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Comment by callmeed | Hacker News Reader

Because the common perception is that a software product has a marginal cost of near zero and can scale, whereas consulting limits you to your billable hours and requires constantly chasing down new clients. You may debate the merits of that argument and it doesn't take into account product maintenance and support–but I think there is some validity to it.

Also, some SaaS/product success stories take the path of CONSULTING/AGENCY -> PRODUCT -> SUCCESS (e.g. Basecamp, SEOmoz, FreshBooks) but you rarely hear of the reverse.

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> You may debate the merits of that argument and it doesn't take into account product maintenance and support–but I think there is some validity to it.

That's very true, but I'd also speculate that the vast majority of software products never pay back the flat cost of development.

IndieHackers is a compendium of founders who were successful enough to be worth interviewing, and even the vast majority of them make less from their projects than consulting can make.

> most SaaS/product success stories take the path of CONSULTING/AGENCY -> PRODUCT -> SUCCESS (e.g. Basecamp, SEOmoz, FreshBooks) but you rarely hear of the reverse

Arguably that's because it's so common that it's not worth talking about. I know tons of people who have launched projects which ended up failing, so they fell back on consulting revenue. Far more people than have successful side projects.

All fair points. Although IMO saying "the vast majority of software products never pay back the flat cost of development" is unfair. Remember, these are "side" projects usually being built as a personal scratch-your-own-itch, learning exercise, or hobby. An exact opportunity cost equation doesn't always work.

Different people are motivated by different things I suppose.

Sunk cost fallacy at work here. Yes, side projects may never pay back dev investment, but if you have already written all that code and invested, then you should not use that as a cost factor to make decisions about the future.

That's not the sunk cast fallacy.

The time you spend on developing previous side projects (which saw minimal return) should absolutely be a factor in deciding whether to start new ones.

> Also, some SaaS/product success stories take the path of CONSULTING/AGENCY -> PRODUCT -> SUCCESS (e.g. Basecamp, SEOmoz, FreshBooks) but you rarely hear of the reverse.

There are a lot of people (i.e. @levelsio) who launch a career as a speaker out of products, I imagine part of that is consulting

I have to agree with this. A lot of people create products to augment their consulting services.

Wait what? I (@levelsio) am not doing that. I've made €2000 out of speaking total and only spoke 3 times. I don't consult.

My revenue doesn't come from speaking, it comes from product. I don't like those people who do that at all because how can you trust people that only speak but not make product?

I speak if I want to spread a message (although blogging is way more efficient).

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