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One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

blog.healthchecks.io

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Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#211

Post by cuu508 »

alberth wrote: post #210
ashconnor wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pingdom?

Like for like functionality, their pricing seems fairly similar. https://www.pingdom.com/pricing/ https://healthchecks.io/pricing/ The primary difference is that HealthCheck caps their pricing at $80/mo whereas Pingdom let's it still linearly scale upwards. And that's kind of my point. Why artificially cap their "Enterprise" plan at so cheap, when Pingdom let's it scale to $10s of thousands per month.

For customers who outgrow the 1000 check limit I do offer custom plans where the price and the limits grow proportionally - 2000 checks for $160/mo etc.

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#212

Post by SergeAx »

scubakid wrote: post #28

I really respect your choice to optimize for balance and enjoyment. My journey as a solopreneur is similar, but I still struggle with giving myself permission to rest. "If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still!" Despite the self-imposed pressure and anxiety though, it is still a dream come true. I actually had a shocking realization recently that mornings are now my favorite time of day! When I was a corpor…

> If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still!

A company, by definition, is a group of people. Of course it is possible to register company and never hire employees, but it is not relevant now. The point is when you say "the company stand still" it effectively meaning "I am standing still". Either normalize it for yourself, or hire someone)

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#213

Post by sakopov »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #146
cedws wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobody needs, wants, or will pay for.

Ok here is the playbook: - Go here https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=it... - Look at the list of products - Copy one of them - Do it a bit better (e.g. cheaper, faster, hosted in EU, targeted at some specific segment of users etc.) - Launch asap (no longer than 3 months of coding) - Reach out to potential users everywhere you can, until you get a few dollars of recurring revenue in - Write blo…

Are you suggesting to copy one of AWS services? This seems like fool's errand.

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#214

Post by webprofusion »

255kb wrote: post #149
webprofusion wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One trick I may or may not have invented for the enterprise PO problem (manual processes etc) was to offer an Azure Marketplace subscription for the product. That way they can just go to azure and subscribe to the license that way, without needing any azure resources etc, it's just a billing mechanism. They can then bundle that into their usual Azure spend and even do manual POs etc that I never have to deal with.

This is really interesting. I discovered AWS marketplace which offers the same feature. I started integrating but it takes some time, especially with their webhooks. Is it bringing leads directly, from the marketplace listing, or is it just a plus that will help streamlining the purchase process? Edit: another question: do you advertise on your website the possibility to use Azure billing?

It does bring leads, but not many. The main advantage is giving them an easy procurement path.

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#215

Post by webprofusion »

255kb wrote: post #149
webprofusion wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One trick I may or may not have invented for the enterprise PO problem (manual processes etc) was to offer an Azure Marketplace subscription for the product. That way they can just go to azure and subscribe to the license that way, without needing any azure resources etc, it's just a billing mechanism. They can then bundle that into their usual Azure spend and even do manual POs etc that I never have to deal with.

This is really interesting. I discovered AWS marketplace which offers the same feature. I started integrating but it takes some time, especially with their webhooks. Is it bringing leads directly, from the marketplace listing, or is it just a plus that will help streamlining the purchase process? Edit: another question: do you advertise on your website the possibility to use Azure billing?

Yes we offer if as a "Cloud Managed License". We had intended to do AWS etc as well but traditional online purchasing via Stripe or Paypal is still the bulk of our license purchases.

Agree all the hooks and infrastructure you need to put in place are a pain and it's also difficult to debug if someone has an issue (one guy couldn't cancel for an unknown reason).

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#216

Post by socksy »

m_a_g wrote: post #168
abrookewood wrote: post #77

He has a twitter thread where he describes Hobbit Software: "Now thinking about creating a movement to promote "hobbit software". Pretty chill, keeps to itself, tends to its databases, hangs out with other hobbit software at the pub, broadly unbothered by the scheming of the wizards and the orcs, oblivious to the rise and fall of software empires around them. Oh, the Electron empire is going to war with the Reacts? S…

I don’t think that is possible. Almost all software depends on other software. At the very least, it depends on the clients software. Which means you can’t ignore what Chrome or Safari changes for example.

Well at the risk of spoiling an almost 70 year old book, the Shire didn't manage to escape being affected by larger middle earthly events either

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#217

Post by adrienjarthon »

abrookewood wrote: post #77

He has a twitter thread where he describes Hobbit Software: "Now thinking about creating a movement to promote "hobbit software". Pretty chill, keeps to itself, tends to its databases, hangs out with other hobbit software at the pub, broadly unbothered by the scheming of the wizards and the orcs, oblivious to the rise and fall of software empires around them. Oh, the Electron empire is going to war with the Reacts? S…

I am running another "hobbit software" (just discovered the term) for the past 12 years, and I 100% agree with Pēteri and everything he said in this blog post!

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#218

Post by nicbou »

scubakid wrote: post #28

I really respect your choice to optimize for balance and enjoyment. My journey as a solopreneur is similar, but I still struggle with giving myself permission to rest. "If I take a break, the company is at a stand-still!" Despite the self-imposed pressure and anxiety though, it is still a dream come true. I actually had a shocking realization recently that mornings are now my favorite time of day! When I was a corpor…

That's a skill you can work on. You can also progressively structure your business so that you never need to be working at a given time.

It took a me few years of observing what brings my attention back you work and what controls my schedule the most, and many little practices to deal with that. Now the thing runs itself, and I can take much longer vacations. It was worth the effort.

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#219

Post by 255kb »

webprofusion wrote: post #214
255kb wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting. I discovered AWS marketplace which offers the same feature. I started integrating but it takes some time, especially with their webhooks. Is it bringing leads directly, from the marketplace listing, or is it just a plus that will help streamlining the purchase process? Edit: another question: do you advertise on your website the possibility to use Azure billing?

It does bring leads, but not many. The main advantage is giving them an easy procurement path.

Thank you for the insights!

Re: One-man SaaS, 9 Years In

#220

Post by 255kb »

webprofusion wrote: post #215
255kb wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting. I discovered AWS marketplace which offers the same feature. I started integrating but it takes some time, especially with their webhooks. Is it bringing leads directly, from the marketplace listing, or is it just a plus that will help streamlining the purchase process? Edit: another question: do you advertise on your website the possibility to use Azure billing?

Yes we offer if as a "Cloud Managed License". We had intended to do AWS etc as well but traditional online purchasing via Stripe or Paypal is still the bulk of our license purchases. Agree all the hooks and infrastructure you need to put in place are a pain and it's also difficult to debug if someone has an issue (one guy couldn't cancel for an unknown reason).

ok, good to know. I will think about it a bit more before starting the implementation...
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