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My Second Year as a Solo Developer

mtlynch.io

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Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#311

Post by josephjrobison »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #155
amelius wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ironically, it strikes me that there's a gap here for a business to solve; connecting entrepreneurial devs with business owners aware of problems. This. Why hasn't this gap been filled yet?

>> Ironically, it strikes me that there's a gap here for a business to solve; connecting entrepreneurial devs with business owners aware of problems. >This. Why hasn't this gap been filled yet? It's called Upwork. No seriously, hear me out. When a business owner has a problem they perceive could be solved with technology, they create a job or they go on job posting sites seeking either an employee or a contractor to…

Man, this is such a genius idea. Spend a good amount of time manually looking through job requests, then learn how to search for these, then cluster them and quantify the market which leads to total addressable market, then compare competition and figure out a premium offering, then sell at enterprise level with product + services, then gain efficiencies and go wider market, much like HubSpot.

Or something like that!

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#312

Post by josephjrobison »

JoshuaDavid wrote: post #146
amelius wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ironically, it strikes me that there's a gap here for a business to solve; connecting entrepreneurial devs with business owners aware of problems. This. Why hasn't this gap been filled yet?

Elance? Odesk? There are a fair number of players in the "find a dev to solve a one-off business problem" space. The issue is that this is a market for lemons[1] on both sides - for business owners with problems, it's hard to verify that the entrepreneurial devs can actually implement a solution, and for the entrepreneurial devs it's hard to weed out problem clients. Someone who solves or even slightly mitigates eith…

I think managed and vetted marketplaces are the way to go. A marketplace where the owner has some level of expertise in order to vet the suppliers, much like Codeable for WordPress or SuperSide for design.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#313

Post by Bubbadoo »

milesvp wrote: post #245
Reedx wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> reflect for a moment on how much time is spent on standups at a company with 20 or 200 engineers, what one hour of their time is worth > Your minimum commitment should be north of $1,000 per month; practically nobody can integrate with your API for cheaper than a thousand dollars of engineering time, right. That's my thinking as well, but haven't had much luck getting companies to accept this kind of pricing. Even…

To be fair, anything more than ~$250/mo probably requires some kind budget approval which will quickly scare away many underlings, and means now you're in the realm of enterprise sales. Now you should probably be charging closer to $10k/mo just to deal with that headache. It's another reason why having 3 tiered pricing can really help, with a 4th tier being "contact us for enterprise solutions". It can allow you to s…

Yes, very good point. Generally, the higher the pricing, the longer the sales cycle. That can mean months of evals, potential customer hand-holding, pre-sales support, etc. In the end, someone in the decision chain at the prospect decides to go a different way and you've blown months and many dollars on trying to land the client. A small or one-man operation is not going to survive that kind of abuse and make no mistake, some larger customers will take advantage.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#314

Post by hungalopithecus »

xwdv wrote: post #305
cycloptic wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you think anyone would pick "soul-crushing maybe-kill-yourself poverty" over working at Google? I've done this before and I would do it again. I wish I had something profound to add but I don't. Working in a corporate environment is just incredibly grating.

Is being poor also not incredibly grating?

Yes it is but at least you don't have to pretend like one does in a corporate environment.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#315

Post by spiffytech »

qmmmur wrote: post #296
rickitan wrote: post #224

I see a lot of comments criticizing your path and progress. Making remarks like "why didn't you stay at Google". I applaud your decision, effort, and perseverance. I admire your risk taking and having skin in the game. Trying to make it out on your own. People forget the journey is not just about the money. It's about learning, growing and bringing your ideas to life. Being an artist, and expressing yourself through…

I don't think I've cringed more than 'expressing yourself through products'.

The arts and crafts world is full of people expressing themselves through products. Independent software doesn't have to be different.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#317

Post by m_ke »

adventured wrote: post #283
jacurtis wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, when an employer owns your "inventions", this only applies to "inventions" created while using the employer's resources. Most employement contracts will make it sound like they own every waking thought, but in most cases when this has been taken to court, the precedent has been set, that it really only applies to inventions or ideas that happen in relation to and using employer's resources. So this means t…

> Most employement contracts will make it sound like they own every waking thought, but in most cases when this has been taken to court, the precedent has been set, that it really only applies to inventions or ideas that happen in relation to and using employer's resources. A simple example of this that I like to point out to people in tech to help them understand that an employer doesn't inherently own your soul, is…

But it's really more like starting your own fast food franchise while working on a business team at Pizza Hut. It's an IP issue and could be a conflict of interest.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#318

Post by WD-42 »

jldugger wrote: post #281
WD-42 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand this attitude. There is a specific lifestyle he is trying to achieve and the is working towards being successful at reaching it. At what point does it stop being "playing" and become just living? Do you have to be miserable at a 9-5 job to be considered serious by society?

I think the point is that if you can self-fund by living off the investments, you're really effectively retired and not particularly motivated to fix profitability gaps in your new career. In a sense, it's cool, cuz like, you're helping people in the world out for less than the cost to provide that service. But in terms of recommended reading material for people hoping to replicate the situation without an infinite r…

If the argument is that he already has enough money to retire, wouldn't his continuing to work at Google also be considered "playing around"? Most people probably wouldn't look at it that way, they'd consider him "productive" or "motivated". So why does it matter if he is working at Google or on solo pursuits?

The argument would probably be that he's lucky to be in the position he's in. But presumably he earned the money he has from working at Google. So either dismiss his entire situation by saying that anything he tries to achieve from now on is just "playing around" because he already has enough money, or respect him for trying to continue to improve his life (even if it's from a good place to start).

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#319

Post by qmmmur »

spiffytech wrote: post #315
qmmmur wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've cringed more than 'expressing yourself through products'.

The arts and crafts world is full of people expressing themselves through products. Independent software doesn't have to be different.

The arts is full of people expressing themselves for pay below the poverty line, often not expected or wanted as remuneration for their expression. Treating business as expression and calling it the same thing as actual art is quite oblivious to the reality.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#320

Post by pnathan »

dhruvkar wrote: post #208
chowes wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but what I have struggled with here is the feeling of being a "solution looking for a problem". It's a step before where you're at. It's not that I can't identify owners, it's that I can't identify _problems_. I am lacking the domain experience to even have the first conversation, and it feels like paying people to ask "so tell me everything that is wrong with your business" is the wrong way to do it. I k…

I hear you. I was in Software for a couple of years and I only saw software/IT problems. But these problems usually had a variety of solutions and only some glue was required. Now I've been in the natural stone industry for 4 years and I can't count the number of problems to which the solution is "add more people". So much data entry and data extraction from PDFs ERP/CRM/Other software. 100s of man-hours spent on som…

> We need more software engineers venturing out into other industries and identifying and solving problems.

this seems to line up with my experience well. But I don't have a good line of sight for me to actually experience those businesses outside of taking a non-SWE job and going from a well-compensated expert to barely-paid newb. Spending years learning a specific industry in the hopes that I can turn my former skills into a viable business seems like the wrong approach in several axes. I know VC groups (sometimes) have entire departments whose purpose is to understand other industries... it seems counterproductive for individuals to try to and go this route. Thoughts?

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