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Costs of running a macOS app studio business

notes.alinpanaitiu.com

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Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#31

Post by spike021 »

alin23 wrote: post #8
orenlindsey wrote: post #4

That's a pretty good job. This may have been answered and I didn't see it, but how long did it take to get up to that level?

Author here! It's a tricky question to answer. I wrote Lunar v1 in 2017, and it was fully free for 4 years, but those years were essential for the app to mature and get a good following. In June 2021 I launched Lunar v4 with the new support for Apple Silicon and I also added a paid tier. I started making good money from the start, most likely because Lunar was already "known". I was making about $3k/month back then,…

How do you plan what features should be added while the app is free, and then which features in the future will go into a paid tier?

Last year I worked on a pet project iOS app (which I never released unfortunately) and one of my struggles was figuring out how I'd portion out the features from free to not-free after release. I was thinking at the time of doing what you've done, basically releasing as free for a while and then adding a paid set of features. It's just difficult to plan what should fit there.

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#32

Post by Nextgrid »

m_a_g wrote: post #11
jeduan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Was surprised to see him complain about a 15% business / income tax.

As a person from a country similar to Romania, I can empathize with him. When you lose trust in the state and how they spend your money, even a 1% tax is too much.

I think the countries where you actually get your money's worth when it comes to taxes is very small, and even then, it's not clear whether it's due to good policy or merely luck and riding off previous successes that are being eroded by short-sightedness, stupidity/incompetence or corruption (also known as "lobbying" in the West).

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#33

Post by Exoristos »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #30
asim wrote: post #22

This is a beautifully poignant post about life and selling one's time. At 39 I've reached this point where I can verbalise that sentiment whereas before I could only really feel it. Having to sell one's time to others sucks. Doing things on someone else's schedule sucks. And ultimately as the post ended, having the freedom to spend life the way it should be spent means sacrificing that extra bit of money we might wan…

That's why I'm not that upset that no one wants to work with an old guy (that's me), and I was forced to retire. I still get to play with software, but on my own time, and on my own schedule. The difference is amazing .

How is that not actionable discrimination?

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#35

Post by vasco »

Exoristos wrote: post #33
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I'm not that upset that no one wants to work with an old guy (that's me), and I was forced to retire. I still get to play with software, but on my own time, and on my own schedule. The difference is amazing .

How is that not actionable discrimination?

Something being illegal doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#37

Post by threecheese »

I am a paying customer and regular user of Lunar and Rcmd (for which I might have paid more than 12 bucks, just sayin) and I am pretty sure I saw Clop on Setapp and was thinking of trying it. I’m glad to have the opportunity to give feedback: your app and website design aesthetic really makes you stand out from most of the “popular Mac app” authors (you know who you are), which have a very much Web1.0 look and feel (and many of these rockstars have been writing for the platform that long). I look forward to whatever comes next, and I always poke around when I see one of your links hit Reddit or wherever.

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#39

Post by serial_dev »

Exoristos wrote: post #33
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I'm not that upset that no one wants to work with an old guy (that's me), and I was forced to retire. I still get to play with software, but on my own time, and on my own schedule. The difference is amazing .

How is that not actionable discrimination?

I assume it's not that easy to prove, so most people don't take legal action.

Personally, I don't take legal action even if I think I can win the case, because it's just too much time and effort, and I don't want my life to focus on said legal procedure for the next n months.

I assume other people also think they need to choose their battles.

Re: Costs of running a macOS app studio business

#40

Post by magic_hamster »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #30
asim wrote: post #22

This is a beautifully poignant post about life and selling one's time. At 39 I've reached this point where I can verbalise that sentiment whereas before I could only really feel it. Having to sell one's time to others sucks. Doing things on someone else's schedule sucks. And ultimately as the post ended, having the freedom to spend life the way it should be spent means sacrificing that extra bit of money we might wan…

That's why I'm not that upset that no one wants to work with an old guy (that's me), and I was forced to retire. I still get to play with software, but on my own time, and on my own schedule. The difference is amazing .

Amazing given you can maintain your standard of living.
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