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My solopreneur story

news.tonydinh.com

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Re: My solopreneur story

#461

Post by gumballindie »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #447

Its amazing that as a senior developer he was making 1700 a month USD, which is about 20k a year. Salaries for software devs outside America are so comically low. I understand why the remote work sphere is completely flooded, simply being a junior dev in America doing simple stuff right out of college and you make 6 figs. That's a platinum ticket in 99% of countries.

> That's a platinum ticket in 99% of countries.

Few companies pay that though. Pay is usually adjusted to local cost of living. The uk for instance is way cheaper than the us. Germany as well.

Re: My solopreneur story

#462

Post by gumballindie »

fy20 wrote: post #454
sgu999 wrote: post #216

> ~90% profit Even though I understand the mechanics of the free market, in how many other fields do we consider this kind of profit margins to be honest ? What about a farmer selling at a 90% profit? A pharmacist? A banker? Good for him though, "why not if he can", after all. I'm just not sure how I feel about it...

I like to look at it the other way: if a single person can make so much on their own, how much inefficiency must there be in big companies? Even at the medium size VC backed startup (~120 people) I work for, the amount of inefficiency I see on a day to day basis is sometimes unbelievable. Also I'm not sure banks are a good example. Over the course of my mortgage, I will end up paying more than I borrowed in interest.

“so much”? This is 40k thats little. And it’s good that indies are able to achieve it.

Re: My solopreneur story

#463

Post by gen220 »

whiplash451 wrote: post #334
mihaic wrote: post #30

While I admire the can-do attitude and independent mindset, stories like this strike me primarily as how unscalable doing something like this is. I mean, it only works because not more then 1-2% of developers even try to do something like this, since it's really hard to ensure you have enough edge in understanding user needs, building and being able to find a distribution chanel, and there simply isn't enough revenue…

Good point, although I am less worried about the lack of scale and more about the lack of temporal persistence. It seems like he needs to constantly push new products out there to maintain a steady income.

Building tools for other companies’ platforms (first one was Twitter, second one is macOS, last is OpenAI) is always a double edged sword.

It makes growth / user acquisition easier, because you’re going where the people already are. But it also means you’re at the mercy of the underlying platform waking up and invalidating your business model (as happened with Twitter).

As you suggest, the only way to survive in this mode is to be continuously building new products around a diverse group of platforms. It helps if they’re not too diverse, because you can cross-sell (i.e. the correlation of Twitter users, macOS users and chatgpt web users is pretty high). When one platform shifts, you find another.

It’s a risky method but not a bad one if your morale can stomach the down turns in any individual platform.

Re: My solopreneur story

#465

Post by skwee357 »

I’m very happy for Tony, it’s a great achievement indeed.

Having said that, as an aspiring solopreneur myself, this article misses a very big part.

Engineers like to talk about how they build products, but we rarely talk about how to market them.

I quit my job 5 months ago, launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users. I then started to tweet, write in LinkedIn, and focus on my newsletter. But I barely get any followers. So building is the easy part.

I refuse to participate in algorithm games, and try to be authentic. But maybe that’s not what people like.

Anyway, great read. Thanks for sharing!

Re: My solopreneur story

#466

Post by aryamaan »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #185
bnt wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this with course creators as well. I reported dozens of errors in a particular corse and the creator was literally annoyed at me.

If you can't do, teach. If you can't teach, write an online course. If you can't write an online course, teach phys ed.

This kind of narrative stops aspiring teachers to go in the domain of education.

Teachers play such an important rule. They have to swallow the pill that the common narrative is that cause they didn’t do whatever they are teaching hence they teach

Re: My solopreneur story

#467

Post by system2 »

skwee357 wrote: post #465

I’m very happy for Tony, it’s a great achievement indeed. Having said that, as an aspiring solopreneur myself, this article misses a very big part. Engineers like to talk about how they build products, but we rarely talk about how to market them. I quit my job 5 months ago, launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users. I then started to tweet, write in LinkedIn, and focus on my newsletter. But I barely get…

What are you planning to do in the following months without an income if the project doesn't pick up?

Re: My solopreneur story

#468

Post by system2 »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #447

Its amazing that as a senior developer he was making 1700 a month USD, which is about 20k a year. Salaries for software devs outside America are so comically low. I understand why the remote work sphere is completely flooded, simply being a junior dev in America doing simple stuff right out of college and you make 6 figs. That's a platinum ticket in 99% of countries.

Eastern EU countries usually pay $2-4k range. That's why hiring offshore is very easy for American companies.

Re: My solopreneur story

#469

Post by system2 »

hubraumhugo wrote: post #161

Business advice is often just someone handing you their winning lottery ticket. It worked perfectly for them but will probably be totally useless and not repeatable for you.

That's a stretch. There is still lots to learn from their journey. I can list at least 5 things to take from Tony's success.

Re: My solopreneur story

#470

Post by skwee357 »

system2 wrote: post #467
skwee357 wrote: post #465

I’m very happy for Tony, it’s a great achievement indeed. Having said that, as an aspiring solopreneur myself, this article misses a very big part. Engineers like to talk about how they build products, but we rarely talk about how to market them. I quit my job 5 months ago, launched my first SaaS 3 months ago, and got zero users. I then started to tweet, write in LinkedIn, and focus on my newsletter. But I barely get…

What are you planning to do in the following months without an income if the project doesn't pick up?

I’m working on a different project, this time with #buildinpublic on twitter/mastodon.

I’m also working on getting some consulting/freelance. And sadly, and with big regret, I started to look for a job.

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