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I agree! Unfortunately, we pivoted to self-hosting right around the time we were running out of money, and around the time I had a child and thus, needed money.

I agree! Unfortunately, we pivoted to self-hosting right around the time we were running out of money, and around the time I had a child and thus, needed money. I'm really glad we pivoted to something we love and our users love, but it hardly pays the bills. I've spoken with several people who are starting similar companies and who've reached out to me (happy to do that!) - my advice is similar to yours: keep it simple, keep it focused. KubeSail is a developer tool turned home-hosting tool, but if I could rebuild it, I'd make it incredibly simple to get Jellyfin and a torrent/VPN client installed and that's about it, and then execute insanely hard on making that as streamlined and foolproof as humanly possible.

lifty 3y ago
So do you think there are enough people/companies willing to pay for that streamlined experience?
- erulabs 3y ago
  I think if you could sell an as-easy-a-chromecast box that could do jellyfin, had a nice ui for uploading local media, and had an easy guide or built in VPN/torrent client, you’d be to build a great business. Of course - you can’t exactly vendor torrent stuff - and I’d never suggest anyone to pirate anything. But certainly the sky is the limit, and that’s just media. Other tools like Monica CRM, Tandoor Recipes, Mastodon, etc are their own markets too! We’re too far in the technical side to be mass appeal, and our UI/UX is far from “mom-friendly”. Still - I’m optimistic a better entrepreneur than myself will conquer this one day.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    the problem is that creating a userfriendly product before you can start earning income means a lot of upfront investment which is risky. i'd rather take a product like yours and improve it. what's stopping you from doing that?
    - erulabs 3y ago
      A nontrivial full time job, a wife, a toddler, an infant, a mortgage, and my own fatigue. I will, eventually, have the capital to continue.
- rollcat 3y ago
  There's already a huge market for SOHO network gear, NAS / media appliances, etc. and all of that needs to be usable by non-experts. We need to ask the other question: what motivates people to self-host?
em-bee 3y ago
I'd make it incredibly simple to get Jellyfin and a torrent/VPN client installed and that's about it if you do that you'll have the film industry coming after you very quickly. i'd like to sell home users anything else but not that particular product.

lifty 3y ago

So do you think there are enough people/companies willing to pay for that streamlined experience?

erulabs 3y ago
I think if you could sell an as-easy-a-chromecast box that could do jellyfin, had a nice ui for uploading local media, and had an easy guide or built in VPN/torrent client, you’d be to build a great business. Of course - you can’t exactly vendor torrent stuff - and I’d never suggest anyone to pirate anything. But certainly the sky is the limit, and that’s just media. Other tools like Monica CRM, Tandoor Recipes, Mastodon, etc are their own markets too! We’re too far in the technical side to be mass appeal, and our UI/UX is far from “mom-friendly”. Still - I’m optimistic a better entrepreneur than myself will conquer this one day.
- em-bee 3y ago
  the problem is that creating a userfriendly product before you can start earning income means a lot of upfront investment which is risky. i'd rather take a product like yours and improve it. what's stopping you from doing that?
  - erulabs 3y ago
    A nontrivial full time job, a wife, a toddler, an infant, a mortgage, and my own fatigue. I will, eventually, have the capital to continue.
rollcat 3y ago
There's already a huge market for SOHO network gear, NAS / media appliances, etc. and all of that needs to be usable by non-experts. We need to ask the other question: what motivates people to self-host?

em-bee 3y ago

I'd make it incredibly simple to get Jellyfin and a torrent/VPN client installed and that's about it if you do that you'll have the film industry coming after you very quickly. i'd like to sell home users anything else but not that particular product.