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Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

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Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#41

Post by iLoveOncall »

DaanDL wrote: post #11
rubymamis wrote: post #4

I'm the founder of the open-source and cross-platform note-taking app https://www.get-notes.com (written in Qt C++). I earn about $2000 a month from ads on the landing page (organic SEO), but very soon plan to add a subscription for pro features (while people could still compile it from source and get the full experience without paying, if they wish). I started the project 8 years ago to create a slick looking note-t…

Wuut.. Never heard of this! It looks very slick, I searched and searched for a nice note taking app on Linux and eventually landed with NoteKit, but this looks better.

Obsidian seems to have all the features of that note taking app + many more and even has plugin support.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#42

Post by dicroce »

monsecchris wrote: post #6

https://www.monoclesecurity.com High performance AI video streaming server and clients for a variety of platforms. Took several years before the product was in an acceptable state to begin selling, it's been about 10 years since I began.

Cool. I made one of these too. Open source though... github.com/dicroce/revere

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#43

Post by mateuszbuda »

kouteiheika wrote: post #23
mateuszbuda wrote: post #10

For https://scrapingfish.com/ it took us about 5-6 months from idea to $2k/month. It’s still not our main source of income. It was fun to build especially that it involved working with hardware.

Just curious, so how exactly do you source your IPs? I clicked on the "How IPs for web scraping are sourced" page expecting an answer on how you do it, but it doesn't actually tell me that; it just tells me how they're not sourced. You said that "it involved working with hardware", so did you source your own mobile SIM cards in various countries, hook up your own phones to that and use those as proxies?

Good question. Here we explain, with a few simplifications, how we source our IPs: https://scrapingfish.com/blog/byo-mobile-proxy-for-web-scrap...

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#44

Post by jameshush »

iambateman wrote: post #22

Depending on your goals, have you considered freelancing? If your purpose is cash flow, freelancing can quickly generate $2000++ with much less risk than starting a SaaS. That’s not to say starting a SaaS is a bad idea…but if pure short-term cash production is your goal, I’d consider finding clients who trust you to pay you hourly on the side. FWIW, I’ve started 2 SaaS companies with a collective revenue of $0, and m…

I’ve tried freelancing a few times, I never manage to make it work. The clients I find all end up paying less than a “normal” job so I end up going back to that.

I’m working as a Solutions Engineer now. Its basically freelancing without sourcing customers and a consistently big pay cheque every month. Any tips on starting freelancing?

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#45

Post by steelbrain »

Some really interesting projects here! I've been working on my own SaaS project called CorOpera (https://www.coropera.com) for almost a year now. It's a cap table management solution for early-stage startups, helping them manage their cap table, do some bookkeeping, stay legally compliant, and potentially retain employees by offering them stock options. While not quite at the $2k/month mark yet, we're steadily approaching it.

I have an engineering background so breaking into the marketing and sales domain has been quite a journey. It's been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I remain hopeful.

One of the things I've enjoyed most about building your own thing is just talking to other founders and learning about their experiences. While the dataset has not been large enough to make quantity compensate for quality, I've still learned quite a bit.

It's been fascinating to read about everyone's side projects, and I'm curious to know if any other founders here have faced challenges with fundraising bookkeeping or cap table in general. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#46

Post by mateuszbuda »

martin_a wrote: post #32
mateuszbuda wrote: post #10

For https://scrapingfish.com/ it took us about 5-6 months from idea to $2k/month. It’s still not our main source of income. It was fun to build especially that it involved working with hardware.

Looks great, will give it a try. Bug found: Your "Buy" page is missing the header bar for navigation etc. edit: Contact page has the same problem. :-)

Actually, it’s a feature :)

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#47

Post by tianqi »

hackathonguy wrote: post #30

We currently make about $3K per month with https://www.hiyodel.com - ChatGPT-powered copywriting for Shopify stores. The Shopify ecosystem is a toughie and it's been a difficult road so far, but it's great having the "passive" income!

I'm looking forward to learning more about why the shopify ecosystem is toughie? I had considered launching a data analytics system that we're using to monitor shopify site.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#48

Post by nghiatran_uit »

If you have iOS/Android development experience, you can look at the Developer sector, which is relatively niche IMO.

I've developed the iOS/iPadOS app, Proxyman for iOS [0], which gains steadily ~2k recurring revenue every month. Basically, it's an iOS app that helps you to capture and decrypt HTTP/HTTPS traffic on your phone. The app is needed if you need to inspect traffic from your app.

Because it's an iOS app, published on AppStore, you can provide a subscription pricing model: e.g. $4.99/month, $39.99/year, or lifetime $99.

I also develop the macOS version, but it's a huge market, which is out of context.

- [0]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/proxyman/id1551292695

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#49

Post by tiborsaas »

iambateman wrote: post #22

Depending on your goals, have you considered freelancing? If your purpose is cash flow, freelancing can quickly generate $2000++ with much less risk than starting a SaaS. That’s not to say starting a SaaS is a bad idea…but if pure short-term cash production is your goal, I’d consider finding clients who trust you to pay you hourly on the side. FWIW, I’ve started 2 SaaS companies with a collective revenue of $0, and m…

I was much more successful in creating a SaaS product, I've reached almost 3 digits of profits. But I still wouldn't suggest someone to do consulting because it's a different mindset. You can only earn money if you decide to work, while having a working SaaS project has great scaling potential, but I totally agree that it's far more riskier when you factor in opportunity costs.

Re: Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?

#50

Post by rubymamis »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #41
DaanDL wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wuut.. Never heard of this! It looks very slick, I searched and searched for a nice note taking app on Linux and eventually landed with NoteKit, but this looks better.

Obsidian seems to have all the features of that note taking app + many more and even has plugin support.

Obsidian is not:

1. A native app (it's an Electron app).

2. Open source.

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