Ask HN: What new business you did you start in 2018? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What new business you did you start in 2018?

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What solo or indie projects you started in 2018 that all ready generate some revenue

I finally launched http://www.finewordclocks.com

I wanted a side project that wasn’t focused on income but rather scratching my creative itch. I am hoping to start selling more clocks though. So far I’ve sold one.

I’ve recently moved and now have room to produce at home rather than community maker space. So I’ve bought a decent cnc. I’m now enjoying how to redesign for manufacturability given my new tooling.

I hope to post a show HN soon.

Side benefit, I get to make cool projects with my kids using the new tools too. We made a cool present for all the cousins this year.

Very cool!

Thanks! I always wanted one so after years of saying “I could do that” I finally got around to doing it. Making the leap to finally doing it was really quite rewarding even if I never sold one.

I certainly hope you do sell more than one! They're awesome looking and offer an original way of reading time - best of luck.

Thanks! The plan is to start marketing it more after the new years

Wow these look great! It just looks so...different from what I'm used to? Personally the wood is a bit old school, but with maybe some more modern/sleeker materials, I could definitely see myself putting up a large on of these in my place. Kudos!

Thanks for the compliment! There is a Swiss company that makes a fancy word lock that is glass and metal slick. Very apple-esque. But that’s not my personal style so I set out to make one that I would want.

Personally I like the challenge of figuring out the manufacturing process.

I started http://pullreminders.com earlier this year and it has been slowly but steadily generating revenue

I’m really curious about the teams that need this. To me it seems like a non issue, and a symptom of disorganization. Hope you don’t take this the wrong way, kudos to you, I can see from testimonials that it helped a lot of people.

It depends on the team size and scope. A team of many individuals working on parallel streams need some discipline to manage, especially across many repos, and things like this help.

However it does seems like a github/gitlab/whatever feature away from irrelevance.

Pretty much every team I've worked as an IC or manager has had this problem. By "problem", I mean that pull requests take more time and more cycles of communication to review and merge than is ideal, which means things get shipped slower. I think the problem is actually pretty universal.

We're actively using Pull Remainders! Love the direct messaging feature on comments and assignments! Keep up the good work!

Not solo, but small enough - https://txbatch.com.

It started out from a growing frustration myself and my coworkers[1] had the whole year, the tedious process of checking block explorers[2]. By October I was fed up enough with it to quit, initially intending to take another job but changing plans mid-way to co-found txBatch, short for "Transaction Batch", a bulk search blockchain explorer[3].

We worked all through November and December, finally getting a live product (supporting BTC, ETH[4], and USDT) - and after the holidays will be continuing to set up people on trials and reach out to exchanges.

If anyone on HN runs a crypto business that could use this, feel free to reach out to me - james at txbatch dot com.

Or if you know anyone - check out our referral page at https://refer.txbatch.com/#friend.

[1] Coworkers - at a cryptocurrency exchange. [2] Block explorers - specialised websites that show details of transactions on a blockchain e.g. https://blockchain.com/explorer [3] Bulk search, in contrast to the individual, single-chain search engines that are commonly available. [4] Including all ERC20s, internal transfers.

Wow! Drop dead gorgeous and a beautiful amalgamation of Woodworking and Embedded electronics. Actually want to buy one? Do you have a storefront/Shopify or something on your website? Which processor do you use to get Internet time and run LED matrix?

I think you’re referring to my wordclocks.

Thanks for the compliment. I’m really proud how well they came out.

Yes there are currently two ways to order one:

- my website: https://www.finewordclocks.com/purchase

- my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FineWordclocks

I have 2 units that should hopefully be ready to ship in about 2 weeks.

I’m currently using particle photons for the micro controller.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I was referring to the Wordclocks. Wishing you the very best to scale your business in the new year.

My friend and I launched https://www.feastflow.com.

It started when we both spent months building and optimizing a pipeline for getting freelance clients. After we started seeing growth results in our own freelance businesses we decided to launch Feastflow and help other fullstack programmers hear about more project leads. We’ve just finished our second month and made our first $1k which has been very exciting. In 2019 we want to add new project alerts for front end projects as well as launch a Slack channel for our members to share stories and resources.

I started www.marketgodfathers.com

They say you can't time the market. I am trying to prove that statement incorrect. This downturn actually was caught by my algo on both sides. It was signalling a high top, and it also signaled a fake sell-off. Today seemed to show that the fake sell of existed, however, I didn't turn to puts early enough. Next time, I should be able to capitalize more.

