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My Second Year as a Solo Developer

mtlynch.io

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Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#121

Post by hopia »

larrik wrote: post #63
mtlynch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As someone who has done quite a bit of shopping for various services, having a language-specific library ready to go is a major factor. I doubt that someone already paying you would still need one, though, so it should probably be considered a strictly "customer acquisition" feature. I understand your rule, but I don't think it should be that strict.

It could also be his competitive advantage over others.

I mean wasn't Stripe known to become so successful exactly because of easiness of use, in other words a good user experience for developers with simple ready-made libraries. Making a new payment gateway is hardly innovative by itself after all.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#122

Post by mtlynch »

ingend88 wrote: post #65

@mtlynch what tech stack do you use?

Different things for different projects. I'm trying to move toward mostly Go + Vue stuff.

* Zestful: Python + Docker + CRF++

* Is It Keto: Flask + AppEngine

* What Got Done: Go + Vue + AppEngine (https://github.com/mtlynch/whatgotdone)

* WanderJest: Go + Vue + AppEngine

* mtlynch.io: Hugo (https://github.com/mtlynch/mtlynch.io)

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#125

Post by daxaxelrod »

theli0nheart wrote: post #78
daxaxelrod wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty incredible. What made you want to join the mid stage startup? Also did most of your income come from consulting type work or product revenue?

Thanks! TBH, I just got bored. All of the inefficient aspect of my work got slowly eliminated over the years due to process improvements, which meant that only the most unpleasant, manual aspects were left over (read: legal, negotiation, business development, etc.). 80% of my income was consulting related. I tried to branch off into making a SaaS and "failed" (which I'm still kind of excited about but have no time to…

Ah interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#126

Post by aguyfromnb »

tempsy wrote: post #88
bognition wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The returns in 2019 were exceptionally good. There’s little reason to assume 2020 will be as good. With everything going on this year: Brexit, US elections, impeachment, corona virus, etc... it’s entirely possible this years returns could be negative.

Sure, I mean it doesn't sound like his plan was to live off his investment income, but it certainly has been possible. My point is that when you get to the point where your savings is high enough your money works for you at a level that makes it possible to live off of alone. If the S&P is looking flat then you could rollover some of it to a high dividend REIT that pays 10-15% too.

>If the S&P is looking flat then you could rollover some of it to a high dividend REIT that pays 10-15% too.

You know the business cycle is peaking when people think you can easily throw their money into some investment paying 15%...no problem!

Can you explain how a public investment - any public investment - can continuously generate those kinds of returns without taking on massive amounts of risk?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#127

Post by balfirevic »

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…

> These products do not appear obviously commercializable

It looks to me like some people have a well-developed intuition to distinguish between products in "seems like it would be useful to me" category vs. products that have a good chance of actually being commercialized.

I certainly don't. When reading various indie hacker stories I'll be damned if I can predict with reasonable success which ideas have a good chance of taking off and which don't.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#128

Post by CaptArmchair »

mrlala wrote: post #81
CaptArmchair wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>And, frankly, nobody needs to know. Well, it's hard to argue that it's not relevant to the discussion...

No. It's not. The blogpost said that he is able to live frugally because he has no dependents such as children. That's all there is to know.

You can ask "why?" but nobody is obligated to give you an answer. Pushing hard for an answer is considered rude. You may be asking someone to tell you really painful experiences they went through.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#129

Post by amelius »

cs02rm0 wrote: post #120
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…

You could probably talk to business owners with problems, launch an (appropriately priced; hundreds to thousands of dollars per year) product against those problems, build contingent on getting 10 commits to buy I don't doubt that you're absolutely right, but this bit strikes me as hard . I've struggled to find one business owner with a problem they perceive, let alone 10 with commitments to buying a solution for the…

> Ironically, it strikes me that there's a gap here for a business to solve; connecting entrepreneurial devs with business owners aware of problems.

This. Why hasn't this gap been filled yet?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#130

Post by edf13 »

gbasin wrote: post #3

Encouraging to see your progress, keep it up! Reading about your projects, it strikes me that some have different potential than others for perhaps one clear reason: solving a problem vs not. Why not double down on Zestful? There is demand there, and some are willing to pay... This post I wrote recently may be helpful for you: https://tinyletter.com/garybasin/letters/how-to-know-what-pe...

Hate to be harsh - but I wouldn't call this progress... I would call this going backwards.

From what I can see he is drastically cutting back his lifestyle and all living costs and calling it a profit? The business and enterprise of being s solo dev itself is failing enterprise.

My advise (From experience) would be to be doing some outsourced/freelance work at this stage to help fund your projects.

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