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I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

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Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#91

Technically they didn't put a price tag on the app, the $1 was github sponsor money, so the project was never really designed to make money. The app itself (Midi editor with piano roll UI) looks great but is instantly made much less relevant if you just install Reaper (and actual DAW, free to try, available at the time all this was developed). Cool thing, but the moral of the story is: release that toy thing you spen…

No, you aren't understanding the point.

The point is to make something stripped down compared to Reaper. The problem with modern DAW software is you end up getting lost in the infinite possibilities.

It is counter intuitive but constraints are a known aid to creativity.

If you want to write notes, this is the way to do it. Otherwise you get lost picking effect,synths, samples , on and on and on.

The idea would be to write the notes then you take the midi into something like Reaper.

If the author reads this what it really just needs is a microtuning import for scala scl files. There is absolutely nothing that can do this easily for non 12 tet music and just have the notes in front of you without much else.

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#94
post #29

How do you guys get funding to build things for such a long time? Rent, food and health insurance in my area costs $50k per year. If feels I have no choice but to earn a salary. Dropping a quarter of a mil on an app that might not pan out seems out of the question.

How do they get funding? They're already rich. Every single one of them, even if they haven't yet earned a personal fortune, ask them what their parents do. Find out they either own a Carl's Junior franchise or a semiconductor company. NBD, just build things, amirite?

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#96
post #36
post #29

How do you guys get funding to build things for such a long time? Rent, food and health insurance in my area costs $50k per year. If feels I have no choice but to earn a salary. Dropping a quarter of a mil on an app that might not pan out seems out of the question.

It may be possible for you later in life. Most bootstrappers have worked up some wealth via traditional methods like savings, home equity, inheritance, and freelance/consulting work. VC money and accelerators are primarily for people who dont have the wealth to bootstrap, but who are young and willing to take investors on early.

> Most bootstrappers have worked up some wealth via traditional methods like savings, home equity, inheritance

How in the goddamn fuck do you work up an inheritance?

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#97
post #94
post #29

How do you guys get funding to build things for such a long time? Rent, food and health insurance in my area costs $50k per year. If feels I have no choice but to earn a salary. Dropping a quarter of a mil on an app that might not pan out seems out of the question.

How do they get funding? They're already rich. Every single one of them, even if they haven't yet earned a personal fortune, ask them what their parents do. Find out they either own a Carl's Junior franchise or a semiconductor company. NBD, just build things, amirite?

Yup.

To be fair, even if you only work in software you already have a leg up (not as much as someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth) both because the salary is pretty good, and because you're used to designing, programming, debugging, and documenting.

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#98
post #7

One time I set out to write an accounting ledger application and towards the end realized I built an ORM framework. Neither the application nor the ORM lived on. I now start from an existing ORM framework for any new project. Good learning!

If anything HN taught us is ORM is bad. You want to be roasted ;)

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#99
post #50

Same here but I learned so much I think it was worth it, im literally 4y+ in. I made a platform for my own personal website: https://arionhardison.com then Ai education: https://pub.education then Ai healthcare: https://codify.healthcare I used to think my goal was to do this and that and change the world etc... I am starting to think that I just like building things and maybe thats OK.

Just visited your personal website, looks like it has a bunch of overflow errors - worth looking into. I appreciate the grind though

Yeah, that's just unformatted markdown. Ill fix eventually. TY for the comment, feedback of any kind is awesome IMO.

Re: I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022)

#100
post #15

I built a deep search for financial research in 2023 and learned that 2025 would have been the year to launch it.

are you aware your posts are visible to paid users only? Why if it is intentional?

Because the content has high value compared to all the ChatGPT written slop. It is well researched use-cases, based on actual research papers, and includes implementations and solutions. Also highlights problems. For the first 3 months the posts are free.
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