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I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobo

by cedws 2y ago

I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobody needs, wants, or will pay for.

PaulRobinson 2y ago
So in future, build a landing page, start shipping it around and see if you can get some early potential customers interested. Or, choose a small thing you can build in a few weekends, get it built and try shipping it. If you get no traction, you learned something. If you do, you can now invest more. This is the whole idea behind lean startups: don’t assume tou have a winner or a stinker, go find out and adapt based on feedback.
- htamas 2y ago
  > start shipping it around Can you elaborate on this?
  - PaulRobinson 2y ago
    Share it on social media, talk to potential customers about it, give people something to sign up to, in order to learn more.
albertgoeswoof 2y ago
Ok here is the playbook: - Go here https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&aws-products-all.sort-order=asc&awsf.re%3AInvent=*all&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Type=*all&awsf.tech-category=*all https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=it... - Look at the list of products - Copy one of them - Do it a bit better (e.g. cheaper, faster, hosted in EU, targeted at some specific segment of users etc.) - Launch asap (no longer than 3 months of coding) - Reach out to potential users everywhere you can, until you get a few dollars of recurring revenue in - Write blogs, and long form content, integrate with other libraries and systems - Automate everything, pay for services that aren't core to your business (e.g. payments, backups, etc.) - Do everything you can to help all your early users, keep improving the product every week - Wait a few months/years, till it compounds up to 10-20k MRR
- fm2606 2y ago
  Thanks. I'll definitely take a look.
- bsima 2y ago
  actually a pretty good playbook, would probably work
- sakopov 2y ago
  Are you suggesting to copy one of AWS services? This seems like fool's errand.
meiraleal 2y ago
It is all about execution. There are people making 10k/month++ right now with apps to take notes or newsletter
Workaccount2 2y ago
What blows my mind is that people tolerate paying monthly for what is a static service. A service routine monitor doesn't need to be updated every month to function, so why would anyone pay every month to use it?
- quest88 2y ago
  Offer a cheaper solution and find out! Servers cost money each month, as do the services they use.
- LVB 2y ago
  "Tolerate" is an odd way to describe a totally voluntary transaction in a market with plenty of alternatives. The service is either worth the price or not for each person, regardless of the COGS.
  - Workaccount2 2y ago
    If only plumbers knew the value of having a toilet inside your house.
- charles_f 2y ago
  You've got a backend as well, and support?

by cedws 2y ago

I have the same problem. When I see the kinds of simple products printing HNers money I think “people pay for THAT?” Any ideas I do have I convince myself nobody needs, wants, or will pay for.

PaulRobinson 2y ago

So in future, build a landing page, start shipping it around and see if you can get some early potential customers interested. Or, choose a small thing you can build in a few weekends, get it built and try shipping it. If you get no traction, you learned something. If you do, you can now invest more. This is the whole idea behind lean startups: don’t assume tou have a winner or a stinker, go find out and adapt based on feedback.

htamas 2y ago
> start shipping it around Can you elaborate on this?
- PaulRobinson 2y ago
  Share it on social media, talk to potential customers about it, give people something to sign up to, in order to learn more.

albertgoeswoof 2y ago

Ok here is the playbook: - Go here https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&aws-products-all.sort-order=asc&awsf.re%3AInvent=*all&awsf.Free%20Tier%20Type=*all&awsf.tech-category=*all https://aws.amazon.com/products/?aws-products-all.sort-by=it... - Look at the list of products - Copy one of them - Do it a bit better (e.g. cheaper, faster, hosted in EU, targeted at some specific segment of users etc.) - Launch asap (no longer than 3 months of coding) - Reach out to potential users everywhere you can, until you get a few dollars of recurring revenue in - Write blogs, and long form content, integrate with other libraries and systems - Automate everything, pay for services that aren't core to your business (e.g. payments, backups, etc.) - Do everything you can to help all your early users, keep improving the product every week - Wait a few months/years, till it compounds up to 10-20k MRR

fm2606 2y ago
Thanks. I'll definitely take a look.
bsima 2y ago
actually a pretty good playbook, would probably work
sakopov 2y ago
Are you suggesting to copy one of AWS services? This seems like fool's errand.

meiraleal 2y ago

It is all about execution. There are people making 10k/month++ right now with apps to take notes or newsletter

Workaccount2 2y ago

What blows my mind is that people tolerate paying monthly for what is a static service. A service routine monitor doesn't need to be updated every month to function, so why would anyone pay every month to use it?

quest88 2y ago
Offer a cheaper solution and find out! Servers cost money each month, as do the services they use.
LVB 2y ago
"Tolerate" is an odd way to describe a totally voluntary transaction in a market with plenty of alternatives. The service is either worth the price or not for each person, regardless of the COGS.
- Workaccount2 2y ago
  If only plumbers knew the value of having a toilet inside your house.
charles_f 2y ago
You've got a backend as well, and support?