Ask HN: What's the best business for a tinkerer?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14833786

by cronjobma • 9 years ago

40 21 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

As a hardware and software tinkerer who loves working on new projects every week, what's the best business to start that could support this lifestyle of making?

mchannon• 9 years ago

1. Make something people want.

2. Learn how to make it for a lot less than people will pay for it.

3. Partner with people who can market your projects.

kamphey• 9 years ago

Start a YouTube channel. Either learn filmmaking or find a friend to help.

Upload a video a week. Full complete projects. Post them on reddit. Reply to every comment. Ask for suggestions of next project.

After 3 months or 12 videos. Start posting 3 times a week of projects in progress.

After 3 months start live streaming twice a week.

At the 6 month mark start a Patreon. Even if you don't have any patrons immediately learn the platform and incorporate it into your videos. Set a goal that entices ppl to participate. Maybe one of your projects was a hit.

Hope that helps.

Toast_• 9 years ago

Seconded. Maybe look to AvE as an example of this.

michael_fine• 9 years ago

rad1o2• 9 years ago

Teaching others how to tinker. My wife and kids started this business: https://makerjunior.com

nvusuvu• 9 years ago

Could you elaborate on the business model?

rad1o2• 9 years ago

Yes. The business model is primarily kit sales and children's programs. The latter benefits the former -- maker junior kits are the result of thousands of hours of research working with kids to understand what works.

mjfl2• 9 years ago

You sound like me. If you like writing tutorials for your tinkering, I'm building a platform to support people like you: https://ocalog.com/ I'm currently tinkering with Ethereum.

khernand2• 9 years ago

Looks cool. I made an account to sign up and it said email confirmations were down but I should still be able to log in. Unfortunately, I'm not able to log in with my email and password

mjfl2• 9 years ago

Thanks for letting me know. Looking into it right now.

Edit: I think it may be because you are using your email and not your username to login. However, you make a great point that people should be able to login with their emails and I'll put that on my list.

kspaans• 9 years ago

Reverse Engineering and security. Every executable you reverse is like a new project!

solarkraft• 9 years ago

Great suggestion that doesn't rely on self-employment. Thanks.

patrickg_zill• 9 years ago

Are you involved in a local hacker or maker space?

Do you think you can make a kit that parents or other hackers would want to buy, like the build your own robots kits that come in pieces but include all the parts needed?

I know of one guy that got certified on shopbot and the laser cutter, and used that knowledge to get clients. He helps them go from idea to something repeatable.

brudgers• 9 years ago

Tinsmithing?

SirLJ2• 9 years ago

How about quantitative trading systems? I am really enjoying thinkering, back testing, inventing, I think this is the ultimate location independent lifestyle business...

flashm• 9 years ago

Interesting, can you elaborate?

Which platform/APIs do you use? What language do you program in? Where do you get back testing data from?

Thanks!

SirLJ2• 9 years ago

The most used one is probable the Interactive Brokers API, I am using python and running the algos from VPS, for books on how to get started and data sources, please check my previous posts... Cheers.

jetti• 9 years ago

I'm not the original parent but I'm doing the same. I'm using Oanda for forex data and building my platform in Elixir. I'm able to get historical pricing from Oanda for currency pairs so I'm able to eventually backtest that way.

fest• 9 years ago

I have a friend who runs a lifestyle business of:

1) One-off mechatronics projects: museum exhibits, cable-cams for filming companies, puzzles for escape-rooms etc.

2) Regional distribution and support for a particular brand of lasercutters.

From what I see, he spends most of the time on first category but most of the revenue comes from the second.

Ask HN: What's the best business for a tinkerer?

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