My Second Year as a Solo Developer • Hacker News Board

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#31

Post by tonyedgecombe » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

It's hard starting a business and most people (90%) don't earn anymore than an employee.

None the less some of us just aren't cut out for the corporate life. I'd pick poverty over the lack of autonomy, petit politics and meaningless work any day.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#32

Post by avl999 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:50 PM UTC

Thanks for writing this. It is good to see a perspective where a business is being built up slowly as opposed to the typical "I quit my job and now my side project makes $30k a month two months in" posts we usually see.

Do you ever feel issues with motivation when you don't see growth as quickly as you'd like?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#33

Post by discordance » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback about this post. Discussion from my first annual update last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19054150

Are you targeting to gain revenue from your SaaS and blog alone?

Have you considered consulting or remote dev for 2-3 months a year? - that could easily enable you to hit your targets.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#34

Post by aty268 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

These businesses all seem like something that very well could make you money, but would never scale into a growth startup. And it seems the time it takes to build one of these or a growth startup isn't going to be too different. I might even say that you similar chances of making a similar amount of money from either.

So why not shoot for the larger moon?

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#35

Post by xwdv » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #31

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

It's hard starting a business and most people (90%) don't earn anymore than an employee. None the less some of us just aren't cut out for the corporate life. I'd pick poverty over the lack of autonomy, petit politics and meaningless work any day.

What if the poverty was really, REALLY bad? As in soul crushing, no way out, maybe-kill-yourself, type of poverty? I doubt you’d make that switch so easily.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#36

Post by JacKTrocinskI » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

Totally agree, would never do what OP has done, I like my job and what I do plus I get paid well.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#37

Post by theli0nheart » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

> Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice.

Not really. This just proves that corporate life isn't the most profitable option for the OP. You just can't make sweeping statements like this based on a single anecdote.

I'll offer this to other "corporate" folk out there. I was self-employed since late 2010 until I recently (last month) joined a mid-stage startup. During my last year of self-employment I took home ~$400k in cash, and lots more in early-stage stock, and worked maybe 15-20 hours per week. There are very few corporate jobs that would even come close to that balance of take-home pay and work-life balance.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#38

Post by JacKTrocinskI » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #22

JacKTrocinskI wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 2 years and you earned $18,000? Seems rather bad, you think you can exponentially grow that in the next year or two?

The totals on the first chart are wrong. In 2 years he lost $23k. (Or you could say the "totals" are correct, but calling it "net profit" is wrong.)

Yeah, either way, financially that would never make sense to me.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#39

Post by chasd00 » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #31

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

It's hard starting a business and most people (90%) don't earn anymore than an employee. None the less some of us just aren't cut out for the corporate life. I'd pick poverty over the lack of autonomy, petit politics and meaningless work any day.

" I'd pick poverty over the lack of autonomy, petit politics and meaningless work any day."

Would you also put your kids in poverty? It's not a simple when you think beyond yourself.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#40

Post by chrisseaton » Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

xchaotic wrote: post #20

Sorry to say but this proves that for someone who actually has to work for a living ie earn money, corporate life is absolutely the correct choice. Even for Mr Lynch these experiments in charity wouldn’t be possible without the nest egg from google (which he acknowledged). To go from net 100k+ to below zero and still be unprofitable after two years is a financial disaster.

Right - the vast majority of people even in tech need to buy their children shoes and put food on the family table and those things are going to be very hard without a stable corporate income.