Comment by ronyeh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ronyeh | Hacker News Reader

I'm a solopreneur, and I work on iOS apps. I've been at it for 2 years now (!). I have not outsourced to contractors, and have been doing all the coding and art myself.

Check out my apps at: http://www.squarepoet.com/

My best performing app is Tiny Piano, which recently reached 2 million downloads: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id477014214 I also recently updated my Japanese learning game: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id492005575

My company became profitable starting this June. Tiny Piano has made enough revenue over the past several months to pay all my bills, though revenue is dropping fast. :-) That's how the App Store works... you get an early bump and then your downloads begin to trail off.

I left my full-time job 2 yrs ago, and so I spend most of my waking hours hacking on apps.

I'm a pretty competitive person, so wanting to "win" or wanting to "not fail" keeps me motivated enough. I have a few concrete goals that keep me focused. 1) Get 10M+ downloads so I can say on my resume that I made a "hit" app. 2) Buy a house in the Bay Area. :-)

You seem to be doing pretty good. A couple of questions:

1. Is this ("Tiny Piano has made enough revenue over the past several months to pay all my bills") all ad revenue Edit: Just saw the in-app song pack purchases. Is that where all the revenue is coming from?

2. Isn't, the music niche very competitive on the app store? What are you doing differently?

3. Given that (as you say) downloads begin to trail off, how are you planning on getting to 10M+ downloads?

4. I like the specific goals :) Is being specific (10M+ downloads) a hack you had to come up with to stay focused or just something you wanted?

5. Are you a musician yourself?

1. About 33% of my revenue is from sales. 67% is ad revenue.

2. Yes, it is very competitive. My app has dropped from the #8 spot in iPad/Free/Music to the #41, and it's hurting. :-) It has done very well in east Asian markets though.

3. Not sure. I might try to add some viral channels in the app. Otherwise, I'll have to slog it out, and get to 10M+ the slow way.

4. Specific goals is more or less a hack / dangling carrot. It's hard to say, "I'll succeed when I succeed." Two years ago, my specific goal was to launch a single app. This January, my goal was to make revenue. Now that I'm making some revenue, my goal is higher. Maybe when I hit 10M, I'll want to hit 100M? :-)

5. No, I'm not a musician. That's why I built the easiest piano on the App Store. :-) If you have an iOS device, download it and let me know what you think! http://itunes.apple.com/app/id477014214

Your answers lead me naturally to my next question :)

Why/how did you choose to build music related apps (given that it's a competitive space and your not a musician)?

Thanks for taking the time to answer. Hoping you'll reach your goals sooner rather than later :)

I've always been interested in learning to play instruments (who isn't?). I tried playing piano when I was younger, but gave up. I am currently (on and off) trying to learn guitar.

I had just bought an iPad in 2010, and was playing around with it and thought that it'd be cool to play guitar on it. I made a quick prototype and sent a video to two friends. They said it was cool. So I committed and started hacking. :-)

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