Hello HN!
[I'm a solo developer so this question is a bit personal to me]
Would knowing if the creator of a product is like me or fully fledged organisation affect your likelihood of using any software they create?
Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
1–10 of 164 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#2The question in the title would get a different answer than the question in your post.
Do I trust solo entrepreneurs? Yes.
Would I use their software within my organization? No. Or at least, not for anything critical. Not because I do not trust the person, but because life is crazy and that product's bus factor is too high.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#3The question in the title would get a different answer than the question in your post. Do I trust solo entrepreneurs? Yes. Would I use their software within my organization? No. Or at least, not for anything critical. Not because I do not trust the person, but because life is crazy and that product's bus factor is too high.
what if you can self-host the product?
i found this to be a great way to sell my software
i’d offer prospects a partner agency, which will do the hosting, while i’m building the product
the customers get guarantees, while me and the agency share the profits
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#4"It depends", there's both optics and trust.
A single person is always a liability due to the "hit-by-a-bus" factor.
The optics solution: Don't look like a single person, hide behind an LLC (in some countries you can look up the financials though so having money in it from consulting,etc is prob a good idea so it doesn't look vulnerable)
A trust solution: You could mitigate it by having an open-sourcing pledge and/or other organizations that you list as support providers.
This could be done in cooperation with other solo-developers that isn't competitors, list each others companies as support providers and give cursory introductions to them so they could take over or help customers in case of emergencies. This could also give a side-benefit of having a clear option to scale if one of you grow successful so onboarding would be quick. (Also in terms of marketing it'd give the perception of a bigger product if there are support providers there already)
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#5It's a matter of risk. No sane company would go for a single point of failure (if they knew about it).
So with that said, just don't actively advertise that you're solo, and fake it until you make it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#6Personally, I do but I believe a solo entrepreneur will have to work harder. Check out https://sindresorhus.com for instance. He makes simple and beautiful apps.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#7don’t be afraid i should say
focus on the product first and foremost
the key of attracting big companies really lies in your sales talent
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#8Even if 90% would say no, there is at least 10% that would say yes and that would result in a lot of people.
The reality is probably that most people don't think about if the product they're using is made by a solo dev or not. They only care if it solves their problem in an easy and nice way.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#9It is about perception. There are unicorns that started as solo.
But, eventually they grew out of it.
Weird though, there are so many shops out there run by solo people. They cook our food, they make critical stuff for us, but we don't scruitanize it. We let them into our homes :)
So, this is just optics. Land and expand, for example, is a way to force their arm. If you are already there then they can cry about it or buy the enterprise plan :)
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#10"It depends", there's both optics and trust. A single person is always a liability due to the "hit-by-a-bus" factor. The optics solution: Don't look like a single person, hide behind an LLC (in some countries you can look up the financials though so having money in it from consulting,etc is prob a good idea so it doesn't look vulnerable) A trust solution: You could mitigate it by having an open-sourcing pledge and/or…
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