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It does seem like cost are negligible today, but on deeper analysis theres a lot of costs beyond simply hosting. Just from memory for my startup (Authy.com), i

It does seem like cost are negligible today, but on deeper analysis theres a lot of costs beyond simply hosting. Just from memory for my startup (Authy.com), initial costs were: Domain: $1000+ Design: $3000 Video: $3000 Hosting: $400 Depending on your skills this initial costs will vary. An although I agree you don't need external investment to cover them, you should at least plan to invest $10,000US to cover your initial costs.

codewright 14y ago
I was looking at Authy the other day. What does it do exactly? I couldn't figure it out from the website and I churn through a lot of landing pages.
- gaborcselle 14y ago
  It's a way to add two-factor authentication to your website or app. Instead of having people log in with just username and password, they'll also have to enter a code. They get the code from the Authy app on their phone. (PS I'm not affiliated with Authy, just trying to be helpful.)
  - codewright 14y ago
    Two-factor auth as a service for what is likely software as a service?
    - msbarnett 14y ago
      Basically, yeah. Goes well with platform-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, full-text-indexing-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, payment-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, etc. Easier to snap these components together than roll your own.
- notJim 14y ago
  "Authy is a simple API to add two-factor authentication to your website or app" Two-factor auth is a thing where when you log in to something, you also get a text message, or open an app on your smartphone, and type that into the app you're trying to log into. The purpose of this is that even if someone figures out your password, they can't get access to your account, because they don't have the 2nd form of auth (hence two-factor.)
  - codewright 14y ago
    I understand two-factor auth just fine, it just wasn't clear to me if it was a demand-side or supply-side service.
notJim 14y ago
A lot of the things that you seem to think of as mandatory are not. Domain: or get something longer for $9. E.g., authyapp.com or getauthy.com Design: http://themeforest.net/ http://themeforest.net/ $15-$25, or DIY (depends on how much design matters for your niche--for Pinboard it clearly doesn't) Video: You don't need no stinkin' video Hosting: Maciej is recommending http://prgmr.com/xen/ http://prgmr.com/xen/ for $32 (but can you actually run a modern app stack on just 128 MB of RAM?) Anyway, even if you need a gig, that's $100.
- codewright 14y ago
  >(but can you actually run a modern app stack on just 128 MB of RAM?) C/Golang/Lua/Vala/SBCL/Ada/Pascal and an embedded datastore like bdb! Why in my day we used to write little apps with C and bdb that used less than 5mb of memory! (Sqlite didn't exist yo.) Heck these days you get (ENTERPRISE) choices like LevelDB and BangDB. Edit: Who wants to have a datastore-backed c10k contest on prgmr machines? :D
  - notJim 14y ago
    Ha, I'm aware that if you're careful, you can do it, but I was more thinking of a python or ruby stack with MySQL (or whatever) that most people would use :).
    - codewright 14y ago
      MySQL and Ruby could be made to work. (on 128mb of ram)...concurrency would be awful though. I was trying to be lean. Ruby users are quiche eaters anyway. Real programmers write their code in Fortran and persist to a hierarchical database on a mainframe.
      - bcbroom 14y ago
        Real programmers use a magnetic needle and a steady hand.
        14y ago
c1sc0 14y ago
I agree that getting things done "properly" still costs money. But every single item on your list can be done for at least one order of magnitude less in the MVP stage. * Domain: $9 * Design: $50 (Themeforest) * Video: $5 (Fiverr) * Hosting: $0 (Pick your choice) I've been thinking semi-seriously about this & I came to the conclusion that with $37 you can actually get a LOT done.
- itslogic 14y ago
  Design 0 ( use bootstrap) Video 0 ( who needs video to get started?) Seriously, why over complicate things?
  - icebraining 14y ago
    Bootstrap is not design, it's just a tool that you can use to create a design.
stevewilhelm 14y ago
When hosting on Heroku, first dyno per app is free!
- whichdan 14y ago
  Unless Heroku has changed, you absolutely should not host a production site using a free account. If your site doesn't get any traffic for a certain period of time, they spin down your instance. This means that the next subsequent view will have an abnormally long load time as they wait for your EC2 instance to spin back up. The $20/mo at Rackspace (or any other provider) is well worth it.
  - haldean 14y ago
    App Engine has this problem too. The solution is to run a cronjob somewhere (App Engine has cron built in, so I've used that in the past) that hits your frontend every ~10 minutes or so. Instances never go stale, and on App Engine, you get 28 instance hours/day for free, so you can stay under the free quota as well.
    - lazerwalker 14y ago
      On Heroku, you don't even need to manually run a cronjob or set up something that feels like you're consciously trying to game the system. If you sign up for the free tier of NewRelic that Heroku offers, it'll automatically ping your dyno often enough to prevent it being spun down.
  - hayksaakian 14y ago
    The second dyno brings your total to ~30/ month. Still quite cheap. Youd only need more if you have users, and at that point its a worthwhile expense.
huhtenberg 14y ago
Your logo is very SquareSpace-ish.

