[HN Gopher] A few words about indie app business
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A few words about indie app business
Author : msephton
Score : 65 points
Date : 2025-02-28 02:59 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.charliemonroe.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.charliemonroe.net)
| martindbp wrote:
| I could keep up side projects before I had kids, but now... I've
| learned you have to focus on your health with whatever time you
| have left in the day/weekend, no matter how excited you are about
| some idea.
| deadbabe wrote:
| It's possible to have both kids and side projects, just involve
| them. I used to hang around my dad's shed doing random stuff
| when he would do his woodworking side projects, and sometimes
| he would show me cool things and let me cut wood. It probably
| helps though if you have the "right" kind of kid for this
| stuff.
| martindbp wrote:
| I was thinking in the context where you'd like to potentially
| monetize the side project as some point. But definitely, I
| spend a lot of time supporting my son's Minecraft obsession,
| and since he's already expressed great interest in building
| mods I think that's something we'll do together that could be
| considered a side project.
|
| In fact... I see a possible future where I have a
| collaborator worth his salt :)
| underdeserver wrote:
| Funny how it's a month-old post referring to Skype being dead,
| with Microsoft announcing it's killing Skype just a few days ago.
| ttd wrote:
| This article hits close to home for me! Coincidentally, I also
| started making apps in high school using REALbasic, before moving
| on to my first "real" language Perl, and am also working on
| launching a new app now [1].
|
| On the article's point of "don't underdevelop," for launch I
| ended up trying to follow the SLC philosophy [2], a cousin of
| MVP. I managed to stick to the "S" with mixed success :-).
|
| My own two cents for anyone out there thinking of trying your own
| thing: it's discouraging sometimes to read the flood of comments
| about survivorship bias, the need for luck or connections, the
| doom-y statistics about the percentage of companies that fail.
| Are these viewpoints based in fact? Yes, probably. Should you
| take the leap and try your own thing anyway? Also yes.
|
| Reflect and decide ahead of time what your definition of success
| is for your venture. Money, satisfaction, adventure, idealism,
| hope: all are equally valid definitions of success, and just
| because someone may have a different definition does not
| invalidate your own. Work out your budget to see what you can
| realistically spend and for how long. Then go to work!
|
| We are fortunate as software engineers that our field allows so
| much creative expression from just our brains and keyboards.
| Software can be almost a living thing, "pure thought-stuff,
| infinitely malleable" [3]. If your circumstances allow, it
| certainly deserves your attention, and the fact that sometimes it
| can produce economic value is a side effect, IMHO.
|
| [1] - App for technical and engineering diagrams:
| https://app.vexlio.com/
|
| [2] - Simple, Lovable, Complete:
| https://longform.asmartbear.com/slc/
|
| [3] - Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, can't remember which
| essay.
| nullderef wrote:
| I've recently embarked on indie app development [1]. It's
| exciting but my first lesson has been how slow things move. Just
| submitting to the stores, waiting, getting users... already takes
| months.
|
| One of my fears is not being able to take vacation, as the OP
| explains. I'm working alone and had the impression hiring someone
| for customer support would be doable. Anyone with experience in
| this regard? AI also seems a good use case here.
|
| [1] https://speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/v1/
| kshacker wrote:
| There are 2 kinds of vacations: Backpacking, Cruise ships or
| something where you can not connect, OR sightseeing like
| London, Paris, or even something local.
|
| Although I have always been an employee, I have been able to
| mix and match work with sightseeing travels all the time. And
| this was not remote work, this was weekdays and weekends just
| checking emails and action items 1 hour in the morning and 1
| hour in the night to 1) keep up, and 2) take care of things.
| Did I have to do that? No, but I like to.
|
| And on one trip, I remember I was coding too. There was a
| problem I was trying to solve and I was way behind schedule, so
| I would fix one issue AM and one issue PM and test more and
| more. Once again, did I have to do that? Did my company force
| me to? Nope. Just something I wanted to take care of. And the
| day was available for family and sightseeing and I guess
| subconsciously plot my next bug fix.
|
| I think opportunities for asynchronous communication can be
| created if A) you are motivated and B) your vacation schedule
| is not too extreme. This should be even easier with a product
| you own and understand and when your business is at stake.
| angarg12 wrote:
| > Don't get a job.
|
| All advice is circumstantial, and this one seems particularly
| painted by OP circumstances.
