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I'm glad you shared this. I've been reading the comments here with much interest but simultaneously also a sense of impostor syndrome, for I've been running my

I'm glad you shared this. I've been reading the comments here with much interest but simultaneously also a sense of impostor syndrome, for I've been running my one-man SaaS on generic LAMP since 2005, and aside from adopting jQuery early on, I haven't much touched any other piece of exciting tech that's come out since. My old and boring stack works just fine on the VMs that it runs on, and and continues to support me and my family financially with little to no downtime and decent work/life balance. Of course I'm aware of the cons of programming in PHP versus other languages, but after 20 years of coding in it, I like to think that my code isn't all that bad. Still, I'm reading some comments here and feel like I'm waaay behind the tech curve with my use of such an old stack, and am somewhat scared to admit it. Your comment brought me relief :)

blackrock 6y ago
Nice work. Your SaaS has been providing you income for 15 years. Tell us about your SaaS. What were your challenges early on? What were your hardships? And what were your lessons learned? What would you do differently?
- herodoturtle 6y ago
  > Tell us about your SaaS. I'm a private guy. But I will say that it's a Greek startup, birthed in my English dorm room (Comp Sci grad; taught myself programming at age 11 by reverse engineering GORILLA.BAS; shout-out to all you DOS 6.22 babies #486dx2 #duneiichani #zerocool #snowcrash #bbs #qbasic #mode13h #nehe #0x5f3759df #lamp #vi). > What were your challenges early on? From a life standpoint, it would have to be student loans. But in crisis lies opportunity, because by working to pay these off, I programmed database integration layers between a bunch of local companies that ultimately led to a sweet SaaS system. From a technical standpoint, there were many fun challenges, such as 2,000+ days of uptime with multi-master replication. But the biggest challenge was probably getting an early version of Quixote and a cranky SOAP protocol to talk to a bunch of SAP EDRs; that's when I learnt people skills. > What were your hardships? The usual stuff... paying the rent, feeding myself, no free time. It was all systems go back in the day, and dating wasn't really an option; but I'm thankful for lots of genuine friends, who welcomed my intermittent visits. From a business standpoint, the biggest hardship was my constantly wrestling with the idea that I could do anything but I couldn't do everything. Once I concluded that exercise I found peace, and then everything else just clicked into place. > And what were your lessons learned? 1. There are multiple SaaS strategies. One such strategy is to go super niche. Emphasis on super. 2. Going super niche doesn't scale, but it will allow you to prioritise free time - whilst living a steady, balanced lifestyle. 3. To go super niche, build your SaaS in such a way that you can run it from your mobile phone. 4. Always keep an eye on your phone, so that when the need for customer comms arises, it flows with elegant efficiency. 5. The quality of your communication with your customers is your competitive edge. Excel at this to justify your pricing. 6. Optimise all your business processes around minimising your phone's notifications - the goal is to maximise your free time. 7. At your leisure, routinely check in on your customers for a friendly catch-up. This enhances your competitive edge and bargaining power. 8. Always add value to your customers, and if you can't add value, walk away. You'd be surprised how much you can earn and still add value. 9. Enjoy time. Discover who you are. Explore life with your family and friends. Exercise your body and mind outdoors. 0. Help others. Volunteer your skills and resources. I advise several entities and it brings me great joy. > What would you do differently? Perhaps I'd have picked a name that was easier to recall, and easier to spell. But when you go super niche, it doesn't really matter what name you pick.
  - blackrock 6y ago
    Nice response. You should put an extra new line between your bullet points. HN mangles your bullet points text if you don’t.
    - herodoturtle 6y ago
      Thanks, I enjoyed writing it. Yeah there was a second's regret as I saw my submission's resulting format. An interesting trick by the devs, this temporarily available edit window. But fair is fair. I like it. Good job HN devs. #486dx2 #zerocool #gorilla.bas #mode13h #0x5f3759df #lamp #vi
martin_drapeau 6y ago
> Of course I'm aware of the cons of programming in PHP versus other languages PHP has come a long way. With v7 (and soon v8) and with Laravel programming in PHP is not only a delight, but also extremely robust and fast. For the front-end, jQuery to Vuejs is not a big leap. You can sprinkle it around to test waters and gain confidence. Such a pleasure to work with.
- npsomaratna 6y ago
  Re: the frontend - Livewire components also work great, and might be an even easier leap.
zomgwat 6y ago
Doing your own thing while supporting your family is awesome. It's a difficult thing to do. The SaaS I run isn't mine. Back when you were starting your SaaS, I was probably spending all of my time chasing the latest shinny tech :) Some of that was worthwhile but some not. The experience taught me to slow down a bit. Sometimes I wonder if I've slowed down too much. We'll see.
ornornor 6y ago
> feel like I'm waaay behind the tech curve with my use of such an old stack, and am somewhat scared to admit it. If it pays your bills and gives you the work life balance you want, why do you care? Running on the perpetual treadmill of cutting edge tech (especially with JS and containers where everything new is old every other month) is nothing to strive for. I know plenty of engineers who are very up to date on the latest trends but have no personal lives or families and are basically married to their job. I don’t envy them, I envy you.

