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tl;dr: I built a glorified spreadsheet app called Bicycle (https://usebicycle.com https://usebicycle.com) in seven days. Now I'm refining it for one user's need

tl;dr: I built a glorified spreadsheet app called Bicycle (https://usebicycle.com https://usebicycle.com) in seven days. Now I'm refining it for one user's needs based on principles from Do Things That Don't Scale by Paul Graham and the 1000 True Fans theory. Also, working 90hrs in a week is draining.

bobblywobbles 7y ago
Only 90 hours? /s If part of a test project, are you spending the time to fit within the guidelines or are forced to for some reason?
- elliotbnvl 7y ago
  Haha right? I seriously don’t get how Elon Musk pulled 120/hr weeks on the regular. Well, actually I guess I kind of do, a little... if you are super passionate and invested that makes a big difference. Anyway, I did this as part of my Seven Day SaaS Challenge (https://sevendaysaas.com https://sevendaysaas.com), where the goal is to constrain the amount of time behind a keyboard coding in order to force real world interaction with potential users, alongside marketing and the businessy (aka critical!) parts of building a SaaS. But, I’m an overachiever and I had high goals for this app, hence cramming a lot into one week. :)
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
    If you sleep 8 hours and consume 90 minutes showering, relieving yourself, eating that leaves you with 101.5 hours per week. If you had to you could probably spend all this time running your mouth but probably not intellectual work. This assumes that you have no responsibilities of any kind and everything is done for you.
  - fitzn 7y ago
    Agreed that 90+ or 120 are just insanely difficult to do on the regular. I think I could have 1 such week per month, maybe once per quarter. One thing that might be a bit different in your example is if all 90 hours were for the same product. It might have been tougher for you to pay some time context switching between the two. Whereas, Elon Musk is doing all his hours for the same task. (Well, actually he's a terrible example because he probably has 100 tasks he does for 1 hour each week, but you get my point for the general case.)
LaundroMat 7y ago
Thanks for pointing me to this book and that theory. As per my other comment, they should prove helpful to me.
- elliotbnvl 7y ago
  Absolutely! Best of luck.
Scarbutt 7y ago
With server-side-rendered HTML, this could have been done in ~3 hours :P
- elliotbnvl 7y ago
  Sir, I challenge you to a duel! A speed-development duel. ;)
icedchai 7y ago
Interesting. What is the revenue model?
- elliotbnvl 7y ago
  As of right now, I'm planning on directly targeting enterprise users for access to projects with varying levels of permissions at a low monthly rate per user, something like $10 to $20/mo per user (possibly less, if that's too high). Enough that I'm making $$, but also not something an individual contributor couldn't just expense without turning heads. And then enterprise plans on top of that.
  - icedchai 7y ago
    How much do you plan to spend on customer acquisition? Often with small SaaSes, this is overlooked or grossly underestimated. The problem is building it and almost nobody showing up.

bobblywobbles 7y ago

Only 90 hours? /s If part of a test project, are you spending the time to fit within the guidelines or are forced to for some reason?

elliotbnvl 7y ago
Haha right? I seriously don’t get how Elon Musk pulled 120/hr weeks on the regular. Well, actually I guess I kind of do, a little... if you are super passionate and invested that makes a big difference. Anyway, I did this as part of my Seven Day SaaS Challenge (https://sevendaysaas.com https://sevendaysaas.com), where the goal is to constrain the amount of time behind a keyboard coding in order to force real world interaction with potential users, alongside marketing and the businessy (aka critical!) parts of building a SaaS. But, I’m an overachiever and I had high goals for this app, hence cramming a lot into one week. :)
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  If you sleep 8 hours and consume 90 minutes showering, relieving yourself, eating that leaves you with 101.5 hours per week. If you had to you could probably spend all this time running your mouth but probably not intellectual work. This assumes that you have no responsibilities of any kind and everything is done for you.
- fitzn 7y ago
  Agreed that 90+ or 120 are just insanely difficult to do on the regular. I think I could have 1 such week per month, maybe once per quarter. One thing that might be a bit different in your example is if all 90 hours were for the same product. It might have been tougher for you to pay some time context switching between the two. Whereas, Elon Musk is doing all his hours for the same task. (Well, actually he's a terrible example because he probably has 100 tasks he does for 1 hour each week, but you get my point for the general case.)

LaundroMat 7y ago

Thanks for pointing me to this book and that theory. As per my other comment, they should prove helpful to me.

elliotbnvl 7y ago
Absolutely! Best of luck.

Scarbutt 7y ago

With server-side-rendered HTML, this could have been done in ~3 hours :P

elliotbnvl 7y ago
Sir, I challenge you to a duel! A speed-development duel. ;)

icedchai 7y ago

Interesting. What is the revenue model?

elliotbnvl 7y ago
As of right now, I'm planning on directly targeting enterprise users for access to projects with varying levels of permissions at a low monthly rate per user, something like $10 to $20/mo per user (possibly less, if that's too high). Enough that I'm making $$, but also not something an individual contributor couldn't just expense without turning heads. And then enterprise plans on top of that.
- icedchai 7y ago
  How much do you plan to spend on customer acquisition? Often with small SaaSes, this is overlooked or grossly underestimated. The problem is building it and almost nobody showing up.