5 ms·

I'm the single founder of Bignoggins Productions. I do sports apps for mobile devices. My apps have been pretty successful, reaching as high as #32 overall paid

I'm the single founder of Bignoggins Productions. I do sports apps for mobile devices. My apps have been pretty successful, reaching as high as #32 overall paid on iPhone and #60 overall paid on iPad. Been full time for about 9 months now. Made 75K last year, and on track for 250K+ this year. Almost all profit as my overhead is insanely low. Currently traveling the world with my wife while working on apps (our travel blog is http://www.shenventure.com http://www.shenventure.com). In fact, I'm writing this from an airbnb in Venice right now and headed to Milan tommorrow.

philipDS 15y ago
You're living the dream man. Awesome.
- z92 15y ago
  Only thing not in the equation is children.
  - bauchidgw 15y ago
    well, i'm goingt to travel southamerica (i'm from europe) with girlfriend, kid, mac (and a thrieving consulting business) for 8 months - starting in two months. so it's possible, i's just that you have to be extra tough (this and no drinking, as your child wakes up too soon)
    - jgamman 15y ago
      Was that a misspelled ,r, or ,e,? :-)
  - byoung2 15y ago
    Not everyone wants children, and for those who do, traveling the world might be a better learning experience than sitting in a classroom. If homeschooling is an option at home, I don't see why it couldn't be an option abroad. I would love for my kids (when I have them) to be able to learn about England while living there, or learn about art while visiting museums across Europe.
  - ednc 15y ago
    Don't let that be an excuse (I'm trying not to :-) ). There are plenty of travel bloggers out there with kids. They've all found ways to make it work. http://unstoppablefamily.com/ http://unstoppablefamily.com/ is one example
    - jtheory 15y ago
      This is true -- on the other hand, some jobs simply require more dedicated time in front of a computer screen than blogging does. Bloggers can do a lot with a little notebook -- even if a child is drawing on the right side of the page while the blogger writes on the left side -- in ways that aren't possible for someone doing software development, for example (my world). Coding while interacting with a baby/toddler/child doesn't generally work well. We've navigated our way through to agreement on what my daughter can do safely while Daddy is working (and sometimes I take breaks from coding so she can do a bit of typing as well... she loves doing whatever I'm doing, of course). But I still do quite a lot of my work while she's asleep, or while my wife has her and I can disappear for a bit. Trying to get serious work done in any kind of large blocks is significantly harder than before; possible, but harder. I'm still glad we have her -- it's well worth the trade-offs, for me, but the fact that it's possible doesn't mean it's not hard.
  - jtheory 15y ago
    Traveling with babies isn't as hard as it seems. My wife and now-two-year-old and I mostly live in the French countryside now, but travel together frequently to Malaysia, the US, UK, and around Europe (for various reasons, sometimes work, sometimes family, sometimes fun... though alas that's less often than we'd like). We got the baby a passport before she could even sit up (the photo was tricky), and as long as we just plan a little better than we would with just adults, it's not hard. A few things helped an awful lot, for anyone considering this. Nurse instead of using formula/bottles/sterilizers/warming up/etc.. Buy a good carrying sling and learn to tie it; strollers are a PITA in so many places and ways. Put time into associating peeing/etc. with a noise or word. Long before a baby is potty-trained, you can still save tons of diapers by holding them over toilets frequently and letting them go. Let the baby sleep in your bed. It's hard for little ones to adjust to different sleeping environments -- in our case, changing to a new bed half-way around the world still looks almost the same, because her parents are still there just like always. YMMV (all kids are different, I imagine; I've only parented one so far!) but this has worked great for us, and our daughter enjoys the new places and people. And she can already swear in at least 4 different languages....
- aespinoza 15y ago
  I was just going to write that when I read your comment... :D I guess we all look to do that. To create value while living your life.
maranas 15y ago
that's the life i want to live. just make sure not to forget paying your taxes
blparker 15y ago
Pretty interesting story. Have you considered writing a blog post to document your story? That would be a nice read.
- ednc 15y ago
  +1 Always love to hear about (real) app success stories, and folks who have found a way to make it a sustainable business (and not just the one hit wonders of 3 years ago)
aqrashik 15y ago
Would you elaborate on how you promote your app? Is it solely through word of mouth and the app store itself, or through blogs, paid search, etc?
- bignoggins 15y ago
  Grew organically and was featured on some media outlets (PCMag, HuffPost, LifeHacker, etc) as a result.
ashbrahma 15y ago
Do you pay yahoo for access to their Fantasy/Sports API?
- xpose2000 15y ago
  Yahoo Sports has a free API. They currently do not have a commercial license option. I use it myself and I hope other fantasy sites follow their lead. Learn more here: http://developer.yahoo.com/fantasysports/ http://developer.yahoo.com/fantasysports/
  - ashbrahma 15y ago
    Thanks. I think they have some rate limits in place. How do you get around it if you have a lot of users?
  - xpose2000 15y ago
    I'm not sure there is a way around it. You can try asking in their forums, Sean is the go-to guy behind the API and is very helpful.
  - euroclydon 15y ago
    The API seems geared toward getting data for an existing Yahoo fantasy league/team/players, but can you get arbitrary sports game stats and player statuses out of it, or is it only useful if your application's users are Yahoo Fantasy Sports users?
    - xpose2000 15y ago
      It's only for Yahoo Fantasy Sports users. It does not have sports data in general. You'd have to find another stat provider like STATS Inc for something like that.
ednc 15y ago
That is awesome. I'm hoping for a similar post in 6 months! Congrats on living the dream!

