Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1k True Fans (2008)

kk.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–147 of 147 posts

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#141

Post by scarface74 »

gnicholas wrote: post #140
scarface74 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How difficult do you think it is for any developer to get a $100K job in any major city in the US? My “self sufficient income stream” comes from always being employable and having a strong network. Back in 2012, the company I worked for was struggling. Guess how much sleep I lost? I saved money and when layoffs happened, I called some recruiters and literally had another offer in less than a week. That’s close to my…

> My “self sufficient income stream” comes from always being employable and having a strong network. The point is that an employee only gets paid as long as he clocks in. Once he turns in his badge, the paychecks cease. You have a self-sufficient way to remain employed (and in a high-paying field — this is great!), but that is not the same thing as generating passive income, which is what SaaS businesses aim to do. O…

And how is SaaS income “passive”? There is server support, sales, etc.

Guess how many days sleep I’ve ever lost worrying about “market fit” or customer acquisition or whether my little SaaS company would be eaten alive by a better funded competitor?

How many little SaaS companies even Net as much as the average new grad makes their first year at any tech company?

I personally gladly choose not to have the stress of starting my own business or independent consulting. Even though I have the skillset and experience and pedigree to do “cloud consulting”. I have a whole organization full of lawyers, accountants, sales people, on call technical support so I can just wait for the next assignment.

If I have an issue with an AWS service that I can’t solve, I just post my question to an internal Slack channel and one of the developers of the service answer my question.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#142

Post by gnicholas »

scarface74 wrote: post #141
gnicholas wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My “self sufficient income stream” comes from always being employable and having a strong network. The point is that an employee only gets paid as long as he clocks in. Once he turns in his badge, the paychecks cease. You have a self-sufficient way to remain employed (and in a high-paying field — this is great!), but that is not the same thing as generating passive income, which is what SaaS businesses aim to do. O…

And how is SaaS income “passive”? There is server support, sales, etc. Guess how many days sleep I’ve ever lost worrying about “market fit” or customer acquisition or whether my little SaaS company would be eaten alive by a better funded competitor? How many little SaaS companies even Net as much as the average new grad makes their first year at any tech company? I personally gladly choose not to have the stress of s…

> And how is SaaS income “passive”? There is server support, sales, etc.

It surely depends on your market, but things like sales are for generating new income. You can always stop working on sales and keep drawing existing income. I don't know how much server support most SaaS businesses entail, but in my (n = 1) experience, it's not a lot.

I"m a little confused by your reference to independent consulting, which is not at all like SaaS. It has more flexibility than full-time employment, but it's still active income that you have to work for (with a minor exception for retainers).

But it sounds like you aren't really interested in finding a way that passive income could be useful, and I'm not here to list all the reasons people like to run SaaS businesses. If the benefits don't stand out to you, then by all means you should do something else!

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#143

Post by SergeAx »

amelius wrote: post #119
SergeAx wrote: post #64

What if I don't want brainless fanatics to be my fans?

Then don't become an influencer.

I think that if one does something for a long time and with constant passion, and then reflects about that in the form of text, podcast or video - they are doomed to become an influencer of sorts. So your recommendation is equal to "do not reflect on your passion in public", which is quite sad.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#144

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

closewith wrote: post #112
brookst wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your vision and commitment, but when I read your comment I think “that’s 10 businesses that will want support and upgrades forever, who will call you in the middle of the night, who will expect the world of you because they depend on you”. It’s a great model and I applaud it, but I would much rather have 1000 (preferably 5000!) consumers paying me $100/ea/year than have 10 businesses paying me $100k/ea/year.

> I like your vision and commitment, but when I read your comment I think “that’s 10 businesses that will want support and upgrades forever, who will call you in the middle of the night, who will expect the world of you because they depend on you”. My own experience is the polar opposite to this. I run a small software business selling to enterprise customers where the minimum subscription is €5k per month and even m…

may I ask which resources helped you start your own software business?

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#145

Post by jannw »

grecy wrote: post #135
jannw wrote: post #104

I wrote a phd, in part, on this (actually on crowdfunding for creatives, but this essay bookended the thesis). Writing in 2008 KK essentially predicted D2F crowdfunding built on e-mailing lists and facebook. He gets a lot right, and it stands up well - but, make no mistake, he describes a full-time job, and the "admin" involved is more than 50% of the effort. It's not for everyone, but it can work, and does for many.…

I’d love to read it, but none of the login options apply to me. Am I out of luck?

try: https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/44498249/B...

Cheers, J

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#146

Post by boredemployee »

ttjjtt wrote: post #139
boredemployee wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. To get one real fan, other than your mom and your girlfriend is super hard. I worked as a professional music producer and dj for 10 years in a good niche, paid my bills and raised my kid for that long, and while many other djs and producers played my music productions/compositions and threated me as one of the best in my country, my career never took off. Today I do it as a hobby in my free time and no one reall…

can you see yourself making and releasing music again at some point?

More like a hobby yes. If you ask me if I would try to make a living out of it again, then I'm not sure (probably not). The feeling of not making a single cent for a few months in the beginning of the pandemic was a bit traumatic.

Re: 1k True Fans (2008)

#147

Post by exit »

tbalsam wrote: post #66
exit wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd argue that if you're smart enough to be reading this website, you're smart enough to create and sell a piece of software to 10 businesses. it's both fascinating and horrifying to think through reasons this doesn't happen, the many complications that get between raw ability/acumen/interest and such straightforward outcomes!

I'm curious thinking about this. I'm a very strong researcher, mild-moderate software developer, and absolutely gridlock terrified of contracts, formalities, getting locked into commitments, etc. Like, I think I could do it, but I'm on the autism spectrum so my budget for variance is _so_ much lower. I highly downbudget things in my life that are higher variance so I look more neurotypical a lot of the time but somet…

> The main problem is that I don't have the 5-10 years to really sink into that comfortably to get there from raw experience, or the stamina to go through what would seem to be my own personal hell in the meantime.

you've described a very difficult situation. i wish i had concrete advice for progressing with it.

you do seem to have a strong sense of your weaknesses and strengths though.

off the top of my head, perhaps developing some kind of SaaS such that you can deal with clients in a very algorithmic way / purely by API, would suit you best? as opposed to dealing with per client contracts/formalities...

sorry, i wish i had better advice and/or perspective for your situation.

in any case, merry christmas :)

Post reply on HN