ROUNDTABLES 8 upvotes 2015

Ask HN: Have you successfully sold a side project?

8 pts
Hacker News Signal
2015 · Shared by @livestyle
Ask HN: Have you successfully sold a side project? by @livestyle

The Founder's Submission

Direct narrative and submission text authored by @livestyle on Hacker News:

I'm realizing now that I don't have the time that I need to put into a side project I started.

It's fully functional and can make money for someone right now.

What is the best way to sell a sideproject webapp?

p.s. I'm not a fan of flippa.

Retrospective Overview & Key Insights

Distilled reflections, business mechanics, and tactical takeaways:

An open Ask HN community consultation from 2015 where @livestyle convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.

Core Principles for Independent Builders:
1
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
2
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
3
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:

Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.

Community Discussions & Critical Reviews

Key perspectives, counter-arguments, and peer founder insights debated on Hacker News (8 total discussions):

BA @Backlash85 Peer Contributor

Why are you not a fan of Flippa? I have made over 90k on that site.. you have to weed out the idiots ;)

SA @sawyer1708 Peer Contributor

Maybe you could talk to a few of your best customers. This is often an overlooked source.

DA @danwolff Peer Contributor

Why not talk to people who would nearly immediately appreciate your app's utility?

HISTORICAL ERA Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE 8 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 8 comments
TOPICS & TECH STACK: