themdonuts (u/themdonuts)

themdonuts commented on Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business projectionlab.com/blog/we... · Posted by u/jonkuipers

scubakid · 2 months ago

Neat, someday I'd like to see the Azores. I've heard good things.

FYI if you click on a destination name, it's currently throwing a 500 error.

themdonuts · 2 months ago

Excellent, thanks for flagging!

themdonuts commented on Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business projectionlab.com/blog/we... · Posted by u/jonkuipers

jbs789 · 2 months ago

Love the business. Appreciating every market is different… the Greek islands might be interesting to you.

themdonuts · 2 months ago

It was a massive difference when I started in Cape Verde. Specially the way of working, level of service and insurance options available (mostly non-existent). It's very satisfying to look back and the progress made over the years where, in a way, I helped to improve the customer service provided by the small local companies, closer to what you would see in the western world.

What's also funny is that the "1st dollar" coming in in any business is such a rush, such an excitement. That still holds true in my case! Even though the business is the same across the 3 websites, it's such an excitement to see the Madeira one growing (where I started more recently), compared to the Azores where I've been at for some years now.

themdonuts commented on Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business projectionlab.com/blog/we... · Posted by u/jonkuipers

scubakid · 2 months ago

Ah so with this business model there was minimal impact to existing customers? That's fortunate.

Out of curiosity, what kind of transactional product has a substantial production database that would be daunting to re-build in a 4-6 mo window given you still had the source code during that time?

And I hope you've taken your wife out for some nice dinners (or whatever she likes). Totally agree that having a supportive and encouraging partner can make all the difference in challenging times.

themdonuts · 2 months ago

The business is a car rental platform for niche destinations https://bonjourpaco.com/

At the time I was working with maybe 30 providers and it would be doable to rebuild the server and reconfigure all providers, cars, insurance, etc. Content would probably take longer, but also doable. But at the time I took it as a sign to shift to something else.

Glad I didn't and that the project came back from the ashes, literally.

themdonuts commented on Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business projectionlab.com/blog/we... · Posted by u/jonkuipers

scubakid · 2 months ago

That's an impressive number of years to stick with a product you questioned. Probably 2x longer than Google would have maintained it lol

(who says products by indie devs always have higher long-term support risk?!)

I'm really happy to hear it turned around for you. The 4 months of down time sound terrifying. Can you share more about how you navigated that, how it impacted customers, and what you were able to restore vs what you couldn't, and what processes you changed in the aftermath?

themdonuts · 2 months ago

My business is transactional where email is still king for all after sales support. I guess that makes it way easier to handle than a SaaS one.

The biggest impact for the business was not making any sale during this period and my SEO rankings going down. Actually the site disappeared from search. I guess the biggest impact for me - personally - was psychological. All production data was gone and I was seeing it as a sign I should just let it go. I had all the source code, so in theory I could do it, but not sure I would have the motivation to.

Then in the end my thingy was hosted in a section that was salvaged from the fire. I saw it as a sign that actually I SHOULD keep going, lol. I don't remember exactly how long it was off but yeah, 4-6 months. Everything was restored though.

The only thing I did was to implement automatic backups and to a different datacenter. I remember from the incident, one issue for many was their servers were hosted in Strasbourg with backups also hosted there.

I've touched on this in my last comment, but my wife is by far my biggest motivator. It's tough life for us working solo, with our minds playing tricks on us all the time. It always sounds so much easier to go and work for someone else again or to just start a new side project from scratch. Not sure if there's any Alex Hormozi fan here, but one thing he's always repeating is to not give up, not start anything new over and over and just keep pushing that one project.

themdonuts commented on Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business projectionlab.com/blog/we... · Posted by u/jonkuipers

teiferer · 2 months ago

To me, a lesson is: If you keep chugging along on your idea then you might get lucky and be the one out of 10,000 for whom this single-entrepreneur-bootstrap project works out, you get to be your own boss, have a big payroll and it ends up as a success story on HN. Without that luck, you are among the other 9,999 where it just died. But without trying, you are guaranteed failure (though with less frustration perhaps).

themdonuts · 2 months ago

Yeah, this resonates with me. My side project for 6 years was generating very, very little. Enough for a few pints a month.

Fun fact: The project survived a total destruction of the datacenter where it was hosted (remember the ovh incident?) which took it offline for maybe 4 months (no backups at the time). Luckily the server it was on didn't get melted.

Also at some point I started questioning why was I still working on it for so little. My wife convinced me to keep going and to be honest I still enjoyed working on it.

Then on year 7 things started to change, and on year 8 I was able to quit my daily job! I'm on year 10 now. It's not a 7 figure business, but I enjoy every single day. Also the flexibility it gives me is excellent.

themdonuts commented on Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews blog.truestar.pro/fakespo... · Posted by u/doppio19

olyjohn · 2 months ago

Yes, but were the vacuums actually good? He left 10 reviews for this company, which may have led other people to buy them, and made this company look better than it is... just so he could stuff his shed full of them? That's kinda fucked up. He even said he felt kinda shady about it, so my guess is that the reviews weren't honest.

themdonuts · 2 months ago

This is the best summary.

themdonuts commented on Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon twitter.com/Free_Ross/sta... · Posted by u/Ozarkian

oneeyedpigeon · 7 months ago

I realised what was going on, but I did a double-take at:

> Then Ulbricht walked into the public library and sat down at the table directly in front of me

The problem is that two past events are being described, so tense alone cannot distinguish them. Cut the readers some slack; the writing could have been better.

themdonuts · 7 months ago

Yes, same here.

themdonuts commented on Show HN: Convert your LinkedIn profile to a resume chromewebstore.google.com... · Posted by u/prodtorok

redeux · 9 months ago

I stopped caring about that when companies started using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to evaluate resumes based on keywords and other silly criteria without ever having a person actually review it.

themdonuts · 9 months ago

Fair. But when you land the face to face interview with the hiring manager and peers, I think it's still good to have a nicely designed CV. And with nicely designed I don't mean lots of graphics and colors, but something that was thought out to read well.

themdonuts commented on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell · Posted by u/cvbox

bengold14 · 9 months ago

Thanks for asking! I also used photofeeler and found the way it rated me 1-10 fairly harmful to my mental health. RankPic has users rank your photos best to worst, so it's just against yourself.

Additionally it allows users to get more mileage out of each test, when you can do 2-6 photos instead of just one at a time.

Anecdotally I've also heard it is a more fun experience for the rankers.

themdonuts · 9 months ago

Very smart the best to worst ranking. Well done!

themdonuts commented on My son (9 yrs old) used plain JavaScript to make a game, and wants your feedback armaansahni.com/game/... · Posted by u/veesahni

DidYaWipe · 9 months ago

Love it.

In terms of constructive feedback: I would like to know when the various weapons are "charged." It doesn't seem like we can tell from looking.

Also it might be interesting to see what question the opponent is working on and what his answer is.

themdonuts · 9 months ago

Yeah, I was having the same issue. I couldn't tell why the weapon was not charged up. But sometimes on the second click it would work.

But well done!