Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#181

Post by xutopia » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 4:21 PM UTC

purplezooey wrote: post #140

I built a nice shed while keeping my day job. Does that count?

If it increases the value of your house that's good in itself. For fun I did a side project while my friend built a new deck for his cottage. His cottage increased value about the same amount that I sold my side project for.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#182

Post by Sohcahtoa82 » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 6:25 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #154

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This absolutely infuriates me to the point where I'm struggling to remain civil. My blood instantly began boiling after reading that sentence. Why the @#$% does some web designer think it's a good idea to disable mousewheel scrolling?! What does this accomplish? What feature do you gain? What was the goal? I just can't for the life of me grok what would be going through someone's brain when they decide "Hey, you know…

What do you possibly gain from this kind of rage? It's rude and makes for an extremely low quality comment.

It hits a nerve when a programmer or designer either tries to fix something that isn't broken and ends up making it even worse (Such as web pages that try to implement smooth scrolling), or removes functionality for the sake of simplicity and it lowers usability. Yeah, in this case it was a bug, but let's not pretend it doesn't happen deliberately sometimes.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#183

Post by hpagey » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 8:06 PM UTC

patd wrote: post #113

I would call it a profitable side-project rather than a startup but I've built a price comparison browser extension : http://www.shoptimate.com I'm currently busy launching a SaaS tool http://blockedby.com but having two small children, a full time job and Shoptimate.com limits the time I can spend on this.

Whats the pain point that "blocked by" is trying to solve? Let's say the google analytics or marketo munchkin scripts are blocked by Ad Blocker, what's the marketing team supposed to do?

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#184

Post by hluska » Thu, Sep 27, 2018, 8:26 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #182

hluska wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you possibly gain from this kind of rage? It's rude and makes for an extremely low quality comment.

It hits a nerve when a programmer or designer either tries to fix something that isn't broken and ends up making it even worse (Such as web pages that try to implement smooth scrolling), or removes functionality for the sake of simplicity and it lowers usability. Yeah, in this case it was a bug, but let's not pretend it doesn't happen deliberately sometimes.

Whether it hits a nerve or not, there are more productive ways to express that you don't agree with an implementation. You acted like a bully and that's completely unacceptable.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#185

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Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#186

Post by krageon » Fri, Sep 28, 2018, 12:59 PM UTC

bootloop wrote: post #114

polote wrote: post #67

That's what I do currently, I'm a full time product manager in a normal company, and I'm also working as a CTO at a startup, we are 3. Two people are working full time, and I only work part time (about 30h per week). I do that, because I like doing multilple things at the same time. But I think it is a very difficult life. I can do that because I have no social life and everything is optimized so that I can work all…

"Very tired all the time" - Where I come from (EU) this is the reason why it's not allowed to work two jobs (>40h) if the employer doesn't approve.

When you ask your employer for permission for a second job (insofar as that is strictly legal), it's usually not a given that they ask for an estimate of the hours per week you will put in it. Instead they will ask you about the work to see if it might infringe on their business. It's a measure made to ensure that you don't get into their water, not one to protect you. That is why it's in your work contract and not part of the actual law.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#187

Post by krageon » Fri, Sep 28, 2018, 1:09 PM UTC

hpagey wrote: post #183

patd wrote: post #113

I would call it a profitable side-project rather than a startup but I've built a price comparison browser extension : http://www.shoptimate.com I'm currently busy launching a SaaS tool http://blockedby.com but having two small children, a full time job and Shoptimate.com limits the time I can spend on this.

Whats the pain point that "blocked by" is trying to solve? Let's say the google analytics or marketo munchkin scripts are blocked by Ad Blocker, what's the marketing team supposed to do?

Seeing as the page mentions "help you solve it", they will help them bypass the filter rules that exist. Deeply unethical IMO, but without adversaries I guess things wouldn't be as interesting as they are today.

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#188

Post by ed_at_work » Fri, Sep 28, 2018, 2:07 PM UTC

redhale wrote: post #54

deedubaya wrote: post #37

I've got two cash flow positive side-projects while maintaining full-time employment, having a life, wife, and kid. BreezyPDF - https://breezypdf.com - Dead simple PDF generation from URLs. Comes with a rails middleware so all you have to do is add .pdf to the end of a URL to download a PDF of that URL. HOALife - https://hoalife.com - A CC&R Inspection and Enforcement tool for property managers.

I love how one of the Breezy testimonials is from HOALife. Way to dog-food!

Don't worry OP, your secret is safe with us

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#189

Post by imhoguy » Fri, Sep 28, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

SimianLogic2 wrote: post #176

xcubic wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask how did you know the website was for sale?

There are brokerages. I read about the codetree sale on HN a few years back (just google “codetree sale”) and signed up for the FEInternational list.

Thanks for the good read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12654277

And good luck with your hobby!

Re: Ask HN: Who here has built a profitable startup while keeping their day job?

#190

Post by nickpsecurity » Sat, Sep 29, 2018, 11:04 PM UTC

canadapups wrote: post #158

javiramos wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get the first few customers to achieve enough critical mass to make website successful?

I needed traffic from the buy-side and sell-side. On the sell side (breeders), I can just google for new customers! Many dog breeders have their own websites. I search for dog breeders and then contact them through their website (either their webform or their published emails). On the buy-side (people looking for pets), I pay for google ads on certain keyword searches. As my website became more relevant, the cost of…

Maybe curated lists or targeted marketing of stuff people might buy for pets? Maybe training or pet health advice you've collected from experts selling at a low cost? Just brainstorming here.