My Second Year as a Solo Developer • Hacker News Board

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#21

Post by mtlynch » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

hopia wrote: post #13

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback about this post. Discussion from my first annual update last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19054150

Pretty cool how you're able to come out in the open with all this stuff like this! Having checked Zestful's page out, I got a suggestion for you. How about building a client lib ready for developers for at least a few mainstream languages? This should be rather easily achievable if you type in the Swagger specs to your API. That allows you to generate (Swagger codegen) those libs with possibly just minimal tweaking l…

Thanks for reading!

>Having checked Zestful's page out, I got a suggestion for you. How about building a client lib ready for developers for at least a few mainstream languages? This should be rather easily achievable if you type in the Swagger specs to your API. That allows you to generate (Swagger codegen) those libs with possibly just minimal tweaking left on your part.

This is something I've thought about. I'd really like to have a PyPI package that you can just pip install and it parses ingredients using the free tier, then prompts you to enter a license key when you reach the limit.

Zestful's hard for me because I could spend a year pursuing all of the ideas I have for it, but historically, feature ideas I come up with myself haven't attracted new customers. I set a rule for myself to not implement any new features until a paying customer requests it, and customers haven't mentioned wanting language-specific libraries. I talked a bit more about that in my August 2019 retrospective:

https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2019/08/#zestful-and-resis...

I haven't looked into Swagger much, so I'll check that out and see if I can create language bindings more easily than I thought.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#22

Post by icedchai » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

JacKTrocinskI wrote: post #4

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback about this post. Discussion from my first annual update last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19054150

So 2 years and you earned $18,000? Seems rather bad, you think you can exponentially grow that in the next year or two?

The totals on the first chart are wrong. In 2 years he lost $23k. (Or you could say the "totals" are correct, but calling it "net profit" is wrong.)

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#23

Post by RodgerTheGreat » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:37 PM UTC

jakobegger wrote: post #8

I read your previous post about Zestful, and this years update, and I just don't understand who would buy this as a hosted API. To me, it sounds like this should be a library, not an API. For every use case that I can think of, having a library would be 100x better than an API. In my experience, APIs are generally slow, unreliable, and tend to change without notice. I don't understand what advantage an API has, excep…

Software as a service is the solution the market has arrived at for making money from software when piracy is mostly trivial and commonplace. A rentier pricing model means an entreprenur need not negotiate the value of their product up-front; they can continuously adjust price to match demand. Recurring revenue is easier to budget around than inconsistent lump-sum sales.

Finally, an API over a library means the maintainer of said API has an opportunity to harvest data about usage. Perhaps they use this to motivate new features, or perhaps they can monetize this data on the side.

I seriously doubt these decisions have any connection to technical requirements; it's all business.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#24

Post by mtlynch » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #5

I like how you call that home "a modest two-bedroom home" in the linked blog. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Here in Israel, where everything is cramped, this would be something I'd be very content with.

Haha, I moved here from Manhattan, where I lived in a 1 BR that was luxurious by Manhattan standards but tiny by real world standards.

I'm very happy with my house, but I think it's probably smaller than what most software developers in the US would choose if they lived in an area this inexpensive.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#25

Post by nautilus12 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:41 PM UTC

Bye bye any hopes of raising a family.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#26

Post by hopia » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:41 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #21

hopia wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty cool how you're able to come out in the open with all this stuff like this! Having checked Zestful's page out, I got a suggestion for you. How about building a client lib ready for developers for at least a few mainstream languages? This should be rather easily achievable if you type in the Swagger specs to your API. That allows you to generate (Swagger codegen) those libs with possibly just minimal tweaking l…

Thanks for reading! >Having checked Zestful's page out, I got a suggestion for you. How about building a client lib ready for developers for at least a few mainstream languages? This should be rather easily achievable if you type in the Swagger specs to your API. That allows you to generate (Swagger codegen) those libs with possibly just minimal tweaking left on your part. This is something I've thought about. I'd re…

Right, I don't know if it makes sense business-wise or not. Probably not if no one is voicing out requests about it.

However, writing Swagger API specs for your future projects while you develop them might make you more productive, plus you do get that code generation for free on top of it. Depending on what language you work with, it may come essentially for free or with non-marginal effort.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#27

Post by nonseobeliever » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:44 PM UTC

I work at a big tech company and also have my own small firm for freelance work. Even though I don't have my own product and implement what customers need, ranging from new website to SIEMs and stuff, I find it pretty lucrative. And my prices are about $20/hr. But yes, I don't know if I can survive without working full job.

LE: and revenue is not that small, about 25k per year.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#28

Post by LeoNatan25 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:44 PM UTC

hopia wrote: post #16

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #5

I like how you call that home "a modest two-bedroom home" in the linked blog. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Here in Israel, where everything is cramped, this would be something I'd be very content with.

Probably off topic here but always perplexed me how Israel is so dead expensive with just about everything you can find. Particularly with locally produced items.

Well, yes, because of many factors. Terrible consumers, high taxes, little space, etc.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#29

Post by LeoNatan25 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #24

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #5

I like how you call that home "a modest two-bedroom home" in the linked blog. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Here in Israel, where everything is cramped, this would be something I'd be very content with.

Haha, I moved here from Manhattan, where I lived in a 1 BR that was luxurious by Manhattan standards but tiny by real world standards. I'm very happy with my house, but I think it's probably smaller than what most software developers in the US would choose if they lived in an area this inexpensive.

If you don't have children, a larger space would be more burden than necessity. Be happy that you moved away from the jail cell. I'd move if I could too. ;-)

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#30

Post by gk1 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

It seems OP is perfectly happy creating small sites and products. One can earn perfectly good money from consulting or contracting, but OP chose not to.