4 ms·

Tell HN: thank you (+ a 50% discount during 3 months on my new SaaS)

Since I've been on HN (2009), I learned quite a lot on a large range of topics, and I'm very grateful to everyone here for this. This pushed me to ship and ship more projects out there; earlier, side-projects like hackerbooks.com (which I'm going to open-source), and more recently my first SaaS offering (https://www.wisecashhq.com, cash flow forecasting for freelancers and SBOs). For my birthday (the 11th) and as a way to say thank you, I'd like to offer a discount for a limited period and duration. => use coupon THANKYOUHN before the 12th to enjoy a 50% discount during 3 months. Thank you!

thibaut_barrere 13y ago
Clickable: https://www.wisecashhq.com/ https://www.wisecashhq.com/
bjourne 13y ago
HN readers aren't dumb. Your post is a thinly veiled attempt to market your site, not to thank anyone and you know it. Not that there's anything wrong with self-promotion, but at least be honest about it!
- thibaut_barrere 13y ago
  You make a lot of wrong assumptions, sorry... I do not think you or anyone here is dumb. There is nothing "thinly veiled" either: it is both promotion (there is "discount" in the main text) AND a thank you. That said I do think that there is an increasing level of negativity here and I do feel sad about it. I miss the old HN, full of Show HN.
  - karolist 13y ago
    Guess people got tired from all these now-i'm-here-now-i'm-closed little SaaS CRUD projects that everyone and their grandmother is building using same tech. And people hate promotions that are not said to be promotions openly, but wrapped into a thin transparent cloth. IMO you'd be more welcome if you made 2 separate posts, one to thank, one to show the project, but maybe don't mention any discounts for HN in the post in an attempt to incentivize checking of your site.
    - thibaut_barrere 13y ago
      Thanks for the attempt to help :-) I did more or less what you advised, I think... - a "show HN" 50 days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5928066); https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5928066); which quickly went off the radar under all the Snowden/NSA stories - note that previously, I got a lot of interest from HN: one of my users posted the site 300 days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4659092 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4659092 (without me asking, with a very beta page) and I got great feedback out of it - finally, the thank you coupon (current post) So I'm not sure what is the right lesson to get out of this. I do not feel very happy of the comment by bjourne, for sure! Nevertheless I'm happy that I did post here, because some people enjoyed the coupon. To address your first sentence: I am not closing WiseCash anytime soon, far from it. We're using it for our own needs since Jan 2012, opened to private beta in Jun 2012, and opened to everyone in Jul 2013, and it is growing nicely (and bootstrapped 100%).
      - bjourne 13y ago
        karolist got it right. Had you made two posts I wouldn't have complained and probably upvoted both. You hoped people would feel grateful to HN, and upvote your combined thank hn/show my product-post just as the last "thank you hn" post reached about ~150 points and would have driven thousands of leads for you. That's insincere and you deserved to be called out for it.
AznHisoka 13y ago
Why would you target a market (freelancers) that is starved for cash, and want to do almost everything themselves? Your product is almost doomed to fail.
- thibaut_barrere 13y ago
  I'm doing quite well already, actually, but thanks! Not all freelancers are starving for cash (the term freelancer is just too broad IMO), my customers aren't. I also have agencies/consultancies (ie: shops with more than one head) onboard, who are not either. People write to me with messages like "thank you for building this, since this mean I do not have to build it myself, anymore".
- wikwocket 13y ago
  While it's true that, all things being equal, you should target a market that has the means and willingness to pay for your product, it is also true that all things are never equal, and that within large markets there are niche markets, which may be lucrative to pursue. For example "freelancers" may call to mind teenagers doing PHP for $15 an hour, but it also includes 30-somethings with high billable rates but uncertain pipelines. In fact, I suspect that this project was born out of the OP's own experiences, pain points, and need, thus helping to validate the offering. (I say this because to anyone who has not experienced it, the term "cashflow projection" probably evokes a response of, gee, I wish I had that problem!)
  - thibaut_barrere 13y ago
    That's exactly it: I've been doing freelancing since 2005 (and my wife joined in 2010), and WiseCash translates our internal tools and knowledge into something that other can use for their own benefits. We wanted a tool that helps us know where we stand and where we are going, keep a healthy family life (we have 2 kids). Very good point on the cashflow projection term, thank you! I will write articles around that topic and more. I'm deeply concerned about people caught into the "rat race" and plan to share what I learned to escape that situation. I think moving to a situation where you can decide what to work on and at which pace, is something great to have, and want to help more people reach that point.
pearjuice 13y ago
Your 11th birthday and you were here since 2009? Kids these days!
- chunky1994 13y ago
  I think he means that the 11th is his birthday. (His comments below say he's married)
- thibaut_barrere 13y ago
  I'm turning 36 on the 11th of August. When I was 11, I was more focused on 3D rendering than on cash flow projection, actually :P Sorry about the confusion! I'm not a native english (and thanks to chunky1994 for the clarification).

