4 ms·

Fantastic article. I wish I had access to that sort of knowledge before I started my own SaaS [1]. I'd like to underline two points, in case anyone reading thi

by jwr 9y ago

Fantastic article. I wish I had access to that sort of knowledge before I started my own SaaS [1]. I'd like to underline two points, in case anyone reading this is thinking about starting their own bootstrapped SaaS (I guess many HN readers are): * The long slow SaaS ramp of death is true. SaaS businesses, especially bootstrapped (and cash-starved) ones do not grow quickly. It takes years, as in more than one, and possibly several years. * Apart from product-market fit, the biggest problem is marketing. Contrary to what one might expect, it is extremely difficult to get one's product in front of customers. So, set your expectations accordingly. [1] https://partsbox.io/ https://partsbox.io/

ultrasounder 9y ago
Technical details, for those so inclined: the software is written in ClojureScript (compiled to highly optimized JavaScript) on the client side, using React.js for user interface updates, and Clojure on the server side, running in a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). It uses the RethinkDB distributed database for data storage. Interesting choice of Tech stack. Care to explain why you went with Clojure backend and ClojureScript for react on the Front end instead of much more traditional choices?
- jwr 9y ago
  Those are very pragmatic choices. I don't think I could a) tackle the complexity and b) achieve the performance I wanted without Clojure and ClojureScript. RethinkDB is used for two reasons: 1. It's the only database that provides changefeeds that I need to implement real-time updates for users. Complete changefeeds, as in: get an initial state and then updates. 2. I wanted to easily solve replication, fault-tolerance and scalability, RethinkDB gets all of them right, at least for the levels of scalability that I require.
  - ultrasounder 9y ago
    Great answers!. Thanks to You I learnt a new tech-stack today and cant wait to try it out. I also am an EE Btw, and I wish my Purchasing person had tools like these available to them to do better production planning back in the days which was like 5 years ago !
  - dankohn1 9y ago
    As someone involved in re-licensing RethinkDB and finding a new home for it at the Linux Foundation, I'm thrilled to hear your use case. https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/02/06/cncf-purchases-rethinkdb-source-code-contributes-linux-foundation-apache-license/ https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/02/06/cncf-purchases-rethinkdb...
    - jwr 9y ago
      Thank you for your work! I think RethinkDB is underappreciated and undervalued, mostly because people tend to act based on hype and seasonal fads. RethinkDB brings down the cost of developing apps with real-time push updates to manageable levels. Similarly, there is no other distributed database out there that can be deployed so easily.
goatherders 9y ago
Very cool - thanks for posting a link to Partsbox. Will be looking at it more deeply as soon as I get to my machine. I just launched a quasi-near service myself (https://www.agentotto.com https://www.agentotto.com) and am also finding that the marketing is tough. Ours is more service than SaaS with a high price point and sales based on preexisting industry relationships, but it's still hard to get people to stroke the checkbook for a service that has clear utility and value (as yours does as well)

by jwr 9y ago

ultrasounder 9y ago

Technical details, for those so inclined: the software is written in ClojureScript (compiled to highly optimized JavaScript) on the client side, using React.js for user interface updates, and Clojure on the server side, running in a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). It uses the RethinkDB distributed database for data storage. Interesting choice of Tech stack. Care to explain why you went with Clojure backend and ClojureScript for react on the Front end instead of much more traditional choices?

jwr 9y ago
Those are very pragmatic choices. I don't think I could a) tackle the complexity and b) achieve the performance I wanted without Clojure and ClojureScript. RethinkDB is used for two reasons: 1. It's the only database that provides changefeeds that I need to implement real-time updates for users. Complete changefeeds, as in: get an initial state and then updates. 2. I wanted to easily solve replication, fault-tolerance and scalability, RethinkDB gets all of them right, at least for the levels of scalability that I require.
- ultrasounder 9y ago
  Great answers!. Thanks to You I learnt a new tech-stack today and cant wait to try it out. I also am an EE Btw, and I wish my Purchasing person had tools like these available to them to do better production planning back in the days which was like 5 years ago !
- dankohn1 9y ago
  As someone involved in re-licensing RethinkDB and finding a new home for it at the Linux Foundation, I'm thrilled to hear your use case. https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/02/06/cncf-purchases-rethinkdb-source-code-contributes-linux-foundation-apache-license/ https://www.cncf.io/blog/2017/02/06/cncf-purchases-rethinkdb...
  - jwr 9y ago
    Thank you for your work! I think RethinkDB is underappreciated and undervalued, mostly because people tend to act based on hype and seasonal fads. RethinkDB brings down the cost of developing apps with real-time push updates to manageable levels. Similarly, there is no other distributed database out there that can be deployed so easily.

goatherders 9y ago

Very cool - thanks for posting a link to Partsbox. Will be looking at it more deeply as soon as I get to my machine. I just launched a quasi-near service myself (https://www.agentotto.com https://www.agentotto.com) and am also finding that the marketing is tough. Ours is more service than SaaS with a high price point and sales based on preexisting industry relationships, but it's still hard to get people to stroke the checkbook for a service that has clear utility and value (as yours does as well)