Solo Entrepreneurs: Big Bucks from Tiny Computing Startups

[JohnN]

Anyone on YC working Solo?

[hhm]

I do. In the past I worked on making a small team for my game development company, but with time I realized I was a lot happier working on the technical details of development than on team management and all that stuff. So I slowly faded to solo :) and I changed the profile of my company a lot too: then I was focused on developing games and related stuff for companies, now I work on independent tech r&d for companies. Working like that, I produced RV tech for advertising for Intel, some 3d and computer vision stuff, and nowadays I'm working on developing a massive video broadcasting software, to list some examples.

Working solo has many advantages and disadvantages... you get a lot more freedom, for one, but you also miss having an interesting team around you at many times. Also, you get a lot more responsibility on what you develop, but at the same time you can better choose what to do with your time. And your costs are a lot lower, so in some projects you can really make a lot of money that, at the end of the day, is almost all yours. And so on, there are lots of pros and cons I could list here from my experience with it.

[vlad]

I did it from late 2003 to the fall of 2007; I had a product with which I got the point to where I didn't have any questions from people who bought the app anymore, so I didn't have anywhere near as many questions as I did when I started. It became pretty boring, because it was fun getting questions when stuff broke all the time or people wanted to request a feature. I made it free to get a lot of users, but my dad was laid off, so I got a job at a Fortune 100 to save up money and experience what it is like. I haven't had much time to focus on the software since, as I'm focusing on saving up money and working on the web-based side of the things.

[SwellJoe]

My first company was a solo effort, and it operated profitably for 6 of its 7 years in operation. Kept me in food and houses, but I never really took vacations and never really had the chance to get caught up enough to move forward with the business. I don't recommend it, though obviously some folks manage to make it work very well.

But, we're keeping it small and growing slowly with Virtualmin, so far. We're still debating whether to accept further funding. I think we'll know in a couple of months once our new product line is released publicly.

[petercooper]

If you mean YC, as in this site, then always. Never done it any other way.

If you mean YC, as in actually in the YC program, then sorry ;-)

[dhimes]

yep. It's tough work. I hope to expand when I get some traction.

[edw519]

I am. Here's what I'm doing:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=114568

[jgrahamc]

Me.

[run4yourlives]

This seems to be an interesting article, but that website keeps harassing me. Anyone got all 6 (!) pages in a format that doesn't insult me?

[acangiano]

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml...

[edw519]

On these things, I always click "Print", then copy and paste the single page into Textpad and save as a .txt file. Then I can read it in Textpad, email it to myself, even put it onto my PDA. Works like a charm every time, including this time.

[suboptimal]

My heroes.

[sabat]

Mine too, although I have to admit there's something vaguely depressing about a guy who refuses to move to Colorado because he wants to stay in Tennesee.

[wallflower]

My understanding is to apply for YC you need one or two strong co-founders. Remember, most VCs hire a key team and are not solely sold on the business idea

[willphipps]

fanpop seem to have done pretty well bootstrapped - hovering around the 5000 mark on alexa..

[eusman]

ah homesite, that takes you some 10 years back!