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Ask HN: Small Biz owners (ROI $50K+), how much did Tech/Stack matter in success?

21 points by superasn 9y ago

marsrover 9y ago
Success is pretty foreign to me but I can definitely conclude that tech stack hasn't affected my rate of failure.
malux85 9y ago
Critical - Blockchain and Deep Learning landscape are changing rapidly, and you've got to pick the winners ... I suspect I'm an outlier here though, vast majority of the time the customer and the problem being solved doesn't care about the tech
matchmike1313 9y ago
It's critical. One piece of advice though, don't worry about what the hottest tech stack at the time is, worry about how to solve the problems your customers are facing in an efficient and cost effective way. We thought about the type of data our customers would generate and how they would need to connect to our service to determine a tech stack that made sense. It was also important for us to pick a stack that as we grew we could find cost effective developers to work for us.
cm2012 9y ago
SaaS apps are key for my consulting business.
troydavis 9y ago
For my last 2 companies (both SaaS), the stack made a difference in 2 ways: 1. Because we knew it well, it stayed out of the way. We usually knew how to accomplish what we needed to. 2. We enjoyed using it. Work didn’t feel as much like, er, work, and we did it more. Our stack may or may not have been the best, but even if it was, objective quality wasn’t what made the difference. To use an analogy, imagine a painter who knows their current paints and brushes very well. We used good supplies that we knew and liked, even when they weren’t the one that the art store was marketing. Our goal was to finish a painting (MVP), not re-learn how to obtain the texture we want with “the best” brushes. For a typical small business or tiny new startup, I’d use whichever modern stack let the team work most efficiently (including hiring/staffing, if that’s in the plan). The difference between “any great modern stack” and “the best stack” is smaller than the gain from the 2 benefits above. (Tiny nit: rather than “ROI,” I think the term you want is enterprise value, revenue, or profit)
- superasn 9y ago
  Thanks for the insight. I used ROI because of the char limit in the title, would have definitely used "profit" otherwise.
speedyapoc 9y ago
I run an app with 1m+ DAU. For me, the server tech stack did not matter. What did matter was the ability to iterate quickly and identify bottlenecks. Although it was still critical, the server was not a massive component of the overall business, which may have given me better mileage than other users with a sub-par tech stack. I originally started the server component using procedural PHP on $5/month shared hosting, which ground to a halt after receiving local news exposure. As users grew, I slowly built up the server stack to be more robust, tested, etc. For the most part, my users were okay with these growing pains (certain parts of the service had downtime as it expanded and grew) and they did not impact the overall success of the app. When starting a new product, my biggest focus would be to put together the stack in a way which allows for the ability to expand, pivot, and change to account for unforeseen events. I feel that in a lot of cases, too much time is wasted debating tech stack factors which ultimately do not matter.
- superasn 9y ago
  Yes you are 100% correct. For my last site I used a deadly combination of PHP and Perl (yes really CGI.pm) with Bootstrap3 and that site is still making good income. For my next project I had this insane idea to hunt for the best Tech/framework and I haven't gotten much done in the last 2 years. Though I think I have mastered everything from Docker to node to Lambda in the meantime. Going back to laravel/vue again. Just wanted to confirm my suspicions. I think I'm sticking to what works even though how outdated or ugly it is.
PerfectElement 9y ago
For my SaaS, the tech stack mattered a lot. I resisted the temptation to pick the hottest stack, and instead went with the boring stack I've been working with for 10 years. This allowed me to spend more time focusing on the business and less time fighting with the language/framework.
SirLJ 9y ago
Not really small business, but similar: side project building stock trading robots with simple Python scripts + my stock exchange broker free API... Frankly this is making me more money than my salary on average and did really change my life and the ROI is astronomical compared to the monthly costs of few VPS + some money for data... Everything is working on autopilot and I am free to do whatever I like with my time...
- mod 9y ago
  How did you get started learning about how trading strategies?
  - SirLJ 9y ago
    I went and searched the internet and did test all free trading strategies I could find... Of course they all failed (no one in the right mind will publish a good trading strategy period), but understand why and how I did came up with my own ideas... By gaining experience you will start to come up with your own ideas to test... and this is how I found my edge in the market...
    - fspear 9y ago
      Are you able to share any resources that you'd think would be helpful to get someone started building stock trading robots and strategies? Thanks in advance.
      - SirLJ 9y ago
        Just focus on the major stock exchanges NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ, do not waste time with crypto, options and other distractions... good luck!
muzani 9y ago
I did an ecommerce recipe app. It was critical to us. We couldn't get funding, so it was important that we could build things very fast with limited resources. I also made the mistake of being a technical CEO, so dev time was very limited as I had to deal with multiple distractions from logistics to finance. For acquisition, the tech stack was also one of the factors in the final valuation. Nobody wants to acquire something they can't maintain (although ironically this was what happened exactly).
- palidanx 9y ago
  What did your ecommerce recipe app do in particular?
  - muzani 9y ago
    It was a low carb recipe app. People would get hooked on recipes but realize that a lot of the ingredients (flaxseed, stevia, konjac, etc) were not sold in stores. So we sold them those ingredients.

