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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#261

Post by cdolan »

mrskitch wrote: post #227

I run a headless browser service called browserless.io. Got started due to lack of a comparable service, and all others seemed more geared for testing. It’s been around two years now, and makes more than any prior engineering job I’ve ever had. You do have a lot of other stresses you might not otherwise have, but you’ll also work a lot less than at a traditional job! I’m working on a few interviews for some sites, wh…

Can this be used for automated complex web scraping (for downloading invoices behind authorized web portals on event or schedule, etc)?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#263

Post by cmancini »

spv wrote: post #93
lemming wrote: post #60

I develop and sell Cursive ( https://cursive-ide.com ), which has paid my bills nicely for a couple of years now. Currently I make more than I made in my last job at Google. I never thought I'd be able to make a living selling developer tools, much less into a niche market, but I'm constantly amazed by how well Cursive does. The work is a mix of fun and boring slog, like most jobs I guess. A lot of my time is spent o…

I cannot believe that you make more from such a niche dev tool than your job at Google. I always thought people who use clojure/scheme would be using their custom setup in emacs or vim. I'm interested to learn more details, how things were when you first started out selling the app and the trend.

A lot of people use Emacs, but I remember as Cursive took off in the Clojure community. It's so wonderful being able to work on a large JVM app that includes Scala and Java in IntelliJ and have first class Clojure features. Cursive is phenomenal, and because it's (or was at the time) the only choice, I would gladly fork over 2x the cost out of my own pocket (though my company would let me expense). It was great too to go to Conj and major Clojure conferences and hear Colin announce new features and talk about the roadmap.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#264

Post by awayitthrows »

thomasht wrote: post #154

I run & operate a VPN company. Found a niche that at least 600 people would pay me a monthly amount for, totalling nearly $3k a month. Costs are Everything is automated so it's probably less than an hour a week. It was my learn how to code project that has become my basic income. All the money is funding my secondary project.

I was considering doing this recently, to help people in my home country get around censorship blocks. I was wondering, however, have you run into issues where you've had to turn over log/account data to law enforcement due to terrorism/child pornography/etc?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#265

Post by ratsimihah »

josephwegner wrote: post #237

Everytime I see these threads I end up feeling inadequate. For the rest of the folks like me, I will share a small tidbit of wisdom: Starting a business is really hard and it's totally OK to just go work for Salesforce. You do you.

What's preventing from starting something small while at Salesforce that could eventually grow into something bigger?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#266

Post by mac01021 »

dbancajas wrote: post #232
insaider wrote: post #208

I made https://www.golfforecast.co.uk - an ML algorithm to predict golf. After 5 years it's making enough from subscriptions for me to live off (3K gbp/mo). The algorithm is always a work in progress but it's seeing consistent returns now so I'm making money from that too :) plus it makes golf a lot more entertaining.

if you have an edge why not keep it to yourself and bet the farm as they say?

This is lower risk

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#267

Post by vfc1 »

PakG1 wrote: post #255
vfc1 wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to work for someone else and be an employee your whole life, it's not the only way. There are other choices available to you. You can also be your own boss too and have other people working for you, or at least help you out occasionally on a part-time basis. You can easily rent an office in a shared space if you don't want to work from home and go there a couple of times a week. Also, you don't have to…

All those things require certain skills and whatnot though. If someone has a good thing going and doesn't want to plunge into the abyss, I'd say good on them. The abyss is full of pitfalls and ways to lose life savings and go into major debt when the lucrative side gig can no longer pay for the vision. Employment is at least guaranteed no debt, especially while the lucrative side gig is going. Correspondingly, when t…

There is not much financial risk involved in his case, and it looks like he already has the skills needed. He already makes over 10 times his salary. In one year of employment, he spared the equivalent salary of 10 years.

I think people exaggerate the dive into the abyss thing and risking it all. If you have some savings, you can try to launch a business and if it doesn't work you can always go back to work for someone else.

At a given point, someone is going to give you another job as a sysadmin again. He can even work remotely and easily make more than $400 a month.

If you are not hiring other people and purchasing equipment, starting a Saas business as a sole founder has minimal financial risk involved compared to almost all other types of businesses, it's really not that risky.

I think what holds a lot of people back is the fact that they come from an employee background probably at the family level, and they see the world through the eyes of an employee.

They don't even remotely consider the several options that they actually have available.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#268

Post by mywacaday »

throwaway21212 wrote: post #108

I have a one-person lifestyle business. I like it primarily because it gives me the flexibility to live anywhere in the world. I hated my old desk job and the idea of 2 weeks vacation every year. I run a SaaS product that integrates with ERPs. I pretend to my customers that I have a team (so much so that I have multiple email addresses to people that don't exist that actually just forward to me). One of our customers…

What happens if you get hit by the proverbial bus? Do you have contractually binding SLAs with your customers?

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#269

Post by [deleted] »

adamqureshi wrote: post #177

I run https://onlyusedtesla.com/ its an online marketplace to buy / sell a Used Tesla. I have been living off the income this whole year. This is my bread and butter. I do not have a 9-5. I launched the business with 4 listings in 2016. I live in New York. My main goal is building brand equity. Business Model. Private Seller $199 to list $299 to list with a social boost Dealer: $99-list I do not use cookies. No Track…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

#270

Post by drawkbox »

josephwegner wrote: post #237

Everytime I see these threads I end up feeling inadequate. For the rest of the folks like me, I will share a small tidbit of wisdom: Starting a business is really hard and it's totally OK to just go work for Salesforce. You do you.

> Everytime I see these threads I end up feeling inadequate.

It is always good to see people with successes that granted them some amount of freedom. Though it looks daunting in a time/competition sense, it is one day at a time towards a goal, and compounding focus amounts to large efforts that look daunting.

These threads are great because they motivate and show you what is possible, should you choose to pursue.

Not everyone has success either, these are survivorship bias. However, the reality is the ability to succeed is there. Many of these ideas, big business would not pursue due to market size, but for one man/small teams these are perfect.

With enough time put towards something and smart tuning to niche/market/needs, efforts can be fruitful.

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