4 ms·

I started my professional life ~25y ago with a side project that by 2022 led to roughly 50 more side projects — The vast majority failed, some turned into 200 e

• bitxbitxbitcoin 4y ago
  What are some of your favorite stories from that life, if you don't mind me asking?
  • marban 4y ago
    I built the first Android Twitter client, sold that to Idealab* and given our huge market share (~40% IIRC ) pitched them the idea to build our own Twitter clone in order to move those users over. Twitter took notice and locked all our apps which eventually kicked off the anti-third-party tendency that we see today. Good times. * https://bgr.com/general/tweetup-acquires-twidroid-renaming-and-mass-distribution-to-follow/ https://bgr.com/general/tweetup-acquires-twidroid-renaming-a...
    • marban 4y ago
      Another time I turned my private news aggregator into a public service (Popurls) which kicked off thousands of clones and was at one time the number one traffic referrer to Digg and Reddit. A year later Guy Kawasaki cloned it, and I find myself invited to a Ramen lunch with Kevin Kelly who blogged about it as being his favorite website. 15 years later, I got funding from Mark Cuban for building a successor. All from a private solo side project that started as a 20-line Perl script.
      • twox2 4y ago
        How I loved the original popurls!!
        • marban 4y ago
          Butterfly FTW!
  • codazoda 4y ago
    I'm not the person you're responding too but I thought I'd mention some of mine. I wrote a blog post called "How to Lose Money With 25 Years of Failed Businesses" where I discuss some of the little side hustles I've managed to kill over the years. https://joeldare.com/how-to-lose-money-with-25-years-of-failed-businesses https://joeldare.com/how-to-lose-money-with-25-years-of-fail... I build a lot of tiny projects and Ben (original blog post) is inspiring me to get them better organized.
    • marban 4y ago
      Besides maximising luck, the only real strategy I follow is buy low, sell high in a sense of keeping the burn low and counting on a win every 3-4 years that will create enough cash to finance the next period of failures — because what got you here won't get you there ...
• herodoturtle 4y ago
  > some turned into 200 employee businesses Incredible comment overall but this line was particularly Woah! What advice would have for solo founders of a side project (that later becomes a full time day job) in terms of evolving to a large team? First hire(s), things to look out for, etc. I’d find this insight incredible! Hope I’m not asking too much. But such an incredible story you have.
  • marban 4y ago
    To be honest, I would never do something that requires a single employee ever again. I sold my first company because soon enough, all you get to do is manage politics and not the thing you signed up for — Sounds infantile but at some point you have to stay true to yourself no matter the benefits. If you're more of a team-player, there are obviously better options today (remote, etc.) — The only thing I would recommend is not getting too romantic with a co-founder, having clear responsibilities from day one and don't try to make friends along the way — in the end it's all about building success.
    • herodoturtle 4y ago
      Doesn't sound infantile at all. I strongly resonate with everything you're saying. A little over a year ago I submitted this Ask HN, which helps shed light on my situation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27039701 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27039701 It is now a year later and I'm still wondering the same thing as I was back then (as in, I haven't changed up my work setup at all / haven't hired people). I do rely on contractors here and there, but it's rare. I quite enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with no employees. These days I just do a bit of focused work each day, prioritise spending time with my family, and enjoy sticking to my daily training regiment (the latter has been a key aspect of my life ever since I started my entrepreneurial journey). Every time I consider hiring people for the sake of more growth, I find myself asking if it'll be worth it, and whether I'll regret it. I doubt I'd be able to enjoy the work/life balance I currently have if I were responsible for managing people at scale. Perhaps I'm being narrow-minded here, but it's good to receive affirmation from someone whose done it all before. Cheers mate.
• techsin101 4y ago
  how do you stay motivated? what's your stack? do you talk it out with someone?
  • marban 4y ago
    2h sports and a 1h walk every day but that's it. I get motivated from failures because they're the default I expect from having taking actions. Also helps to lower your expectations from life and stay away from comparing your track record with those of others. You know, those 18y olds who flipped their newsletter for 20 millions.
