5 ms·

Ask HN: How much did you invest in your bootstrapped startup?

8 points by drewrv 14y ago

Just curious how much others have put into their own business. Also, did you see a return on that money? In other words, get the investment back plus some?

devtestapp 14y ago
So far, I've spent about $40, all on hosting charges. As someone with design and development skills I was able to do all the work myself. I can't imagine how a non-developer could do anything similar without a huge budget. Having said that, I haven't had much success. Although I've had a fair amount of traffic and a significant number of comments to the effect that my site is really well executed, I haven't had any sales so far two weeks after launch. I guess it's early days but it's hard not to be disheartened and question if the idea is viable. It's hard working alone and not having anyone to motivate and bounce ideas off of. My site is http://www.devtest.net http://www.devtest.net if you're interested in having a look.
- shloime 14y ago
  Your site is really great. Give it some time. It'll catch.
  - devtestapp 14y ago
    Thanks. This means a lot to me.
- japhyr 14y ago
  Do you mind sharing a little of your hosting details? How are you hosting it? How much traffic/ how many users do you think you can manage at this hosting level? I am asking because I expect hosting costs to be my most expensive item while in the MVP stage, and I don't have a lot of cash to throw at my project.
  - devtestapp 14y ago
    I'm hosting it on linode, using 2 vps instances at the moment, one for the site and another isolated instance to run the code. The code running VPS is disposable so I can boot up new ones / restore from a snapshot if there are any problems with it. With this setup, I've tested 200 concurrent users with no major problems, and would support easily tens of thousands of hits per day. Having too many users is a problem I would love to have!
    - japhyr 14y ago
      Thanks for the specifics. It's been really hard for me to sort out whether to go with a VPS, or something like heroku. Heroku is appealing but seems to get expensive quickly. VPS has a bit higher learning curve for me, but might be worthwhile. Am I correct in understanding your hosting cost to be about $40/ month until you gain a significant number of users? Good luck, and I hope you end up with a scaling problem to solve.
      - devtestapp 14y ago
        I was really close to going with Heroku, I decided not to as I wanted full customisation options and I've been hosting rails apps for a long time and know what I'm doing. If you're inexperienced in server administration, go with Heroku I'd say. It's a great service and works really well and if you do get a load of traffic, it's really easy to scale up. There's a guide here to using unicorn to get 4X the performance out of it: http://blog.railsonfire.com/2012/05/06/Unicorn-on-Heroku.html http://blog.railsonfire.com/2012/05/06/Unicorn-on-Heroku.htm... You're correct in saying $40 per month for hosting until I gain more users. If someone would sign up to my "pro" plan I'd be breaking even :) However I don't think that even if it does take off it will be as profitable as it sounds. It seems customer acquisition is going to be my biggest problem and so I'll probably end up spending lots on adwords and other promotional avenues.
        luxpir 14y ago
        It was good to meet via the chat box on your site. I've spent a little more than you, but not a great deal. Thanks for the design tips - much needed! That marketing plan I sent you covers only the basics, but perhaps with enough consistent effort the basics might be enough to drive initial traffic. As I said, if there's anything I can do, let me know.
- nickpyett 14y ago
  Yeah looks great - maybe it's just taking employers a while to adapt their recruiting practices.
  - devtestapp 14y ago
    Thanks :)
chadyj 14y ago
I have invested $70k, and spent around $15k so far over the last few months. I am a unique case because I am also applying for a E2 Investor visa, and $70k was the number recommended by my immigration attorney to satisfy the visa application. If I didn't have that requirement I would have spent less on legal fees and hopefully would have launched the MVP for around $10k. I still haven't launched, but am about to start a closed beta program.
- fabiandesimone 14y ago
  Would love to get in touch with you regarding the visa application. Got an email?
  - lachyg 14y ago
    I would also like your email. I'm incredibly surprised that your attorney considers $70k enough, all the attorneys I have talked to have said upwards of $120k~. Very interested to hear how it goes!
davyjones 14y ago
So far, about 1100 USD. A MacBook Pro and the domain name. It is an open source project and there is no biz angle as of now really.

