month. App, 2 books, system for…
(While I understand passion is important and you won't make it far in either without it) Which profession would you suggest just "for the money"? Doctor or Software Engineer? Taking into the account the time and loans it takes to come online as a doctor, and the assuming the person is good enough to become a surgeon or code at FAANG? Great website btw, and so inspiring.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#104Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
Last "day job" I had, I just negotiated and got it removed from the contract. (I argued I'd be sending them quite some literal kilograms of paperwork, and surely that wasn't to anyone's benefit) . I don't know how common it is, but even fairly large companies will often allow some negotiation here.
(I don't like the fact that people put these kinds of clauses in in the first place either, but at least you can often opt out, fwiw)
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#105Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
contract != law.
You can also put in "we own your kidneys and your first born child"
Just because it is in a contract, it doesn't mean it's enforceable.
I agree with your point that one should be aware of it, but to go as far as not creating an awesome company and living comfortably because it's "risky" is ridiculous.
One should not be chained to a corporation forever if chooses not to.
[EDIT]
Also to add more to my point, litigation CANNOT be avoided.
If an entity (a person or a corporation) wants to come after you, they will find a way to do it.
Running any kind of viable business requires legal work and protection. It would be foolish to think otherwise
If your side project grows enough that you have either massive traction, VC funding or a good amount of cash, you can easily fight these in court .
And even if you don't fully win, it can be dragged on for years and meanwhile your business can continue to grow.
So it's a none issue.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#106Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
Good thing my child has invented everything I ever created!
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#107Tread carefully. If you’re going to do this, read your current employment agreement carefully especially the parts about Intellectual Property. Every medium-to-large company I have worked at has asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter. If your employer can imagne a conflict of interest (for example could what you are working on pote…
"asserted ownership of everything I build, at work or away from work, using my own equipment, on my own time—it doesn't matter" That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Assuming you're not stealing technology, or doing it on their time or machines, there is no way a court would uphold that. If I build a house, or rebuild a car in my off time, they own that too? Corporations don't own your entire life.
It doesn't stop them from suing you though. Do you really want to deal with this stuff in court?
Anything I do in my private life I keep on the down low.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can bet any decent sized company will have people keeping an eye out on ex-employees whose home projects miraculously gain WhatsApp-levels of traction. If you look to take on VC funding, I guarantee during the DD process they will ask you if you built any of the product while employed elsewhere, and if so, they’ll want to see your old employment agreement.
> whose home projects miraculously gain WhatsApp-levels of traction Surely there is some middle ground between a $22 billion dollar company and a lifestyle business that generates $500k-$1m a year in revenue. Also if your company is WhatsApp level pretty sure you can afford a team of $500 an hour lawyers.
Most likely if the company is 500-1m revenue then it is basically a tiny company that won't be on anyone's radar. Decent sized sellers on ebay/amazon can easily generate 500k-1m revenue and the vast majority of people never heard of those stores before.
Even if you are running a decent sized business, just don't be the face of the company. The purpose of business is to make money, not become "famous".
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#109Might not be your typical answer, but I launched an ecommerce store that’s been profitable since the first month. At first I targeted solo devs without much digital design skills, but it turns out that blank sketchpads are very useful to designers and design agencies as well. It’s done well enough where I continue to run out of each batch of inventory and it’s turned a small profit as I continue to order large and la…
Wow, this is brilliant. So simple yet so useful. How do you plan to deal with competition? It seems like barriers to entry are low.
Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?
#110Not a start up per se, but my Medium blog is fairly profitable, ~2k on a good month.
Can't tell if you're serious or not. Is there a way for people to monetize their Medium blogs? If so, what's yours about?
Been a partner for about a year now, which pays you an undisclosed cut of the members fee from those that engage with your content (meaning claps).
Mine is about, uhm, me being a disillusioned 30 year old developer hating how things are done now? Rants like this https://medium.com/commitlog/how-to-design-for-the-modern-we... tend to alright.
Throwing in an amazon link when its appropriate, or funny in the above case doesn't hurt either. Kinda got an on-going thing with always pushing K&R books.