Comment by incanus77 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by incanus77 | Hacker News Reader

I built a five-year career of self-employment on the back of a Mac app called Pukka which was itself built upon Delicious.

http://codesorcery.net/2006/02/26/hello-world

I turned the interest in the app into my first piece of commercial software which, coming from an open source and free software background, was actually pretty daunting. I timidly started charging five bucks in the pre-App Store days, before eventually raising the price over time to make it more sustainable.

http://codesorcery.net/2006/05/03/so-really-whats-the-deal

I had ups and downs, launched a second app (Meerkat, for SSH tunneling), but eventually realized I wasn't really an indie product person as much as I was a people and services one, so I ended up doing about 80% consulting and 20% Mac software, including Pukka.

I eventually ended up folding up shop after I went to work for Mapbox full-time in 2011.

http://codesorcery.net/2012/09/06/sunset

This is something Maciej even wrote about.

https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/243511937722376192

So I'll always have a spot in my heart for Delicious, and this seems a fitting and appropriate end. I'm so glad its content will remain available in perpetuity.

> Pinboard works with a variety of outside services, including Reeder, Delibar, and Pukka. If there is an API feature that you need to make your app work, just ask!

https://pinboard.in/tour/#api

I think the subtext here is that Maciej should update the text to remove Pukka! :-)

Tangential, but what made you decide to go back to full time employment?

Also, did you just not enjoy working on a product as much as consulting work, or was it simply not as lucrative/sustainable/reliable?

I wrote about the change:

http://codesorcery.net/2011/03/04/working-with-development-s...

Basically, I thought I'd never work again for someone else. That was over six years ago. Mapbox has grown from about 15 to over 220 people now. Somehow I knew it was different and it was just compelling enough — plus I had a "try before you buy" experience through contracting that was just too good to pass up.

On the balance, I definitely enjoyed the software (and still do), but especially working at home on my own, I enjoyed the interaction with people (usually by email or phone, sometimes in person) and the constant variety and problem-solving nature of it. And not just technical problems, but organizational and strategic problems, too.

I think it could have been as lucrative, but at least in the Mac software space (and probably the iOS one more so), it had a certain element of "grind" to it, with product marketing and website presentation, working PR contacts and releases, and constantly getting things in front of influential people. As much as I enjoyed that some of the time, I didn't want to do as much as it would have required to make apps the lion's share of my income.

Thanks! I never thought of it this way before, but I suppose there's no "set it and forget it" to selling on the app store if selling on the app store is your primary source of income, since you have to keep working to ensure the product remains relevant, gains new customers, etc. (Selling on the app store is decidedly not SaaS, after all.)

Yep, exactly. Even the "greats" just relentlessly promote and keep their apps relevant. Even a one-day or one-week windfall from a viral launch will not sustain you over time.

Pukka was great, and it's so nice to hear from you in this thread!

Pukka was one of the first apps I bought on the mac. Thank you.

Thank you for Pukka. It was an awesome client.

Thanks for Meerkat. Nifty little app.

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