Hi HN!
Thanks for your attention to my post.
It was a big challenge to run most of Node.js packages in browser, fast moreover. Virtual File system, resolve import/export. I got cold many times, depressions, burned out, yet still alive and finished it.
Many guys helped me with an advice. Many users give a lot of positive feedback.
There are 200,000 monthly unique users.
I work full time now because of the freemium business model. To be honest - I am happy after many years of hard work.
I can sort of relate. I worked on an infrastructure system, almost entirely alone, for ten years, before it was finally taken over by a capable team, and I was able to step away, and it took on a life of its own. It is now a worldwide standard, used daily, by thousands.
I say “sort of,” because it was never something I planned to make money on. It filled a need. Also, and it’s a long story, I had to weather a fairly hefty level of abuse during that time. The demographics of the target user base were … challenging.
It’s all good, now.
One thing all that time brought me, was a really high-Quality product. Lots of time to squash bugs, and iterate the UX.