Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense • Hacker News Board

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#71

Post by endofreach » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 1:55 PM UTC

_1kfq wrote: post #58

mg wrote: post #44

Compare that to Plausible: Over $2M in revenue last year. Plausible started in 2019. Not sure when [name redacted] started. Clicking on "blame" for the readme file in the repo, I see a commit from 5 years ago. I can very much empathize that adding a "buy" button is a hump to get over when you just wanna build something cool and share it with like-minded people. I have the same issue with every project I build. I gues…

[name redacted] started a few months before Plausible. Giving it away for free didn't help, but "making money" was never really a goal as such. I think "being free" is important if you want to be a viable alternative for Google Analytics. €9/month is nothing for a business, but who is paying that for a blog or hobby site (or even some small businesses)? I already decided a few years ago that "covers hosting" is good…

As much as i admire that: The language you wrote that in, only exists, because google found a way to grow by making money.

To be fair, not sure if this is a pro or contra: [name redacted] wouldn't need to exist, if google didn't find the way they did, to make money.

Anyway, cool product. Love OSS but don't mind paying for simple solutions as a business. It's not only about saving time but also about keeping focus.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#72

Post by ZephyrBlu » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 1:57 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #59

mrweasel wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've got to wonder if AI tools are filtering out self-taught devs more aggressively than they used to. I hope not. I have a CS degree, but some of the best and most prolific developers I've had the pleasure to work with have all be self-taught. One of the most talented .Net developers I've ever worked with had a masters degree in philosophy and was a trained furniture maker, when those things failed to pay the bill…

This is not true. There is a fairly strong correlation between formal education and ability as a developer, and I say this as someone with close to 2 decades of experience in the problem space. A CS/STEM degree, as degree quality (where the degree was obtained), makes an enormous difference in the average case. People who say the opposite are thinking of developers, often themselves, who were able to become skilled w…

They said "some of the best and most prolific developers". The average case is meaningless. Self-taught developers who thrive are almost certainly above average.

If you discriminate based on having a CS degree, you are lopping off a big portion of the right tail which is where all the people you actually want to hire are.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#73

Post by ZephyrBlu » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:04 PM UTC

smabie wrote: post #35

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A billion of these stories never prepared me for the utter shitshow that laid itself bare to me when I first became a hiring manager. I’m self-taught, am strongly philosophically opposed to educational or past employer ‘prestige’ like working for FAANG or whatever. Still, I learned pretty quickly to not trust a bunch of naive ‘intuitive’ signals.

The hard truth is that Ivy / FAANG talent is usually higher quality. People just don't want to believe it.

It carries signal for being above average relative to the rest of the population, which is a low bar to begin with.

It doesn't carry much signal for being great.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#74

Post by Veuxdo » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:04 PM UTC

RunSet wrote: post #70

adrianmsmith wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over $2M in revenue last year. Plausible also has a co-founder who does marketing, and is evidently very good at it. That's perhaps a more important factor in success than simply offering a paid plan. It looks like success was far from guaranteed before he was hired ($400 MRR and not growing). https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-saas#february-looking-...

Marketing is like juicing in athletics. It undermines the nominal reason for the enterprise's existence (competition) but once a single competitor begins practicing it, everyone else also has to- not to any benefit, but just to maintain their status quo.

> Marketing is like juicing in athletics.

This is far, far too cynical. Marketing is not cheating. To keep the sports metaphor, marketing is training. It's unglamorous, time-consuming, and (for most) not fun. But, if you want to succeed as a professional, you have to do it.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#75

Post by smabie » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:32 PM UTC

thelastparadise wrote: post #39

smabie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard truth is that Ivy / FAANG talent is usually higher quality. People just don't want to believe it.

Sounds like you are inflating your own ego...

I never graduated college and have never worked at a FAANG.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#76

Post by smabie » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #73

smabie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard truth is that Ivy / FAANG talent is usually higher quality. People just don't want to believe it.

It carries signal for being above average relative to the rest of the population, which is a low bar to begin with. It doesn't carry much signal for being great.

This is true, but any signal for future greatness is really weak I think.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#77

Post by trevyn » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

goat-throwaway wrote: post #42

As a team lead I have a capped budget that I can spend on tools/saas etc. Unfortunately I cant do a donation using this. Indie devs need to understand this, put up a pro plan and a checkout link that sends an invoice so that finance folks are ok. I hope he pulls through this, we need more indie software.

To clarify, a “paid plan” with zero benefits over free use is OK?

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#78

Post by pakitan » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 2:50 PM UTC

RunSet wrote: post #70

adrianmsmith wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over $2M in revenue last year. Plausible also has a co-founder who does marketing, and is evidently very good at it. That's perhaps a more important factor in success than simply offering a paid plan. It looks like success was far from guaranteed before he was hired ($400 MRR and not growing). https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-saas#february-looking-...

Marketing is like juicing in athletics. It undermines the nominal reason for the enterprise's existence (competition) but once a single competitor begins practicing it, everyone else also has to- not to any benefit, but just to maintain their status quo.

One of the dumbest takes I've seen in a while. Good customer service is like juicing in athletics. You can get away just fine without it but once those pesky competitors stop yelling at their customers, you're kinda forced to do the same as well. Not to any benefit but just to maintain the status quo.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#79

Post by input_sh » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 3:04 PM UTC

gigglesupstairs wrote: post #52

esun wrote: post #10

> I really hate to Jimmy Wales people about this Have a case of beer on me, mate.

Hey, I see an intense dislike for Jimmy Wales in this thread. Is there anything well written I can read about it to inform myself?

It's not for Jimmy Wales specifically, HN just tends to have a kneejerk reaction towards any NGOs asking for money. Mozilla, Wikimedia, Gnome, FSF, Creative Commons, it really doesn't matter. Any thread even tangentially related to such orgs is always met with dozens of comments where people go out of their way to either justify not donating, or saying how they used to donate but stopped because of X, Y and Z.

The only exception to the rule is the Internet Archive.

Re: Creator is hoping to raise at least €1k for basic living expense

#80

Post by Gentil » Sat, Jan 13, 2024, 3:05 PM UTC

_1kfq wrote: post #58

mg wrote: post #44

Compare that to Plausible: Over $2M in revenue last year. Plausible started in 2019. Not sure when [name redacted] started. Clicking on "blame" for the readme file in the repo, I see a commit from 5 years ago. I can very much empathize that adding a "buy" button is a hump to get over when you just wanna build something cool and share it with like-minded people. I have the same issue with every project I build. I gues…

[name redacted] started a few months before Plausible. Giving it away for free didn't help, but "making money" was never really a goal as such. I think "being free" is important if you want to be a viable alternative for Google Analytics. €9/month is nothing for a business, but who is paying that for a blog or hobby site (or even some small businesses)? I already decided a few years ago that "covers hosting" is good…

> but who is paying that for a blog or hobby site (or even some small businesses)?

I was trying to. I highly recommend you to bring back the paid plans. Just leave it as it was. Opt-in for personal and for small commercial websites, paid plan. Like someone else mentioned, for a business, invoices helps a lot to bill as expense if they want to pay you.