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Seven years ago I solo-started an automatic time tracker for programmers called WakaTime [1] and launched here on HN [2]. Partly from listening to developers to
by wakatime 7y ago
Seven years ago I solo-started an automatic time tracker for programmers called WakaTime [1] and launched here on HN [2]. Partly from listening to developers too much, I waited way too long (almost a year) before adding a paid plan, but now it generates more MRR than an SF developer salary not including stock options. Technically I make more from RSUs and stock from past startups as a regular employee, but if I wasn't lucky with those then it would be my highest income stream.
1: https://wakatime.com/about https://wakatime.com/about
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046227
For anyone thinking it's egregiously difficult to start a solo-project: You're right, but if you stick with it your persistence will pay off. For solo-products, I think grit is the deciding factor between success and failure.
- ratsimihah 7y agoHow does top 1 code for 13 hours per day? o_o
- wakatime 7y agoNot sustainably... I've done that myself: it's hella fun but towards the end of the week the code stopped making sense and had to sleep for a whole day. WakaTime is very accurate so my daily average is only 4 hours of actual typing per day: https://wakatime.com/a-look-back-at-2018 https://wakatime.com/a-look-back-at-2018 https://wakatime.com/@alan https://wakatime.com/@alan
- MrDresden 7y agoI've used Wakatime now for a few years (I highly recommend it), and have been going through one of the toughest projects of my life in the last 8 months. At one point I reached ~16 hours per day (for only a couple of days). This kind of output is not sustainable for more than a few days without incurring serious problems from it. I have now gone back down to a more normal 6-9 hours per day.
- wakatime 7y agoTip: Turn up your timeout preference. https://wakatime.com/blog/37-when-is-time-tracking-too-accurate https://wakatime.com/blog/37-when-is-time-tracking-too-accur... The default 15 mins is very accurate, and only represents time typing not time working.
- MrDresden 7y agoThanks for the tip, didn't know I could modify this.
- codesternews 7y agoThank you for sharing. How much time it took you to build first version and whole product? Any advice for starters?
- wakatime 7y agoThere were several stages of MVP. First usable version took a month and half to build and public launch with 2 IDEs supported was 2 and half months after starting to build. May 3 2013 - Started development Flask website & Vim plugin (https://wakatime.com/blog/1-why-i-built-wakatime https://wakatime.com/blog/1-why-i-built-wakatime) June 25 2013 - Finished Vim plugin and Website (https://github.com/wakatime/vim-wakatime/commit/4346a055e301ef2807bc4ddd76b1999bad49bf03 https://github.com/wakatime/vim-wakatime/commit/4346a055e301...) July 1 2013 - Started Sublime plugin (https://github.com/wakatime/sublime-wakatime/commit/b7fe36f88295d709494baf4e6577fe19b89ca0dd https://github.com/wakatime/sublime-wakatime/commit/b7fe36f8...) July 15 2013 - Finished Sublime plugin and public launch (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046227) Unfortunately I don't have WakaTime data until after finishing the Vim plugin, but everything after that I can see how long the actual coding took by dogfooding.
- joshmn 7y agoThanks for this. I love using Wakatime and have nothing but good things to say about it.
- bobbonew 7y agoDo you have a leaderboard of the most popular IDEs? I was really curious to see which IDE is the most popular and how often it is used.
- wakatime 7y agoThis page shows IDEs by most time logged: https://wakatime.com/a-look-back-at-2018 https://wakatime.com/a-look-back-at-2018
- Madmallard 7y agoGrit is definitely the deciding factor for success. It's practically the main trait selected for by evolution in humans.