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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

#231

Post by tempsy »

epicgiga wrote: post #116

Very illustrative warning to other devs. Just because you're coding and building things, doesn't mean you're doing work, or that you're going to make any money. Most devs are salarymen because that's the best role they can play in society. Their employer plugs them into what the market actually wants. 99% of them are inequipped to perform any that business aspect themselves. They just want to build stuff. Like this d…

OP has effectively F.I.R.E'd even if he doesn't say that explicitly.

These projects are fun things to do that keep him fresh more than anything.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#232

Post by shanecleveland »

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…

From the post:

"... I outsourced much of the writing. That cost me more than it should have because I knew nothing about hiring and managing writers, but the experience taught me a lot ..."

"... no love for Xero ..."

As an entrepreneurial dev who is also a business owner, it sounds like he may have some problems there to solve!

Not sure if those are viable, just pointing it out. The easiest problems to solve are your own or at least ones you encounter yourself. Doing some consulting may help to see problems in business or industries that are not your own.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#233

Post by [deleted] »

epicgiga wrote: post #193
say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP shares his struggles with the world and this is the best you can come up with? The illustrative warning here is for anyone in OP's position to not post personal nor professional difficulties with randoms on Hacker News. Share wisdom, not criticism.

I did both. You just have to finish reading before you start typing. See, did both again!

[deleted]

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#234

Post by reflectiv »

leadingthenet wrote: post #80
reflectiv wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll offer a counter example in that the startup I joined failed miserably and I ended up losing out on a LOT of income. I am now working for a decent 6-figure income and EXTREMELY happy with the stability and 40-50 hour work weeks...in comparison to the ABSOLUTE GRIND I went through trying to help that startup get off the ground - this is a godsend. Your scenario is VERY UNLIKELY IMO.

WHAT is WITH the RANDOM CAPITALISATION?

It's called emphasis.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#235

Post by tempsy »

rs23296008n1 wrote: post #69

Good stuff. I've seen a bit of negativity about this being a waste of time since you're not making equivalent money to old job. For those people: This isn’t any different from spending time earning a degree by returning to full-time study. And your attempts are growing. The compound interest from these investments in time and effort will help you regardless. Even if you fail on every business at first you'll still ge…

OP isn't explicit about it but he's effectively F.I.R.E'd. These are projects to keep the mind fresh in what is early retirement. If that weren't the case building an actual business requires a lot more time, energy, resources even as a solo founder than what I'm getting from the blog post.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#236

Post by reflectiv »

cambalache wrote: post #159
reflectiv wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll offer a counter example in that the startup I joined failed miserably and I ended up losing out on a LOT of income. I am now working for a decent 6-figure income and EXTREMELY happy with the stability and 40-50 hour work weeks...in comparison to the ABSOLUTE GRIND I went through trying to help that startup get off the ground - this is a godsend. Your scenario is VERY UNLIKELY IMO.

Stability until you get canned.

That's anywhere...at least I have a reliable check until I don't...and I have reasonable hours.

Didn't have either of those before.

Also, if I get canned, I can find another job...there is a LOT of work out there for what I do...

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#237

Post by mediaman »

enraged_camel wrote: post #181
disiplus wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but how many of those are interesting to work on, i too have been freelancimg and know some of problems, but when i think about them i dont reality want to work on them more them i have to.

Boring is good. Makes it a lot less likely that you’ll have competition. ;)

Agreed. If you have to be working on some exciting, disruptive project, doing solo development work that generates good income by working with run of the mill businesses with run of the mill problems is not going to be a good fit.

Personally, I find boring to be quite exciting - but perhaps not if the only thing you're looking at is the technical solution. Building a small business involves figuring out how to solve the mundane but important thing, but then you get to figure out how to sell it, how much to charge, how to do customer outreach, do support, turn the business into a repeatable process, etc. Building a business out of it is quite challenging and fun and the technical solution is frankly a small part of it.

Many solo-preneur types with technical backgrounds are way over-indexed on the technical aspect and want to treat it like their last technical job, but without a boss, which leads to a lot of disappointment and frustration.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#238

Post by twic »

eugenekolo wrote: post #158
gwbas1c wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like this guy is trying to run a lifestyle business, and his investments pay enough interest that he can coast for a long, long time. To be quite honest: He's spending all day playing . That's a position I envy quite a bit.

How many years of work do you have in the tech industry? It seems in the current market (not even assuming SF salaries), and without kids/other dependents, it's fairly easy to reach that point. Just curious, because a lot of people have this mentality that they need to work forever and ever, but it often is just a mindset. You can easily amass 500k-1M and just coast on 40k/year in expenses for a long time. If it's so…

> You can easily

With the usual caveat, "if you are working for a big tech company in the bay area".

In London, starting on 30k and rising to 80k after ten years, not so easily.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#239

Post by freehunter »

nautilus12 wrote: post #91
avl999 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Not the guy you’re responding to but I also have a chip on my shoulder about children: people won’t shut up about me having them. My wife and I made the decision to not have children but every conversation it gets brought up. We buy a two seater car: there goes any hope of having children. We go on a two week vacation: you won’t be able to do that if you have children. She quits her job: nows the perfect time to have children! It gets old REALLY quickly.

Some people don’t want children. Ever. But there’s a lot of people just like you who can’t stop talking about children in every conversation. Why?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#240

Post by twic »

mtlynch wrote: post #219
aosaigh wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a friendly passing comment, but I'm not sure you have the correct take-aways from speaking with business owners. With the quarry example, you couldn't get them on the phone. How about conferences, meetups, trade shows etc? Furthermore you probably need to search for companies that might _want_ to speak to you: younger owners, companies with less to lose etc. In the sheet metal example, it sounds like you had alr…

Thanks for the suggestions! I think that's sound advice. The strategy I had in mind was courting industries that were physically close to me. I wasn't just calling the businesses, I was showing up at their offices to ask for meetings. My hypothesis was that there are probably plenty of profitable businesses nearby that are disconnected from the tech world, so other software companies aren't approaching them. To clari…

It's wild how you've done exactly what the priests of entrepreneurship preach, and it hasn't worked for you, and people cannot accept that. You must have done something else! You must have done something wrong!
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