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Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

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Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#1

Post by _benj »

The question about successful online business has been asked a few times in HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21332072, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13326535)

I'm curious about non-SaaS business models because nowadays with all the press that SaaS gets other viable business are not heard about often.

> How many people on hacker news are running successful non-SaaS online businesses on their own? What is your business and how did you get started?

> Defining successful as a profitable business which provides the majority of the owners income.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#2

Post by myurushkin »

I founded a company that provides AI development services for startups and companies. We have operated for more than 3 years already. I can't say that we earn huge money, but it's enough for a comfortable life and we can do what we like to do (research, deep learning/computer vision/NLP).

I started the business after defending my PhD. The main reason for this was the lack of interesting job opportunities and I didn't consider relocation. That is why the only way to work on interesting projects was remote work in startups.

Anyway, I think it makes sense to experiment with different business models to check the market/diversify the risks. For e.g. we have started the development of a SaaS platform (video analytics) and plan to launch it in the next year. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#3

Post by nicbou »

I run a website that helps people settle in Germany [0]. It's monetised through affiliate income, mostly from insurance and banking products. If you move here, you need health insurance and a bank account.

It's not a very demanding job, since most of the content is evergreen. The website could run for months without attention, but I enjoy making the website a little better every day. I love being able to provide so much for free, and still live from it.

In the future, I'd like to hire someone to write more content. There are topics that just aren't interesting to me (like pensions and taxation), and others that I don't have enough exposure to (like studying in Germany). However, I don't trust others to put the same level of attention into the research and the editing.

[0] https://allaboutberlin.com/

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#4

Post by alltakendamned »

nicbou wrote: post #3

I run a website that helps people settle in Germany [0]. It's monetised through affiliate income, mostly from insurance and banking products. If you move here, you need health insurance and a bank account. It's not a very demanding job, since most of the content is evergreen. The website could run for months without attention, but I enjoy making the website a little better every day. I love being able to provide so m…

Can you share a ballpark figure of the kind of income a website like this generates ? Thanks !

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#6

Post by dublin »

I'm currently working on two, but unfortunately can't post about them yet. Both are lightweight consumer products manufacturing - decent margins, probably good markets, and the kind of thing that can be spun up in a garage (and run from there, for at least a couple of years) for less than a modest new car. Although I've built SaaS startups in the past, I have no desire to do that again until tools and platforms are good enough to eliminate the need for hiring a dev team. I never want to work with an offshore dev group again. (There are some decent ones in Eastern Europe and Central/South America, but I'm done with crappy Asian software!)

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#7

Post by nicbou »

alltakendamned wrote: post #4
nicbou wrote: post #3

I run a website that helps people settle in Germany [0]. It's monetised through affiliate income, mostly from insurance and banking products. If you move here, you need health insurance and a bank account. It's not a very demanding job, since most of the content is evergreen. The website could run for months without attention, but I enjoy making the website a little better every day. I love being able to provide so m…

Can you share a ballpark figure of the kind of income a website like this generates ? Thanks !

It's hard to say because it's been steadily going up this year. It looks like it could match my software developer salary, which is much more than I hoped for.

Re: Ask HN: Successful one-person non-SaaS online businesses?

#9

Post by partisan »

nicbou wrote: post #3

I run a website that helps people settle in Germany [0]. It's monetised through affiliate income, mostly from insurance and banking products. If you move here, you need health insurance and a bank account. It's not a very demanding job, since most of the content is evergreen. The website could run for months without attention, but I enjoy making the website a little better every day. I love being able to provide so m…

I am not in your space or even in your continent, but how do you go about participating in bank affiliate programs?
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