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I spent two years launching tiny projects

tinyprojects.dev

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Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#121

Post by etewiah »

herodoturtle wrote: post #96
marban wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I would never do something that requires a single employee ever again. I sold my first company because soon enough, all you get to do is manage politics and not the thing you signed up for — Sounds infantile but at some point you have to stay true to yourself no matter the benefits. If you're more of a team-player, there are obviously better options today (remote, etc.) — The only thing I would recommen…

Doesn't sound infantile at all. I strongly resonate with everything you're saying. A little over a year ago I submitted this Ask HN, which helps shed light on my situation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27039701 It is now a year later and I'm still wondering the same thing as I was back then (as in, I haven't changed up my work setup at all / haven't hired people). I do rely on contractors here and there, but…

Shame your Ask HN did not get traction. Might be worth posting it again. It is a bit of a lottery on here.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#122

Post by bonestamp2 »

marban wrote: post #100
danielvaughn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your career is what I aspired to when I started in this industry over a decade ago. But what ended up happening was that I (a) worked full-time while dabbling on nights and weekends, (b) spent several years trying to decide which project I wanted to really pursue in earnest, and then (c) after picking the project, obsessing over it so much that I never felt it was ready to release. So it's...not going well so far lol…

I think first and foremost is bringing yourself into a position that gets you enough runway (time and money) to be able to take things seriously — even if that sounds like the opposite of a side project. For me it was skipping university and having kids in favour of starting a web agency in the dotcom days. Also, I don't believe in working on something you love — you just need to hate it a little less than the other…

Was there a general goal for each one or any sort of decision tree you used to decide on what to build next... for example, did you only work on things that could potentially be big, or huge, etc? Did you analyze the market size of each idea before starting, etc?

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#123

Post by muttled »

immigrantheart wrote: post #53

How do you even find ideas for these?

Speaking from personal experience: just seeing what unsolved needs you have yields a lot of ideas. I had coworkers who would go to email something confidential to someone and click the wrong auto-complete contact and then we had a full-blown crisis. I thought "is there a way to stop that without the user hating me?" and that's how I got the idea for https://jiminyclick.com

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#124

Post by aaronbrethorst »

alin23 wrote: post #112

I started doing the same but with macOS apps: https://lowtechguys.com Reading about the author's projects in the past is actually what inspired me to do it. I used Windows for a long time before as a power user (living my life in FarManager and WinAPI), then switched to Ubuntu with i3. After finally switching to the Mac, I loved its simplicity and how it freed my mind from micro-managing the system, but I also notice…

Any chance you could add licenses and maybe a screenshot to each of those repos?

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#125

Post by tchock23 »

criddell wrote: post #69
softwarebeware wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually agree with this. There are a bunch of low-cost ways to prototype and collect user feedback. The paper notebook idea could have started with surveying people and finding if anyone actually existed who say it would be useful and they would pay for it. Or even just launch a one-page product site with an email sign-up list to get notified when the alpha version releases and wait until it reached some critical…

> It's a paradox, but I've found that my best ideas now come from building other ideas. Building and failing and building and failing might be a faster way of getting to something great than vetting, vetting, vetting, building, vetting, vetting building...

It’s only faster if you have the skills personally to build (which is many, but not all, HN users). If you don’t then vetting is a better place to start.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#126

Post by cgg1 »

marban wrote: post #46

I started my professional life ~25y ago with a side project that by 2022 led to roughly 50 more side projects — The vast majority failed, some turned into 200 employee businesses, some others got acquired. In essence, I make a living out of side projects. Side projects are life.

How do you decide whether a side project/idea is worth pursuing? You mentioned in another comment that you don’t “do the MVP stuff” and go full blown from the beginning. That seems like a big time sink without a rigorous way of validating whether users want what you’re building.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#127

Post by UmbertoNoEco »

marban wrote: post #74
herodoturtle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some turned into 200 employee businesses Incredible comment overall but this line was particularly Woah! What advice would have for solo founders of a side project (that later becomes a full time day job) in terms of evolving to a large team? First hire(s), things to look out for, etc. I’d find this insight incredible! Hope I’m not asking too much. But such an incredible story you have.

To be honest, I would never do something that requires a single employee ever again. I sold my first company because soon enough, all you get to do is manage politics and not the thing you signed up for — Sounds infantile but at some point you have to stay true to yourself no matter the benefits. If you're more of a team-player, there are obviously better options today (remote, etc.) — The only thing I would recommen…

This advice aligns beautifully with my experience. It's obvious you have walked the walk.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#128

Post by xwowsersx »

alin23 wrote: post #112

I started doing the same but with macOS apps: https://lowtechguys.com Reading about the author's projects in the past is actually what inspired me to do it. I used Windows for a long time before as a power user (living my life in FarManager and WinAPI), then switched to Ubuntu with i3. After finally switching to the Mac, I loved its simplicity and how it freed my mind from micro-managing the system, but I also notice…

rcmd looks great. Going to give that a try. Nice work!

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#129

Post by xwowsersx »

marban wrote: post #46

I started my professional life ~25y ago with a side project that by 2022 led to roughly 50 more side projects — The vast majority failed, some turned into 200 employee businesses, some others got acquired. In essence, I make a living out of side projects. Side projects are life.

Could you share the projects here? Took a look at thomas.me but couldn't quite find the projects. Thanks!
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