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Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

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111–120 of 174 posts

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#111
post #85
post #3

Congrats on this, loved the quote. >> The best startup book is one you never open because you're too busy marketing and building your product

This "I'm so busy hustling I don't have time to read no books" sort of machismo has become quite fashionable. I believe it's a mistake because there's a balance. No, you don't want to become the ineffectual intellectual, constantly learning but never doing. It definitely is easy to see books and learning as progress when you should to be out on the sharp end. But there are techniques you might use and mistakes you mi…

I think it's self-relevant advice. If your tendencies are to constantly read about launching your business - that may get in the way of actually going in and doing it.

This advice isn't relevant to those who have the opposite problem - but for those who use learning as a procrastination device, it can be just the right advice to put you into the happy medium

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#112

Congratulations. I'm not sure if the actual author is on this thread or this was posted by someone else but maybe someone can answer... One problem I have bootstrapping my SaaS is that I have no money to market. I can tweet and do direct marketing but that is slow and time consuming. Any recommendations from the crew on HN with how I can market to a large audience without needing a huge budget to spend on Adwords and…

For my market it helps that programmers are reachable online. Are there any online communities where you could post your MVP to get initial users?

You could also start writing about your market, to gain a following who could become your initial users but that usually takes a long time to ramp up.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#114
post #72

I must voice concerns regarding this product. Just took a look at the Notepad++ plugin ( https://github.com/wakatime/notepadpp-wakatime ), because this is something I know a lot about. To begin with, it sends filenames to the mother ship instead of just the programming language. I would consider filenames to be sensitive information giving a very good idea of the project you are working on... Also problematic is the…

Disagree. As a user, I want file-level or directory-level analytics. I want to know how much time I'm coding in the backend services vs the front-end react client. If you have concerns about this, do you also have problems with Github literally having access to all of your code? Or Google having access to your search history? I'd be more concerned if it wasn't using SSL. That would make sense, but it seems secure on…

Github and Google have security teams and aren't side projects.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#115
Infrastructure cost is quite high, almost on the same level as Pied-Piper wonder how much time before something better or even free appears.

Also if any dev is reading, a good addition will be able to run this on my own premises, this is some information valuable for project leads but its hard to justify monthly cost for something you usually take for granted.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#116
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the second part specifically is "a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen"?

Well, because it's a mechanism the user is not controlling and is potentially problematic if someone makes the plugin download an update package from another source. I'm a bit paranoid, but I would prefer all functionality to be within the plugin itself. There's a plugin manager for Notepad++ which notifies the user of plugin updates.

I suggest you suggest this to the author.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#117
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7% on hosting revenue sounds like a great accomplishment but what's relatively a good ratio to look at?

So what is normal in the SaaS world? I am at 5% today, and I try but not focus on costs. Around 5% it seems hard to care TOO much...

We're just over 2%, all in AWS costs.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#118
Huh. I remember a couple years ago I was at a hackathon when some guy just came up to me and some friends, handed us stickers with this logo while mumbling a few words, and walked away. I don't remember that person actually pitching anything and I'm not sure if it was Alan or someone he hired to give out stickers.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#119

I must voice concerns regarding this product. Just took a look at the Notepad++ plugin ( https://github.com/wakatime/notepadpp-wakatime ), because this is something I know a lot about. To begin with, it sends filenames to the mother ship instead of just the programming language. I would consider filenames to be sensitive information giving a very good idea of the project you are working on... Also problematic is the…

What if you opened John_Doe_health_information.txt - would something like this be a HIPPA violation?

With that filename in majority of cases you're violating HIPAA even within your internal network. The thought processes usually goes, does every person that potentially sees that file name require to know the patients first and last name? Also, even those that do require it should only be accessing it on an as-needed basis (eg. at the time of claim submission, etc) which means it shouldn't be floating around on your filesystem.

Re: Reaching $10k monthly revenue with WakaTime, my SaaS side project

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? I have a 16TB raid that only costs 800$ a month. You should look into how you store that information.

Or stop making assumptions with very little information. That is really my point, but I didn't think it needed to be said explicitly.

I've seen burnt coffee that was roasted less than this.
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