However, not running for cover during December definitely helps my marketing.

I started https://pledgebalance.com/ in February and just launched an iOS beta group this month. It's an app to balance the negative impact of your daily travel with tiny payment that goes 100% to carbon offsets. My drive today was 17¢ to balance, which is invested in projects like planting trees.

Only $50 of revenue this month, but hopefully will grow quickly from there. Also will add premium features like corporate accounts for additional fees, though will never take a cut of a person's balanced travel.

It was also fun diving into React Native for the first time, I learned a lot. I used a starter kit (https://market.nativebase.io/view/react-native-fiber-firebas...) I would definitely recommend as it provided a lot more structure than just learning from tutorials.

Thanks for pointing that out.

That's a really cool idea!

We launched https://eth.events

It is an Ethereum search engine.

Currently our index comprises Ethereum Mainnet, Tobalaba and several test nets. You can get a free API key right away or start by reading https://docs.eth.events.

Since this is an Elasticsearch index you can use Elasticsearch DSL and its implementation in your preferred language.

We are looking for customers and investors ;) Any questions or comments are welcome.

Huh, what are the chances, another blockchain search? Just signed up, will be keen to talk chances we could collaborate... if you'd like to reach out to me directly I'm james at txbatch.com or keybase.io/jamesscaur

I started a health tech startup, and our first product is a sleep coaching app, which combines user’s sleep data with sleep coaching protocol to train people to sleep better and manage their circadian rhythm.

Was able to get a paid pilot with a life insurance company by showing them the prototype and also currently negotiating with two large hospital chains to offer the app for their customer as work wellbeing solution.

This is great. I am interesting in stuff like this .

I started https://www.magiclasso.co/ which is a privacy focused ad blocker for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

After spending hundreds of hours developing the app, this year I added optional Pro features to support and enable ongoing development. The slow and steady success of the app has exceeded my expectations and just recently I passed the 60,000 downloads mark.

I heard a story where ad company sued the adblocker app. So I thought it is very risky to run adblocking.

What are your thoughts on this?

I don’t think it’s an issue... in my experience the most hostility has come from established Adblock companies (e.g. Adblock Plus / EyeO) as opposed to advertising companies.

Not really engineering based but...launched a video production company focusing on window shopping cannabis dispensaries in tourist cities where cannabis is recreationally legal. This is our first customer:

https://youtu.be/suxl02-nOrM

Please could you be free to explain the systems you used to produce your video ?

Sure...I’m assuming you mean equipment along with the software? I need to ask the videographer the specifics.

Yes.....please go ahead

Not sure if you were asking about products specifically, but just finishing up our first full year on our consulting firm Alpha Particle (https://alphaparticle.com). Working with some really interesting clients and excited to expand into 2019!

I started https://dataturks.com with one of my friends. This is annotation and evaluation workbench for AI companies. We have had steady and significant revenue going to end of year. Happy Holidays.

I've been working on The Compost (https://thecompost.io), a weekly newsletter breaking down environmental news

I made a game for iOS and Android. It failed to generate any revenue.

Anyone interested can play http://polypogon.com/

Don't lost hope. Make another one, maybe that will generate.

Unfortunately, I've lost a lot of hope. I've learned a lot, though. I've learned that you need a hefty marketing budget or else no one will know of your game. But paying advertising for players is a cost; you need to make your game addictive so they come back and watch adverts repeatedly. This considerably distorts game design.

Having said all that, I am working on a new game, admittedly more than just one new game, and if I can focus on just one I will try again! Perhaps free demo with in-app purchase to unlock full game, to avoid the insanity of adverts, despite everyone saying adverts pay better.

I would like to get into games programming, would you mind having a free hand around?

I had some games I used to let the kids play on my phone once in a while, like the one where you tip it to roll the balls into the hole, or go through a maze without falling down. They were great, but only ad supported, which is really irritating, but I imagine profitable. I would've gladly paid 20 bucks for an ad-free version, even if it felt like gouging. I was grateful to be able to try it out free with ads, but I wish people would sell it also, even if the price they would need to charge to be as profitable seemed excessive. Next time you're feeling stuck, we should talk and bounce around some addictive game ideas. A change in target audience might make all the difference.

not many people buy and developers have to eat.

www.contentapp.ai

A social media assistant for recruiters.

Going well so far with 60+ paying clients in just under 5 months. A long, exciting journey ahead :-).

Https://ProductManagerJobs.com

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