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

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

#401

Post by definitelyauser »

pjc50 wrote: post #105
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.

> For some reason free customers are the most demanding

Ever try giving something away for free on an online marketplace?

If not, don't. Always charge something. Even if you'll just tell them afterwards you don't actually want/need the money.

You'll run into the worst people imaginable on the internet.

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

#402

Post by whoitwas »

btbuildem wrote: post #16

This was a fascinating read, really. The potential customer base being basically suckers waving wads of cash to be taken from them. The wild contrast of how nice the author tries to be to every single person that interacts with the project -- despite majority being the equivalent of single-celled organisms poking the fb markeplace "is it available" button. Reading some of the messages from potential users is so eye-o…

I hope your disdain for your fellow humans is only in jest. It's still sickening.

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

#404

Post by ahmed_ds »

meiraleal wrote: post #399
ahmed_ds wrote: post #345

I will try my best to not make this sound like a veiled promotion. Short answer is you need a VA. What I do mostly act as a filter. I have seen this happen with my clients. People often think that it is just too much hassle to running a small sideproject and not worth the time. But geez man, do you have to do everything?? Why bother with the grunt work. You have caught the lightening in the bottle, but for the rest d…

Every grunt work you outsource in place of creating a system to fix it you lose grip of the business you are creating. In your example you used VA but change it for sales. Many technical founders go looking for someone to sell without having any clue about what sales mean. They will have a terrible time finding a reliable partner because they have no clue about the thing they are outsourcing. The same goes for outsou…

The issue with sales in particular is that, if you can't figure out sales, don't expect a miracle by partnering up with someone. The sales-technical partnerships I have seen usually start with a great pre-business relationship. And those who have profitable bootstrapped business actually do hire salespeople like they hire me.... as disposable. You give them the initial pitch of what is the product, and you have them on commission-based pay. After the onboarding period ends, you make binary decisions of keeping and firing. Sounds unhealthy from the employees' side but that is side projects and bootstraps work.

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

#405

Post by RandomThoughts3 »

rusticpenn wrote: post #366
teractiveodular wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're working with a large company, Support is outsourced to a bunch of people reading scripts in Manila/Bangalore, and the external company employing them is actively incentivized to never resolve the root cause of any issue, because doing so would mean less tickets and less billable hours.

In my first job in a software maintenance project, I was overenthusiastic and was closing issues left and right. My manager called me to his office and told me that if I solved all the issues, the project will need much lesser people when they renew the contract, which might lead me, the junior most person, to be sent to the bench until they get a new contract.

To give you the other side of this, I have had service providers obviously do this to us. It didn’t result in more billable hours at renewal. We just systematically moved teams leadership to a competitor - we have found that mixing companies of origin in teams keeps everyone more honest - and removed developers we thought were not meeting the productivity standard we were looking for.

Cheating your customer is a dangerous game. They are not dumb.

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

#406

Post by volleygman180 »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #8

Side projects have always been the most exciting banes of my existence. I LOVE the initial rush of building and launching something. Even maintaining it is SUPER exciting for the first few months. The first customers are a rush of endorphins. Then the shine wears off. Life can't be kept on pause. Your partner wants a date night, but you have a backlog to work though. You got a frantic email from a customer that they…

Yes, yes, and yes. I feel this

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

#407

Post by wuliwong »

I dabbled in writing scripts for TradingView a while ago. It is a little rough but also fun to be able to add your own stuff to the platform. I actually pay for Scott Carney's harmonic trading software for trading view. As much as you are posting words of warning, it kinda makes me want to take another stab at it. :)

One startup I made, that actually gained some traction, turned into a struggle for me as well. I made a site to share and find tutorials for the new Swift programming language. I released the first version the day after Swift came out and it was actually getting used all over the world even. I expanded the platform a bit and I had a number of tutorial creators regularly cross posting their stuff on my site but ultimately, I myself did not jump into learning Swift and I just didn't have the continued drive to keep working on it.

It is funny because this Swift project was probably the startup I was the least passionate about building but it really was the only one that has ever garnered any real traction. Some of my take aways from it are how important timing is and that I get very enamored with the initial building phase but as you talked about in your writeup, the amount of work _after_ launch dwarfs that initial rush.

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

#408

Post by kortilla »

make3 wrote: post #220
Ylpertnodi wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the customers who feel (sorry for the term) "entitled" Why would the word/ term "entitled", need an apology?

because it's a subjective very negative judgement about another human, and in polite conversation one should assume baseline positive things about other humans. it's basically like calling someone an asshole. as HN as a culture of politeness, you apologize first, even if it's justified.

It’s not a negative judgement. Everyone has different levels of entitlement in any particular context.

Lots of people feel entitled to free, clean, potable tap water. Lots more people don’t because they live somewhere without it.

There is nothing wrong with saying, “our product is not for people entitled to X”. There is no judgement there, let alone anything negative.

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

#409

Post by scubakid »

I bootstrapped a side project into a 5k customer B2C SaaS over the past 3 years. I just finally started getting help with support, and wow -- I wish I had done that sooner.

Instead, I let it build to the point where like 60% of my day (and night) was fielding questions and requests.

Can't recommend enough getting a good system in place for support early, with as many self-serve help resources as possible.

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

#410

Post by jfyi »

loa_in_ wrote: post #385
ecnahc515 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I almost never see bots close issues that are less than 30 days old. Many projects can change a lot in 30-90 days and the bug may no longer exist, keeping issues open when they may no longer be relevant isn't helping anyone either. If it is still relevant, it can simply be re-opened. I don't see any downside to semi-aggressively closing stale issues. If it's easily reproduced then most good projects will mark it so t…

Automatic closing tickets is a solution looking for a problem. Humans should close tickets when they're resolved or no resolution is anticipated or planned. Putting an arbitrary number of days on it with a one way trip to the [closed] tag is like following a broken clock because it's right twice a day.

> no resolution is anticipated or planned

This is the real problem an automated close addresses. They are are afraid to tell their customers this.

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