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We think alike :) I’ve used the same strategy to turn Lunar (https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi) into a $5k/month business and to have the luxury of not having

by alin23 4y ago

We think alike :) I’ve used the same strategy to turn Lunar (https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi) into a $5k/month business and to have the luxury of not having to sit through an interview or work for someone else in the near future. I like both coding, design and reverse engineering so I do those with passion. But I leave taxes to Paddle and promotion to happy users. I write rarely on my blog [1] and only if I feel I have gathered enough new information that could help other people with their endeavor. I’ve yet to hire people for something, but as the project gets more complex, I feel the need to do that: - some short frontpage animation that could explain the most used app features would be a nice addition but I’m no After Effects expert and I’m not keen on learning that - doing statistics on the monitor data [2] and finding the best sensible defaults for each monitor would improve the user experience, but cleaning up data and having to relearn pandas would take time It’s hard to justify the price of paying someone to do that and I always feel I should do it myself. But in the life of every side project that becomes a business, there comes a day when we have to admit that it’s not healthy to try to do everything. [1] https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog [2] https://db.lunar.fyi https://db.lunar.fyi

lanecwagner 4y ago
does paddle make taxes a lot easier than stripe? I've been having issues with VAT taxes
- danielskogly 4y ago
  I’d be curious to hear what kind of issues you’ve been having, as I’ve quite recently opted for Stripe over Paddle for the SaaS I’m working on (instorier.com). This Twitter thread [0] from some months ago finally tipped me over to Stripe, but considering we haven’t fully launched yet, I’m eager to know more. [0] https://twitter.com/thekitze/status/1481579421031092233 https://twitter.com/thekitze/status/1481579421031092233
  - kirso 4y ago
    Man I love the idea behind Instorier! Is there a `story` behind it?
- alin23 4y ago
  It completely removes the need to handle taxes. Paddle acts as a Merchant-of-Record (kind of like a reseller) so they handle VAT and sales tax in all states for you. I also don't need to invoice them. I just get my monthly payment in my Wise account (through ACH for 0 fees on the wire transfer) and never worry about the finance part.
nobody_nothing 4y ago
Quick idea: what might be nice instead of (or in addition to) an After Effects animation would be some interactive HTML sliders and buttons. When a website visitor slides them, they can see what effects the settings would have on their monitor -- potentially even applied to the website itself. Just a thought!
- alin23 4y ago
  That sounds nice! I always liked http://ciechanow.ski http://ciechanow.ski for its interactive articles. I'll explore this idea, thanks!
simsla 4y ago
Very impressive! At first I thought it wasn't interesting for me, but the features just kept on coming. Will have to try the super brightness as the weather keeps improving. I've always loved working outside, but brightness is a bit of an issue.
- alin23 4y ago
  XDR Brightness is one of those things you can't go back to not having it. I love working in botanic gardens and on the porch when I'm in the countryside, and XDR Brightness has made this experience much more enjoyable. It may sound counterintuitive but I usually turn on Dark Mode when enabling XDR, because: - I mostly work with text which gets a ton of contrast at 1600 nits - the screen doesn't get hot as most of it has dark pixels - the battery lasts longer because energy is not wasted on bright white backgrounds Lunar's contrast enhancer is what allows this XDR in Dark Mode thingie to be useful: https://files.lunar.fyi/enhance-contrast-slider.png https://files.lunar.fyi/enhance-contrast-slider.png
leros 4y ago
Huh. I thought about making something like this a few years ago. I'm amazed to see the idea turn into a successful business.
- alin23 4y ago
  There's even some competition: https://lunar.fyi/#comparison https://lunar.fyi/#comparison I'm forever grateful to the ddcctl [1] project which enabled all these monitor control solutions. [1] https://github.com/kfix/ddcctl https://github.com/kfix/ddcctl

by alin23 4y ago

lanecwagner 4y ago

does paddle make taxes a lot easier than stripe? I've been having issues with VAT taxes

danielskogly 4y ago
I’d be curious to hear what kind of issues you’ve been having, as I’ve quite recently opted for Stripe over Paddle for the SaaS I’m working on (instorier.com). This Twitter thread [0] from some months ago finally tipped me over to Stripe, but considering we haven’t fully launched yet, I’m eager to know more. [0] https://twitter.com/thekitze/status/1481579421031092233 https://twitter.com/thekitze/status/1481579421031092233
- kirso 4y ago
  Man I love the idea behind Instorier! Is there a `story` behind it?
alin23 4y ago
It completely removes the need to handle taxes. Paddle acts as a Merchant-of-Record (kind of like a reseller) so they handle VAT and sales tax in all states for you. I also don't need to invoice them. I just get my monthly payment in my Wise account (through ACH for 0 fees on the wire transfer) and never worry about the finance part.

nobody_nothing 4y ago

Quick idea: what might be nice instead of (or in addition to) an After Effects animation would be some interactive HTML sliders and buttons. When a website visitor slides them, they can see what effects the settings would have on their monitor -- potentially even applied to the website itself. Just a thought!

alin23 4y ago
That sounds nice! I always liked http://ciechanow.ski http://ciechanow.ski for its interactive articles. I'll explore this idea, thanks!

simsla 4y ago

Very impressive! At first I thought it wasn't interesting for me, but the features just kept on coming. Will have to try the super brightness as the weather keeps improving. I've always loved working outside, but brightness is a bit of an issue.

alin23 4y ago
XDR Brightness is one of those things you can't go back to not having it. I love working in botanic gardens and on the porch when I'm in the countryside, and XDR Brightness has made this experience much more enjoyable. It may sound counterintuitive but I usually turn on Dark Mode when enabling XDR, because: - I mostly work with text which gets a ton of contrast at 1600 nits - the screen doesn't get hot as most of it has dark pixels - the battery lasts longer because energy is not wasted on bright white backgrounds Lunar's contrast enhancer is what allows this XDR in Dark Mode thingie to be useful: https://files.lunar.fyi/enhance-contrast-slider.png https://files.lunar.fyi/enhance-contrast-slider.png

leros 4y ago

Huh. I thought about making something like this a few years ago. I'm amazed to see the idea turn into a successful business.

alin23 4y ago
There's even some competition: https://lunar.fyi/#comparison https://lunar.fyi/#comparison I'm forever grateful to the ddcctl [1] project which enabled all these monitor control solutions. [1] https://github.com/kfix/ddcctl https://github.com/kfix/ddcctl