6 ms·
Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Mos
by patio11 13y ago
Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say "This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect."
I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card Creator (http://www.bingocardcreator.com http://www.bingocardcreator.com), Appointment Reminder (https://www.appointmentreminder.org https://www.appointmentreminder.org), and occasional offerings for training for other software companies. I used to do consulting, too, but quit to focus on products.
I'd describe it as "modestly successful." It's the sole financial support for my wife and I. I'm the only full-time employee of the business (for a very quirky understanding of the words "full-time").
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- iagooar 13y agoA little bit off-topic, but I find it really interesting how some American webpages have a look and feel that is recognizable in a fraction of second. The website https://www.appointmentreminder.org/ https://www.appointmentreminder.org/ is one of these, the second you enter, the second you know it is a US American page.
- joelennon 13y agoWhat a bizarre comment, I expected to see American flags and red and blue text but the site looks like any website, American or otherwise.
- tonyedgecombe 13y agoI thought that until I visited the page, the graphics and content both feel American to me.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- georgiecasey 13y agothe american phone number is the only thing that stands out for me
- peterjancelis 13y agoIt's a theme from WooThemes, a company with 2 South African founders and one Norwegian one and, as far as I know, an international customer base. Not sure what is so US American about this theme.
- tinco 13y agoI think he's talking about the marketing style, or perhaps the art style of the eyecatcher.
- tatalegma 13y agoAre you talking about appointmentreminder? I thought that was a single owner, the guy who lives in Japan and who also created Bingo Card Creator?
- Harelin 13y agoHe's talking about Appointment Reminder's theme.
- visualR 13y agoAlthough patio is an American he lives in Japan
- zerr 13y agoIt really requires a different mindset. For instance, while BCC makes sense, I can't imagine someone willing to pay for something like Appointment Reminder.
- JonoBB 13y agoNo need to imagine. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/01/06/kalzumeus-software-year-in-review-2013/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/01/06/kalzumeus-software-year-...
- letstryagain 13y agoI think my dentist uses it. It's easy to forget an appointment that's 6 months in the future.
- notahacker 13y agoOne of my colleagues commented earlier this week how impressed he was that his doctor's surgery sent him an SMS the day before the appointment, presumably driven by similar software.
- patio11 13y agoSuppose you run a professional services business where you have appointments. If people don't come to an appointment, you don't get money. You might pay an office manager to call people the morning of their appointment to remind them, so that they come into their appointment, so you get paid, right? Appointment Reminder is like an office manager who costs $200 a month, not $4,000 a month, is vastly more likely to successfully reach a customer, (virtually) never forgets to call, and does not consider boring, repetitive work to be an insult to her intelligence. For many of my customers, $200 is substantially less than they earn for a single appointment. (Think less "hair salon" and more "HVAC repair firm.")
- rmc 13y agotl;dr: Helps businesses not lose money. So they pay for it.
- glazskunrukitis 13y agoPato11's stories are always inspiring and interesting to read. They were a huge motivator to start my own business, which I eventually did. My first attempt in online business was GetSSL.me (https://getssl.me https://getssl.me), which has been one-man shop most of the time. It was pretty simple to set up and run, but the biggest pain point was payments, because of my geographic location. Also marketing was a big issue, because I am not a marketer and had to learn everything on the go. To be honest it was more like trial and error approach.
- imjk 13y agoAs someone who has no idea about the SSL certificate business, how does your business work? Are you a reseller or do you make money on affiliate commissions? Just genuinely curious.
- dublinben 13y agoFor one thing, their first product is sold for $2 more than it costs from other resellers.
- glazskunrukitis 13y agoI am a reseller. GetSSL.me processes customer's order, requests a certificate from certificate authority (e.g. Comodo) and then they send the certificates to the customer. The point of GetSSL.me is simplicity, price and support. If you were buying directly from Comodo, you would overpay a great amount, because reseller prices are much cheaper. A lot of clutter has been removed from ordering process and you can get certificate in just a few minutes. Our support is friendly and helps with basically anything. Also a lot of people want to buy stuff from small, approachable businesses not from large corporations (e.g. GoDaddy).
- mstump 13y agoYour cert for getssl.me has expired...
- glazskunrukitis 13y ago
- jasonkester 13y agoTo underscore Patrick's point about just how many of these businesses there really are, he's one of the few folks I remember from the old Business of Software forums over at joelonsoftware.com that seem to have migrated over here. That was a tiny little board where the owners of single player software businesses would get together to ask silly questions about how to update their shareware product's PAD files. There were a few hundred of these businesses represented there just among the regular users. Most of them fly under the radar since, having products that provide a comfortable living with relatively low workload and no need to follow the latest hot technology trends, there's little reason your average Dot-Com-Thousandaire would ever stumble across a place like Hacker News. Edit: forgot to plug S3stat (http://s3stat.com http://s3stat.com) and Twiddla (http://twiddla.com http://twiddla.com), my two main revenue generators, and FairTutor (http://fairtutor.com http://fairtutor.com), hopefully the next one.
- raphinou 13y agoI like the idea of the cheap bastard plan of s3stat. Very well done and well presented.
- itengelhardt 13y agoExcellent idea. :-) I love the tone
- jdeibele 13y agoI have two daughters, a niece and a nephew who might be moving from Spanish Immersion this fall to classes that are more rigorous in math, science, etc. Maybe I'm your target audience., maybe not. When I look at your website, the last blog post and tweet are from 2010. It makes things look dead. We're not homeschooling but http://homeschoolspanishacademy.com/ http://homeschoolspanishacademy.com/ looks a lot more active. Also, "fair trade" often seems to translate as "expensive". Education seems more valuable than coffee (now that I'm on my second cup) but not having any sense of what pricing or structure is like is off-putting.
- 13y ago
- kewball 13y agoThanks patio11 and everyone else who has shared their story. I have been consulting for a few years and I plan on moving to a product based income. Built products in the past that have not been successful but hearing stories of others who have done it is motivation to keep trying.