39
20 Comments

The Gods on HackerNews

  1. 12

    I'm the person that made the comment about the $1k MRR. It's amazing how this post has taken it out of context. The original post was about STARTUPS making $1k MRR AFTER 12months - 24months. Not impressive! As I said, if it's a side project, then it's impressive. If you are working day in and day out and that's the best you can reach, go get a job. You can make more flipping a burger. I of course say this with the context that the audience is in the USA. Surely in some parts of the world, $1k a month will have you living like a king, but I feel this post is nitpicking, and if my advice that a startup should aim higher and make money is bad then so be it! No regrets.

    1. 7

      Startups are a journey. Lots of people, including me, failed a bunch of times before finding the success they're looking for. But that's fine, because they're learning, improving, and often enjoying the process. That process might take years, and hitting $1k/month may just be one of many milestones along the way.

      But your comment treats startups like a snapshot, as if $1k/month is the end of the road. You also suggest that these people should quit and do something else, ignoring the fact that they're likely continually improving. And if your goal is to be encouraging, disparaging people's efforts by calling them "not impressive" is the exact opposite way to do that.

    2. 2

      $1k MRR is nothing to brag about.

      It's $1,000 more than 0 to brag about.

      I think your hn comment could've done without the scoff, but then it wouldn't have caused such a stir. People are tweeting and writing blog posts about you now.

      Milk the 15 minutes of infamy by writing your own blog post in response. NO RAGRETS!

    3. 1

      Just re-read your comment. No, it's not taken out of context. You specifically say "I often see these non side projects...". You're not talking about start-ups 12 months in...

      And to agree with OP, building profitable side projects is hard work, and everyone reaching $1,000 MRR should be congratulated and encouraged to continue. And $1,000 can very quickly turn into $5,000 or more...

      Let's encourage indie devs a bit more!

      1. 2

        I often see these NON side projects, meaning startups, someone working full time. I'm talking about startups, even the comment mentioned that a side project with such figures is impressive, but whatever.

  2. 5

    This is my take on $1K MRR - "The only people who say $1K MRR is nothing to brag about are the ones who never tried for it in the first place."

    As some of you know already, this is the original post on HN that blew up all the $1K MRR debate

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25036526 (I am the original author of this post on HN)

    Worth reading the comments to see various views on $1K MRR and MRR in general

  3. 5

    This, this, a thousand times this. Making $1k MRR from your side project is a big deal.

    1. 1

      This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  4. 4

    There is something deeper at play here. What is the wanton pursuit of money for the sake of money ? I have several friends working at FAANG and they always want more. When I ask them what will they do once they have all the money they want ? They don't have an answer.

    There is this idea that a certain amount of money you attain FREEDOM. What will you do with that freedom ? No one has an appropriate answer. We are like dogs chasing a car, we don't know what to do if we finally catch it.

    I've thought about this for a while and I think there is something deeply satisfying in the act of creating and watching it flourish. If your income from it fits your lifestyle , what more do you need ?

    1. 1

      There is this idea that a certain amount of money you attain FREEDOM. What will you do with that freedom ? No one has an appropriate answer.

      There are some subreddits that talk about this, for example fatFIRE.

  5. 3

    Well, in their defense... what's a few million? What are we... peasants?

    I'm gonna need at least 3B to live semi-comfortably😎

    Maayybee I could do 2B, if I'm willing to cramp my style and hop on that whole minimalism trendy thingy that's been going on. But honestly, it's kinda ridiculous just thinking about it. Suppose you only had 6 cars... wtf are you gonna drive on Sunday then?

  6. 2

    Definitely agree with the sentiment. You get from 0 to N stepwise, and every step is impressive to the right crowd. If someone shows you something they're proud of and your reaction is to dismiss their achievement (instead of encouraging, celebrating, supporting, amplifying)... idk. Just seems sort of destructive at a time when society needs as much creativity, collaboration, growth mindset, etc as it can get.

  7. 1

    Rik, if you’re reading this, the choice of header photo was mint 👌😂

    Also I just read your other recent post, congratulations on the weight loss that is insurmountable for many people.

    I just signed up to the gym today 💪
    (Zero cases of rona in my bit of Australia)

  8. 1

    I think they are starting to lose touch with reality.
    It's damn impressive to build anything from scratch that enables you to make money.

  9. 1

    Great reading, thanks for sharing it with us.

    It's a pleasure for me to know that people like you are in this community!

    We can/should support each other to achieve our freedom, and part of it is to share different points of view like you did in this article.

  10. 1

    So much entitlement...

    But I think that with software engineers in particular, reality is going to catch up pretty soon. Coding is more accessible than ever before. At the same time, jobs in other industries are disappearing, and kids are learning to code at ever younger age.

    Lots more people are coming to work in tech.

    1. 4

      I hope you're right, but everything I read (in the USA at least) is that fewer and fewer kids are selecting the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) options as they get to high school and college.

      The world absolutely needs more software developers even with the explosion of nocode tools, but I'm seeing a big shortage looming.

  11. 0

    It's just classic internet sociopathic behaviour. At the core, the users doing this are trying to divert attention away from other's accomplishments and make the conversation about themselves.

    "That's not much money (I have more money than you)"

    "You could earn more at FAANG (which is what I do)"

    It's best to try and ignore this behaviour.

    I have the utmost respect for people like @Shpigford sharing their acquisition numbers transparently, and people building in public sharing their MRR - these people are inspiring and encouraging generations of entrepreneurs, they are contributing to the increase of the internet's GDP.

    Their actions say so much more than an angry/jealous HN comment ever will.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 28 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 15 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments