swordfish11
New member
3 stories with Mixed results
Hi r/SaaS,
In 2006, the first website I developed was a local Nashville Job Board
A Pivot from a Nashville Job Board. Neither worked.
Fast forward 2011.
I built an eBay feedback Reminder that made me several million dollars and still generates passive income.
My brother, I, and our wives went out to Indian food. My brother asked me to build him a program that would send him a text alert every time he got a negative feedback. Contacting people who left negatives could often get them reversed.
I built that and put it out into the eBay App Store. People began using it asking why it didn't send Feedback Reminders. But eBay already sent feedback reminders, so I'd tell them that, and they'd just cancel.
It turned out, all sellers wanted was a way to customize the reminder message.
That accidental discovery ended up making me more money in three months worth of work than the proceeding 10 years of employment had. It completely changed my life.
My wife and I got to stay at home while we raised our children, we paid off our mortgage. We travelled, got bored, and got a I eventually went back to work for a video workflow engine company called SDVI. I didn't need to work, but I did because it was more money!
One day, my boss pissed me off, so I quit.
I miss it though because most of the people there were great. If you can work, but you don't have to, you should. People will wonder why you do. Just tell them "it's more money!"
Feedback Pro was the #1 app in the eBay app store - eBay already sends feedback reminders but people paid for mine anyway because it let you customize the message.
The takeaway of Feedback Pro? The risk/reward ratio of working for other people is completely asymmetric. The sweetest place to be is under the shade of your own tree
I would also say this: billionaires are very rare. They don't sit around on LinkedIn doling out advice. My results aren't super spectacular, but they're real, and I can tell you what I've learned from my limited experience. I definitely don't know everything, and I'm still learning which is why I've started a very nascent, honest YouTube channel I'm sharing my experience on.
Fast forward to now:
I've built https://www.demo.fun which is a product for creating interactive
product demos.
demo.fun - this is my baby - the one I'm going all in on.
This product is one I can sink my teeth into because it has elements of engineering, marketing, and I love writing and showing off software.
It does have users, but its not profitable. The good news is I have infinite runway (you probably do too on whatever you want to work on if you're a solopreneur. The site doesn't cost anything to run right now aside form opportunity costs, and learning marketing is total joy for me I think makes up for it.
In the video below, I go into more detail about the results I experienced in the past well as my in new venture. I like making these videos to supplement my posts because I truly believe one day marketing is going tend towards video as AI grows. I talk about this and other things on my channel, so watch and subscribe to Coding but Clueless
Hi r/SaaS,
In 2006, the first website I developed was a local Nashville Job Board
- Spent $1000 on a LegalZoom LLC
- Spent $200 on a GeoTrust SSL certificate
- Spent $4000 on a local news weather spot (a banner that ran on T.V. for 2 minutes a day, 20 days a month, 1 month).
A Pivot from a Nashville Job Board. Neither worked.
Fast forward 2011.
I built an eBay feedback Reminder that made me several million dollars and still generates passive income.
My brother, I, and our wives went out to Indian food. My brother asked me to build him a program that would send him a text alert every time he got a negative feedback. Contacting people who left negatives could often get them reversed.
I built that and put it out into the eBay App Store. People began using it asking why it didn't send Feedback Reminders. But eBay already sent feedback reminders, so I'd tell them that, and they'd just cancel.
It turned out, all sellers wanted was a way to customize the reminder message.
That accidental discovery ended up making me more money in three months worth of work than the proceeding 10 years of employment had. It completely changed my life.
My wife and I got to stay at home while we raised our children, we paid off our mortgage. We travelled, got bored, and got a I eventually went back to work for a video workflow engine company called SDVI. I didn't need to work, but I did because it was more money!
One day, my boss pissed me off, so I quit.
I miss it though because most of the people there were great. If you can work, but you don't have to, you should. People will wonder why you do. Just tell them "it's more money!"
Feedback Pro was the #1 app in the eBay app store - eBay already sends feedback reminders but people paid for mine anyway because it let you customize the message.
The takeaway of Feedback Pro? The risk/reward ratio of working for other people is completely asymmetric. The sweetest place to be is under the shade of your own tree
I would also say this: billionaires are very rare. They don't sit around on LinkedIn doling out advice. My results aren't super spectacular, but they're real, and I can tell you what I've learned from my limited experience. I definitely don't know everything, and I'm still learning which is why I've started a very nascent, honest YouTube channel I'm sharing my experience on.
Fast forward to now:
I've built https://www.demo.fun which is a product for creating interactive
product demos.
demo.fun - this is my baby - the one I'm going all in on.
This product is one I can sink my teeth into because it has elements of engineering, marketing, and I love writing and showing off software.
It does have users, but its not profitable. The good news is I have infinite runway (you probably do too on whatever you want to work on if you're a solopreneur. The site doesn't cost anything to run right now aside form opportunity costs, and learning marketing is total joy for me I think makes up for it.
In the video below, I go into more detail about the results I experienced in the past well as my in new venture. I like making these videos to supplement my posts because I truly believe one day marketing is going tend towards video as AI grows. I talk about this and other things on my channel, so watch and subscribe to Coding but Clueless