8 points by drewrv 14y ago

Just curious how much others have put into their own business. Also, did you see a return on that money? In other words, get the investment back plus some?

devtestapp 14y ago

So far, I've spent about $40, all on hosting charges. As someone with design and development skills I was able to do all the work myself. I can't imagine how a non-developer could do anything similar without a huge budget. Having said that, I haven't had much success. Although I've had a fair amount of traffic and a significant number of comments to the effect that my site is really well executed, I haven't had any sales so far two weeks after launch. I guess it's early days but it's hard not to be disheartened and question if the idea is viable. It's hard working alone and not having anyone to motivate and bounce ideas off of. My site is http://www.devtest.net http://www.devtest.net if you're interested in having a look.

shloime 14y ago
Your site is really great. Give it some time. It'll catch.
- devtestapp 14y ago
  Thanks. This means a lot to me.
japhyr 14y ago
Do you mind sharing a little of your hosting details? How are you hosting it? How much traffic/ how many users do you think you can manage at this hosting level? I am asking because I expect hosting costs to be my most expensive item while in the MVP stage, and I don't have a lot of cash to throw at my project.
- devtestapp 14y ago
  I'm hosting it on linode, using 2 vps instances at the moment, one for the site and another isolated instance to run the code. The code running VPS is disposable so I can boot up new ones / restore from a snapshot if there are any problems with it. With this setup, I've tested 200 concurrent users with no major problems, and would support easily tens of thousands of hits per day. Having too many users is a problem I would love to have!
  - japhyr 14y ago
    Thanks for the specifics. It's been really hard for me to sort out whether to go with a VPS, or something like heroku. Heroku is appealing but seems to get expensive quickly. VPS has a bit higher learning curve for me, but might be worthwhile. Am I correct in understanding your hosting cost to be about $40/ month until you gain a significant number of users? Good luck, and I hope you end up with a scaling problem to solve.
    - devtestapp 14y ago
      I was really close to going with Heroku, I decided not to as I wanted full customisation options and I've been hosting rails apps for a long time and know what I'm doing. If you're inexperienced in server administration, go with Heroku I'd say. It's a great service and works really well and if you do get a load of traffic, it's really easy to scale up. There's a guide here to using unicorn to get 4X the performance out of it: http://blog.railsonfire.com/2012/05/06/Unicorn-on-Heroku.html http://blog.railsonfire.com/2012/05/06/Unicorn-on-Heroku.htm... You're correct in saying $40 per month for hosting until I gain more users. If someone would sign up to my "pro" plan I'd be breaking even :) However I don't think that even if it does take off it will be as profitable as it sounds. It seems customer acquisition is going to be my biggest problem and so I'll probably end up spending lots on adwords and other promotional avenues.
      - luxpir 14y ago
        It was good to meet via the chat box on your site. I've spent a little more than you, but not a great deal. Thanks for the design tips - much needed! That marketing plan I sent you covers only the basics, but perhaps with enough consistent effort the basics might be enough to drive initial traffic. As I said, if there's anything I can do, let me know.
nickpyett 14y ago
Yeah looks great - maybe it's just taking employers a while to adapt their recruiting practices.
- devtestapp 14y ago
  Thanks :)

chadyj 14y ago

I have invested $70k, and spent around $15k so far over the last few months. I am a unique case because I am also applying for a E2 Investor visa, and $70k was the number recommended by my immigration attorney to satisfy the visa application. If I didn't have that requirement I would have spent less on legal fees and hopefully would have launched the MVP for around $10k. I still haven't launched, but am about to start a closed beta program.

fabiandesimone 14y ago
Would love to get in touch with you regarding the visa application. Got an email?
- lachyg 14y ago
  I would also like your email. I'm incredibly surprised that your attorney considers $70k enough, all the attorneys I have talked to have said upwards of $120k~. Very interested to hear how it goes!

davyjones 14y ago

So far, about 1100 USD. A MacBook Pro and the domain name. It is an open source project and there is no biz angle as of now really.