    • pid-1 4y ago
      > but that's it That's waaay more than your avg office worker though.
• acegopher 4y ago
  Perhaps a more important question is when do you know to pull the plug? At what point do you stop investing resources into the project?
  • marban 4y ago
    There's no exact rule but I'd say 12 to 16 months is a good time to expect some sort of positive trend. I don't do any of that MVP stuff and go full-blown right away because user expecations are high and I'm too old to get pleasure from starting something out of a notion-hosted website. Cash-wise I try to keep it under 20k - keeping in mind that I don't do physical projects and all by myself (no freelancers, contractors, etc).
• danielvaughn 4y ago
  Your career is what I aspired to when I started in this industry over a decade ago. But what ended up happening was that I (a) worked full-time while dabbling on nights and weekends, (b) spent several years trying to decide which project I wanted to really pursue in earnest, and then (c) after picking the project, obsessing over it so much that I never felt it was ready to release. So it's...not going well so far lol. Can you recall any specific thing you did that brought you success?
  • acuozzo 4y ago
    This is my story as well, more or less. Want to compare notes? Perhaps figuring out what we have in common would help us understand what we're doing wrong.
    • hiptobecubic 4y ago
      As someone who is squarely outside the industry of "side project entrepreneurism," it sounds like the problem is obsessing over minor details about the project and never launching it. The other person literally said they tried like 50 things and you two haven't launched any yet.
      • danielvaughn 4y ago
        I put that in there to make it more or less obvious that perfectionism was one of the reasons I haven't accomplished much yet. The point was to probe deeper and see if there's some other insight, because everyone already knows that perfectionism kills productivity.
        • alfiedotwtf 4y ago
          At the same time, if you're doing it for a hobby, taking your time until you're happy can be meditative. That's why I'm taking my side project slowly - because I enjoy coding and am using my side project as a form of relaxation.
    • kirso 4y ago
• acuozzo 4y ago
  If you have some time, would you mind replying to my "Ask HN"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31217221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31217221 Thanks!
  • pflanze 4y ago
    It's too late to reply there (IIRC the commenting period closes after (about) 15d).
    • acuozzo 4y ago
      Got it. Thanks! Perhaps he can just reply here instead (if he's interested, of course).
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• xwowsersx 4y ago
  Could you share the projects here? Took a look at thomas.me but couldn't quite find the projects. Thanks!
  • faizmokhtar 4y ago
    Not OP but here: https://thomas.me/about/ https://thomas.me/about/
    • xwowsersx 4y ago
      Ah there we go, thanks a lot!
• cgg1 4y ago
  How do you decide whether a side project/idea is worth pursuing? You mentioned in another comment that you don’t “do the MVP stuff” and go full blown from the beginning. That seems like a big time sink without a rigorous way of validating whether users want what you’re building.
  • marban 4y ago
    Yes it is a time sink and I can't claim having a specific methodology but if you look at all the conflicting theories, literature and endless blog posts that have been written about validation, you might as well just trust your gut. My amateurish approach is to jot down every idea in a single line of a text file, then walk away. If the same idea or topic strikes me again, I give it a separate text file and write some copy that might go on the product page, together with links to related stuff, screenshots, etc. Then, after another few weeks and only if I still believe in the idea I come up with more details, perhaps do some light coding, brand ideas, register domains, etc. Then (You guessed it), I wait another few weeks or even months and if it passes my still-relevant check I start working on it on the side of my existing, well, side project. The challenge these days is when to pull the plug or go all-in since the market, interests and attention shifts so quickly that it's tough to adapt without losing temper. Doesn't get easier as you get I older.
    • cgg1 4y ago
      Interesting. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
• heywoodlh 4y ago
  I deeply appreciate this perspective (and the similar perspective in this HN submission). Thanks for sharing -- it feels so permissive for me to hear these kinds of perspectives and just get to work on side stuff. I feel like I often hang up on if something should be done or if it is something that will be "successful". So it's cool to hear stories where the goal isn't the financial success of X project -- the goal is the journey and it's a bonus if it's financially beneficial. Thanks again, know that it helped me to read this comment!