
Ask HN: Examples of sucessful one person startups? - siquick
Any spring to mind?
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pieterhg
I make Nomad List ([http://nomadlist.com](http://nomadlist.com)). Not sure if
it's succesful, that's up to you to decide. But it has revenue, profit, 3,000+
paying members, premium advertisers, was #1 on here and Product Hunt, been on
Reddit's frontpage and has a decent reach in the remote work community.

One person, no funding.

~~~
eecks
Looks cool, good job. What do members pay for?

~~~
pieterhg
Thanks! Everything is free except community features like asking questions on
the forum ([https://nomadforum.io](https://nomadforum.io)), although reading
is free.

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atmosx
Pinboard[1] is the most prominent example that comes to my mind, along with
tarsnap[2]. These 'startups'[3] have in common some things:

* Both 'entrepreneurs' have strong personality, although they are quite different.

* Both have a simple, traditional pricing model: You pay for the service. End of the story. Tarsnap in particular uses 'picodollars'.

* Both have a very simple web UI.

* Both are pretty stable. You don't see "coming back soon" pages and 404 errors.

[1] [https://www.pinboard.in/](https://www.pinboard.in/)

[2] [https://www.tarsnap.com/](https://www.tarsnap.com/)

[3] I don't know if these two businesses can be considered startups. To me
_startup_ is something defined. Not very specifically, but not very loosely
either. The feeling I'm getting reading HN is that any (self-perceived)
_modern_ or _pseudo-modern_ tech-company that doesn't have reason to market
itself as a _structured corporation_ poses as a _startup_.

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atarian
BuiltWith: [http://www.startupdaily.net/2015/09/builtwith-is-perhaps-
one...](http://www.startupdaily.net/2015/09/builtwith-is-perhaps-one-of-
australias-most-profitable-online-companies-and-has-zero-staff/)

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rabidonrails
Dan Grossman is the sole guy behind both Improvely and W3Counter.

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d2xdy2
Pretty sure Plenty Of Fish is a single guy.

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paulcole
That would be ironic.

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bopf
There is a really good book out there on one person startups called the $100
startup by Chris Guillebeau - it gives loads of examples of startups around
the world, which were started by one person
([http://amzn.to/1Kb63VH](http://amzn.to/1Kb63VH))

~~~
sudoherethere
I have read that book; Its definition of a startup was affiliate marketing or
selling courses on selling. There was few examples of real businesses like
Coffeeshops or a Photographer but I don't think we consider those startups.

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pavornyoh
This should help
-[http://www.softwaresmitten.com/blog/2013/01/09/10-successful...](http://www.softwaresmitten.com/blog/2013/01/09/10-successful-
solo-startup-founders/)

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MattBearman
When you say one person, do you mean didn't have a co-founder/team when they
started? Or still only one person to this day? If the former, then Balsamiq
was started by one guy.

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doug1001
i believe i heard that PlentyOfFish was started by a single dev and run that
way for some time.

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webmaven
Craigslist.

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meir_yanovich
minecraft <\- The start

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jimsojim
Oculus

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csomar
Dropbox?

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ankitml
First you dont know what a startup is. Second you dont know what a one man
startup is.

~~~
csomar
There is little detail in the question itself. Dropbox was a startup at some
time (I guess it still is). And it had only one founder when it started.

