ROUNDTABLES ★ 5 upvotes 2012

Ask HN: Anybody selling their side project?

The Founder's Submission

Direct narrative and submission text authored by @WilhelmJ on Hacker News:

Hi, I've been looking around on flippa etc to see whether any real web app is for sale. My reason for buying is just to experiment with various things related to running a site, do lot of trial-error and gain some confidence before being able to eventually launch my own. Unfortunately, the results you find there are sickening if you want a genuine web app that does something.

I know lot of people on HN own several webapps. Wondering if anybody willing to sell something? I tried to find a proper marketplace unlike flippa (i.e. without scammers) but couldn't, hence the post.

Retrospective Overview & Key Insights

Distilled analysis of the business dynamics, operational challenges, and strategic takeaways:

An open Ask HN community consultation from 2012 where @WilhelmJ convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.

Core Principles for Independent Builders:
1
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
2
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
3
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:

Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.

Founder's Discussion Replies (@WilhelmJ)

Direct clarifications and follow-up comments shared by the author during the live discussion:

OP @WilhelmJ Original Author
2012

I just want to clarify something here, I am not an idea guy or a business guy. I am a hacker but my specialties are systems programming in C/C++ and I am learning web dev on the side when I get time, but haven't gone that much far. The reason for this post was partially to motivate me as well, since its great motivator once you get something going.

Community Discussions & Critical Reviews

High-signal perspectives, counter-arguments, and peer founder insights debated on Hacker News (6 total discussions):

EN @entropyneur Peer Contributor

Why not just launch your own small one? What you'll want to know the most is how to get from zero to something and buying an established site won't teach you that.

It took me just a day to implement http://notsharingmy.info/ and I've learned a real lot from it (and still learning).

MR @mrkmcknz Peer Contributor

Build one yourself, or partner with someone who will build it for you.

That will give you so much more satisfaction and will also give you all the practical trial and error testing you need!

MA @mapster Peer Contributor

Curious what you mean by "experiment with various things related to running a site". Do you mean getting traction and paying customers, or setting up a server?

EA @easymovet Peer Contributor

I have several systems that I'd sell but they are not doing big revenue. Oneworldcollege.com and servercyde.com (maybe)

DR @dre_lesa Peer Contributor

or partner with me,am desperately looking for a funding partner.though I am probably not in a location you would like.

HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 5 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 6 comments
TOPICS & TECH STACK: