8 ms·
It's interesting how a common tenet of startups is "build products, not features" -- and yet here's a very clear example of a "feature" that can be very success
by dvt 7y ago
It's interesting how a common tenet of startups is "build products, not features" -- and yet here's a very clear example of a "feature" that can be very successful.
- xwdv 7y agoIt’s still good advice, if you simply tell people “build whatever you want” they are more likely to fail and usually it’s because of having a featureable business.
- Apocryphon 7y agoIt's probably to get away with building a successful feature startup when it's just a hobby business.
- filleokus 7y agoWell, isn't that advice also mostly given to founders aiming to create a potential ≈unicorn and not a lifestyle business like this? Don't get me wrong, what this guy has done is impressive. Growing a company while staying profitable all the way, and being able to support himself is great. I would switch places with him (ex post facto) in a heart beat. But still, this company will probably never be bought by anyone (besides maybe Stripe), and could very well exist for many years to come with 1-2 employees including the founder.
- taneq 7y ago$60k/month is a hell of a “lifestyle”.
- rscherf 7y agoAgreed, but spent most of it on the business and buying out my partner in the first 4 years.
- guynamedloren 7y agoI'm sure buying out your partner was an incredibly difficult decision to make. Good on you for leaning into what you've built by putting your money where your mouth is. I hope it pays off for you, and thanks for sharing your story with us.
- rscherf 7y agoThanks! So far, so good after 1.5 years. Truly sucked stuffing more capital into the business as there is a lot concentrated there that is somewhat illiquid, but our working relationship has soured enough that it made sense. No regrets.
- buzzkillington 7y agoYou can get that sort of money as a developer if you're lucky and in the right place. I just finished a contract with an Evil Inc that was paying pretty close to that. From my personal sample getting a job that pays that well is a lot easier than getting a business to be successful enough to have that much profit.
- rscherf 7y agoHappy to not be selling my soul to another Evil Inc or having a boss... tried that several times before.
- buzzkillington 7y agoYou do you man. But if you have the skills you have it will be a lot easier to make that much money in corporate than on your own. That said I'm buying some specialized equipment for a synthetic biology startup I'll be trying my hand at before my next contract. I expect to spend most of the money I made and get no where, again.
- slimed 7y agoThanks, BuzzKillington. Have you considered that your definition of "easy" might be different than that of OP's?
- buzzkillington 7y agoThere are many more opportunities to make net middle six figures being a cog in a machine than doing it out on the market. Is that pedantic enough?
- slimed 7y agoI don't find the distinction pedantic at all. There are plenty opportunities to be a janitor but there are aspects of that job I find unpalatable. Even if you paid me six figures.
- rscherf 7y agoHey, Ryan here. I don’t want to be bought. And in the end if Stripe decides to shut off the source, there are plenty of other things to build. Not to mention, tons of companies to work for. Just fortunate to be in this time and place right now.
- jventura 7y agoCare to share any other “profitable” ideas? :) By the way, nicely done, some of us do really appreciate family and quality time in front of work time..
- dimino 7y agoIt seems like startup advice is based on the repeatable observations that people who've worked with a lot of startups have discovered. That means there are a bunch of situations that don't get covered because they don't come up a lot. When playing an odds game like startups, you want to do all the maximally viable things possible, but that doesn't mean other decisions aren't also viable, they're just not observed to be as successful, so they're not mentioned. Doesn't mean they won't work. There's also opportunity cost. What could this team have done if they were working on something more... disruptive? The execution here is incredible, applying that to a new problem would have probably also done very well.
- rscherf 7y agoI’m definitely not trying to peddle advice, I was just approached about my story. I think there are tons of micro niche things like this that can be built to earn a living (I have a list of 5 I’d build on top of just Stripe if I had the time). Large companies can’t do everything, and I think Stripe owns that. Not to mention, they still get all their same fees and don’t have to maintain the app.
- mahin 7y agoWhat, in your opinion, is Stripe lacking that can be built on top of it?
- mf2hd 7y ago12+ month subscription, paypal support.
- dvko 7y agoI fully agree with this sentiment. I myself piggy-backed my product (or rather: feature) on a much langer company which was growing like crazy and have been able to grow it to a comfortable $40.000 per month over the last 6 years. It’s just me doing the bulk of the work with 2 friends helping out to handle 1st level support. Now that it is a mature product and as long as the company I depend upon does not overhaul their API, it’s really just a 10hr/week job, affording me more freedom than is good for me. I’d say there are loads of opportunities like this out there, especially in places developers do not want to go because they are not deemed cutting-edge or fun.
- phodo 7y agoWrong. Solve a problem... via a product or a feature.
- wpietri 7y agoHow is "mobile point of sale app" not a product?
- sangnoir 7y ago"Mobile point of sale app for Stripe" is definitely a feature that Stripe could roll-out any day.
- wpietri 7y agoFor me, that's not what distinguishes a product from a feature. There are a lot of paid Windows apps that Microsoft could roll out any day, but they're still products, by which I mean a discrete, usable thing that people are demonstrably willing to purchase. POS terminals are definitely products. As a contrast, consider Glympse. They started out in the early days of smartphones doing location sharing. Or Swype, with better virtual phone keyboards. Or Shazam, for music identification. All of them were interesting features with novel tech. None were products, though.