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I left my job, took some time out, and then started building my business (https://dependabot.com https://dependabot.com). Financially, it's been tough - after

I left my job, took some time out, and then started building my business (https://dependabot.com https://dependabot.com). Financially, it's been tough - after 10 months Dependabot makes $2,100 a month (although that's now growing quite fast). I know I'm the kind of personality that couldn't have started it at the same time as working a full time job, though - I need to be really focussed on one thing at a time.

tootie 9y ago
If you want those big money enterprise clients, add Maven and Nuget support.
- Totoradio 9y ago
  I agree. If this tool does what it says, and supported .Net/Nuget, my company would throw a lot of money at it. More than the $50/month advertised.
  - greysteil 9y ago
    Interesting, thanks for the validation. We have basic Maven support already, and a PR half-finished for .Net - I'll get on it :-)
  - avenoir 9y ago
    +1 for .NET. This'll be a killer thing for us!
- photonios 9y ago
  Seems Maven is already supported, or at least in beta: https://dependabot.com/java.html https://dependabot.com/java.html
lmq10 9y ago
Nice, Love that you offer to free for open source, $50/month seems super cheap for enterprise through?
- greysteil 9y ago
  Yeah, this is going to sound mad, but I quite like only charging $50. I know some customers would be willing to pay more, but under the hood the product is the same and I personally feel good about giving people great value. The above would have to change if I started doing serious sales, in which case I’d need a higher number to justify the time involved.
  - cl0wnshoes 9y ago
    Value is relative. That is how you justify charging open source $0, a bootstrapped business $15, and a multi-billion dollar corporation $5000. The larger the product/more revenue a product brings in the more value your service offers them.
npezolano 9y ago
Awesome product, I reached out with some general questions
cl0wnshoes 9y ago
Looks like a great product. How did you come up with the pricing models? It seems on the cheap side. Have you thought about having something between small and unlimited (at the $50 mark or more) and then the unlimited plan for quite a bit more (or even contact us for pricing)?
- kalkut 9y ago
  You are definitely right, unlimited is too cheap. OP has a nice thing going on here !
k1ns 9y ago
From what channels did you gain the most initial traction? After reading your other comments, I assume you didn't do "traditional" sales such as cold calling/emailing, so I'm curious as to how you built up a user base. I'm currently struggling to do that exact thing with my own business right now. I started selling (cold calling/emailing, demoing, PH/HN/IH posts, etc.) Jan. 1 2018 and I feel like there's something I'm missing as far as my sales process.
- greysteil 9y ago
  I did an interview for Indie Hackers with some detail (https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/dependabot https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/dependabot) but the short answer is cold sales was how I got started, followed by piggybacking off of GitHub's new marketplace. I can't stress enough how valuable (from a learning perspective) sales was for Dependabot, but only after I started targeting the right people. For Dependabot that was commenting on open-source dependency update PRs (that people had created manually).
bulatb 9y ago
Others take note: this is how you do a homepage. - What it does and who it's for, in one clear sentence at the top - How it works, in three clear steps - A list of features that implicitly addresses common concerns - Simple pricing - Nice clean look Really well done.
- bulatb 9y ago
  The only thing I'd change: At the very bottom, "Set up" should be "Setup", since it's used as a noun.

tootie 9y ago

If you want those big money enterprise clients, add Maven and Nuget support.

Totoradio 9y ago
I agree. If this tool does what it says, and supported .Net/Nuget, my company would throw a lot of money at it. More than the $50/month advertised.
- greysteil 9y ago
  Interesting, thanks for the validation. We have basic Maven support already, and a PR half-finished for .Net - I'll get on it :-)
- avenoir 9y ago
  +1 for .NET. This'll be a killer thing for us!
photonios 9y ago
Seems Maven is already supported, or at least in beta: https://dependabot.com/java.html https://dependabot.com/java.html

lmq10 9y ago

Nice, Love that you offer to free for open source, $50/month seems super cheap for enterprise through?

greysteil 9y ago
Yeah, this is going to sound mad, but I quite like only charging $50. I know some customers would be willing to pay more, but under the hood the product is the same and I personally feel good about giving people great value. The above would have to change if I started doing serious sales, in which case I’d need a higher number to justify the time involved.
- cl0wnshoes 9y ago
  Value is relative. That is how you justify charging open source $0, a bootstrapped business $15, and a multi-billion dollar corporation $5000. The larger the product/more revenue a product brings in the more value your service offers them.

npezolano 9y ago

Awesome product, I reached out with some general questions

cl0wnshoes 9y ago

Looks like a great product. How did you come up with the pricing models? It seems on the cheap side. Have you thought about having something between small and unlimited (at the $50 mark or more) and then the unlimited plan for quite a bit more (or even contact us for pricing)?

kalkut 9y ago
You are definitely right, unlimited is too cheap. OP has a nice thing going on here !

k1ns 9y ago

From what channels did you gain the most initial traction? After reading your other comments, I assume you didn't do "traditional" sales such as cold calling/emailing, so I'm curious as to how you built up a user base. I'm currently struggling to do that exact thing with my own business right now. I started selling (cold calling/emailing, demoing, PH/HN/IH posts, etc.) Jan. 1 2018 and I feel like there's something I'm missing as far as my sales process.

greysteil 9y ago
I did an interview for Indie Hackers with some detail (https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/dependabot https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/dependabot) but the short answer is cold sales was how I got started, followed by piggybacking off of GitHub's new marketplace. I can't stress enough how valuable (from a learning perspective) sales was for Dependabot, but only after I started targeting the right people. For Dependabot that was commenting on open-source dependency update PRs (that people had created manually).

bulatb 9y ago

Others take note: this is how you do a homepage. - What it does and who it's for, in one clear sentence at the top - How it works, in three clear steps - A list of features that implicitly addresses common concerns - Simple pricing - Nice clean look Really well done.

bulatb 9y ago
The only thing I'd change: At the very bottom, "Set up" should be "Setup", since it's used as a noun.