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Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

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Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#21
post #17

I started a temporary email service called Air Mail which has processed over 2 million emails in the last 3 months and is already profitable. http://getairmail.com wish I had a cent for every email it processed ;-)

Great looking service and easy to use. Do you monetize just with the ads?

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#22
post #2

Define profitable, it's extremely easy to build something that generates revenue. The difficult part is to build something that provides enough revenue to support 1+ employees, office space, etc

"it's extremely easy to build something that generates revenue."

For some definition of "easy", I guess.

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#23

I started Resumonk.com last month and it has already started generating some revenue.

Would like to see some stats here for this claim.

The revenue is not much. It is about 300USD. I'll post the complete stats on my blog shortly.

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#24
post #17

I started a temporary email service called Air Mail which has processed over 2 million emails in the last 3 months and is already profitable. http://getairmail.com wish I had a cent for every email it processed ;-)

Great looking service and easy to use. Do you monetize just with the ads?

Yes just with ads, but trying to keep the UX good and not fill it with lots of ads.

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#26
post #13

I created a push notification service called Pushover ( https://pushover.net/ ) and wrote its iOS and Android apps. I started the project in January and launched it in March ( https://jcs.org/pushover ). In contrast to some competing free apps/services, the Pushover mobile apps are $3.99 which pays for the monthly hosting costs to keep the service running. Both apps are highly rated on both app stores and so far the…

I have your site bookmarked reminding me to buy it when I have a good project that would use it. Really need to come up with something, it's a fantastic idea :-)

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#28
post #22
post #2

Define profitable, it's extremely easy to build something that generates revenue. The difficult part is to build something that provides enough revenue to support 1+ employees, office space, etc

"it's extremely easy to build something that generates revenue." For some definition of "easy", I guess.

If you assume costs as follows: - $1 a month for domain - $20 a month for hosting

I'd say it shouldn't be terribly difficult to find audience enough to generate enough revenue to cover costs with even just ad revenue on even mediocre projects.

Though I should also point out that the word 'revenue' doesn't necessarily equal profit.

Are you having a hard time generating even the first penny? What's the niche? Who's the audience? What are the revenue strategies tried?

Re: Ask HN: who started something in 2012 which is already profitable?

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice! So your target is an english-speaking person going for a (business) trip to Nigeria?

Target is actually nigerians who need a hotel at some location elsewhere within the country. Internet growth in Africa is off the charts atm...

Very interesting. Do you find it difficult to do business in Nigeria?
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