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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?

#221

Post by GordonS »

cleverfoo wrote: post #105

I built Scanii [1], an unsafe/malware content detection API/SaaS, as a way to keep my coding skills sharp as I moved into engineering leadership roles. Over the years it has grown into a lovely $35k/month business while spending $0 in marketing thanks to our amazing customers. My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: get it out there quick, listen to your customers and be ready to act on their feedback. Finding product/m…

Impressive! What do you think it is that you do that allows you to compete with VirusTotal, and even free tools like Jotti?

Presumably you're now using commercial AV tools, rather than Clam? Did you have to get some kind of special license from them to use it like this?

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

#222

Post by DANmode »

tommoor wrote: post #132

https://getoutline.com – A team knowledge base, hit $2k MRR a couple of months after turning on paid plans, has always been steady growth since then. A few years in and almost reached what I'd consider v1 feature complete.

Very happy paid user, after testing many other offerings.

You're really onto something.

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

#223

Post by quantumwoke »

leros wrote: post #213
pocket_cheese wrote: post #203

I am a gift card reseller. Pretty much, there are marketplaces where you can sell gift cards and cd keys for games and when a customer places an order, I make an API call to procure that item and deliver it. Currently at 70k Euros a month. It took me about 3 years to get here. And it took a few months to get to 2k monthly revenue.. However, the first two months I was at break even and it took me about a year before I…

How does this work exactly? Are you doing arbitrage?

Often left unsaid in the "gift card" (or, "game key reseller" market) is that the items are acquired illegally and resold for a profit. This is money laundering territory, and is very easy to run afoul of the law.

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

#225

Post by cleverfoo »

lampshades wrote: post #215
cleverfoo wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Congratulations on your success! That is very kind of you, thank you. > What did "getting it out there" consist of for you? How did you get it out there in the beginning? For Scanii in particular, the original product was a thin wrapper around an open source AV engine, a hacked on a weekend UX, and a credit card processing integration to collect payment - the very minimal needed to find out if _anyone_ was willing…

I guess more of what I'm asking is, how did you launch? The biggest problem I have is getting word out about my product, which always ends up killing them. I'm a developer by trade, so marketing and the like isn't my forte. Did you use ProductHunt? Indiehackers? Reddit? Twitter? Word of mouth? Thanks for the reply btw, very helpful info. I've been iterating on something in my free time that fills a very small budgeti…

Got it, in that case it helps to build a product for a community you can interact with. In my case, this was connecting with folks on Stackoverflow that were struggling with integrating malware detection into their apps... that was all the marketing I did to get the product validated - but keep in mind that was 10 years or so back.

Best of luck with your launch!

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

#226

Post by pocket_cheese »

quantumwoke wrote: post #223
leros wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this work exactly? Are you doing arbitrage?

Often left unsaid in the "gift card" (or, "game key reseller" market) is that the items are acquired illegally and resold for a profit. This is money laundering territory, and is very easy to run afoul of the law.

Fraudulently obtained inventory is actually something I actively want to avoid. I don't want to go to jail, or risk getting banned from marketplaces - among ethical considerations.... I only go to authorized distributors where there is legal permission to resell these types of items. Incomm being the largest. Blackhawknetwork being another large player.

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

#227

Post by ruffrey »

pimterry wrote: post #15

I run HTTP Toolkit ( https://httptoolkit.com ) which passed $2k a couple of years back. No longer a side project, as it's made enough money for me to work on it full time for a fair while now, but it certainly started that way, and it's still a one-man show (plus many wonderful open-source contributors). I suspect that'll be a common theme in answers here though: if you have a side project making $2k a month, in most…

Thank you - I love this tool

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

#228

Post by biztos »

agotterer wrote: post #91
pwython wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you monetize it?

The cost per plate is negotiated with the restaurant ahead of time. We collect all of the money at time of RSVP which includes our margin. We then pay the restaurant and keep our fee.

How do you deal with drinks?

As a customer I'd probably want to run a tab at the restaurant for whatever I drink (assuming they're alcohol-friendly) but as an organizer I'd probably want an upfront corkage fee I could take a reliable cut of.

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

#229

Post by pocket_cheese »

leros wrote: post #213
pocket_cheese wrote: post #203

I am a gift card reseller. Pretty much, there are marketplaces where you can sell gift cards and cd keys for games and when a customer places an order, I make an API call to procure that item and deliver it. Currently at 70k Euros a month. It took me about 3 years to get here. And it took a few months to get to 2k monthly revenue.. However, the first two months I was at break even and it took me about a year before I…

How does this work exactly? Are you doing arbitrage?

Correct! customer buys a playstation $10 card for $9.80, I buy it for $9.20, and pocket the spread.

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

#230

Post by l5870uoo9y »

pimterry wrote: post #15

I run HTTP Toolkit ( https://httptoolkit.com ) which passed $2k a couple of years back. No longer a side project, as it's made enough money for me to work on it full time for a fair while now, but it certainly started that way, and it's still a one-man show (plus many wonderful open-source contributors). I suspect that'll be a common theme in answers here though: if you have a side project making $2k a month, in most…

> A few inflection points that made a notable difference (releasing rewriting support & Android support particularly)...

Do you mean that improving documentation helped get customers? I have a small side project and I think this is one of its weaker spots, even if it is relatively simple [0]. I noticed "helper popups" are getting used quite extensively.

[0]: https://aihelperbot.com/guide

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