My Second Year as a Solo Developer • Hacker News Board

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#91

Post by nautilus12 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:25 PM UTC

avl999 wrote: post #44

nautilus12 wrote: post #25

Bye bye any hopes of raising a family.

Nice of you to impose your outdated values on how to live on others. The OP might perfectly be happy to not raise a family or just be interested in being with a partner without having kids. If you don't have kids, this kind of lifestyle is perfectly sustainable and you can live happily on it. Kids are not a pre-requisite for happiness and it annoys me how so many discussions here start to equate standard of living an…

Whoa, what an assumption, this says more about you than anything. I said goodbye "any" hopes of having children which says that "if" he wanted to have a family there is no way that he could do it in this way. What kind of chip do you have on your shoulder about children?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#92

Post by nautilus12 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:26 PM UTC

CaptArmchair wrote: post #54

nautilus12 wrote: post #25

Bye bye any hopes of raising a family.

... assuming the author harbors such aspirations in the first place, which you and I don't know. And, frankly, nobody needs to know.

And no such assumption was made in the original statement.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#93

Post by microcolonel » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:26 PM UTC

Side note: when presenting a simple revenue-expense-profit-loss chart, it can help to chart the expenses as cutting from the bottom of the revenue (tough though, when you are funding the expenses externally, in this case you have to put the loss below the zero line). Anyway, it makes it clear when your expenses intersect your revenue, and you switch to profit rather than loss.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#94

Post by lsinger » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:27 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #79

Two cents offered because this post really strikes a chord with me, and I also spent some time chasing down rabbit holes early in my software business: These products do not appear obviously commercializable and multiple years invested into them without materially improving the businesses does not decrease my confidence in that snap judgment. You could probably talk to business owners with problems, launch an (approp…

> What Got Done

There are several paid SaaS apps and / or Slack bots that do this. It’s a viable niche, but has gotten somewhat crowded in the past few years. Earlyish example: https://iDoneThis.com (worked there 2014/2015)

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#95

Post by liveoneggs » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

theli0nheart wrote: post #64

liveoneggs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how did you get early stage stock being self employed?

Most of my consulting work was with early-stage startups. I would ofter offer a fixed cash cap (say, $50k) at an hourly rate, and any work beyond that would accrue towards a SAFE. Less risk for the founder, gave me incentive to finish the bulk of the work within the cap, but also didn't punish me if I didn't.

neat

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#96

Post by BlueTemplar » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

JacKTrocinskI wrote: post #38

icedchai wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Yeah, either way, financially that would never make sense to me.

Most companies, especially small ones, lose money in their first 2-3 years...

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#97

Post by gk1 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

liveoneggs wrote: post #51

theli0nheart wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Not really. This just proves that corporate life isn't the most profitable option for the OP. You just can't make sweeping statements like this based on a single anecdote. I'll offer this to other "corporate" folk out there. I was self-employed since late 2010 until I r…

how did you get early stage stock being self employed?

Consultants can be granted Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSO).

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#98

Post by nightski » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

criley2 wrote: post #72

Grimm1 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the focus on exclusively money baffles me. Like cool you get to buy a bigger house and go on some nicer vacations. Depending on the big co, they own you. I can't say I'm not working as an employee right now but every time I've been "broke" and free to do whatever project and take on work as I see fit I've been probably 50-70% happier when you factor in stress from shakier income. That said I understand risk tole…

On the flip side, working for yourself means the job never ends. As an employee you can do 8 hours at work, 16 hours for yourself. You can drop a project and pick it up the next day. The client is pissed? You're still making your salary. It's up to management to staff correctly, not up to you to kill yourself overworking for a salary and no overtime. When it's just you, and your entire livelihood depends on sucking u…

Honestly that just sounds like someone terrible at managing risk and money! As a self employed individual coming up on 10 years now the first year or two was rough, but if you build up a safety net and properly manage money there are no sleepless nights worrying about the next big fish.

It also takes a while to realize that working more than 8/hrs a day is not sustainable. You'll be less productive in the long term. So really even as a self employed individual it's better to work less than a full time job imho.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#99

Post by SergeAx » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

theli0nheart wrote: post #37

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.

> 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. Not really. This just proves that corporate life isn't the most profitable option for the OP. You just can't make sweeping statements like this based on a single anecdote. I'll offer this to other "corporate" folk out there. I was self-employed since late 2010 until I r…

> During my last year of self-employment I took home ~$400k in cash, and lots more in early-stage stock

You've lost me here. Are those ealry-stage stock of yourself, giving you were self-employed? Or you made side jobs with cash+stock payments?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#100

Post by bdcravens » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 3:36 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.

The other choice is to not focus 100% on products, but rather, consult and work on your products on the side, and dial back the consulting as your products attain viability.