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I'm compiling a list of founders who have achieved OPP. There are the obvious ones like Markus Frind and Gabe Rivera, but I'm sure there are many HN readers who

I'm compiling a list of founders who have achieved OPP. There are the obvious ones like Markus Frind and Gabe Rivera, but I'm sure there are many HN readers who have also successfully bootstrapped as single founders. Anyone know of a verified one person profitable startup? Have any YC founders accomplished it?

arieljraz 17y ago
Here's a great article about the "single founder myth" that also references pg: http://www.singlefounder.com/2006/10/23/thesinglefoundermyth/ http://www.singlefounder.com/2006/10/23/thesinglefoundermyth... I'd say that this has a lot to do with the availability of cloud computing, app stores, and powerful third-party APIs. There are probably thousands of profitable single founders out there.
- bootload 17y ago
  "... Here's a great article about the "single founder myth" that also references pg ..." Good ref. If you see articles like this, add them to the stack ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144353 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144353
_delirium 17y ago
To my knowledge, prgmr.com (VPS provider) was and is a one-person company that's profitable, though it has a few employees now. I don't know if he's an HN reader, though he hangs out in some of these kinds of circles. I believe it had a long (~2-3 year) bootstrapping process where he basically supported it out of income from his day job, which he described as "working for venture capital".
- detst 17y ago
  He is indeed a member: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lsc http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lsc
- lsc 17y ago
  well, we're not ridiculously profitable, and I didn't do it by myself, but, uh, I do have all the equity. I believe that if I didn't have all the equity, it would have died from one of my many early mistakes. There is no way I'd have expected anyone else to pour money into a hole for three years. Also, even though I kept the equity, I had a lot of help. There is no way I'd have been able to do this by myself. Of course, I'm the first to say that sometimes you should give up, but I'm pretty happy with how prgmr.com turned out. It probably hasn't yet paid out what I put in, but it's getting there, (and according to offers, it's worth about what I've put in now)
dangrossman 17y ago
Depends what you consider a startup, I guess. I support around 40,000 users and half a million a year in revenue from my web apps and ecommerce sites. You could say I've been OPP since I was 15, when I was making enough from websites I'd built to pay hosting costs, cable modem service, and buy my own computers. I'm 25 now, have never been cash flow negative in my life, no debt. I have no cofounder or employees, I own 100% of my LLC. http://www.dangrossman.info/folio/ http://www.dangrossman.info/folio/ My goal is simply to build useful services for as many people as I can reach. I don't think I'm alone. Anyone who has the right mix of technical, design and business skills can run the whole shop for themselves if they prefer that to consulting.
- FreeRadical 17y ago
  Just out of interest, which of the sites in your portfolio generates the most revenue? Or is it fairly evenly distributed across all the sites?
idlewords 17y ago
I didn't realize it merited an acronym. Like I posted in another reply, Pinboard has been 'mămăligă profitable' for a while.
iuguy 17y ago
One person startup here, now 6 people (and taking on a partner). The biggest problem I've had is that there are too many hats for one person to wear. Yes you can do it, it's damned painful and sometimes there isn't anyone who can help you avoid bad decisions as employees don't always want to challenge you. FWIW I was close to taking on a partner before and it would've gone very bad, which as a learning experience has prepared me for the partner I'm looking at taking on now.

arieljraz 17y ago

Here's a great article about the "single founder myth" that also references pg: http://www.singlefounder.com/2006/10/23/thesinglefoundermyth/ http://www.singlefounder.com/2006/10/23/thesinglefoundermyth... I'd say that this has a lot to do with the availability of cloud computing, app stores, and powerful third-party APIs. There are probably thousands of profitable single founders out there.

bootload 17y ago
"... Here's a great article about the "single founder myth" that also references pg ..." Good ref. If you see articles like this, add them to the stack ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144353 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1144353

_delirium 17y ago

To my knowledge, prgmr.com (VPS provider) was and is a one-person company that's profitable, though it has a few employees now. I don't know if he's an HN reader, though he hangs out in some of these kinds of circles. I believe it had a long (~2-3 year) bootstrapping process where he basically supported it out of income from his day job, which he described as "working for venture capital".

detst 17y ago
He is indeed a member: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lsc http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lsc
lsc 17y ago
well, we're not ridiculously profitable, and I didn't do it by myself, but, uh, I do have all the equity. I believe that if I didn't have all the equity, it would have died from one of my many early mistakes. There is no way I'd have expected anyone else to pour money into a hole for three years. Also, even though I kept the equity, I had a lot of help. There is no way I'd have been able to do this by myself. Of course, I'm the first to say that sometimes you should give up, but I'm pretty happy with how prgmr.com turned out. It probably hasn't yet paid out what I put in, but it's getting there, (and according to offers, it's worth about what I've put in now)

dangrossman 17y ago

Depends what you consider a startup, I guess. I support around 40,000 users and half a million a year in revenue from my web apps and ecommerce sites. You could say I've been OPP since I was 15, when I was making enough from websites I'd built to pay hosting costs, cable modem service, and buy my own computers. I'm 25 now, have never been cash flow negative in my life, no debt. I have no cofounder or employees, I own 100% of my LLC. http://www.dangrossman.info/folio/ http://www.dangrossman.info/folio/ My goal is simply to build useful services for as many people as I can reach. I don't think I'm alone. Anyone who has the right mix of technical, design and business skills can run the whole shop for themselves if they prefer that to consulting.

FreeRadical 17y ago
Just out of interest, which of the sites in your portfolio generates the most revenue? Or is it fairly evenly distributed across all the sites?

idlewords 17y ago

I didn't realize it merited an acronym. Like I posted in another reply, Pinboard has been 'mămăligă profitable' for a while.

iuguy 17y ago

One person startup here, now 6 people (and taking on a partner). The biggest problem I've had is that there are too many hats for one person to wear. Yes you can do it, it's damned painful and sometimes there isn't anyone who can help you avoid bad decisions as employees don't always want to challenge you. FWIW I was close to taking on a partner before and it would've gone very bad, which as a learning experience has prepared me for the partner I'm looking at taking on now.