blackrock 6y ago

Nice work. Your SaaS has been providing you income for 15 years. Tell us about your SaaS. What were your challenges early on? What were your hardships? And what were your lessons learned? What would you do differently?

herodoturtle 6y ago
> Tell us about your SaaS. I'm a private guy. But I will say that it's a Greek startup, birthed in my English dorm room (Comp Sci grad; taught myself programming at age 11 by reverse engineering GORILLA.BAS; shout-out to all you DOS 6.22 babies #486dx2 #duneiichani #zerocool #snowcrash #bbs #qbasic #mode13h #nehe #0x5f3759df #lamp #vi). > What were your challenges early on? From a life standpoint, it would have to be student loans. But in crisis lies opportunity, because by working to pay these off, I programmed database integration layers between a bunch of local companies that ultimately led to a sweet SaaS system. From a technical standpoint, there were many fun challenges, such as 2,000+ days of uptime with multi-master replication. But the biggest challenge was probably getting an early version of Quixote and a cranky SOAP protocol to talk to a bunch of SAP EDRs; that's when I learnt people skills. > What were your hardships? The usual stuff... paying the rent, feeding myself, no free time. It was all systems go back in the day, and dating wasn't really an option; but I'm thankful for lots of genuine friends, who welcomed my intermittent visits. From a business standpoint, the biggest hardship was my constantly wrestling with the idea that I could do anything but I couldn't do everything. Once I concluded that exercise I found peace, and then everything else just clicked into place. > And what were your lessons learned? 1. There are multiple SaaS strategies. One such strategy is to go super niche. Emphasis on super. 2. Going super niche doesn't scale, but it will allow you to prioritise free time - whilst living a steady, balanced lifestyle. 3. To go super niche, build your SaaS in such a way that you can run it from your mobile phone. 4. Always keep an eye on your phone, so that when the need for customer comms arises, it flows with elegant efficiency. 5. The quality of your communication with your customers is your competitive edge. Excel at this to justify your pricing. 6. Optimise all your business processes around minimising your phone's notifications - the goal is to maximise your free time. 7. At your leisure, routinely check in on your customers for a friendly catch-up. This enhances your competitive edge and bargaining power. 8. Always add value to your customers, and if you can't add value, walk away. You'd be surprised how much you can earn and still add value. 9. Enjoy time. Discover who you are. Explore life with your family and friends. Exercise your body and mind outdoors. 0. Help others. Volunteer your skills and resources. I advise several entities and it brings me great joy. > What would you do differently? Perhaps I'd have picked a name that was easier to recall, and easier to spell. But when you go super niche, it doesn't really matter what name you pick.
- blackrock 6y ago
  Nice response. You should put an extra new line between your bullet points. HN mangles your bullet points text if you don’t.
  - herodoturtle 6y ago
    Thanks, I enjoyed writing it. Yeah there was a second's regret as I saw my submission's resulting format. An interesting trick by the devs, this temporarily available edit window. But fair is fair. I like it. Good job HN devs. #486dx2 #zerocool #gorilla.bas #mode13h #0x5f3759df #lamp #vi

martin_drapeau 6y ago

> Of course I'm aware of the cons of programming in PHP versus other languages PHP has come a long way. With v7 (and soon v8) and with Laravel programming in PHP is not only a delight, but also extremely robust and fast. For the front-end, jQuery to Vuejs is not a big leap. You can sprinkle it around to test waters and gain confidence. Such a pleasure to work with.

npsomaratna 6y ago
Re: the frontend - Livewire components also work great, and might be an even easier leap.

zomgwat 6y ago

Doing your own thing while supporting your family is awesome. It's a difficult thing to do. The SaaS I run isn't mine. Back when you were starting your SaaS, I was probably spending all of my time chasing the latest shinny tech :) Some of that was worthwhile but some not. The experience taught me to slow down a bit. Sometimes I wonder if I've slowed down too much. We'll see.

ornornor 6y ago

> feel like I'm waaay behind the tech curve with my use of such an old stack, and am somewhat scared to admit it. If it pays your bills and gives you the work life balance you want, why do you care? Running on the perpetual treadmill of cutting edge tech (especially with JS and containers where everything new is old every other month) is nothing to strive for. I know plenty of engineers who are very up to date on the latest trends but have no personal lives or families and are basically married to their job. I don’t envy them, I envy you.