My Second Year as a Solo Developer • Hacker News Board

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#271

Post by jacurtis » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:47 PM UTC

willj wrote: post #203

Naive question by someone who’s never started a business: when bootstrapping companies while keeping your day job, how do you deal with intellectual property clauses in employment contracts, such that your employer owns the “inventions” you create in your free time, on your own equipment, unrelated to the business area you work in? I know laws vary by state, but I would find it especially disheartening if you spent y…

Generally, when an employer owns your "inventions", this only applies to "inventions" created while using the employer's resources. Most employement contracts will make it sound like they own every waking thought, but in most cases when this has been taken to court, the precedent has been set, that it really only applies to inventions or ideas that happen in relation to and using employer's resources.

So this means that an employer can argue they own software that you build:

- On a company-issued computer

- Using contacts you garnered through work

- On company time (this is complicated for salary employees, but definitely applies to time in the office, or standard business hours when you are expected to be working)

- Work collaborated on with other co-workers

Now I should clarify, I am not a lawyer. None of this is legal advice, yada yada...

But generally you can work on side projects and skirt around intellectual property clauses as long as you make sure to distinguish work time and work resources from your personal projects. The biggest thing is to avoid doing it while at work (or when expected to be actively working if you are remote), and avoid using a company computer or piggybacking off company resources (for example making a sub-account in your employer's CI/CD tool to run tests for your software).

So make sure you have seperate accounts for everything, avoid doing it on company time, and use a personal computer (not a work-issued computer) and you should be absolutely fine with working on a side project.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#272

Post by shakestheclown » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:49 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #265

criley2 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's coming from inside the house! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1067175527180513280 "No one ever changed the world at 40 hours a week" "80 hours minimum, with peaks at 100 hours" A 100 hour week would be 16.6 hours for 6 days and 1 day off, or 14.25 hour days with no days off The idea that entrepreneurs need to work more than 40 hours a week to be successful is as old as our industry, and I'd go so far as to s…

It's funny how Musk himself disproves that claim. He runs 3 companies simultaneously, yet clearly he can't dedicate 80hrs/week for each.

Well that depends on if Elon is a believer in Time Cube Theory which says due to 4 corner Earth there are 4 simultaneous days each rotation.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#273

Post by zerkten » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:53 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…

> For similar reasons, I would suggest devoting approximately zero cycles to cost control. You don't have a cost problem and no amount of cost control will bend the curve of your current businesses to sustainability. You have a revenue problem.

I'm curious why you use this wording. It comes of as slightly brash, and to many, suggests that you shouldn't worry about costs. In my experience have to be "penny wise, pound foolish" making reasonable efforts to manage cost.

You can pile on loads of tech debt which matters little at this scale (e.g. your CI/CD example), but when you are small the costs can bite hard. You quickly limit your choices and end up spending time looking for funding, if you don't have some sort of reasonable constraint.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#274

Post by jacurtis » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

par wrote: post #218

willj wrote: post #203

Naive question by someone who’s never started a business: when bootstrapping companies while keeping your day job, how do you deal with intellectual property clauses in employment contracts, such that your employer owns the “inventions” you create in your free time, on your own equipment, unrelated to the business area you work in? I know laws vary by state, but I would find it especially disheartening if you spent y…

most of the time you just roll the dice. As long as what you're doing is not in the same line of business as your employer, and you part on good terms, most of the time it's fine.

This is actually a good distinction. If your side project is related to your employer's line of work then it is easy for your employer to argue that they own that creation, even if you used a personal computer and did it at night, etc.

So for example if your employer makes inventory management software for coffee shops, and you decide to make an inventory management tool for grocery stores... then your employer will easily own your creation.

