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Ask HN: Successful one-person online businesses?

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

#11

Post by tambeb »

msbroadf wrote: post #8

I have run my one-man business for 13 years now. https://www.virtualhere.com . Back then I saw the market moving to the cloud and thought bringing device access there was needed. There was no one really doing this cheaply and easily. I posted a link to my software on the raspberrypi forum when that board came out and started getting my customers immediately that way. It took a year to write the initial software. Ive…

I've been using VirtualHere since 2015, with multiple paid licenses.

It's a great tool with infinite use cases. I'm glad that it's a successful business for you!

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

#12

Post by kjksf »

I've collected 53 stories from past HN discussions: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/wjRD/solo-founders-with-...

And another batch: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/81714acf995e4968bb220684...

There's also @levelsio who's killing it with multi-million / year solo business: https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/de943f80c7924745abf9405f...

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

#13

Post by INeedMoreRam »

msbroadf wrote: post #8

I have run my one-man business for 13 years now. https://www.virtualhere.com . Back then I saw the market moving to the cloud and thought bringing device access there was needed. There was no one really doing this cheaply and easily. I posted a link to my software on the raspberrypi forum when that board came out and started getting my customers immediately that way. It took a year to write the initial software. Ive…

[dead]

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

#15

Post by gnicholas »

I run BeeLine Reader, which has B2C tools (browser plugin, iOS extension) and B2B licensing. Our core technology, which powers both sides of the business, makes reading on screen easier, more engaging, and more efficient.

I handle the customer service and outsource the upkeep of the B2C tools. Most of my time is spent on bizdev for the B2B licensing, which is where most of the revenue comes from.

We have seen some slowdown in new conversations with B2B partners. Companies that are laying people off have a hard time justifying new outside partnerships/costs, even when those partnerships are structured to increase revenue and profits. But we've still done some important deals in the last couple months, and we're still moving forward in talks with companies large and small.

Some larger companies have even said that it may be easier to structure a deal now, since they otherwise would have been pressured to hire new employees to achieve a certain goal. Now they aren't allowed to hire, so the door is more open to a partnership with a company like BeeLine Reader. I imagine pricing conversations will be more constrained, however.

1: http://www.beelinereader.com

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

#17

Post by acegopher »

jarebear6expepj wrote: post #5

I ran a collection of websites that I built (see bolted together) with PHP, MySQL, and nginx. Most of them were curated media sites which made income with advertising revenue. A few services, most notably was a dating site I made for Mormons, which the church interestingly enough used a blind broker to buy and shut down within a year of going live. I mostly ran the websites in to the ground with my custom wannabe fra…

How did you sell? What was your multiple? Did you use a broker?

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

#18

Post by sickcodebruh »

msbroadf wrote: post #8

I have run my one-man business for 13 years now. https://www.virtualhere.com . Back then I saw the market moving to the cloud and thought bringing device access there was needed. There was no one really doing this cheaply and easily. I posted a link to my software on the raspberrypi forum when that board came out and started getting my customers immediately that way. It took a year to write the initial software. Ive…

This looks fantastic. I sometimes do audio mixing and I dread the day that I leave home for a session and forget to throw my iLok in my bag. I see someone’s already proven it works with that. Exciting!

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

#20

Post by jehb »

For anyone who's interested in answering, I'd be curious to hear your thinking on how you keep focused and avoid rabbit holes, particularly with build vs. buy decisions.

I've had an intentionally-small business that I've been working on for a few years now, but I keep getting distracted by my desire to work on the stack itself instead of the core business offering. I've done a very good job of replacing Shopify with WooCommerce, Google Analytics with Plausible, exploring about every static site generator as a replacement for my slow CMS, automating my social media content, etc. I've done an absolutely shitty job of growing the actual core business. Particularly for those of you coming from jobs in a corporate environment, how do you keep your focus on your core offering instead of spending all of your time "fixing" your tech stack?

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