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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?

#41

Post by notJim »

maxjaderberg wrote: post #35

Launched http://www.TrickedOutTimeline.com on HN in february (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3522255 ) and have made ~$2500 on around $100 costs from advertising and hosting on google app engine. Nothing huge, but good for a weekends work with a friend!

I remember your post when you guys launched. I went to your site and spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out what the hell it was. I see now that you've greatly improved this, and added several clear examples that show it. Great work!

Do you mind answering a couple of question? I'm curious how you guys have advertised this product, and where your users come from.

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

#42

Post by eps »

there wrote: 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…

Have worked out the math behind one-time purchases supporting unlimited perpetual service? I suspect it is possible if a substantial amount of users leave the service after the purchase, but I can't see how this is not a form of pyramid scheme - new users effectively cover obligations made to eariler users. How is this sustainable with a non-trivial volume? Or do you (plan to) charge API users?

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

#43

Post by prezjordan »

markessien wrote: post #15
withinthreshold wrote: post #11

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...

Glad there are people out there taking advantage of this. How tough was it to acquire that domain?

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

#44

Post by blahmeblah »

demat wrote: post #40
blahmeblah wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how about a mobile app for your service?! i would certainly go with it first, if i had such kind of service running myself.

Work in progress :) App coming soon

Thats gr8, looking forward, by the way, nice service! and nice idea!

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

#45

Post by notJim »

there wrote: 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'm curious how people are finding, and then using your service. Are most of the users people who use another app that provides pushover notifications, or are they developer or power user types who want a way to push notifications to their phones? (I would assume the former, I suppose.)

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

#46

Post by notJim »

coderdude wrote: post #3

Beware of posts like this from what is basically a new account with only as much karma as this post has received. Sharks and all that: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4017843 (Am I paranoid much?)

I see what you're saying, and there is absolutely some risk involved, but I feel that replies to this post provide an incredible amount of value to the HN community. I hope that people will take the risk, so that we can all learn a little bit.

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

#47

Post by there »

eps wrote: post #42
there wrote: 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…

Have worked out the math behind one-time purchases supporting unlimited perpetual service? I suspect it is possible if a substantial amount of users leave the service after the purchase, but I can't see how this is not a form of pyramid scheme - new users effectively cover obligations made to eariler users. How is this sustainable with a non-trivial volume? Or do you (plan to) charge API users?

It's hard to work out accurate numbers because users can have such drastically different usage patterns. Some users have signed up with one device and have only received a few notifications, others have many devices registered and receive dozens of notifications daily from chat plugins.

The API is free, though applications are limited to a reasonable number of messages per month. That was put into place out of fear that a large company would use the app/service as a dirt-cheap platform to send large amounts of messages every day to its employees (like routing/dispatching directions, etc.) and burden the service. And rightly so, since shortly after launching, I got an e-mail from a large US company looking to use it in such a way (they ultimately decided not to use it). If such customers do come along, their API fees will cover them being on segmented servers.

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

#49

Post by there »

notJim wrote: post #45
there wrote: 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'm curious how people are finding, and then using your service. Are most of the users people who use another app that provides pushover notifications, or are they developer or power user types who want a way to push notifications to their phones? (I would assume the former, I suppose.)

Most are sending alerts to themselves. While I've integrated it into Github and my Fitbit notifier to try to pick up users that just want to receive alerts, most are using it to generate their own alerts from network monitors, BitTorrent clients, IRC clients, etc.

I pinged the ifttt.com guys to ask about integration but haven't heard back yet. I'd like to do more integration with services that currently do e-mail notifications like http://hnnotify.com (I've already contacted them) to pick up more end-users.

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

#50

Post by withinthreshold »

ksat wrote: post #48

Launched http://cull.io 20 days ago. Revenue made till now $150. Spent: appengine $10, musicbakery: $47. (I don't really know how to cost my time, it's around three weeks to build).

Very cool idea and implementation! Is it limited to request/response type of challenges and do candidates have to deploy to localhost?
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