
Watching my sideproject die and feeling kinda deppressed - kristaps1990
Hi,<p>I while ago i posted here in hackernews post about my side project
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11982006<p>I love designing stuff i do it on my full-time job, i do it on my free time, i do it when i wake up, i do it before i go to sleep. When i started I was super motivated and productive. Now i feel that I am stuck and something ain&#x27;t right.<p>156 days have passed and i have some harsh takeaways from my experience.<p><i>Building side project which takes more than &quot;few weekends&quot; to build is f</i>cking hard.<p><i>Working with developers that have full time job and are helping you in free time sucks.<p></i>Being a 1 man army didn&#x27;t work out in a long term - got burned out pretty quickly<p>So whats this post is all about?<p>I am looking for guidance, light of the end of the tunnel, anything that can get the spark back. Co founder, investor, buyer, mentor.<p>Or maybe should I let it die and move on?<p>Data:<p>Stack - Python, MongoDB, React.js
Users - 2.7k
Maintaining app - 80$&#x2F;month
======
atmosx
Okay let's paint a picture based on what you gave us:

    
    
        * You made an application 6 months ago
        * You have 2.7k users in BETA
    

First the obvious, as of NOW __there is no paid plan __on your homepage. I
mean, literally, your application lacks of documentation, disclaimer, terms of
service, possible /available plans...

IMHO you're sitting on a possible goldmine and you have done the most
difficult part: Get _more than some_ people to use your application. You need
a partner to help you with feature-set and (obviously) the business side of
things.

Don't screw this up, you're probably on to something here. If you can't manage
it alone, great, get a co-founder. If you don't know anyone in real life,
start pitching your product here, I'm sure you'll get tons of candidates.

~~~
tedmiston
I second this.

On the other hand, you're competing with Toggl which has a very similar
feature set for free for small teams. Though I currently do pay for invoicing
software separately.

------
jasonkester
Two things: First, yes: getting a product off the ground is hard. Second:
nearly all of your products will fail.

Nobody seems to prepare themselves for that second one. Sorry to hear that it
hit you so hard.

Don't give up though. I live primarily on the income of a single SaaS product.
It is the _fifth_ complete project that I built with the intention of getting
to this point. That's only counting _completed_ products, ready to go out the
door or even launched and running. Call it a dozen or more if you add in
things that only lasted a month or so.

Now I'm in the process of getting another solid income stream up and running.
There are two more complete sites in the can that didn't work, another half
dozen false starts, and one site currently about to launch that hopefully will
be the one.

Perhaps you see a pattern here. There are entire years of effort written off
up above, many with a lot more work put in to them than what you describe. If
you decide to pick up and try again, I can guarantee that you'll have this
same experience several more times before you finally hit on the thing that
will pay for your kids' college fund.

But once you have that thing ticking away, it'll make all the effort worth it.
It was sunny yesterday, so I ditched work for the day and went out rock
climbing. It was sunny again today and the kids had the afternoon off school,
so I took that off too. That's the lifestyle you're working towards.

Keep at it, and don't get discouraged by minor setbacks like this one.

Good luck!

------
sharemywin
I would send an email to your users with a survey asking, how they like it,
whats most important to them, what they want fixed, as well as how much they
would be willing to pay for it. And if they don't want to pay for it maybe ask
what you could add or fix that would make them want to pay for it. Let the
users decide its fate.

~~~
eb0la
Maybe something like this could help: Use the app for free (at least by now).
If you want something done (new features, integrations...), vote for it. If
you need it _badly_ pay for getting more votes.

The good part of the voting is that users become citizens of the community
around your app.

Maybe it helps retaining users and making some paying customers.

------
patrickgordon
I actually log into Laps every now and then for inspiration on projects I am
working on (in a similar space).

I love the design and I love the concept but it just isn't "feature rich"
enough for me to use in a production sense.

I suspect you already know this but the cycle time on releasing features seems
to be too slow. I'm not sure exactly what the solution to that is, but it
would perhaps help with keeping your user base active. I re-opened it again
today after your email about new features being released.

I think you're close to having the features necessary to charge. For me,
personally, it needs more. Perhaps a freemium model would be a great way to
start making a bit of $ to keep the dream alive.

As someone who has tried a few times now to get a side project moving, I can
empathise. Hang in there, fam.

~~~
kristaps1990
Thanks! I really appreciate it now.

------
avghacker
Are those users paying you? That's a ton of users compared to my side project
(0 users).

The only advice I can give is that you don't gain anything by taking it down
(and it looks like you are gaining traction with almost 3k users). Scale back
if you aren't using that $80 to a smaller instance in the cloud. I'm paying
$25/mo for mine. If you would rather sell, check out flippa.com

With 3k users, I would stick it out. Maybe ask for feedback, opportunities for
growing, etc.

Edit: I see the beta is free.. I would grandfather those people in to a
lifetime free plan (as long as they don't cancel) and start charging new users
a per monthly price.

~~~
kristaps1990
Hi! Thanks for replay - the main problem i am facing is not moving too fast
when it becomes down to features, bugfixes and so on. I will think about
newsletter to current users and maybe ask about the potential of the app - how
do they see it.

