On: One founder, zero staff, making $1.2M in monthly r...

[downandout]

So let me get this straight. I can put together a list of footprints for various pieces of server software. Then I can send a web crawler out and record which sites have which footprints, and sprinkle in some whois data so that people can spam them. This generates $1.2M/mo?

Something is wrong with this picture.

[TimJRobinson → downandout]

It's a hard lesson for engineers to learn: Business viability and profitability is based on demand, not technical challenge.

[suyash → TimJRobinson]

I'm taking a class on Business - being a programmer and it was a hard one to wrap my head around. Another common fallacy is 'Build and they will come'.

[gedrap → downandout]

> I can put together a list of footprints for various pieces of server software.

Yes, you can do it. But it doesn't mean that someone will pay for that. People don't pay money just because your technical solution is challenging, they don't care about it. The only thing the users care is whether it gives something (e.g. saves time, provides entertainment, etc).

[downandout → gedrap]

> Yes, you can do it. But it doesn't mean that someone will pay for that

Apparently people are paying $1.2M/mo for that, so actually it kind of does mean that people will pay for it.