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Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

failory.com

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Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#61
post #38

Semi-rhetorical question: why do customers accept something like this delivered in SaaS form? It seems so antithetical to customer obsession when this is the exact type of problem that lends itself well to a locally running application. Why not deliver this as a desktop application that users download and pay for one-time? There’s absolutely no need for an ongoing subscription to a backend service here. Outside of re…

Customers are typically stupid, cash-rich and easily exploited.

Sounds like you are really good at finding customers.

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a customer openly admit to me that they had been using a pirated version of my app until now. Pretty crazy when you see your own app on torrent sites.

Only when your goal is making money and not making apps to further humanity

Isn't that implied if you charge money for your app?

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a customer openly admit to me that they had been using a pirated version of my app until now. Pretty crazy when you see your own app on torrent sites.

Only when your goal is making money and not making apps to further humanity

Can't you do both? Why should people be expected to work for free?

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if you're trolling... Also I find it hard to believe that there are millions of Americans who barely make $1,000 a month.

Check out https://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/ Plug in $12,000 as the annual income, and that'll tell you that 24% of U.S. workers made that or less in 2014. Looks like the number of full time U.S. workers in 2014 was 118.72 million: https://www.statista.com/statistics/192361/unadjusted-monthl... That works out to be 28 million U.S. workers making See also: https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wa…

Do you have access to a formatted source of the data that was used to make the percentile calculator ? They claim it is based off the 2014 American Community Survey's Public Use Microdata Sample, but clicking on the provided link takes you to a directory with hundreds of zip folders.

Also the last link to "howmuch.net" states that their numbers include any wage earners whatsoever.

"There is one important caveat to keep in mind when thinking about our dataset. The SSA numbers include any wage earners whatsoever, even part-time workers like students and teenagers. If the worker reports his or her income to the IRS on a W2 form, he or she is included in these stats."

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#65
post #38

Semi-rhetorical question: why do customers accept something like this delivered in SaaS form? It seems so antithetical to customer obsession when this is the exact type of problem that lends itself well to a locally running application. Why not deliver this as a desktop application that users download and pay for one-time? There’s absolutely no need for an ongoing subscription to a backend service here. Outside of re…

> Why not deliver this as a desktop application that users download and pay for one-time? Because when given the option, sellers usually choose more money than less money. Anyone is welcome to create a competing product and take their margins.

And buyers choose less money over more money.

The one time purchase could have been, let's say, $20, but if I want to use it a couple of times, paying $5 per month might be a better deal. And you're always getting the latest version

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out https://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/ Plug in $12,000 as the annual income, and that'll tell you that 24% of U.S. workers made that or less in 2014. Looks like the number of full time U.S. workers in 2014 was 118.72 million: https://www.statista.com/statistics/192361/unadjusted-monthl... That works out to be 28 million U.S. workers making See also: https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wa…

Do you have access to a formatted source of the data that was used to make the percentile calculator ? They claim it is based off the 2014 American Community Survey's Public Use Microdata Sample, but clicking on the provided link takes you to a directory with hundreds of zip folders. Also the last link to "howmuch.net" states that their numbers include any wage earners whatsoever. "There is one important caveat to ke…

Why single out part timers, students and teenagers? How does any of that matter when talking about Americans earning less than $1000/mo? "These Americans make less than that, but let's not count them"???

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#67
post #43

God that's impressive. takeaway: make products for people that use computers but don't know how to use suites of tools.

Maybe your takeaway is right but there's also a huge piece that wasn't captured in your one-liner "We lost about 2 years of our time and $30k of my savings (which was most of it). " "Getting those first 10/100+ customers was really hard. We relied primarily on direct outreach via cold email and social media messaging to obtain those first customers. Taking the time to reach out directly to customers for a $7/month pl…

that's because all of that goes without saying (since I assume that the typical hn reader already knows about 1. pivots being costly 2. the early adopter grind). those points aren't key features of their succuss either because every startup experiences those pains.

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

As for paid versions of Monument Valley, sales from the iTunes App Store far outpace sales on other marketplaces. Purchases on iOS account for 73 percent of Ustwo's $14.4 million of revenue, while only 17 percent of that total revenue came from Google Play. https://www.polygon.com/2016/5/20/11724058/monument-valley-s...

This particular data point is irrelevant since the game launched on Android one year after its iOS debut, losing the novelty and marketing factors.

Re: Wavve: making $76k a month turning podcasts into videos

#70
post #27

Sounds nice... but Sigh , only iOS?

It’s a one-man effort (Marco Arment). It’s not reasonable to expect him to develop for multiple platforms.

Maybe, but it is slightly ironic to chose 'the' walled garden platform and also read that quote from him in the shared article:

> For podcasting to remain open and free, we must not leave major shortcomings for proprietary, locked-down services to exploit. Conversely, the more we strengthen the open podcast ecosystem with content, functionality, and ease of use, the larger the barrier becomes that any walled garden must overcome to be compelling.

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