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I have a one-person startup, and sure, it's more of a lifestyle business. But it's fully automated and provides passive income, so it's pretty awesome. (Not sur

I have a one-person startup, and sure, it's more of a lifestyle business. But it's fully automated and provides passive income, so it's pretty awesome. (Not sure if that fits the definition of "lifestyle business".) I don't feel like I need a co-founder to get different perspectives; I have customers (first and foremost), friends, and plenty of internet communities where I can ask for advice and feedback (Stripe Atlas, Indie Hackers, HN, Reddit, etc.) I wouldn't trade my autonomy and independence for anything, and I'm really glad that I don't need to chase after an exit with a 10 year deadline. The other important point is that this business should give me a really solid base for pursuing even bigger ideas in the future. Hopefully I will be able to keep this running in the background, and then go after some bigger ideas where I do actually want to raise VC funding and hire a team, because I won't need to take a salary.

rootsudo 8y ago
That's amazing, and it is a lifestyle business. Peoples life, and income affect their lifestyle. What do you do?
- nathan_f77 8y ago
  I'm working on a service that helps programmers set up PDF templates and fill them out with an API request: https://formapi.io https://formapi.io
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
This guy gets it.
TruffleLabs 8y ago
“Passive income is earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved“ If you have customers, employees, contracts, websites, marketing, invoices, etc, then there is involvement. Meaning it’s not so passive. ;)
- nathan_f77 8y ago
  That's a good point. It's definitely not as hands-off as buying shares in an index fund, or paying a property management company to manage a rental property. I do have to be on call in case someone calls or opens a support ticket, or if there is a problem with the servers. But all the technical and billing stuff is automated. And if I want to have a long vacation then I make the conscious choice to neglect marketing and sales. But the next step would be to find some virtual assistants who can help with support and marketing.

rootsudo 8y ago

That's amazing, and it is a lifestyle business. Peoples life, and income affect their lifestyle. What do you do?

nathan_f77 8y ago
I'm working on a service that helps programmers set up PDF templates and fill them out with an API request: https://formapi.io https://formapi.io

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

This guy gets it.

TruffleLabs 8y ago

“Passive income is earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved“ If you have customers, employees, contracts, websites, marketing, invoices, etc, then there is involvement. Meaning it’s not so passive. ;)

nathan_f77 8y ago
That's a good point. It's definitely not as hands-off as buying shares in an index fund, or paying a property management company to manage a rental property. I do have to be on call in case someone calls or opens a support ticket, or if there is a problem with the servers. But all the technical and billing stuff is automated. And if I want to have a long vacation then I make the conscious choice to neglect marketing and sales. But the next step would be to find some virtual assistants who can help with support and marketing.