Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by killtimeatwork on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @08:15AM (#25581373)

I've heard that it's a good rule of thumb to not develop something that is just an extra feature of an existing behemoth (e.g. Atlassian plugins etc., but also the thing you built). If you're failure, then you've wasted time and money and if you're a success, the behemoth will just reimplement your work as a part of their platform.

Pretty much the only way to win it so make something that provides marginal revenue, which makes reimplementation not worth it for the giant (but potentially worth it for you). I suspect a lot of Unity and Unreal plugins and authoring tools reside in that niche.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by interestica on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @02:56PM (#25585352)

Wordpress/Automattic bought up successful plugins like WooCommerce and just integrated them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by spdionis on Thursday December 31, 2020 @05:50AM (#25591550)

Automattic is not in the same league as FAANG, it doesn't really apply.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by HeyLaughingBoy on Thursday December 31, 2020 @06:43PM (#25598663)

Marginal revenue is relative though. For the developer, if it makes $500k over the product's lifetime, it can be worthwhile. For Facebook, if it only makes $500k, it's a waste of resources.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by plumeria on Thursday December 31, 2020 @12:02AM (#25589762)

Couldn't one expect at least a job offer?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by killtimeatwork on Thursday December 31, 2020 @03:55AM (#25590893)

Maybe, but working hard for months/years a chance at a job offer doesn't sound that amazing anyway.

BTW I worked in a startup once and a guy, who was developing opensource plugin for our product, applied for a job with us. The owner (a known blogger BTW) said "Why hire him if he's already working for us?"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by besulzbach on Thursday December 31, 2020 @06:44AM (#25591791)

I think that was the owner being shortsighted. If the plugin was something that a reasonable fraction of your users would like to have, then very shortsighted.

Not only you had a person that already knew much more about your product than the average potential hire, but a person that probably was interested in your product (and maybe knew what users wanted) too.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money tha... by inglor_cz on Thursday December 31, 2020 @07:53AM (#25592193)

"Why hire him if he's already working for us?"

Because you do not want him to abandon the project if it is useful to you?

[ Parent | on HN ]