|
| When I got my first job, I was living paycheck to paycheck and
| partially supporting my family. I can't imagine how could I
| possibly quit my job to pursue side projects. A few years later I
| did work in a side project that went nowhere for 2-3 years in a
| manner similar to how OP describes.
|
| Sometimes dedicating yourself 100% to your own venture is the
| right call, but this piece seems to assume this is a choice
| everyone can make easily.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| There is reasonable risk, and then there are the gamblers that
| still live in there parents house...
|
| Most small businesses start with "why isn't there an X for the
| Y I need right now?", are launched with "a tax strategy" for
| money you would have to pay anyways, and end with knowing when
| to execute an exit strategy.
|
| Wise to keep the day job even if part-time, and follow a strict
| disciplined schedule with reasonable hours. Eventually, revenue
| may swing you away from your job to a new venture... but most
| of the time it won't.
|
| Small business is not for gamblers, and Apps are a fragmented
| long-tail market.
|
| Rule #23: Don't compete to be at the bottom, as you just might
| actually win. =3
| dceddia wrote:
| > The unfortunate thing about this is that going through the
| support emails in my case is something that takes about 2-3 hours
| a day - which is not enough to hire someone and train them. Not
| to mention that most of the reports actually need some technical
| knowledge. So unless I would hire another developer, in the end,
| the really administrative stuff that someone could do instead of
| me is a 30-minute-a-day job.
|
| This part hits home for me. I only have 1 app to support and the
| volume is low, well below the 100/day the author gets, but it can
| still be a struggle to get myself to get in there and write the
| replies. It's all easy "on paper" but it becomes more of a mental
| game that's hard to even describe without sounding like an idiot.
|
| I've tried hiring some help and ran into the same thing where
| some problems were just too technical, and I had to hop in. It
| was wonderful to have their help for all the other stuff, but
| tough to justify the cost.
|
| It seems like an area where AI could help draft replies that I
| could read over before sending. If that could even get to 50%
| correct based on past conversations it'd be pretty great. (Or who
| knows, maybe this is the kind of thing you build and then realize
| it creates more problems than it solves)
| seanwilson wrote:
| > The unfortunate thing about this is that going through the
| support emails in my case is something that takes about 2-3 hours
| a day
|
| Are there stats or more stories anywhere for support time per day
| for different kinds of apps?
|
| So the apps I make, I usually aim to make them solo and run them
| solo. This can involve making choices like avoiding certain apps
| or features that I think will require too more support. I've
| managed to keep support emails low so far, but I'm curious what
| the average hours per day for different kinds of app is now.
|
| For example, I have an on-page SEO checking app
| (https://www.checkbot.io/) and most of my support emails are
| about how to fix some specific SEO problem. These can often be
| quite technical and website specific so harder to automate away
| (LLM chat would probably help), but are surprisingly rare. When I
| started, I'd get more emails about problems signing up, logging
| in, recovering passwords and payment issues, but I've managed to
| get rid of a lot of these via improving the docs, better FAQ, and
| automating common issues.
|
| I found mentioning response times in the intro live chat message
| helps e.g. "A human will reply if you need help (usually within a
| few hours on weekdays) but it's quicker if you check the FAQ
| first for common questions like ...".
|
| The app is also a browser extension, vs a native/Electron app,
| which was partly a choice to avoid platform specific issues and
| making the app simple to install and update. Because I had to
| code my own login and payment system though, this naturally
| attracts support requests you probably wouldn't get for e.g.
| Android/iOS apps.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| Even though at 50 I would rather get a daily anal probe with a
| cactus than ever work for BigTech (again), I can't come up with a
| scenario where it makes more sense to be an independent app dev
| than just "grind leetcode and work for a FAANG (or equivalent)"
| (tm r/cscareerquestions).
|
| I like money just appearing in my account every week and when I
| was working for BigTech public liquid stock appearing in my
| brokerage account every vesting period.
| baxtr wrote:
| If life for you is mainly accruing cash and stock, then yes, by
| all means do that.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| Yes because I have this insatiable addiction to food and
| shelter and I need cash to exchange for goods and services to
| support those addictions.
|
| Why would I work harder for less money?
| saguaro_tech wrote:
| Just to clarify your current order of preferences:
|
| 1. Get a daily anal probe with a cactus 2. Work for BigTech 3.
| Be an independent app dev
|
| Interesting how taste can change over time.
| kelvinjps10 wrote:
| I quit my remote job at a call center (basically working on my
| computer all day) and instead I got another one as a medical
| interpreter in person, now working on my own project even more
| hours that before, it feels better
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