On the other hand if you work for a search engine platform (ie Google), and you invent an API tool that parses recipes, and you did it all on your personal laptop and personal time, then you should be fine.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#275

Post by rafiki6 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:04 PM UTC

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…

I think the approach here is a bit backwards from what the rest of the world has always done to a degree. Software Development is a specialized skillset, not unlike a trade. If we are solving a problem for someone with software, we are essentially like a typical contractor you hire to do something at home. What you're doing here is trying to convert that into a scalable product under the assumption that many other might also have the same problem. This might be true, but as in construction, the product makers aren't selling to the consumer directly but rather the tradesperson.

Every "tech" company is not actually selling tech, but rather is selling something tangible, a product of sorts. Software developers are selling their labor.

If you want to find out the scalable product or solution in a particular business or domain, I think you really need to be a part of that industry or have someone who is.

Otherwise, even if you end up developing a SaaS that satisfies the needs of 100 customers, you won't really ever truly be able to scale. So my suggestion is start talking to friends and family in other industries.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#276

Post by bilekas » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #157

bilekas wrote: post #6

How did you cut down so drastically on expenses in the second year, +50%, or was there a large investment in the first year, sorry I havent read last years update yet! Also, I'm just coming accross your Zestful service and can't believe that is exactly what i am looking for and actually started to write, but I have other stuff to do so no point re-inventing the wheel! Consider me a new client sir! PS: Congratulations…

> How did you cut down so drastically on expenses in the second year, +50%, or was there a large investment in the first year, sorry I havent read last years update yet! Mainly, I outsourced less. This was less about cutting costs as much as it was about building faster. My first year, I hired developers to do a lot of work with me, but I realized after a few months of doing it that contractors actually slowed me dow…

That outsourcing less is an interesting point actually, usually I will outsource some grunt work to get other infastructure in place, hand over interfaces and get to other things.

It's a really grat story to hear, I've been there with mixed results, financially and mentally but I plan to go back soon. Your candor is welcoming and on my previous comment about your Zestful service, I definitely will get in touch with you about something I would like to achieve.

Thanks again and best of luck in the future!

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#277

Post by tempsy » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

Toast_25 wrote: post #259

tempsy wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make $300K a year for 10 years while keeping expenses low and investing most of that in a bull market makes it pretty easy to do.

> Make $300K A year You make it sound easy! How do I do that outside of not just SF, but the US?

Move to Seattle?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#278

Post by jacurtis » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #84

swalsh wrote: post #19

Just some honest feedback. I have a use for Zestful, and the price is good. But playing around, it seems good at the easy stuff (but I can do the easy stuff myself) it's not so good at the hard stuff. For example the string "3/4 cup risotto rice, Arborio or Carnaroli" It identifies the unit and quantity fair enough, and it's right when it says "Risotto rice" is the product. But then it says "Arborio or Carnaroli" is…

Thanks for reading and for testing out Zestful! > For example the string "3/4 cup risotto rice, Arborio or Carnaroli" > It identifies the unit and quantity fair enough, and it's right when it says "Risotto rice" is the product. But then it says "Arborio or Carnaroli" is a preparation method. I can totally see WHY it says that. But I'm not sure that's correct. Yeah, I'm constantly improving the model, but there will a…

Aren't you going to make him pre-pay for 3 months and not charge him until the feature is implemented???

Just got to call you out on your own article. lol

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#279

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

zerkten wrote: post #273

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…

> For similar reasons, I would suggest devoting approximately zero cycles to cost control. You don't have a cost problem and no amount of cost control will bend the curve of your current businesses to sustainability. You have a revenue problem. I'm curious why you use this wording. It comes of as slightly brash, and to many, suggests that you shouldn't worry about costs. In my experience have to be "penny wise, pound…

[deleted]

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#280

Post by disiplus » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

mediaman wrote: post #237

enraged_camel wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To be honest i would not agree. While those challenges like all challenges can be exciting, in the end of the day it will still lack you full engagement because it's something that's boring to you or not interesting.

i'm kinda in that situation now, and got to play all the roles, like how we increased our conversation ratio by 50% with me thinking like a sales person (hint, don't over-complicate your pricing page), and those things can get you exited for some time and the money also, i just don's see it long term. i would rather playing with something that i love to do.