Persisting as a solo founder • Hacker News Board

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#71

Post by vishnumohandas » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

codecamper wrote: post #53

Looks good, but I don't understand how you can compete with Google & Apple with a photo organizer app. You may want to use Flutter or similar tool so you don't have to write it twice.

The aim isn’t to compete with the companies at large. But to provide an alternative for users who (like me) care both about privacy and convenience when it comes to the niche space of photo storage. The size of the audience might be small, but I’m optimistic about it being large enough for me to sustain this as a small business.

And yes, I am using Flutter to build the mobile apps. It does come with its own set of problems that I have to bang my head against, but I can’t complain as it’s saving me quite a bit of effort.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#72

Post by wussboy » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #44

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even telling me that he himself only sleeps 2-3 hours per night just so that he can do more physics. It's always fascinating to see people make claims like this, despite all evidence showing that it's impossible to maintain. Some extreme genetic outliers may be able to sustain performance with around 5 hours of sleep per night, but no one is going to last very long on 2-3 hours per sleep each night.

How do you rule out if the professor is an extreme genetic outlier? Seems like the kind of place you’d expect to find such an outlier.

Either he is an extreme genetic outlier (by definition the rarest of the rare) or he exaggerated to enhance his reputation (a trait baked in to everyone and so pervasive we all do it without realizing it). I know which one is more likely.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#73

Post by biolurker1 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:07 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #60

bjo590 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has there ever been a documented medical case of someone surviving on less than 3 hours of sleep a night indefinitely? I've read a lot of sleep studies, and besides some non-scientifically published variations on Buckminster Fuller's 30 minute nap every six hour sleep schedule I haven't read about someone getting such low amounts of sleep.

I've been on that little sleep for months. It takes away from any clear thought. Very unproductive. Not something anyone should do on purpose.

Why are you on it? Covid insomnia?

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#74

Post by newsch » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC

idm_guru wrote: post #9

As a solo founder for 10+ years, what I can say is that all "rules" in business are "rules of thumb"... Not laws. It's ok to be a solo founder... Sometimes. Bounce ideas off your team instead of your co-founders. Make use of mentors. There is a workaround for all your challenges. I also recommend listening to podcasts with other founders. I host a podcast called "Open Source Underdogs". Lots of good advice there for…

Looks like an interesting podcast! Unfortunately, my podcast client doesn't load anything earlier than episode 22, and Spotify doesn't either - it looks like the RSS feed doesn't contain the earlier episodes. Is that expected behavior?

I was particularly surprised to learn that Moodle is open-source. I used it in school before the world of software development and open-source was on my radar.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#75

Post by mceachen » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC

mattbee wrote: post #40

vishnumohandas wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> taking 7 months to build and not shipping anything So I spent the first couple of months chasing an on-premise alternative to photo storage[1]. Then I realized that the product was difficult to sell, and required a substantial investment of capital so I pivoted to an E2EE alternative on the cloud. I also spent a non-trivial amount of time trying to raise investment, which I regret at this point. > how long are you…

Oh that looks great (but.. lol) I'd lead with "Share your family's photos, access them everywhere you want them" rather the rather conspiratorial "corporations cannot be trusted". At least if you want to appeal to families. But what do I know! I pay $99/year for Mylio which does importing, syncing & basic editing between devices, but my goodness it's slow - the only saving grace is that it's faster than Lightroom. My…

Solo founder here.

I have a bunch of happy beta users that had previously tried and given up on Mylio. You're certainly welcome to try it out!

https://photostructure.com/about/introducing-photostructure/

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#76

Post by fbelzile » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC

huzaif wrote: post #55

Solo Founder. I have done Meditation, gratitude journals and focused transitions. It all helps. However, for me the activity that helps the most is hard workouts early in the morning. Once I get going, I am fighting against gravity and fatigue. I am no longer thinking about my past, future or even the day. Just focused on the moment. I am in a similar boat as you OP. I am very happy on a daily basis, building the pro…

I go for a 5k run in the morning. Despite it taking a little time from your morning, it'll pay for itself threefold in terms of productivity throughout the rest of the day.

Also, if you work alone and get stuck on a problem or need a little help with being creative (ie: UI design, marketing), try smoking a joint! It might not be as good as bouncing ideas off of someone else, but it's definitely helped me think of ideas I might not have come up with otherwise.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#77

Post by arthurofbabylon » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:10 PM UTC

For a solo founder, the bottom line is neither traction, recurring revenue, nor monthly active users. The bottom line is emotional health/fitness.

For example, as a solo creator, anytime I resolve my single-biggest source of stress I get in a flow producing my best work. I'm more open to looking at problems from new angles.

Without the typical external structures, emotional fitness dictates everything: ability to make decisions, ability to forecast, willingness to learn a critical new skill/approach, persistence through challenges, willingness to take risks, etc. Basically, if it matters, being mentally/emotionally healthy fosters it.

I don't know if it's a saying, but it should be: Great products come from great teams, whether that's a team of 1, 10, or 1000 people.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#78

Post by aphroz » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:13 PM UTC

You can theorize as much as you want, at the end some are successful and some are not, each one will tell you they know why. none of them will do. Luck has a lot to do with it, but work hard in doing something you believe in and if it becomes successful, good for you, but this should not be your first objective. Struggle is underrated.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#79

Post by bushido » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:13 PM UTC

jahbrewski wrote: post #46

superasn wrote: post #10

Being a solo founder myself here are a few tips I would like to add: 1. Solo founders are most often devs, which means they focus 90% of their energy on dev and what little remains on marketing. Unfortunately this is a easy trap to fall into and you should invest equal if not more time doing/learning SEO, content marketing (which you've done here very successfully btw) and building an audience. 2. Making a product wi…

While I agree with the sentiment of #1, I would argue that sales are more important than marketing at this stage. You can spin your wheels “learning SEO” and “creating content” with very little tangible results. In the beginning, sales + product are just about all that matter.

Both can be important and it really comes down to who your customer is.

For B2B (SME+) - Absolutely invest in Sales. Worth mentioning that it isn't too hard hiring seasoned sales professionals, with existing relationships who are trying to find their next career move etc. They'll often agree to a higher commission payout in-lieu of a base salary. This doubles up as a good way to get feedback from the market.

For B2C or smaller B2B - Definitely invest in marketing and customer experience if you would like the main driver behind your business to be product-led growth or some form of a self-signup/self-onboarding.

Re: Persisting as a solo founder

#80

Post by lukevp » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

gramakri wrote: post #48

lukevp wrote: post #14

It sounds like you have the motivation and persistence figured out. That’s great! Have you read Lean Startup and done some customer research? Maybe I’m wrong, but gut reaction to this app is that very few people would be willing to pay for this. If someone is privacy conscious and anti-google, Apple has a much better track record for privacy. I get multiple gigabytes of cloud backup for free and can add on additional…

Nextcloud is really not a photo management solution though. The e2e support is nextcloud is really not production quality. Do you use either of these for your setup because I am happy to change my mind. I use emby these days for managing photos and auto uploads.

You can use nextcloud as the cloud backup and turn off backups within google photos, and then you have a photo manager with encrypted (and self hosted) backups. I have not used nextcloud myself. I use Apple products and pay for icloud. I use Emby as well for media management. What I was getting at is that I don’t want to switch my photo manager and photo workflow when all that the value here is is the fact that the photos are encrypted, there are many solutions to that. Why not sell a hosted end to end encrypted backend that is compatible with google photos and Apple photos?