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

After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

dylanhuang.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 284 posts

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#31

Post by mediaman »

Sytten wrote: post #30
gortok wrote: post #25

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. >"We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product because we felt we could use the breakthroughs in Gen AI to solve previously unsolvable problems, but after going through user interviews and the sales cycle for many different ideas, we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us beli…

People say that but as someone trying to actually do that, it is freaking hard to commit to 3-5 years of virtually no salary to maybe get to the same outcome you would have had with a funded business. You need to sell a lot of 10$/month licenses for it to even viable to a 2-3 people startup in a developed country. There is also the cost of opportunity to consider in that.

I don't understand why people even think about selling $10/mo licenses.

Just go sell $2-4k/mo SaaS to a medium sized traditional industry that has ancient, crummy software with a target customer employee size of 50 - 1,000 people.

Customer problem discovery is easier, you get reputation network effects within the vertical, you gain trust because you learn the industry lingo, you can actually solve peoples' problems because you're not balancing needs against unrelated industries, they're willing to pay, and once you get 20 customers you're doing pretty OK.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#32

Post by jonny_eh »

codingdave wrote: post #4

This is not the first story I've heard of a product that isn't quite right, but when deciding where to pivot, fell into AI as the answer and then failed. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - when we figure out what AI is good at and what it is not, we will start treating it as a tool instead of a goal, and our product ideation will stabilize.

> when we figure out what AI is good at and what it is not

We know. It's good at making stuff up. It's bad at facts or for generating things that withstand scrutiny.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#33

Post by NetOpWibby »

tptacek wrote: post #29
gortok wrote: post #25

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. >"We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product because we felt we could use the breakthroughs in Gen AI to solve previously unsolvable problems, but after going through user interviews and the sales cycle for many different ideas, we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us beli…

If you need funding to cover your monthly nut, you need a plausible path to hyper-growth; the portfolio math doesn't work for investors otherwise. If you set out to build a small-scale sustainable business, and you succeed , you can avoid funding. But if you're pivoting to something entirely new mid-to-late-ways through your company, you've probably burned down most of your reserves.

> If you need funding to cover your monthly nut

You can get funding for that?!

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#34

Post by NetOpWibby »

mediaman wrote: post #31
Sytten wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People say that but as someone trying to actually do that, it is freaking hard to commit to 3-5 years of virtually no salary to maybe get to the same outcome you would have had with a funded business. You need to sell a lot of 10$/month licenses for it to even viable to a 2-3 people startup in a developed country. There is also the cost of opportunity to consider in that.

I don't understand why people even think about selling $10/mo licenses. Just go sell $2-4k/mo SaaS to a medium sized traditional industry that has ancient, crummy software with a target customer employee size of 50 - 1,000 people. Customer problem discovery is easier, you get reputation network effects within the vertical, you gain trust because you learn the industry lingo, you can actually solve peoples' problems b…

This is a solid plan, thanks.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#35

Post by NetOpWibby »

ndimares wrote: post #9
williamstein wrote: post #5

> “Our main product was an SDK Generator that could take any OpenAPI specification and generate high-quality client libraries in multiple programming languages.” This is something I could really use! Is there a product that does this and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?

Caveat that I work for Speakeasy, but there are a few tools you can look at: - Speakeasy - Fern - Stainless First SDK with Speakeasy is free and we also have discounts for companies who are just starting out. Feel free to shoot me an email if we can be useful: nolan@spakeasy.com :)

Typo in your email btw

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#36

Post by andybak »

xnx wrote: post #12
williamstein wrote: post #5

> “Our main product was an SDK Generator that could take any OpenAPI specification and generate high-quality client libraries in multiple programming languages.” This is something I could really use! Is there a product that does this and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?

https://github.com/OpenAPITools/openapi-generator has 22K stars

Which this product seems to build off: https://github.com/konfig-dev/konfig/tree/main/generator

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#37

Post by bachmeier »

ed wrote: post #28
gortok wrote: post #25

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. >"We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product because we felt we could use the breakthroughs in Gen AI to solve previously unsolvable problems, but after going through user interviews and the sales cycle for many different ideas, we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us beli…

There seems to be a subtext here of “see? I told you it was hard!” Nothing wrong with setting out to build a Google instead of a Basecamp. They’re different kinds of company. If anything it’s easy to underestimate the risk of building a low-risk business. They’re all hard. Kudos to Konfig!

> Nothing wrong with setting out to build a Google

Sure there is. The probability of success is as good as zero. In all seriousness, a better business model is buying $1000 a month in lottery tickets. You have the same chance of success, you can do it on the side while working your job, and if you do hit the jackpot you don't have to do any additional work. This particular business has no path to being a Google but it might have a shot at being a Basecamp.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#38

Post by TechDebtDevin »

mediaman wrote: post #31
Sytten wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People say that but as someone trying to actually do that, it is freaking hard to commit to 3-5 years of virtually no salary to maybe get to the same outcome you would have had with a funded business. You need to sell a lot of 10$/month licenses for it to even viable to a 2-3 people startup in a developed country. There is also the cost of opportunity to consider in that.

I don't understand why people even think about selling $10/mo licenses. Just go sell $2-4k/mo SaaS to a medium sized traditional industry that has ancient, crummy software with a target customer employee size of 50 - 1,000 people. Customer problem discovery is easier, you get reputation network effects within the vertical, you gain trust because you learn the industry lingo, you can actually solve peoples' problems b…

Cool, says everyone... Have you done it?

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#39

Post by akoboldfrying »

tptacek wrote: post #29
gortok wrote: post #25

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. >"We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product because we felt we could use the breakthroughs in Gen AI to solve previously unsolvable problems, but after going through user interviews and the sales cycle for many different ideas, we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us beli…

If you need funding to cover your monthly nut, you need a plausible path to hyper-growth; the portfolio math doesn't work for investors otherwise. If you set out to build a small-scale sustainable business, and you succeed , you can avoid funding. But if you're pivoting to something entirely new mid-to-late-ways through your company, you've probably burned down most of your reserves.

>your monthly nut

That means... something different where I come from.

Are you using it to mean "monthly fixed costs"? I haven't come across that meaning before.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#40

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

codingdave wrote: post #4

This is not the first story I've heard of a product that isn't quite right, but when deciding where to pivot, fell into AI as the answer and then failed. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - when we figure out what AI is good at and what it is not, we will start treating it as a tool instead of a goal, and our product ideation will stabilize.

The product itself is fine. I was part of a startup that was happy to pay for said thing and got a lot of value from it (sdk from OpenAPI spec). So I don’t think product market fit was the problem here.
Post reply on HN