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The first few customers covered the ongoing costs (hosting, payment processing, etc), and I picked up the first few customers the day I launched. That can be sa

The first few customers covered the ongoing costs (hosting, payment processing, etc), and I picked up the first few customers the day I launched. That can be said of my last few products. I'm not a big risk taker, I've never launched something where I didn't expect it to pay for itself pretty much immediately. The only real sunk cost up-front is my time.

mantrax 13y ago
So the only thing you didn't answer is the actual question, which was how much time it took you. And "your time" counts when we discuss "how long"...
- dangrossman 13y ago
  How do you figure that? I think I answered the question the same way every other person here did. The question was how long it took to break even on costs, not how long it took to develop. My time isn't a monetary cost.
  - pc86 13y ago
    Thank you. The arguments here that you need to calculate your time developing a side project at your market rate for clients or it "doesn't count" is ridiculous, and frankly kind of self-important. A side project is something you choose to do, and saying you're still in the red because of your time, even though it cost you $4k to get off the ground and it's given you $40k back is ludicrous.
    - rachelandrew 13y ago
      There are also ways you can mitigate the risk to some extent. If possible build something your existing business needs. That way if it doesn't take off as a product you still have something that meets a need you have. Launch the smallest thing that solves a problem your prospective customers have. The smallest thing they will be willing to pay for, then iterate from there. Our product was something we needed in our service business (a small CMS that didn't insert unwanted markup) and took us about 4 weekends to get to launch in terms of the product, and about the same for the infrastructure around it (documentation, sales site and so on). It was tiny compared to where it is now, but enough people wanted it to make it worth continuing development.

mantrax 13y ago

So the only thing you didn't answer is the actual question, which was how much time it took you. And "your time" counts when we discuss "how long"...

dangrossman 13y ago
How do you figure that? I think I answered the question the same way every other person here did. The question was how long it took to break even on costs, not how long it took to develop. My time isn't a monetary cost.
- pc86 13y ago
  Thank you. The arguments here that you need to calculate your time developing a side project at your market rate for clients or it "doesn't count" is ridiculous, and frankly kind of self-important. A side project is something you choose to do, and saying you're still in the red because of your time, even though it cost you $4k to get off the ground and it's given you $40k back is ludicrous.
  - rachelandrew 13y ago
    There are also ways you can mitigate the risk to some extent. If possible build something your existing business needs. That way if it doesn't take off as a product you still have something that meets a need you have. Launch the smallest thing that solves a problem your prospective customers have. The smallest thing they will be willing to pay for, then iterate from there. Our product was something we needed in our service business (a small CMS that didn't insert unwanted markup) and took us about 4 weekends to get to launch in terms of the product, and about the same for the infrastructure around it (documentation, sales site and so on). It was tiny compared to where it is now, but enough people wanted it to make it worth continuing development.