Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

switowski.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 441 posts

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#101

Post by patmorgan23 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #83
Waterluvian wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there's often a mismatch between what one thinks a business is going to be like, and what a business is actually like. One of the things that keeps me away from doing stuff like this is that I _hate_ every part that isn't the engineering part, and the engineering part is a minority share of what it takes to run a business.

One thing most programmers need to painfully have beaten into them is that the software itself is a minor part of a successful software business. It's a necessary part, but without marketing/sales/support/etc, very few projects work as a business.

Yeah a supported 60% solution is better than an unsupported 90% solution that you can figure out how to make it work

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#102

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

crazygringo wrote: post #54
_se wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one wants to talk to an AI for customer support.

Actually, I do. There's no wait in line. There's no waiting 2 min for each response in chat, or waiting 5 min on hold while the rep figures out what to do. And I've, shockingly, gotten issues resolved faster and better. Using one semi-popular consumer app -- once it pointed me to docs on their site that Google wasn't finding because I didn't know what keywords to use. And twice it escalated me to send a message to th…

Then you get situations like this one where the AI invented a non existent policy (which the airline did not want to honor)

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/air-canada-must-...

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#103

Post by andrewljohnson »

shash7 wrote: post #37

Can relate, I've been in a similar boat running a small B2B Saas over the last 2 years. It does get easier over time. I've learnt a few tricks for managing early stage pain points. - You need to develop a polite but curt tone of voice for customer support. - Once your core product is built, its worthwhile spending some time automating the heck out of everything. This will save a TON of time in the near future. - Inve…

Make sure not to apply this polite but curt tone to consumer apps.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#104

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

shash7 wrote: post #96
thehappyfellow wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example of “polite but curt” tone? I’m struggling to see what you mean.

Both xyproto and Gustomaximus have solid examples. Here's more: - Be direct, Hi, the xyz feature is available on the PRO plan. You can upgrade to the PRO plan at app.saas.com/billing - Be brutal, Hi xyz, your card couldn't be charged for your Saas subscription, and hence your subscription has been deactivated. To reactivate, enter your card details app app.saas.com/billing - Be honest, Hello xyz, thanks for the featu…

Just wanted to say thanks, I think you've given great advice. In particular this bullet point:

> But don't allow issues to go stale. To really wow customer service, reply as humanely quick as possible, especially for existing customers.

As a customer, the absolute worst possible thing for me is to be left in limbo, not knowing if my problem will be fixed in the next minute, hour, day, or never. While I may not be thrilled if the answer is "never", at least at that point I can move on and know that I'll need to solve the problem some other way.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#105

Post by pjc50 »

joshuaturner wrote: post #98

Before Reddit changed API access I built an iOS app called Pager ( https://pager.app ) that allowed users to set up alerts for content posted on Reddit. It had a lot of success but the issues you highlighted here kept me from monitizing the project. Users became so demanding and I felt like if I began to take money from them it would only get worse. Looking back on it I'm not sure it was the best choice, but at least…

The usual suggestion, often given by HN's patio11, is to charge, and charge more. For some reason free customers are the most demanding, and the more you charge the more people self-select out of the customer base.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#106

Post by jokethrowaway »

Great article! I'd add another tip: Use marketplaces to get visibility and traffic. Maybe part of your success was being on Gumroad to begin with (which is not just a MoR)

3K MRR here after running for 5 years and the projects are on autopilot too. Growth is very slow, zero marketing efforts made on my side. I think it's hard to get more value from this product though, hence why I focus on other ventures.

Not that many support requests.

A few customers racking up bills for thousands; 3-4 never paid and I didn't persecute them, the rest did.

You were lucky on chargebacks resolution, generally the b**rds always side with the scammer customers trying to get service for free. I've tried arguing many times but it's completely useless. That's also why I'm afraid of doing a project where my margins are smaller. Plenty of them then try to resuscribe Right now hosting is 50$ per month, so if someone steal access to my product I don't care much.

Merchant of Records saved my life, F*k Europe VATMOSS, Sales Taxes, GST and every other crap governments add just to kill small businesses and make them flock to Amazon. Paddle support is pretty bad, I wouldn't go with them if I would do it all again. Probably I'd try LemonSqueezy (now acquired by Stripe).

Selling the business: I was offered money for the business but I don't think it's worth it, given how much it's on autopilot.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#107

Post by shadowgovt »

lupire wrote: post #60
shadowgovt wrote: post #4

Possibly the primary reason that software engineers don't just go into business for themselves is that running a business is a very different problem domain with different challenges and rewards. I have never envied any CEO, VP, or manager I've worked for their job. The hardest part of my day is crafting novel SQL queries or tricking C++ into compiling code that will work on all my target hardware in spite of an unkn…

What if you knew that the VP and CEO are dealing with those problems by letting the chips fall and making the ICs and customers work around it?

If that bothers me I change companies.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#109

Post by filoleg »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #75
xyproto wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for reaching out. The issue you’ve described seems to be on your end. Please check your settings or consult our docs for further guidance. If the problem persists, feel free to get in touch.

Would it be worth putting a price to investigating? Message like: "Our premium support can investigate this for $XYhr. If the fault is at our end we will waive any fees. Please let us know if you wish to proceed."

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I am a customer rather than someone running a product with customer support.

I would say this would only feel justified if the product pricing page already had clear tiers outlined for paid support. Putting a price per hour on customer support otherwise would make me feel like I am just being milked behind closer doors for more money, and non-paying customers are getting shafted. If a paid customer support tier is something you offer, imo it should be clearly outlined on publicly available pages with explicit explanation about the differences between free vs paid customer support. You suggesting it in private communications only would feel suspicious and shady to me as a customer.

However, if the customer themselves suggested to pay you extra for that personal support, that’s a different story.

Post reply on HN