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Some numbers on my single-person company: Market: Add-on tools/plugins/components for enterprise software platforms. Customers: ~30 Growth rate: Adding about 1

Some numbers on my single-person company: Market: Add-on tools/plugins/components for enterprise software platforms. Customers: ~30 Growth rate: Adding about 1 new customer per month Revenue: $550K ($300K product / $250K consulting) Gross profit margin: 80% Costs are basically hosting, occasional marketing campaigns, some offshore development, and various SaaS subscriptions to operate the business. The product often requires consulting services to customize, which can be lucrative. I bootstrapped the product development via consulting and am transitioning to a full-time focus on product dev/support... recruiting SI partners to do customizations. Note: This is purely a lifestyle business. My true goals are digital nomad in nature.... traveling, writing code from a hammock in the Philippines, spending Winters in Mexico, work 6-9 months per year, etc... The income is nice, but freedom and mobility are far more valuable. My wife increasingly spends more time on front/back-office tasks, so technically this is a 1.5 person company :-)

tjholowaychuk 10y ago
That's my goal as well, as long as I can make a comfortable living, hack on a bunch of stuff from nice places all over the world I'll be more than happy!
udkl 10y ago
I'm curious, how did you break into ? Wherever I look, the enterprise add-on space seems to be already captured.
- matchagaucho 10y ago
  Enterprise cloud platforms are captured. Niche apps, like "Forecasting for Media Revenue models" or "Foreign Exchange Risk Management for Discrete Manufacturers" are in strong demand. Really any forecasting, CPQ, quote-to-order, or month end close app that saves users a few hours and clicks per month will demonstrate immediate value and sell itself. There's always a risk that the platform vendor will fill the niche, so I keep iterating and addressing more edge cases to become the "premium" product with high touch support. Also.... basically just be happy with 42 customers and let the whales have the other 98% of the market :-)
  - udkl 10y ago
    Awesome, thank you for replying. I want to know more. Would you mind if we chat on a non-public channel (email/twitter DM/skype chat) where I can pick your brain ? If you want, in return I could help you out with coding or marketing or even some mundane task that takes time. I'm a software developer. You can reach out to me on my alias email that is in my profile or let me know the method of communication you prefer.
aws_ls 10y ago
> My wife increasingly spends more time on front/back-office tasks, so technically this is a 1.5 person company :-) It was nice to hear about this, as my wife also helps me out in running my business. Its ultra important to have the buy-in of your significant other for these kind of operations. In my case I have other developers as well. That's why can't claim to be a single person company. Although, there have been phases in its journey, where it has been just a 1.5 person company. I am not as mobile (got some dependents) but cheers to the digital-nomad/lifestyle-biz kind of company. Work hard, but at your own pace. See movies in week day afternoons. Or spend entire days on HN/Reddit/twitter. Then feel guilty about it, and spend some days coding, and making some progress, has been my modus operandi. Edit: Just to add one random but key point in single-person companies, is that you end up doing automation, automation and then some more automation. Cron jobs, alerts, actions, automated test scripts, backup scripts, data refresh scripts and so on. So then even if you grow, its a positive to have in your culture.
- matchagaucho 10y ago
  Cannot underestimate SO support. My wife fortunately shares my entrepreneurial spirit. Automation is certainly crucial for one-person shops. Leave nothing to chance or human error. TDD for both front and back-end code, lint checks, version control, server-less DevOps.... embrace as much as possible.
csallen 10y ago
I'd love to interview you, anonymously if you prefer, about your company! You can reach me at csallen at alum.mit.edu.

tjholowaychuk 10y ago

That's my goal as well, as long as I can make a comfortable living, hack on a bunch of stuff from nice places all over the world I'll be more than happy!

udkl 10y ago

I'm curious, how did you break into ? Wherever I look, the enterprise add-on space seems to be already captured.

matchagaucho 10y ago
Enterprise cloud platforms are captured. Niche apps, like "Forecasting for Media Revenue models" or "Foreign Exchange Risk Management for Discrete Manufacturers" are in strong demand. Really any forecasting, CPQ, quote-to-order, or month end close app that saves users a few hours and clicks per month will demonstrate immediate value and sell itself. There's always a risk that the platform vendor will fill the niche, so I keep iterating and addressing more edge cases to become the "premium" product with high touch support. Also.... basically just be happy with 42 customers and let the whales have the other 98% of the market :-)
- udkl 10y ago
  Awesome, thank you for replying. I want to know more. Would you mind if we chat on a non-public channel (email/twitter DM/skype chat) where I can pick your brain ? If you want, in return I could help you out with coding or marketing or even some mundane task that takes time. I'm a software developer. You can reach out to me on my alias email that is in my profile or let me know the method of communication you prefer.

aws_ls 10y ago

> My wife increasingly spends more time on front/back-office tasks, so technically this is a 1.5 person company :-) It was nice to hear about this, as my wife also helps me out in running my business. Its ultra important to have the buy-in of your significant other for these kind of operations. In my case I have other developers as well. That's why can't claim to be a single person company. Although, there have been phases in its journey, where it has been just a 1.5 person company. I am not as mobile (got some dependents) but cheers to the digital-nomad/lifestyle-biz kind of company. Work hard, but at your own pace. See movies in week day afternoons. Or spend entire days on HN/Reddit/twitter. Then feel guilty about it, and spend some days coding, and making some progress, has been my modus operandi. Edit: Just to add one random but key point in single-person companies, is that you end up doing automation, automation and then some more automation. Cron jobs, alerts, actions, automated test scripts, backup scripts, data refresh scripts and so on. So then even if you grow, its a positive to have in your culture.

matchagaucho 10y ago
Cannot underestimate SO support. My wife fortunately shares my entrepreneurial spirit. Automation is certainly crucial for one-person shops. Leave nothing to chance or human error. TDD for both front and back-end code, lint checks, version control, server-less DevOps.... embrace as much as possible.

csallen 10y ago

I'd love to interview you, anonymously if you prefer, about your company! You can reach me at csallen at alum.mit.edu.