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Not making a living, but I make about $200/mo from an API that parses recipe ingredients like "2 cups finely chopped onions" into structured JSON.[0] I put it

Not making a living, but I make about $200/mo from an API that parses recipe ingredients like "2 cups finely chopped onions" into structured JSON.[0] I put it in maintenance mode in 2019, so it's about 99% passive income, as I spend only about an hour or two on maintenance per year. I'm surprised all my clients haven't switched to LLMs, but maybe I still outdo LLMs on price/accuracy since it's so niche. I'd like to sell it to someone who wants to do something with it, but it would probably take me 30-40 hours to package everything up to hand off to someone, so I consider just the opportunity cost there to be around $5-10k, and I don't think anyone wants to pay $10k for an API that makes $200/mo. What I wish I knew: don't use RapidAPI. They charge 20%, they have a terrible interface, and they let customers run up huge charges and walk away without paying anything. I wish I'd just rolled my own simple thing with Paddle. [0] https://zestfuldata.com/ https://zestfuldata.com/

soared 1y ago
I made this exact website with ChatGPT’s API to prep for an interview a couple months ago! Biggest hurdle I ran into - asking chatgpt for help on using the chatgpt api was completely useless, as it was trained on a deprecated version of the api so none of its examples even worked.
philipodonnell 1y ago
What kind of customers are using this API? I’ve had many similar thoughts but I get hung up on the idea that customers are “developers” from a marketing standpoint, because those developers are developing something and that something is probably a bigger driver of utility that a truly generically developer tool like Cursor.
- mtlynch 1y ago
  It's generally apps that let users import or enter recipes. The apps want to do more with the recipes like create shopping lists or provide nutritional information.
tkiolp4 1y ago
In my country it costs around 200 euro/month to be a freelancer (I think most of that money is for health insurance). So making $200/month would be a no go for me. How do people manage to legally earn that money when the margins are so low?
- mtlynch 1y ago
  In the US, it doesn't really cost anything to run a business as a sole proprietor. So, I can't live on Zestful, but it's definitely more profitable than not having the business.
- selcuka 1y ago
  > it's about 99% passive income, as I spend only about an hour or two on maintenance per year. Looks like that $200 is just side income, not their main job.
- Suppafly 1y ago
  >In my country it costs around 200 euro/month to be a freelancer (I think most of that money is for health insurance). You get a real job to have health insurance.
elwebmaster 1y ago
How did you find your first customers?
- mtlynch 1y ago
  I wrote blog posts about how I built the service[0] and answered StackOverflow questions that related to ingredient parsing[1]. [0] https://mtlynch.io/resurrecting-1/ https://mtlynch.io/resurrecting-1/ [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/52304008/90388 https://stackoverflow.com/a/52304008/90388

soared 1y ago

I made this exact website with ChatGPT’s API to prep for an interview a couple months ago! Biggest hurdle I ran into - asking chatgpt for help on using the chatgpt api was completely useless, as it was trained on a deprecated version of the api so none of its examples even worked.

philipodonnell 1y ago

What kind of customers are using this API? I’ve had many similar thoughts but I get hung up on the idea that customers are “developers” from a marketing standpoint, because those developers are developing something and that something is probably a bigger driver of utility that a truly generically developer tool like Cursor.

mtlynch 1y ago
It's generally apps that let users import or enter recipes. The apps want to do more with the recipes like create shopping lists or provide nutritional information.

tkiolp4 1y ago

In my country it costs around 200 euro/month to be a freelancer (I think most of that money is for health insurance). So making $200/month would be a no go for me. How do people manage to legally earn that money when the margins are so low?

mtlynch 1y ago
In the US, it doesn't really cost anything to run a business as a sole proprietor. So, I can't live on Zestful, but it's definitely more profitable than not having the business.
selcuka 1y ago
> it's about 99% passive income, as I spend only about an hour or two on maintenance per year. Looks like that $200 is just side income, not their main job.
Suppafly 1y ago
>In my country it costs around 200 euro/month to be a freelancer (I think most of that money is for health insurance). You get a real job to have health insurance.

elwebmaster 1y ago

How did you find your first customers?

mtlynch 1y ago
I wrote blog posts about how I built the service[0] and answered StackOverflow questions that related to ingredient parsing[1]. [0] https://mtlynch.io/resurrecting-1/ https://mtlynch.io/resurrecting-1/ [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/52304008/90388 https://stackoverflow.com/a/52304008/90388