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Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#11

Post by yawnxyz »

start123 wrote: post #4
Winterflow3r wrote: post #2

Wow that's some perseverance I am soon in the fourth year of working on my project and finally starting to see some revenue but I am constantly asking myself if it's worth it.

Thanks, perseverance and patience were the only things going well for me. My key takeaway would definitely to give products at least 2-3 years before shutting them down. Most apps take a long time to get noticed and SEO works only after a year of effort.

Wow you've pushed really hard on your own.

Have you tried to collaborate with people with tangential skills, e.g. someone with excellent sales/marketing background or in a niche like real estate or law or whatever that has a ton of insights?

Even for Blanq, maybe you could find someone that has a strong need for link shortening for their business, whatever it is?

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#12

Post by orangepurple »

GDC7 wrote: post #7

Honestly this seems like hell. I'd rather work remotely for a US company and move my ass somwhere like Brazil or Nigeria or Philippines or Thailand. You'd maybe feel the boredom and the lack of power in the decision making and the shame of having to report and reply "yessir" . But once you clock out you can then be the boss of the hood and recoup all frustration accumulated during worktime, throw the weight of the mi…

> The west has essentially very few people (and diminishing by the day) and each and everyone of them have a telegraph pole up their you know what. It should only be used as the money making app

What did he mean by this?

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#13

Post by noogle »

DarrenDev wrote: post #9

I have a similar long history of failures, though my failures did generate income - just nowhere near enough to give up the day job. €20k a year at their highest point, €5k a year at other times. I notice similarities in what you're describing, particularly when it comes to your target market and products. B2C not B2B. And generic, anyone products, rather than targeted niche products. A lesson that took me a long, lo…

Agree. I would add the Netflix/Spotify are more in the content business rather than software (a huge chunk of Spotify revenues actually goes to paying royalties, and Netflix spends substantial amounts on original productions).

So indeed, consumers do not buy software - they buy other things (that businesses do not buy): Services and solutions to "real-world" problems.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#15

Post by adventured »

DarrenDev wrote: post #9

I have a similar long history of failures, though my failures did generate income - just nowhere near enough to give up the day job. €20k a year at their highest point, €5k a year at other times. I notice similarities in what you're describing, particularly when it comes to your target market and products. B2C not B2B. And generic, anyone products, rather than targeted niche products. A lesson that took me a long, lo…

The primary exception to consumer targeting (other than entertainment as you mentioned) is in the ecommerce space where consumers do spend very large amounts of money (Netflix falls under that broadly, though I'm speaking more towards traditional retail goods, shops, clothes, just about anything and everything that can be sold online to consumers).

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#16

Post by CyberRabbi »

So your new business just does link analytics? Who are your potential customers? I.e. how large is your addressable market?

When I see something like this I think of mass emailers. They tend to require link analytics but otherwise I can’t think of another use case. Maybe Twitter or other social media publishing.

Since publishing is an application where link analytics tends to be used I would focus there. I can imagine it would be much easier get customers for that more user-oriented product than for something that is lower in the stack and more abstract and will likely end up being used for that use case anyway.

Just my 2 cents, trying to help.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#17

Post by adventured »

orangepurple wrote: post #12
GDC7 wrote: post #7

Honestly this seems like hell. I'd rather work remotely for a US company and move my ass somwhere like Brazil or Nigeria or Philippines or Thailand. You'd maybe feel the boredom and the lack of power in the decision making and the shame of having to report and reply "yessir" . But once you clock out you can then be the boss of the hood and recoup all frustration accumulated during worktime, throw the weight of the mi…

> The west has essentially very few people (and diminishing by the day) and each and everyone of them have a telegraph pole up their you know what. It should only be used as the money making app What did he mean by this?

The so-called West is slowly starting to de-populate. I believe the parent is suggesting the hyper connectedness + affluence of the West should be taken advantage of to make money, while / for however long it exists in the present lucrative condition.

Re: Failed for the past 12 years as an tech entrepreneur

#18

Post by GDC7 »

orangepurple wrote: post #12
GDC7 wrote: post #7

Honestly this seems like hell. I'd rather work remotely for a US company and move my ass somwhere like Brazil or Nigeria or Philippines or Thailand. You'd maybe feel the boredom and the lack of power in the decision making and the shame of having to report and reply "yessir" . But once you clock out you can then be the boss of the hood and recoup all frustration accumulated during worktime, throw the weight of the mi…

> The west has essentially very few people (and diminishing by the day) and each and everyone of them have a telegraph pole up their you know what. It should only be used as the money making app What did he mean by this?

Just like you have the dating app or the mail app on your phone.

The west is the money making and business app. Strictly business, don't even call or seek people for reasons which aren't business or money making.

Social relationships and genral life outside work app is Africa and South East Asia. Unlike the west they have loads and loads of people who are not spoiled by abundance vis-a-vis the west which has very few people and all with a telegraph pole up their as*hole.

Breathtaking nature accessible for days on end for the price of a burger in Manhattan

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