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Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

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Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#31

Post by nanijoe »

limedaring wrote: post #2

I built my company solo for about 1.25 years, got a cofounder for half a year (who then quit for a company who could pay more), so I'm back to being solo again on my company WeddingLovely. http://WeddingLovely.com was built entirely by myself and there are also five other vendor directories ( http://WeddingPhotoLove.com and others). There's also a wedding blog at http://WeddingLovely.com/blog/ that I maintain and pos…

It seems to me like you should not offer a free trial (a money back guarantee might be better)..Not too sure a monthly plan makes too much sense for planning a wedding either, since it is a one time event. I would also increase the price. I believe I paid $50 for some crappy seat arrangement software that I ended up never using a few years ago. Feel free to disregard my advice of course, since you definitely have more data than I do. All in all, I think you are onto something here

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#32

Post by iends »

dangrossman wrote: post #24

http://www.improvely.com , http://www.w3counter.com , and two dozen other sites over the years. Revenue in the millions over the past 8 years I've been self-employed, and I'm not taking a pay cut versus what I'd earn in industry if I had gone that route instead. I've run into many limitations that have prevented me from offering products, service plans and sales strategies that would've been profitable but required m…

Not to be all creepy, but I first encountered you on sitepoint probably close to eight years ago and continue to be impressed with your products.

Keep up the good work!

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#33

Post by 8bitliving »

anywherenotes wrote: post #29
8bitliving wrote: post #27

http://Sweetsoundtrack.com - I often hear music I like in movies and want to add them to my personal collection. This website allows users to look up a movie, and quickly find information about the songs and artists featured in the soundtrack. I started to make a little revenue - enough to cover my hosting costs. I'd love to hear any feedback.

I often search for songs (in google) by some of their lyrics. Maybe you can add that ability. Also searching for a movie based on actor would help. When I searched for Scarface, I got 3 hits. Mousing-over I was able to see the year of movie, but maybe a picture next to the hits would help. Looking at the list: http://sweetsoundtrack.com/Movies/scarface-1983 Maybe you could add a link to lyrics? And finally, it might…

Thank you for the feedback anywherenotes. Adding the lyrics is a great idea if I can find a public API. I planned to do a song preview using Itunes/Amazon clips on the Movie page but I was having some performance issues. Currently, you can get to #rd party previews via individual "song pages" though I realize this is less convenient.

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#34

Post by navneetaron »

I've built several companies as a solo founder- MobiQpons Inc., ZipTrips.in and most recently Plumreef.com

I've usually brought in early employees for large equity, contractors to help me with specific things that I'm not good at.

All my companies have generated revenues and have become operationally cash flow positive. However, my companies haven't scaled for two reasons: a. When the going gets tough- I'm alone and its depressing b. There's not as much cross fertilization/validation/push back on ideas as there should be.

Next t

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#35

Post by lscott3 »

iends wrote: post #32
dangrossman wrote: post #24

http://www.improvely.com , http://www.w3counter.com , and two dozen other sites over the years. Revenue in the millions over the past 8 years I've been self-employed, and I'm not taking a pay cut versus what I'd earn in industry if I had gone that route instead. I've run into many limitations that have prevented me from offering products, service plans and sales strategies that would've been profitable but required m…

Not to be all creepy, but I first encountered you on sitepoint probably close to eight years ago and continue to be impressed with your products. Keep up the good work!

haha that does sound a lil creepy!

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#36

Post by lscott3 »

ronyeh wrote: post #12

I built a company that develops iOS apps. My most successful app so far is http://www.tinypiano.com/ with 6 million (free) downloads (launched Feb 2012). The app is monetizing via ads and in-app purchases. I do this full time. My goal was to make an app that achieves 10 million downloads. It looks like it should hit that mark sometime this year. Another goal was to make enough money to buy a house. Assuming all goes…

What catapulted (if anything) you to achieving so much success with tiny piano? Especially with getting to 6 million free downloads?

