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I wrote an entire e-commerce inventory SaaS platform singlehandledly (frontend, backend, database, cache, nginx, blah blah blah) that had 100 users and about $3

I wrote an entire e-commerce inventory SaaS platform singlehandledly (frontend, backend, database, cache, nginx, blah blah blah) that had 100 users and about $30k/mo revenue. Then I got kicked out by the owner high and dry after I refused to take sales calls and support calls on top of my developing responsibilities. :) Software is still running today. It's probably at $50k/mo.

jessehorne 8y ago
Sad story! Did you get any sort of shares/equity?
- MuffinFlavored 8y ago
  I think legally he knew he had to give me something as a parting gift to cover his ass (he was really smart. He once sued a company by spending a ton of $400-$500/hr lawyers just to get them to change their name because it was too close to his on another product line he had going) so when he fired me, he told me I could keep the iMac he had let me order when I was an employee. I never looked into my rights because I knew he was worth $50m and I was worth $5 and he'd win no matter what. I still drive past his new Ferrari sometimes and wonder about what could have been if I just kept my mouth shut and agreed to be his whipping post bitch...
throwaway180118 8y ago
You're not alone on this. Similar story to yours. Every component of our system was developed by me, right down to the the business model as far as what users do day-by-day. I didn't speak up from the start about ownership, and once the product was profitable I was kicked out. I'm still recovering from the burnout, now broke and unmotivated to move forward. Hundreds of users still spend their 9-5 hours looking at a user interface and performing their job that I'll never be credited for.
- MuffinFlavored 8y ago
  If it makes you feel any better, in the job market it made me realize my worth. I started making $40k/yr when I was 19 (because the investor/entrepreneur knew I'd do all of the work, had no other options, and would be hungry). At the end, I think he got me up to $120k/yr (no 401k, no a lot of stuff lol) but then deducted my pay because I argued back with him that I didn't want to do sales calls once. From there, it helped me negotiate higher salaries because I could say and prove "I can build entire web platforms front to back and maintain them (and architect/deploy them) in production". I don't make $350k/yr Netflix/Google money but... I do pretty well for my age/skill set/years of experience I think. I'd say the startup helped me go from junior to mid to senior level engineer quickly, and gave me the confidence in interviews to demand and know my (reasonable) worth. Let me know if you ever want to vent. I'd love to listen and console.
WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago
Wanna write a competing software solution? If they didn't have an IP contract, I'm interested :D
- jessehorne 8y ago
  I would be interested in something like this as well. ;)
  - WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago
    'This small company was created by three developers who found a joint calling: getting fucked by previous experiences in startups' - YCombinator 2020?
    - jessehorne 8y ago
      I responded to muffins comment. I want to get in touch with you guys. I'd love to see where this goes.
      - MuffinFlavored 8y ago
        Do you have marketing/advertising skills or do you think I'm over-exaggerating how hard it is to gain marketshare? I think we need a blend of developer related skills and non-developer related skills to be successful.
  - MuffinFlavored 8y ago
    I don't know how comment response notifications work on HackerNews but... I just responded to the thread above. Let me know your thoughts.
- MuffinFlavored 8y ago
  The hard part in my eyes is the marketing/advertising. Getting a landing page built, on-boarding customers (every customer wanted custom development to fit their business), getting well written app store listings written, getting support + documentation written for the customer. Videos, images, graphics, blog articles. We'd be up against startups who get $15m+ in funding and have a 7 year head start. I think the market space is beaten down. At first, we were going to do a free beta. That attracted nobody. Then $29/mo. Well, will you look at that? It's not profitable undercutting everybody because of something we didn't think of: support. Ok, let's try $99/mo. Well, that kind of works, but people are coming and going way too quickly. What finally worked is to do $99/mo per user, with a minimum of 3 users. All other companies in this space pretty much charge a $750-$3k onboarding fee because they have realized what a time suck you'll be. I have proved I can build pretty much any SaaS platform (which I'm sure 100k people here could do). In my opinion, it isn't the technology part that is hard (CRUD API endpoints are trivial to say the least). The super hard part technology wise is good user interface. Naming technical things easy terms (your item in inventory... is it an item or a kit/bundle? ok... how many channels do you sell it on? ok, well, you have 3 listings that are linked to your kit/item. Try getting that concept across) Plus, after people choose a system, they invest a ton of time into it (their entire business lives and dies on it. Sync inventory + pricing for Amazon/Jet/Walmart/Shopify. Purchase orders. QuickBooks exports, yada yada). Not a lot of people signing up left and right, and if they were, they really probably weren't worth the headache (anybody can make a "mom and pop" e-commerce shop, but if you have no business/orders, all you have to do to fill an 8 hour day is take out your aggressions on the person on the other end of the phone supporting your failing business inventory software wise) I'm down to write whatever, but we need marketing + advertising + everything else I just described.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
k0t0n0 8y ago
you are not alone. i got layed off from project that i have worked for 2years from scratch. it's quite successful now. i learned my lesson now.
- MuffinFlavored 8y ago
  What lesson would you summarize that is?

jessehorne 8y ago

Sad story! Did you get any sort of shares/equity?

