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Patrick, I have incredible respect for what you've accomplished, so I hope you won't be offended by this, but do you ever think that you might have picked the w

Patrick, I have incredible respect for what you've accomplished, so I hope you won't be offended by this, but do you ever think that you might have picked the wrong niche? I mean, you're killing it in terms of growth, clearly, but the market for bingo card creation software is only so big, and it doesn't strike me as a particularly hungry market. I guess I'm wondering if you had picked something a little bit bigger, could you have done essentially the same thing and reached the point where you can do it full-time even sooner? At the end of the day, it sounds like you're pretty much there, and the experience you've gained is worth much much more than the dollars you've gotten out of it, but still...I just wonder if a different niche might have been more...efficient or something. Again, I hope you don't take that the wrong way. You've accomplished something pretty amazing, and I'm looking forward to hearing about what you do next.

dangrover 17y ago
What's neat about it is that he can spend time on A/B testing and stuff like that. Also, it's the sort of app where you have a problem, you google it, and you buy it. These are great products to sell. With apps like mine, users need to warm up to the app for much longer. With me, I spend all my time working on new products or supporting the existing ones, so I always feel sleazy neglecting that in order to tweak marketing.
tptacek 17y ago
This is what I love about Patrick's business. He has it essentially stripped down to the bare essence of marketing and selling software. Everything he does is teachable. We sell a 5-figure enterprise product, and I pay attention to everything he does. I'm pretty sure he said himself that the actual product was a weekend project for him.
- patio11 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure he said himself that the actual product was a weekend project for him 55 hours for version 1.0, but keep in mind, that was the barely functional, ugly, terrible user experience I delivered 3 years ago. Somebody bought it anyway. (He eventually got a refund, but 1.02 sucked a little less, etc etc.) There may well be a programmer somewhere who could deliver the current site in a weekend, but he sure as heck isn't me. (5k lines of Ruby code, 3k lines of Java code, several hundred pages of content, etc etc.)
patio11 17y ago
People always worry about offending me with that comment. It has never bothered me, and there is some truth to it. With the skills I have today, I like to think I could accomplish something ambitious. However, the skill acquisition has been path dependent. Four years ago I did not even know what svn was, had never written a line of sql, had no particular marketing expertise, etc etc. I was totally unprepared to be a businessman and started only when I saw an opportunity even I could bring in. All the skills I have now are because I have been compounding marginal improvements since then. I do not regret any of it. I do not even regret two years of salarymanning when I could have recontracted at the tech incubator. (Plusses, leaving at four thirty, no commute. Plusses for salarymanhood, much more professional growth, and everything I ship makes real people happier and real lives better. That is enough to tolerate low pay, no work life balance, and two hour commute, But not for forever.) Not sure about next program, but I will have plenty of time to think. I secured a twenty thousand angel investment and ongoing cash injections from this crazy white guy who lives in a rice field, after all. Terms were pretty good. Apologies for language, posting from cell．
hopeless 17y ago
For Patrick to kick ass in this small niche is great... and that has often got me thinking: If he can do that with that niche, there's some hope for me yet! But when you think about it, it isn't that niche a product. Who's the market? Teachers who run bingo quizes. Actually, that seems like a huge market although most of us here think of it as a marginal product. So perhaps it's not such a niche after all... just obscure to us.

dangrover 17y ago

What's neat about it is that he can spend time on A/B testing and stuff like that. Also, it's the sort of app where you have a problem, you google it, and you buy it. These are great products to sell. With apps like mine, users need to warm up to the app for much longer. With me, I spend all my time working on new products or supporting the existing ones, so I always feel sleazy neglecting that in order to tweak marketing.

tptacek 17y ago

This is what I love about Patrick's business. He has it essentially stripped down to the bare essence of marketing and selling software. Everything he does is teachable. We sell a 5-figure enterprise product, and I pay attention to everything he does. I'm pretty sure he said himself that the actual product was a weekend project for him.

patio11 17y ago
I'm pretty sure he said himself that the actual product was a weekend project for him 55 hours for version 1.0, but keep in mind, that was the barely functional, ugly, terrible user experience I delivered 3 years ago. Somebody bought it anyway. (He eventually got a refund, but 1.02 sucked a little less, etc etc.) There may well be a programmer somewhere who could deliver the current site in a weekend, but he sure as heck isn't me. (5k lines of Ruby code, 3k lines of Java code, several hundred pages of content, etc etc.)

patio11 17y ago

People always worry about offending me with that comment. It has never bothered me, and there is some truth to it. With the skills I have today, I like to think I could accomplish something ambitious. However, the skill acquisition has been path dependent. Four years ago I did not even know what svn was, had never written a line of sql, had no particular marketing expertise, etc etc. I was totally unprepared to be a businessman and started only when I saw an opportunity even I could bring in. All the skills I have now are because I have been compounding marginal improvements since then. I do not regret any of it. I do not even regret two years of salarymanning when I could have recontracted at the tech incubator. (Plusses, leaving at four thirty, no commute. Plusses for salarymanhood, much more professional growth, and everything I ship makes real people happier and real lives better. That is enough to tolerate low pay, no work life balance, and two hour commute, But not for forever.) Not sure about next program, but I will have plenty of time to think. I secured a twenty thousand angel investment and ongoing cash injections from this crazy white guy who lives in a rice field, after all. Terms were pretty good. Apologies for language, posting from cell．

hopeless 17y ago

For Patrick to kick ass in this small niche is great... and that has often got me thinking: If he can do that with that niche, there's some hope for me yet! But when you think about it, it isn't that niche a product. Who's the market? Teachers who run bingo quizes. Actually, that seems like a huge market although most of us here think of it as a marginal product. So perhaps it's not such a niche after all... just obscure to us.