Anyone used Streak and Pigeon? Curious to hear thoughts?
Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
131–140 of 142 posts
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are the services really worth it? Yes. > self hosting and diy, cheap, better understanding, and imo more reliable. What is the cost to get something that has a better uptime than the SLA's of the services you are replacing? Focus on getting to paying customers. After that, you'll see where your time is better off spent. Example: I just signed up for a trial for Stripe Sigma. I was going to build my own basic BI usi…
Well, you could also be outsourcing your "build, test, deploy" to someone else and save even more time!
Actually, it would take me more time to write the spec, than it would be to just sign up for sigma.
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#133I’m going to be cynical and applaud the author at one of the most effective S.E.O. efforts I have seen lately: including his own app on a list of effective and well-curated apps for startups.
I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years. Is his app really the best option in that product space? I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.
"All The Apps That I Pay For"
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's unethical. It's very similar to all of the paid content garbage that's saturated Google over the last few years. Is his app really the best option in that product space? I know most people around here will applaud the effort as clever, but I think it's the type of tactic that's ruining the internet. Nothing gets published without some marketing related alterior motive.
"All The Apps That I Pay For"
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Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#135Upwork (~$1000/month): Freelancers. I especially use Upwork because I don't have to think about all the billing stuff and time tracking, etc. The same for me, and they take a cut both sides (3% or 50 USD / month + 3% fees USD/EUR on my side and 5 to 10% on the freelancer side). I was wondering if there was an alternative to upwork for those who only need it for its automatic billing system + time tracking + weekly su…
Upwork charges 20% of the first $500, 10% of the first $10,000, and then 5% onwards. Limits are per freelancer, client pair.
If you're spending >$10,000 on an individual freelancer it seems it might make more sense to hire someone?
(Getting started working with ~$500 webdev contracts on Upwork recently so very familiar with these numbers)
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#136My biggest concern is being dependent on these systems, the systems changing, and it breaking the process. I have the mentality of self hosting and diy, cheap, better understanding, and imo more reliable. Most these services have a learning curve anyway. Are the services really worth it?
The mentality of DIY and self hosting is the default for most hackers, and in my opinion its the number 1 thing holding back most engineers who build businesses. I have a buddy who’s an amazing engineer, he takes pride in doing everything himself and spent years building a platform from the ground up. Elegant, fully automated, built in his favorite languages and frameworks. 3 years in it makes 50k a year. I have anot…
I'd love to be the guy who outsources everything, but I don't have much cash to spend on these. Especially for someone based out of developing economies; $10 here and $25 there for a handful of SaaS services quickly builds up to 15-30% of your take home salary.
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
The beauty of web clients is that you can control the font size if it looks bad on your device.
I don't think it's possible on mobile. Yesterday I found myself needing to adjust the font size on rateyourmusic.com's responsive site, and it wasn't possible. On a desktop it's as simple as "CTRL +" but that doesn't exist on mobile browsers.
Fennec Textwrap addon for Firefox on Android will slightly improve pinch zoom text reflow.
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
WIP came out long before Product Hunt started doing something similar.
Okay. I meant no judgement on lineage or merit, but producthunt is the relative frame of reference that I think most people on HN would understand. Can you clarify on your point, though? PH has been around since at least 2013. The .chat TLD didn't go live until 2015, and that specific domain was registered is late 2017. Do you mean a specific features like todo or something? Both sites are ostensibly primarily motiva…
Hi there. Maker of BetaList and WIP here. I think there are two things being conflated.
BetaList (startup discovery platform) was created before Product Hunt, and WIP (our community for makers) is an offshoot of that. Product Hunt eventually launched a similar service.
FWIW, I have to strongly disagree that WIP is primarily motivated for self-promotion. It's really more like a virtual co-working spaces where we all share what we're working on (hence the name), exchange feedback, keep each other accountable, etc.
BetaList and Product Hunt are indeed partly about self-promotion and partly about discovery.
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, just spreadsheets for now, but I do pay for a tax accountant. I will add that right now.
what is wip.chat, the homepage is useless.
Maker of WIP here. You're right. The homepage doesn't make a lot of sense to new (potential) users.
Our focus has been on increasing the product for our existing members, but eventually we'll be improving the homepage/etc for people not yet familiar with the service.
Re: Apps I pay for as a bootstrapped business
#140My biggest concern is being dependent on these systems, the systems changing, and it breaking the process. I have the mentality of self hosting and diy, cheap, better understanding, and imo more reliable. Most these services have a learning curve anyway. Are the services really worth it?
The mentality of DIY and self hosting is the default for most hackers, and in my opinion its the number 1 thing holding back most engineers who build businesses. I have a buddy who’s an amazing engineer, he takes pride in doing everything himself and spent years building a platform from the ground up. Elegant, fully automated, built in his favorite languages and frameworks. 3 years in it makes 50k a year. I have anot…
FWIW if buddy #1 lives in an area where 50k/year is enough, I would say it's still better off than most of the hacker-types, which also do this, but in their free time. At least he got to build a business around his hobby.
But I do understand the point you're trying to make. Obsessing over doing it yourself and perpetuating the NIH syndrome does more harm than good. There is a lot more chance that one's business will go out by their doing compared to going out because one of the services they depended on went out.