21 points by superasn 9y ago

Success is pretty foreign to me but I can definitely conclude that tech stack hasn't affected my rate of failure.

Critical - Blockchain and Deep Learning landscape are changing rapidly, and you've got to pick the winners ... I suspect I'm an outlier here though, vast majority of the time the customer and the problem being solved doesn't care about the tech

matchmike1313 9y ago

It's critical. One piece of advice though, don't worry about what the hottest tech stack at the time is, worry about how to solve the problems your customers are facing in an efficient and cost effective way. We thought about the type of data our customers would generate and how they would need to connect to our service to determine a tech stack that made sense. It was also important for us to pick a stack that as we grew we could find cost effective developers to work for us.

cm2012 9y ago

SaaS apps are key for my consulting business.

troydavis 9y ago

For my last 2 companies (both SaaS), the stack made a difference in 2 ways: 1. Because we knew it well, it stayed out of the way. We usually knew how to accomplish what we needed to. 2. We enjoyed using it. Work didn’t feel as much like, er, work, and we did it more. Our stack may or may not have been the best, but even if it was, objective quality wasn’t what made the difference. To use an analogy, imagine a painter who knows their current paints and brushes very well. We used good supplies that we knew and liked, even when they weren’t the one that the art store was marketing. Our goal was to finish a painting (MVP), not re-learn how to obtain the texture we want with “the best” brushes. For a typical small business or tiny new startup, I’d use whichever modern stack let the team work most efficiently (including hiring/staffing, if that’s in the plan). The difference between “any great modern stack” and “the best stack” is smaller than the gain from the 2 benefits above. (Tiny nit: rather than “ROI,” I think the term you want is enterprise value, revenue, or profit)

superasn 9y ago
Thanks for the insight. I used ROI because of the char limit in the title, would have definitely used "profit" otherwise.

speedyapoc 9y ago

I run an app with 1m+ DAU. For me, the server tech stack did not matter. What did matter was the ability to iterate quickly and identify bottlenecks. Although it was still critical, the server was not a massive component of the overall business, which may have given me better mileage than other users with a sub-par tech stack. I originally started the server component using procedural PHP on $5/month shared hosting, which ground to a halt after receiving local news exposure. As users grew, I slowly built up the server stack to be more robust, tested, etc. For the most part, my users were okay with these growing pains (certain parts of the service had downtime as it expanded and grew) and they did not impact the overall success of the app. When starting a new product, my biggest focus would be to put together the stack in a way which allows for the ability to expand, pivot, and change to account for unforeseen events. I feel that in a lot of cases, too much time is wasted debating tech stack factors which ultimately do not matter.

superasn 9y ago
Yes you are 100% correct. For my last site I used a deadly combination of PHP and Perl (yes really CGI.pm) with Bootstrap3 and that site is still making good income. For my next project I had this insane idea to hunt for the best Tech/framework and I haven't gotten much done in the last 2 years. Though I think I have mastered everything from Docker to node to Lambda in the meantime. Going back to laravel/vue again. Just wanted to confirm my suspicions. I think I'm sticking to what works even though how outdated or ugly it is.

PerfectElement 9y ago

For my SaaS, the tech stack mattered a lot. I resisted the temptation to pick the hottest stack, and instead went with the boring stack I've been working with for 10 years. This allowed me to spend more time focusing on the business and less time fighting with the language/framework.

SirLJ 9y ago

Not really small business, but similar: side project building stock trading robots with simple Python scripts + my stock exchange broker free API... Frankly this is making me more money than my salary on average and did really change my life and the ROI is astronomical compared to the monthly costs of few VPS + some money for data... Everything is working on autopilot and I am free to do whatever I like with my time...

mod 9y ago
How did you get started learning about how trading strategies?
- SirLJ 9y ago
  I went and searched the internet and did test all free trading strategies I could find... Of course they all failed (no one in the right mind will publish a good trading strategy period), but understand why and how I did came up with my own ideas... By gaining experience you will start to come up with your own ideas to test... and this is how I found my edge in the market...
  - fspear 9y ago
    Are you able to share any resources that you'd think would be helpful to get someone started building stock trading robots and strategies? Thanks in advance.
    - SirLJ 9y ago
      Just focus on the major stock exchanges NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ, do not waste time with crypto, options and other distractions... good luck!

muzani 9y ago

I did an ecommerce recipe app. It was critical to us. We couldn't get funding, so it was important that we could build things very fast with limited resources. I also made the mistake of being a technical CEO, so dev time was very limited as I had to deal with multiple distractions from logistics to finance. For acquisition, the tech stack was also one of the factors in the final valuation. Nobody wants to acquire something they can't maintain (although ironically this was what happened exactly).

palidanx 9y ago
What did your ecommerce recipe app do in particular?
- muzani 9y ago
  It was a low carb recipe app. People would get hooked on recipes but realize that a lot of the ingredients (flaxseed, stevia, konjac, etc) were not sold in stores. So we sold them those ingredients.