thibaut_barrere 13y ago

Clickable: https://www.wisecashhq.com/ https://www.wisecashhq.com/

bjourne 13y ago

HN readers aren't dumb. Your post is a thinly veiled attempt to market your site, not to thank anyone and you know it. Not that there's anything wrong with self-promotion, but at least be honest about it!

thibaut_barrere 13y ago
You make a lot of wrong assumptions, sorry... I do not think you or anyone here is dumb. There is nothing "thinly veiled" either: it is both promotion (there is "discount" in the main text) AND a thank you. That said I do think that there is an increasing level of negativity here and I do feel sad about it. I miss the old HN, full of Show HN.
- karolist 13y ago
  Guess people got tired from all these now-i'm-here-now-i'm-closed little SaaS CRUD projects that everyone and their grandmother is building using same tech. And people hate promotions that are not said to be promotions openly, but wrapped into a thin transparent cloth. IMO you'd be more welcome if you made 2 separate posts, one to thank, one to show the project, but maybe don't mention any discounts for HN in the post in an attempt to incentivize checking of your site.
  - thibaut_barrere 13y ago
    Thanks for the attempt to help :-) I did more or less what you advised, I think... - a "show HN" 50 days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5928066); https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5928066); which quickly went off the radar under all the Snowden/NSA stories - note that previously, I got a lot of interest from HN: one of my users posted the site 300 days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4659092 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4659092 (without me asking, with a very beta page) and I got great feedback out of it - finally, the thank you coupon (current post) So I'm not sure what is the right lesson to get out of this. I do not feel very happy of the comment by bjourne, for sure! Nevertheless I'm happy that I did post here, because some people enjoyed the coupon. To address your first sentence: I am not closing WiseCash anytime soon, far from it. We're using it for our own needs since Jan 2012, opened to private beta in Jun 2012, and opened to everyone in Jul 2013, and it is growing nicely (and bootstrapped 100%).
    - bjourne 13y ago
      karolist got it right. Had you made two posts I wouldn't have complained and probably upvoted both. You hoped people would feel grateful to HN, and upvote your combined thank hn/show my product-post just as the last "thank you hn" post reached about ~150 points and would have driven thousands of leads for you. That's insincere and you deserved to be called out for it.

AznHisoka 13y ago

Why would you target a market (freelancers) that is starved for cash, and want to do almost everything themselves? Your product is almost doomed to fail.

thibaut_barrere 13y ago
I'm doing quite well already, actually, but thanks! Not all freelancers are starving for cash (the term freelancer is just too broad IMO), my customers aren't. I also have agencies/consultancies (ie: shops with more than one head) onboard, who are not either. People write to me with messages like "thank you for building this, since this mean I do not have to build it myself, anymore".
wikwocket 13y ago
While it's true that, all things being equal, you should target a market that has the means and willingness to pay for your product, it is also true that all things are never equal, and that within large markets there are niche markets, which may be lucrative to pursue. For example "freelancers" may call to mind teenagers doing PHP for $15 an hour, but it also includes 30-somethings with high billable rates but uncertain pipelines. In fact, I suspect that this project was born out of the OP's own experiences, pain points, and need, thus helping to validate the offering. (I say this because to anyone who has not experienced it, the term "cashflow projection" probably evokes a response of, gee, I wish I had that problem!)
- thibaut_barrere 13y ago
  That's exactly it: I've been doing freelancing since 2005 (and my wife joined in 2010), and WiseCash translates our internal tools and knowledge into something that other can use for their own benefits. We wanted a tool that helps us know where we stand and where we are going, keep a healthy family life (we have 2 kids). Very good point on the cashflow projection term, thank you! I will write articles around that topic and more. I'm deeply concerned about people caught into the "rat race" and plan to share what I learned to escape that situation. I think moving to a situation where you can decide what to work on and at which pace, is something great to have, and want to help more people reach that point.

pearjuice 13y ago

Your 11th birthday and you were here since 2009? Kids these days!

chunky1994 13y ago
I think he means that the 11th is his birthday. (His comments below say he's married)
thibaut_barrere 13y ago
I'm turning 36 on the 11th of August. When I was 11, I was more focused on 3D rendering than on cash flow projection, actually :P Sorry about the confusion! I'm not a native english (and thanks to chunky1994 for the clarification).