Re:Ask HN: What business you can start under $100?
by muzani on Wednesday December 13, 2017 @10:33PM
(#15919747)
I started an ecommerce company with less than $100.
.asia domain name: $5
Google Play account: $25
Logo: Free. Designer friend did one in exchange for me doing an app for him. He decided not to do his app in the end, so it didn't even cost me man hours.
Development: An incubator (Startup House) gave us 3 months to stay + food.
Marketing: ~$5 for domain name, $25 for copywriting. We did a fake blog. Registered a domain name for it. Paid a blogger friend to write up something along the lines of "If you follow the Atkins Diet, you MUST download this app". We sneaked the link into an Atkins Diet Facebook group and got over 1,200 downloads in the first 24 hours.
Products: We made a recipe app and sold ingredients through it. Our ingredient supplier partners packed and delivered them for us. We simply gave them a list of who to send to and then paid them once every few weeks. We made almost no profit from this, roughly 5%, not including payment gateway, but we didn't have to have money on hand either. After verifying the business model, we bought the products, stocked, and distributed them ourselves, for up to 30% profit margin.
Later, we sold off the company, for more money than I've ever got in my years working.
.asia domain name: $5
Google Play account: $25
Logo: Free. Designer friend did one in exchange for me doing an app for him. He decided not to do his app in the end, so it didn't even cost me man hours.
Development: An incubator (Startup House) gave us 3 months to stay + food.
Marketing: ~$5 for domain name, $25 for copywriting. We did a fake blog. Registered a domain name for it. Paid a blogger friend to write up something along the lines of "If you follow the Atkins Diet, you MUST download this app". We sneaked the link into an Atkins Diet Facebook group and got over 1,200 downloads in the first 24 hours.
Products: We made a recipe app and sold ingredients through it. Our ingredient supplier partners packed and delivered them for us. We simply gave them a list of who to send to and then paid them once every few weeks. We made almost no profit from this, roughly 5%, not including payment gateway, but we didn't have to have money on hand either. After verifying the business model, we bought the products, stocked, and distributed them ourselves, for up to 30% profit margin.
Later, we sold off the company, for more money than I've ever got in my years working.