Thanks again!

~~~
hankthehill
Speed of movement is entirely dependent on how dedicated your workforce is.

Since it's currently just you (and no $), the only motivation for new features
is you wanting them.

If you pay a single developer even a slightly reasonable wage, you'll see
progress pick back up very quickly. Developers love making stuff, you've just
gotten slogged down.

------
CyberFonic
I assume that your users are finding your app useful, which is why they are
using it. If you were charging $10/month for each user, then you wouldn't be
having this problem. It would be worth your while to commit to it full-time.

I would have thought that the idea of a side-project is to create a MVP and if
it takes off then you have a viable business. If not, then it was an
interesting experiment.

In its current form, your app is a charitable act, you are helping others out
of the goodness of your heart. Nothing wrong with that, if that is what you
want to do.

------
sideproject
Sorry to hear you're feeling somewhat down. I'm sure it's your baby, so you
may find it hard to part with it, but if it is one of your options, I run
SideProjectors - a market place for selling/buying side projects.

[https://www.sideprojectors.com](https://www.sideprojectors.com)

Someone mentioned flippa here. Similar, but we focus more on indie developers.
Can't guarantee you it'll sell. It'll give you some exposure, but who knows.
We've had a plenty of side projects exchanging hands over the years. It's an
option you can consider!

------
przeor
My friend is a co-founder similar tool to yours (but probably not a
competition to you) - [https://www.timecamp.com/](https://www.timecamp.com/)
... and I'll say, he made break-even after 3 years (he had some $ from
investors).

It's really hard to make a SASS tool without proper sales strategy - SEO is
the most time consuming one (TimeCamp.com gets most of the clients from Google
as they appear high under time management software keyword).

------
kristaps1990
Guys! You got me pumped!!! Thanks a lot!

~~~
rpeden
You deserve to feel good about your work!

Your side project has far more traction and users than most side projects ever
get.

------
alexgaribay
Start charging even it's for a relatively small amount like $5/month. Stripe
is very easy to get setup and to start using. Get some paying customers to
keep yourself motivated.

Also, I like the design. I use a similar shade of purple for my apps as well.

------
exolymph
If you don't want to continue, try selling it on Flippa, perhaps? You never
know.

~~~
kristaps1990
Thanks for you replay!

I am not sure, you can sell something there that don't generate income.

~~~
meric
It looks like it has potential to generate income I think you will find
buyers.

EDIT: your project is awesome - I just quit my job and got a client to start
contracting in February and I would love to use it, please continue. :) It
looks like something I'd pay monthly for. Since we're in negotiation I'm going
to suggest a price of $5 per month to anchor you down. :)

~~~
kristaps1990
Glad you like it! This definitely motivates me! Thanks!

------
rad_gruchalski
Nice app. If it had multi currency support, I'd pay $5 / month, for sure.

edit: Actually, I know a bunch of people who'd also pay for it.

------
ThomPete
I've been there m8.

I too am a designer and is depending on developers to do the hardcore OSX
stuff (I can do web-coding myself well enough) and I too are depending on
their time.

After a number of attempts at starting various products/services ex. [1][2][3]
with various levels of success but ultimately fizzling out.

Ex. Weekendhacker have around 8K designers and developers subscribed but it
kind of died out, because the time i spent vs. any income I made was not
making sense. I haven't killed it but it's basically in hibernation until I
figure out what to do with it. It was a really frustrating to see something
like that die out with such high hopes of starting an actually community.

However I finally managed to launch something that is generating growing side
income for me year over year, which I can control the progress of and which
allow me to expand slowly but surely.

[https://www.ghostnoteapp.com](https://www.ghostnoteapp.com)

Now GhostNote is only the start of something much bigger I am building but it
allow me to control the scope and slowly expand what I am doing while still
enjoying it as an added bonus I am making good money.

In my experience the key thing when you do side projects is to do something
you enjoy doing and something which even if you make no money you are glad you
did it.

Another thing is to make sure you create a bunch of little successes for
yourself. Better to start with and launch ex invoicing than trying to do a
whole suite of things. That way you spend way less time and get way less
attached to what you are doing and you can own it. What you have done look
amazing but are you really solving something fundamentally (this is not a
rhetoric question) or just redesigning what already exist out there?

You should ask yourself the questions like.

Why am I building what I am building?

Is there a simpler way to do what I want to do. (Ex. could it just be email to
start with? Weekendhacker was.)

Is this really what I want to spend my time on?

Does the world really need this?

But most importantly you should never give up, sooner or later you you wil
find something as long as you make sure you don't spend too much time on each.

I have literally hundreds of ideas, tens of a whole graveyard of almost
implemented projects [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Just keep trying new stuff, make new aliances with developers. Do several
things at once if you have to. But if you want to make money with your side
project don't be too attached.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2563718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2563718)
[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991206)
[3] [http://mashable.com/2012/04/19/pinview-facebook-pinterest-
ap...](http://mashable.com/2012/04/19/pinview-facebook-pinterest-
app/#WROb98N1Gkq3) [4]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/LiveChat.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/LiveChat.png)
[5] [http://000fff.org/uploads/TL02.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/TL02.png)
[6]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/NewFlow1.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/NewFlow1.png)
[7]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/NewFlow_02.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/NewFlow_02.png)
[8]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/Map_Template_Layout.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/Map_Template_Layout.png)
[9]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/StarStruck.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/StarStruck.png)
[10]
[http://000fff.org/uploads/badgenation_Sketch.png](http://000fff.org/uploads/badgenation_Sketch.png)

