Ask HN: Your most successful side project?
I know I -- and I assume many others -- would be interested to hear about HNers' most successful side projects.
Wherein side project is defined as something started by you -- with or without others' help -- on the side of a full-time dayjob that turns/turned a decent profit, was sold for a decent amount or has considerable uptake and a bright future.
I'll go first. In 2005 I started a designer community event called CSS Reboot that, in its 1 1/2 years under my ownership, made $5,000 in ad sales. Fall 2006 I then sold it for $10,000.
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2009 where @adamhowell convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.
Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.
Doesn't exactly fit your criteria in terms generating revenue, but I wrote a plugin for TiddlyWiki (http://www.tiddlywiki.com/) that allows you to store your address book inside a TiddlyWiki file. It includes import and export, and since TiddlyWiki is JavaScript based you can fully script your address book to your liking. It's called TiddlyWiki Address Book (i.e. twab, http://www.tiddly-twab.com/). It's fairly popular among those who use TiddlyWiki and more importantly is something I'm proud of for a number of reasons.
All "side" businesses, concurrent with growing up, education, sports, jobs, etc.
Age 6: Ran a neighborhood service "Rent a Kid for Odd Jobs" ($25)
Age 10: Made wax candles in my backyard and sold them to a Mom & Pop store ($100)
Age 12: Grew tons of plants at home and sold them to a nursery ($400)
Age 18: Created basic websites (HTML, CGI/Perl, PHP) for businesses ($10,000)
Age 22: (while in grad school) Coached Tennis ($1000)
Age 29: (Current) Looking to buy and sell cars, i.e. auto-brokering. ($0 so far)
Many years ago, I developed an extension named AdBlock for the Phoenix browser, instead of studying for an exam.
I unfortunately haven't taken part in its development for a long time, but I still get a small kick out of seeing it mentioned around the net, and I love seeing how the project has been adopted by people far more disciplined than me.
Some other side-projects, which achieved less renown, can be seen on my homepage.
I have an outsourcing business that brings in about $3000/mo profit. Clients include web design/development companies, and small businesses who need "intern" work done. All work is done in Cebu, Philippines.
I had a comparison shopping site with affiliate links back in college (1999-2000) that I started with 3 friends. We pocketed about $1000/mo each until mysimon.com came along.
My company, LightSail Energy, started as a simple question: whether enough power could be recovered froma garage roof to power a daily commute. It's now a small startup that's raised money from a top VC, we have a working prototype and excellent forward momentum. :-)