[ruffrey]

I strongly relate to this post. Having grown mailsac.com to above average side project revenue, the admin overhead isn't crazy, but it's exceptionally repetitive and boring. So much time is spent on fraud and normal "running the business" really sucks the enjoyment out of a side project (for me as an engineer). I think that having a side project co-founder who is a relentless business operator is more important than having a decent technologist.

[skrtskrt]

I would personally never get into a side project for anything that requires decent fraud prevention (email, telecom, payments, etc.). I have worked at medium-sized startups in these areas struggle to keep their heads above water on fraud prevention even with well-staffed and well-paid teams of experts.

It's a never ending battle where you cannot win, you just manage to not lose so badly that lawyers and federal regulators pound you in the behind or users abandon your platform.