Counting all my side projects I can say I would die for starvation if they were my only income. :P
Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
11–20 of 76 posts
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#12Nope, probably not ever going to be profitable, but I barely have any operating costs either. My project is called Simple Blocker, and it's an extension for Chrome that lets you block websites to help you concentrate. It was designed to be as simple as can be (hence the name), while still having all the essential features.
I don't really have any plans to monetize it, and I think asking for donations is a bit tacky. But who knows - it's good practice with Javascript and the Chrome API even if it never breaks even.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#13Since building stuff is both a career and a hobby, I've always had 3 types of "projects":
* One or more services that are intended to make money. Some of them never make it; I've more failed ideas under my belt than winners. But the winners really win and pay for all the time spent on the rest; Improvely and W3Counter are doing really well and provide a comfortable lifestyle financially.
* Projects that are never intended to make a profit. I have a few open source libraries used by thousands, but I never intended to build any business around them, and I don't ask for donations. One did once generate so much customer support e-mail and customization requests that I made a commercial version that sold well, but I was never passionate about it so I ended up selling the rights and probably wouldn't bother doing that again.
* Projects that I know full well will run at a loss, but I build them anyway for various reasons, from "it's fun" to "maybe it'll be good marketing for the paid stuff". I've hosted website guestbooks for people since 1996. I run the contact form and some other widgets for about 4000 Shopify e-commerce stores, which costs a VPS and some Mandrill/Sendgrid fees to send a few thousand e-mails a day. I just felt like hacking on their API.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#14I'm a solo founder on www.rocketlease.com, which gives landlords an online rental application for screening prospective tenants. It's profitable but my total investment still probably hasn't been recovered. I'm probably just over ramen profitable at this point. It's been about 2 years since I started focusing seriously on it around jan 2012), it got to around cash flow breakeven in q3 2013. I haven't received any out…
Small side note, your sites font on a Windows 8 laptop is very difficult to read since the font renders poorly.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#15I built a security scanner that scans WordPress installations for threats (plugin vulns, outdated installs, theme vulns, xss, sqli etc) without any installation or code knowledge required. I posted it on Reddit and got a few sign ups, after that I just got bored and I'm not sure what to do next. I'm thinking about partnering with WordPress tutorial websites and give them a recurring revenue cut or something. I really wish I was better at marketing products. Maybe I should just sell it or something. Any WordPress related websites with good amount of traffic please contact me if you're interested in partnering.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#16http://ridewithgps.com - now supporting four full time employees with competitive salaries for Portland. Looking to be 6-5 by end of year. All bootstrapped, all subscription revenue. Lucked out that a hobby project in our niche could be profitable (the demographic for cyclist is pretty amazing, 40+ years old, lots disposable income, used to spending a bunch on their hobby)
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#17I'm a solo founder on www.rocketlease.com, which gives landlords an online rental application for screening prospective tenants. It's profitable but my total investment still probably hasn't been recovered. I'm probably just over ramen profitable at this point. It's been about 2 years since I started focusing seriously on it around jan 2012), it got to around cash flow breakeven in q3 2013. I haven't received any out…
Wow, good for you, I'm impressed. A quick Google search indicates that's a very competitive space (probably an understatement). What is your approach to marketing?
As a landlord you're trying to reach, I'm curious how you're getting the word out. As a developer, I'm curious what you've found most effective.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#18I'm a solo founder on www.rocketlease.com, which gives landlords an online rental application for screening prospective tenants. It's profitable but my total investment still probably hasn't been recovered. I'm probably just over ramen profitable at this point. It's been about 2 years since I started focusing seriously on it around jan 2012), it got to around cash flow breakeven in q3 2013. I haven't received any out…
Really like that, cool idea. Come launch it in London? We paid £135 (EACH) for that service the last time I rented a flat here.
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#19I'm building http://test.gmbl.io as a side project - it'll be a nice stats site, I mainly built it for my own use and then decided to make it accessible on the web, rather than just replacing my spreadsheets. Might monetise it eventually, but I just want to finish it off in the end. (Excuse the designed-with-a-potato look, the prototype designs are at http://test.gmbl.io/static/prototype/1/index.html though!) Edit: w…
As a soccer fan, this makes me happy! When do you expect to finish? I would love to use this as a back-end API for a couple of app ideas I have. By the way the data side of the business is pretty tough to break into. What are your thoughts on that?
Re: Poll: Is your startup or side project profitable?
#20I'm a solo founder on www.rocketlease.com, which gives landlords an online rental application for screening prospective tenants. It's profitable but my total investment still probably hasn't been recovered. I'm probably just over ramen profitable at this point. It's been about 2 years since I started focusing seriously on it around jan 2012), it got to around cash flow breakeven in q3 2013. I haven't received any out…
Small side note, your sites font on a Windows 8 laptop is very difficult to read since the font renders poorly.
Thanks giulianob. Added it to my ticket list to check :)
That is probably not very good since IE usage is disproportionately high among my customer base (side note, I'm going to check my conversion stats by browser now...)