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Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

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Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#291

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

unstatusthequo wrote: post #203
awillen wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good question... the last couple of LLCs that I've formed have been for businesses that are clearly operating in CA (one was for real estate here and the other for a local service company) and thus require the LLC there. Since I'm selling to the whole US here, maybe it is a better option... I will look into it.

Lawyer here. Not yours. But consider Delaware or really any state. You do not need to form it in CA just because that’s where you are. Just get a registered agent and pick a state that doesn’t have oppressive LLC fees...

What should we check to see which state is the best to form an LLC in? I want to double-check whether it’s viable to form one in my state before considering Delaware.

Why an LLC instead of an S-corp?

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#292

Post by awillen »

bradgessler wrote: post #226
philsnow wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA levies a (not insignificant) fee even for Delaware LLCs that operate in California.

Yes, $800. Same cost as forming the LLC.

Damn, that's what I was hoping to avoid :/

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#294

Post by dheera »

jcun4128 wrote: post #284
dheera wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh it's just a base64-encoded JSON that contains other parameters like the view limits and such. You can base64 decode itself and see.

Oh yeah that's neat, what does the type: 0 mean? I guess as an aside did you write the plotting part or used some library?

I wrote the whole thing from ground up. I don't think I remember seeing any libraries back then. It actually initially used 1-pixel DIVs, then SVG, then later changed to canvas.

type:0 just means a regular y=f(x) function

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#295

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

ta17711771 wrote: post #181
awillen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a Shopify site, so I'm just using their integration to print labels from whoever's cheapest - so far it's always been USPS. Honestly the shipping is something I need to figure out... I'm charging flat shipping per product right now until $50 because I don't want shipping costs to be too discouraging, but I am losing money shipping to the East Coast. For the most part my margins are pretty decent and at this poin…

Let me know if you're interested in having an East Coast facility!

how do people generally get in contact with manufacturers?

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#296

Post by awillen »

grogenaut wrote: post #210
awillen wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the moment I'm buying #10 cans (which are like 3 quarts I believe), though obviously I'll try to scale that up if sales merit it.

That'd be a pretty big dehydrator / freeze dryer to use. I'm I'm guessing at least a 3-1 if not 5-1 ratio on cheese.

Hmm, yeah, that makes sense - I'd still be interested to try it just to understand the process and see how it turns out. Ultimately if this gets big enough I'd want to find a co-packer for production, so it would be good to understand the whole process at a small scale before going that route anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#297

Post by awillen »

npiit wrote: post #228
awillen wrote: post #2

I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to and freeze for a meat-based frozen treat. I feel really good about the product and the packaging design (and this is the first time I've ever worked on any kind of a physical product, so it's real…

That's unexpected but cool!

Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#298

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

awillen wrote: post #283
biztos wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a look and this might be a completely ignorant suggestion (I don’t have a dog) but to me it was very surprising that dogs would like frozen food, so maybe you should explain that/why they do. Just seemed counterintuitive, I’ve never seen anybody give anything frozen to their dog.

A lot of dogs (mine included) love to crunch on ice cubes. You can also find a lot of recipes for frozen treats online - I started by looking there first, but they were all heavy on ingredients my dog isn't fond of (he really just likes meat). Might be a geographical/climate thing. I'm in San Diego, so frozen treats are good year round here.

how did you find expiration dates for your consumables?

Re: Ask HN: Side projects that are making money, but you'd not talk about them?

#299

Post by awillen »

yowlingcat wrote: post #253
awillen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran a 99Designs contest for a logo, and the winner of that also had some experience doing packaging design, so I used her: https://99designs.com/profiles/bettymar . I just thought she really captured the feel I was looking for - it's an upscale product, but it's for dogs so I still wanted it to feel fun.

Very cool! I really like seeing you respond to all the questions in the thread. It's giving me a really eye-opening view into the nuts and bolts of bootstrapping a physical product company. Thank you so much for going into detail!

Thanks! I spent 10 years as a PM in enterprise SaaS, and my favorite part was always talking to our brick and mortar small business customers. Maybe it's just a grass is greener thing, but doing something with a tangible product has always just seemed so cool to me.
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