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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4299736

by pcd • 14 years ago

5 9 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Just wondering how many people on HN actually have products? Everyone? Is anyone else struggling to get users? If you have launched and succeeded, would you mind sharing?

pedalpete2• 14 years ago

I think you're trying to create a single bucket, where people may fit into more than one.

Personally, I've worked on 5 sites for myself the results have been

1) launched, received little traction, received an acquisition offer (didn't go through)

2) launched, moderate traction, some industry acclaim, one acquisition offer (didn't go through)

3) launched in beta, a few tire kickers, no traction, shut-down after 2 months

4) still in development, lots of interest, great feedback, brutal how long it is taking me to develop

5) getting ready for beta after 3 week of work, so-so response so far, just looking to get it out there and see what happens (and use it myself).

Outside of these, I've also developed tools for other businesses, and some of these tools have been quite successful, resulting in one of the companies being acquired.

Not sure if that gives you the data you're looking for, but if you think about it, if you had asked this question of Odeo, they would have fallen into the "has product struggling to get users", but then they created twitter...

pcd3• 14 years ago

Wow, sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Do you have a regular day job too or do you work for actual startups? I'm in Melbourne, Australia and also have a regular day job. So all this is on the side for me. Sounds like you are in Silicon Valley and right in the thick of it!

In regards to data. I'm not really looking for anything in particular. More wondering how many HN people have finished products. And then hear their stories.

pcd3• 14 years ago

PS I forgot to mention, as I am guessing it is the same for most people, I want to turn this "on the side" into "full time"!

pedalpete2• 14 years ago

I'm in Sydney after living... all over the world. I'll be in Melbourne next Thursday if you want to grab a coffee [my e-mail should be in my profile].

I do contract work on the side, and I have worked for other start-ups as well.

autotravis• 14 years ago

0) Released an app for Android, earlier days of the platform and hit 20,000 downloads pretty quick. Ended up making ~$250 through in-app ads.

1) Worked on it for a few months with cofounder, scrapped as we ran into technical issues requiring a complete rewrite. Looking to do the rewrite sometime in the next year.

2) Launched, very slow to gain any traction but starting to get more users. The hardest part is marketing - http://fuelizer.com

pcd3• 14 years ago

20K downloads is great. I've got a few iOS apps probably 1k downloads in total, though they are paid apps. After apple takes its cut I've made ~$1200 over a year.

I agree with you on the marketing part! Dev seems easy compared to marketing!

AznHisoka• 14 years ago

I launched slimkicker.com around 4 months ago. Right now, we have around 2000 daily visitors. No revenue although we've not yet started the monetization stage.

codegeek• 14 years ago

Really like the concept and your site. Will try it out.

ohnivak• 14 years ago

http://beepl.com - totally fucked

Failed to launch

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