- Was it something that people naturally search for?

- What types of marketing/advertising did you do?

- Do any of the other apps help supplement income?

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#37

Post by limedaring »

nanijoe wrote: post #31
limedaring wrote: post #2

I built my company solo for about 1.25 years, got a cofounder for half a year (who then quit for a company who could pay more), so I'm back to being solo again on my company WeddingLovely. http://WeddingLovely.com was built entirely by myself and there are also five other vendor directories ( http://WeddingPhotoLove.com and others). There's also a wedding blog at http://WeddingLovely.com/blog/ that I maintain and pos…

It seems to me like you should not offer a free trial (a money back guarantee might be better)..Not too sure a monthly plan makes too much sense for planning a wedding either, since it is a one time event. I would also increase the price. I believe I paid $50 for some crappy seat arrangement software that I ended up never using a few years ago. Feel free to disregard my advice of course, since you definitely have mor…

Thanks! All of your suggestions are things I'm testing. ;)

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#38

Post by limedaring »

lscott3 wrote: post #4
limedaring wrote: post #2

I built my company solo for about 1.25 years, got a cofounder for half a year (who then quit for a company who could pay more), so I'm back to being solo again on my company WeddingLovely. http://WeddingLovely.com was built entirely by myself and there are also five other vendor directories ( http://WeddingPhotoLove.com and others). There's also a wedding blog at http://WeddingLovely.com/blog/ that I maintain and pos…

I have to say that site looks pretty good! I didn't really read it or get into it (other than what you've stated here) but at first glance it looks really well designed.

Thanks! I was a designer before I jumped into development. :)

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#39

Post by dangrossman »

iends wrote: post #32
dangrossman wrote: post #24

http://www.improvely.com , http://www.w3counter.com , and two dozen other sites over the years. Revenue in the millions over the past 8 years I've been self-employed, and I'm not taking a pay cut versus what I'd earn in industry if I had gone that route instead. I've run into many limitations that have prevented me from offering products, service plans and sales strategies that would've been profitable but required m…

Not to be all creepy, but I first encountered you on sitepoint probably close to eight years ago and continue to be impressed with your products. Keep up the good work!

That was the place to be back then :)

Re: Ask HN: Solo startups? What have you built all on your own?

#40

Post by ronyeh »

lscott3 wrote: post #36
ronyeh wrote: post #12

I built a company that develops iOS apps. My most successful app so far is http://www.tinypiano.com/ with 6 million (free) downloads (launched Feb 2012). The app is monetizing via ads and in-app purchases. I do this full time. My goal was to make an app that achieves 10 million downloads. It looks like it should hit that mark sometime this year. Another goal was to make enough money to buy a house. Assuming all goes…

What catapulted (if anything) you to achieving so much success with tiny piano? Especially with getting to 6 million free downloads? - Was it something that people naturally search for? - What types of marketing/advertising did you do? - Do any of the other apps help supplement income?

The first big jump I got was in March 2012, when I added iPad support (universal binary) and also translated the app store description to Chinese (钢琴). It turns out that people will search for their native word for piano! ;-)

Then it grew slowly over the next 8 months. I continued to add song packs and improve the app. I did some marketing on FB, https://www.facebook.com/tinypiano including a raffle where I gave away $50 iTunes GCs to generate more "likes."

In November, I also got a big bump due to Apple's iPad mini launch & piano commercial (Heart & Soul).

In December, I actually made about as much money as I made the rest of the year. Download #s were high, and AdMob/iAd eCPMs were also at their peak. It was a good month.

Relative to Tiny Piano, my 5 other apps are failures.... Collectively, they make about $50 a day. And that's probably because people who like Tiny Piano search for & download my other apps.

Here's an old blog post with some numbers: http://blog.squarepoet.com/post/35196629175/tiny-piano-sales... While my daily revenue is now below the $3K I cited in my post... it's still good enough to pay me an engineering salary every month.

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