MuffinFlavored 8y ago
I think legally he knew he had to give me something as a parting gift to cover his ass (he was really smart. He once sued a company by spending a ton of $400-$500/hr lawyers just to get them to change their name because it was too close to his on another product line he had going) so when he fired me, he told me I could keep the iMac he had let me order when I was an employee. I never looked into my rights because I knew he was worth $50m and I was worth $5 and he'd win no matter what. I still drive past his new Ferrari sometimes and wonder about what could have been if I just kept my mouth shut and agreed to be his whipping post bitch...

throwaway180118 8y ago

You're not alone on this. Similar story to yours. Every component of our system was developed by me, right down to the the business model as far as what users do day-by-day. I didn't speak up from the start about ownership, and once the product was profitable I was kicked out. I'm still recovering from the burnout, now broke and unmotivated to move forward. Hundreds of users still spend their 9-5 hours looking at a user interface and performing their job that I'll never be credited for.

MuffinFlavored 8y ago
If it makes you feel any better, in the job market it made me realize my worth. I started making $40k/yr when I was 19 (because the investor/entrepreneur knew I'd do all of the work, had no other options, and would be hungry). At the end, I think he got me up to $120k/yr (no 401k, no a lot of stuff lol) but then deducted my pay because I argued back with him that I didn't want to do sales calls once. From there, it helped me negotiate higher salaries because I could say and prove "I can build entire web platforms front to back and maintain them (and architect/deploy them) in production". I don't make $350k/yr Netflix/Google money but... I do pretty well for my age/skill set/years of experience I think. I'd say the startup helped me go from junior to mid to senior level engineer quickly, and gave me the confidence in interviews to demand and know my (reasonable) worth. Let me know if you ever want to vent. I'd love to listen and console.

WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago

Wanna write a competing software solution? If they didn't have an IP contract, I'm interested :D

jessehorne 8y ago
I would be interested in something like this as well. ;)
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago
  'This small company was created by three developers who found a joint calling: getting fucked by previous experiences in startups' - YCombinator 2020?
  - jessehorne 8y ago
    I responded to muffins comment. I want to get in touch with you guys. I'd love to see where this goes.
    - MuffinFlavored 8y ago
      Do you have marketing/advertising skills or do you think I'm over-exaggerating how hard it is to gain marketshare? I think we need a blend of developer related skills and non-developer related skills to be successful.
- MuffinFlavored 8y ago
  I don't know how comment response notifications work on HackerNews but... I just responded to the thread above. Let me know your thoughts.
MuffinFlavored 8y ago
The hard part in my eyes is the marketing/advertising. Getting a landing page built, on-boarding customers (every customer wanted custom development to fit their business), getting well written app store listings written, getting support + documentation written for the customer. Videos, images, graphics, blog articles. We'd be up against startups who get $15m+ in funding and have a 7 year head start. I think the market space is beaten down. At first, we were going to do a free beta. That attracted nobody. Then $29/mo. Well, will you look at that? It's not profitable undercutting everybody because of something we didn't think of: support. Ok, let's try $99/mo. Well, that kind of works, but people are coming and going way too quickly. What finally worked is to do $99/mo per user, with a minimum of 3 users. All other companies in this space pretty much charge a $750-$3k onboarding fee because they have realized what a time suck you'll be. I have proved I can build pretty much any SaaS platform (which I'm sure 100k people here could do). In my opinion, it isn't the technology part that is hard (CRUD API endpoints are trivial to say the least). The super hard part technology wise is good user interface. Naming technical things easy terms (your item in inventory... is it an item or a kit/bundle? ok... how many channels do you sell it on? ok, well, you have 3 listings that are linked to your kit/item. Try getting that concept across) Plus, after people choose a system, they invest a ton of time into it (their entire business lives and dies on it. Sync inventory + pricing for Amazon/Jet/Walmart/Shopify. Purchase orders. QuickBooks exports, yada yada). Not a lot of people signing up left and right, and if they were, they really probably weren't worth the headache (anybody can make a "mom and pop" e-commerce shop, but if you have no business/orders, all you have to do to fill an 8 hour day is take out your aggressions on the person on the other end of the phone supporting your failing business inventory software wise) I'm down to write whatever, but we need marketing + advertising + everything else I just described.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

k0t0n0 8y ago

you are not alone. i got layed off from project that i have worked for 2years from scratch. it's quite successful now. i learned my lesson now.

MuffinFlavored 8y ago
What lesson would you summarize that is?