Early days, no? Honestly, to me running my own thing, incl. the possibility of failure and everything else that comes along with it sounds like a way better proposition than getting a mid level 9 to 5 job. So, congrats to OP.

Fair enough if it doesn't sound appealing to you, I can totally see how that might not seem interesting for all types of personalities, but there are all sorts, right?

Either way, I don't think focussing on that figure and dismissing something like this out of hand, assuming others have the same priorities makes a whole lot of sense. I think the world would be quite a bit more boring if people wouldn't try out things, ignoring the temptations that come alonng with job security and all that jazz.

As I commented elsewhere, I'm not saying that I know enough about OP to suggest that the business has failed and it should shut down. Far from it. If he's happy, he should keep going.

My question is rather about why HN would find this interesting. It was a sincere question. Simple analytics has been beaten to death as a product, and when it's done "well", this community tends to have ethical misgivings about it.

So is it the experiment in transparency? Is it that I'm totally missing something novel or useful about the product?

We are a community of craftspeople and like to see others make an attempt, especially the trope/plight of the solo developer trying to start a SaaS. Simple as.

Doesn't mean we're all craving to add a tracking pixel to our websites just because we upvoted it, I'd say the tracking aspect is not as interesting, it's more the solo-SaaS-porn. And the hubris + sport of "damn, I could build this" in the back of our heads. It's HN crack.

> My question is rather about why HN would find this interesting.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8844083

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7094402

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107588

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8246255

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4639271

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5903868

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2358111

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=387789

Hacker News is run by Y Combinator, which funds startups, potentially like this one if it can be shown to grow well. Due to such roots, members on HN generally like startup-related posts, whether good or bad.

The thing about SaaS is once you've found those first ~100 customers to give you money, this is a big indicator that your product solves a real problem, has found a place in the market, and will continue to grow. It's really hard to get those first 100 customers, but once you get them, incredibly easier to get the next 100.

Whereas if you're salaried at $48k/yr, the chance of getting a $48k/yr raise, and then another, and another, and 10x'ing or 100x'ing your compensation is effectively zero.

This is speaking from experience, I run a SaaS company currently making $60k/mo, and not too long ago we were making $4k/mo.

Care to share what SaaS you are running ?

It's in their bio: https://canny.io/

The point is the process. The MRR that sustains a full time job doesn't suddenly appear from nowhere, and there aren't a lot of people talking about the "pre-success" data points.

I myself am much more interested in the data behind the people in the process of going from 0 to successful, even if they fail; not the hindsight blog posts about people who are already successful.

> I myself am much more interested in the data behind the people in the process of going from 0 to successful, even if they fail

I understand that sentiment and have no argument against it, but there are tons of stories posted to HN with similar attributes (single founder SaaS, $3-5k MRR, blog post likely submitted as a marketing tactic) and none of those blow up the way this has.

I mean, that's a fair point, but its also not the question you asked.

To try and answer that question, I think its because this one is fairly easy to read, understand, they're very open with their data, they show their work on how they calculated MRR (which is probably useful for some people), and while yeah this is probably a marketing tactic, they are also not really being pushy about it.

It's harder to go from 0 to $4k MRR than from $4k to $40k.

That is debatable. After a point organic and word-of-mouth growth (e.g. people signing up after seeing your HN post) is going to tap out, and you will have to start spending big money on customer acquisition.

They just got started. For a salary you are exchanging time for money. Don’t show up to work, don’t get paid.

As a startup you are building a product that other people buy. You are exchanging a product for money. Building a product has a big first time cost but selling to 100 customers vs million customers has a much smaller marginal cost (at-least for software)

In 5 years he could be making 100X median salary or 10X while putting 10% of normal work and let it sit on cruise control. Obviously there is a risk to startups.

But I applaud them sharing the Journey. Owning means of production is a very satisfying feeling.

No, right?

Because the prospect of financial growth is missing in a mid-level 9-5 job.

Whereas the 4k/month could be 24k/month next year.

You have to start somewhere. Your own startup has a ton of financial upside that a 9-5 job doesn't have (as well as downside). If you could flip the switch and be at $100k ARR your first month, everyone would be running their own business.

To clarify, I'm not necessarily wondering why OP is pursuing this business. I'm more wondering why it's notable to HN, when the product isn't particularly interesting and is not seeing unusual growth. It appears to have launched in Oct 2018.

Many of the people running these "Open Startups" are digital nomads and typically have low overheads.

Additionally, many grow to be relatively large businesses with time due to being built from the ground up to be extremely self-sustaining unlike more traditional startups that grow fast then die fast.

$50k is $250k with a 5x multiple (not uncommon for SaaS businesses), and $500k at 10x multiple.

It's noteworthy that relative to expenses, this business is profitable.

It's also noteworthy in that many businesses never achieve profitability.

It's just the start...

This is nice for side income, though! Are they working on it full time?

The point is the productand therefore the revenue is scalable. Much more than a salary in a 9-5 job.

While agree with you, to advocate for the devil:

How much do you think Google analytics is worth today?