codewright 14y ago

I was looking at Authy the other day. What does it do exactly? I couldn't figure it out from the website and I churn through a lot of landing pages.

gaborcselle 14y ago
It's a way to add two-factor authentication to your website or app. Instead of having people log in with just username and password, they'll also have to enter a code. They get the code from the Authy app on their phone. (PS I'm not affiliated with Authy, just trying to be helpful.)
- codewright 14y ago
  Two-factor auth as a service for what is likely software as a service?
  - msbarnett 14y ago
    Basically, yeah. Goes well with platform-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, full-text-indexing-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, payment-as-a-service for software-as-a-service, etc. Easier to snap these components together than roll your own.
notJim 14y ago
"Authy is a simple API to add two-factor authentication to your website or app" Two-factor auth is a thing where when you log in to something, you also get a text message, or open an app on your smartphone, and type that into the app you're trying to log into. The purpose of this is that even if someone figures out your password, they can't get access to your account, because they don't have the 2nd form of auth (hence two-factor.)
- codewright 14y ago
  I understand two-factor auth just fine, it just wasn't clear to me if it was a demand-side or supply-side service.

notJim 14y ago

A lot of the things that you seem to think of as mandatory are not. Domain: or get something longer for $9. E.g., authyapp.com or getauthy.com Design: http://themeforest.net/ http://themeforest.net/ $15-$25, or DIY (depends on how much design matters for your niche--for Pinboard it clearly doesn't) Video: You don't need no stinkin' video Hosting: Maciej is recommending http://prgmr.com/xen/ http://prgmr.com/xen/ for $32 (but can you actually run a modern app stack on just 128 MB of RAM?) Anyway, even if you need a gig, that's $100.

codewright 14y ago
>(but can you actually run a modern app stack on just 128 MB of RAM?) C/Golang/Lua/Vala/SBCL/Ada/Pascal and an embedded datastore like bdb! Why in my day we used to write little apps with C and bdb that used less than 5mb of memory! (Sqlite didn't exist yo.) Heck these days you get (ENTERPRISE) choices like LevelDB and BangDB. Edit: Who wants to have a datastore-backed c10k contest on prgmr machines? :D
- notJim 14y ago
  Ha, I'm aware that if you're careful, you can do it, but I was more thinking of a python or ruby stack with MySQL (or whatever) that most people would use :).
  - codewright 14y ago
    MySQL and Ruby could be made to work. (on 128mb of ram)...concurrency would be awful though. I was trying to be lean. Ruby users are quiche eaters anyway. Real programmers write their code in Fortran and persist to a hierarchical database on a mainframe.
    - bcbroom 14y ago
      Real programmers use a magnetic needle and a steady hand.
      - 14y ago

c1sc0 14y ago

I agree that getting things done "properly" still costs money. But every single item on your list can be done for at least one order of magnitude less in the MVP stage. * Domain: $9 * Design: $50 (Themeforest) * Video: $5 (Fiverr) * Hosting: $0 (Pick your choice) I've been thinking semi-seriously about this & I came to the conclusion that with $37 you can actually get a LOT done.

itslogic 14y ago
Design 0 ( use bootstrap) Video 0 ( who needs video to get started?) Seriously, why over complicate things?
- icebraining 14y ago
  Bootstrap is not design, it's just a tool that you can use to create a design.

stevewilhelm 14y ago

When hosting on Heroku, first dyno per app is free!

whichdan 14y ago
Unless Heroku has changed, you absolutely should not host a production site using a free account. If your site doesn't get any traffic for a certain period of time, they spin down your instance. This means that the next subsequent view will have an abnormally long load time as they wait for your EC2 instance to spin back up. The $20/mo at Rackspace (or any other provider) is well worth it.
- haldean 14y ago
  App Engine has this problem too. The solution is to run a cronjob somewhere (App Engine has cron built in, so I've used that in the past) that hits your frontend every ~10 minutes or so. Instances never go stale, and on App Engine, you get 28 instance hours/day for free, so you can stay under the free quota as well.
  - lazerwalker 14y ago
    On Heroku, you don't even need to manually run a cronjob or set up something that feels like you're consciously trying to game the system. If you sign up for the free tier of NewRelic that Heroku offers, it'll automatically ping your dyno often enough to prevent it being spun down.
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  The second dyno brings your total to ~30/ month. Still quite cheap. Youd only need more if you have users, and at that point its a worthwhile expense.

huhtenberg 14y ago

Your logo is very SquareSpace-ish.