philipDS 15y ago

You're living the dream man. Awesome.

z92 15y ago
Only thing not in the equation is children.
- bauchidgw 15y ago
  well, i'm goingt to travel southamerica (i'm from europe) with girlfriend, kid, mac (and a thrieving consulting business) for 8 months - starting in two months. so it's possible, i's just that you have to be extra tough (this and no drinking, as your child wakes up too soon)
  - jgamman 15y ago
    Was that a misspelled ,r, or ,e,? :-)
- byoung2 15y ago
  Not everyone wants children, and for those who do, traveling the world might be a better learning experience than sitting in a classroom. If homeschooling is an option at home, I don't see why it couldn't be an option abroad. I would love for my kids (when I have them) to be able to learn about England while living there, or learn about art while visiting museums across Europe.
- ednc 15y ago
  Don't let that be an excuse (I'm trying not to :-) ). There are plenty of travel bloggers out there with kids. They've all found ways to make it work. http://unstoppablefamily.com/ http://unstoppablefamily.com/ is one example
  - jtheory 15y ago
    This is true -- on the other hand, some jobs simply require more dedicated time in front of a computer screen than blogging does. Bloggers can do a lot with a little notebook -- even if a child is drawing on the right side of the page while the blogger writes on the left side -- in ways that aren't possible for someone doing software development, for example (my world). Coding while interacting with a baby/toddler/child doesn't generally work well. We've navigated our way through to agreement on what my daughter can do safely while Daddy is working (and sometimes I take breaks from coding so she can do a bit of typing as well... she loves doing whatever I'm doing, of course). But I still do quite a lot of my work while she's asleep, or while my wife has her and I can disappear for a bit. Trying to get serious work done in any kind of large blocks is significantly harder than before; possible, but harder. I'm still glad we have her -- it's well worth the trade-offs, for me, but the fact that it's possible doesn't mean it's not hard.
- jtheory 15y ago
  Traveling with babies isn't as hard as it seems. My wife and now-two-year-old and I mostly live in the French countryside now, but travel together frequently to Malaysia, the US, UK, and around Europe (for various reasons, sometimes work, sometimes family, sometimes fun... though alas that's less often than we'd like). We got the baby a passport before she could even sit up (the photo was tricky), and as long as we just plan a little better than we would with just adults, it's not hard. A few things helped an awful lot, for anyone considering this. Nurse instead of using formula/bottles/sterilizers/warming up/etc.. Buy a good carrying sling and learn to tie it; strollers are a PITA in so many places and ways. Put time into associating peeing/etc. with a noise or word. Long before a baby is potty-trained, you can still save tons of diapers by holding them over toilets frequently and letting them go. Let the baby sleep in your bed. It's hard for little ones to adjust to different sleeping environments -- in our case, changing to a new bed half-way around the world still looks almost the same, because her parents are still there just like always. YMMV (all kids are different, I imagine; I've only parented one so far!) but this has worked great for us, and our daughter enjoys the new places and people. And she can already swear in at least 4 different languages....
aespinoza 15y ago
I was just going to write that when I read your comment... :D I guess we all look to do that. To create value while living your life.

maranas 15y ago

that's the life i want to live. just make sure not to forget paying your taxes

blparker 15y ago

Pretty interesting story. Have you considered writing a blog post to document your story? That would be a nice read.

ednc 15y ago
+1 Always love to hear about (real) app success stories, and folks who have found a way to make it a sustainable business (and not just the one hit wonders of 3 years ago)

aqrashik 15y ago

Would you elaborate on how you promote your app? Is it solely through word of mouth and the app store itself, or through blogs, paid search, etc?

bignoggins 15y ago
Grew organically and was featured on some media outlets (PCMag, HuffPost, LifeHacker, etc) as a result.

ashbrahma 15y ago

Do you pay yahoo for access to their Fantasy/Sports API?

xpose2000 15y ago
Yahoo Sports has a free API. They currently do not have a commercial license option. I use it myself and I hope other fantasy sites follow their lead. Learn more here: http://developer.yahoo.com/fantasysports/ http://developer.yahoo.com/fantasysports/
- ashbrahma 15y ago
  Thanks. I think they have some rate limits in place. How do you get around it if you have a lot of users?
- xpose2000 15y ago
  I'm not sure there is a way around it. You can try asking in their forums, Sean is the go-to guy behind the API and is very helpful.
- euroclydon 15y ago
  The API seems geared toward getting data for an existing Yahoo fantasy league/team/players, but can you get arbitrary sports game stats and player statuses out of it, or is it only useful if your application's users are Yahoo Fantasy Sports users?
  - xpose2000 15y ago
    It's only for Yahoo Fantasy Sports users. It does not have sports data in general. You'd have to find another stat provider like STATS Inc for something like that.

ednc 15y ago

That is awesome. I'm hoping for a similar post in 6 months! Congrats on living the dream!