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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

#151

Post by oulu2006 »

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…

Likewise.

I've been through a number of startups and there are jobs that I really really dislike down to my core.

My 2nd startup I did the CEO role and i hated every day of it -- I really respect those who can spend day after day in investor meetings, sales calls, marketing catch-ups; that person isn't me.

My 3rd startup I decided to stick to technology - with a heavy dose of management - and partner with someone who could do the above.

Startups are already barely tolerable as it is, you can at least help yourself a little by being able to focus on the areas that bring a little joy into your life.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#153

Post by grog454 »

dcchambers wrote: post #23

Does anyone let the tax implications of launching (several) tiny projects prevent them from even starting? I know LLCs allow for pass-through taxation and you don't have to file as a business, but I get frozen by the idea that generating a few hundred dollars in revenue from some silly side project means I have to spend hours/days of my time the next Spring figuring out how to properly pay taxes on it.

I used to fear this, until I read posts on a similar site about how frequently founders botch this and how understanding the IRS is with these situations. Obviously this only applies to the US. When I saw my first success, I paid a CPA ~$1000 (for hundreds of thousands in revenue) to help sort out the first year of taxes (before they were due) and it wasn't a problem.

To summarize someone else's better point: worry about this problem when you have it. In the mean time worry about problems you have right now.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#154

Post by hardwaresofton »

ux4 wrote: post #143
hardwaresofton wrote: post #11

One thing I would have loved to read about is more about how they did market validation for these ideas. For a micro-bet strategy knowing which one (outside of really interesting projects that would trend on HN), it feels like market validation chops would be crucial. The author seems to be batting an insanely high average for just building things and having them actually get some traction, and be exit-able. > When I…

>At this point market validation (and practice validating ideas) is starting to seem like the most important thing. Market validation - especially for online products and services - is indeed incredibly important, but not many people like to write about it because it is actually very drab and a tiny bit audacious. His market validation - you are seeing it. It is a submission to Hacker News. Ok ok, that is a given, bu…

> His market validation - you are seeing it. It is a submission to Hacker News.

Yup you're totally right. All these ideas really seemed like things that would trend on HN (but that's easy to say in retrospect, getting to the front page isn't quite so easy!).

> My final advice for seeing how online services validate their ideas - run the product's domain through a backlink checker. It lets you see what other websites link to their product and what avenues they pursued for outreach. Each of those submissions exposes the product to potential customers and gives valuable feedback to the creator.

This is one thing I know I'm terrible at. I barely use any SEO tools properly, I should probably just hurry up and pay for ahrefs or whatever already.

I don't think the concept of checking backlinks even clicked properly in my head until I read your explanation, thank you very much.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#155

Post by abrookewood »

krick wrote: post #149
DantesKite wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author addresses your question at the end. > If you're stuck for ideas, I recommend just building something; anything; even if it's terrible, and I guarantee a better idea will pop into your brain shortly after.

It doesn't really address the question. There's no such thing as "something, anything". I mean, there obviously is for the author, but that's exactly the difference between our mindsets, which is exactly the problem. I know how to build a concrete thing, most of the time. I have no idea, how to build "something", most of the time. I mean, there always are exceptions and sometimes I can come up with something, but tha…

Why don't you just copy something he's already done? His point is that you just need to start.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#156

Post by abrookewood »

mft_ wrote: post #97

Have you written anywhere about the technology you use underneath - from languages to libraries to hosting? I’ve got a few ideas somewhere between just started and half-written, but I often grind to a halt when it comes to figuring out sensible hosting. As an amateur, the world of AWS vs. GCE vs. Azure vs. Heroku vs. many, many others is difficult, and there are scary stories about out of control costs abound.

Haven't tried this yet, but Oracle have a very generous free tier: https://www.oracle.com/au/cloud/free/#always-free

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#157

Post by immigrantheart »

muttled wrote: post #123
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

Do people want to pay for that?

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#158

Post by MrVandemar »

krick wrote: post #144

How do I start coming up with all these actionable ideas? I mean, not that these are great, but it really doesn't matter for me, implementing them does. It just makes me feel ashamed for my lack of industriousness.

The world is full of interesting people doing interesting things, who come with interesting problems, who don't even know there might be a software solution for it.

On a tiny scale, I'm a programmer. I happen to be between programming jobs and to keep the roof over my head I'm working as a Medical Receptionist. I see lots of ways my skills (totally exotic in that arena) are useful. For example, I see someone doing brute-force hand search-and-replace on a document. I said, give me 10 seconds and I'll do it for you. Regexps, despite the "two-problems" joke, are fantastically powerful and made them drop their jaws. But there's larger problems I have written Powershell scripts to solve, python scripts, macros in the software they use, excel spreadsheets, etc. Whatever tool to get the job done.

Problems are everywhere where people are. Go talk to them.

Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects

#160

Post by ux4 »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #154
ux4 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At this point market validation (and practice validating ideas) is starting to seem like the most important thing. Market validation - especially for online products and services - is indeed incredibly important, but not many people like to write about it because it is actually very drab and a tiny bit audacious. His market validation - you are seeing it. It is a submission to Hacker News. Ok ok, that is a given, bu…

> His market validation - you are seeing it. It is a submission to Hacker News. Yup you're totally right. All these ideas really seemed like things that would trend on HN (but that's easy to say in retrospect, getting to the front page isn't quite so easy!). > My final advice for seeing how online services validate their ideas - run the product's domain through a backlink checker. It lets you see what other websites…

You can get a general idea with free backlink checkers, just won't be able to deep dive and do various filters.

Ignore all the spammy websites that usually regurgitate random links. Focus on the sites with high DR that don't have the "NoFollow" attribute. These are the hard-hitting websites that boost your domain for SEO purposes and can be good places to get feedback on your own product.

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