ZERO-TO-ONE 2 Months ★ 6 upvotes 2020

From $0 to $20,145.92 in 2 months with a side project

Shared by @zenorocha · Pandemic Bubble (2020–2022) · 8 community discussions

View HN Discussion (8 comments)

ORIGINAL RETROSPECTIVE

The Founder's Submission

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

(screenshot: https://share.getcloudapp.com/yAu288nm)

I've been building open source software for the past 10 years. And I always thought that monetization was evil.

It took me a while to realize that money is not evil, money is oxygen.

In December 2019, I decided to learn more about sales. So I went to Amazon and bought several books.

In the end, I only read one - but I quickly realized that if I really wanted to learn this, I'd have to practice it in real life.

I love my job and I was definitely not looking to leave it. However, you can always start a side project, and that's what I decided to do.

I opened GitHub, looked at my open source projects, and built a plan around monetizing Dracula, which is a dark theme for developers.

At first, this seemed like a crazy idea. Who would buy a color scheme for their code editors?

When you start, there are all these inner voices trying to stop you, but deep down, I knew I could build something meaningful.

In February 2020, I launched and... people started to buy. The feeling of receiving even $1 for your side project is unbelievable.

It's really hard to explain. It opens your eyes to a different reality.

Two months later this side project already made $20,145.92.

If you're considering creating a side project, stop waiting, and do it. Do it now. I mean it, close this page and start it right now.

I'm sure you're not going to regret it a couple of months from now.

If you're curious about this side project I created, you can check it out here: https://draculatheme.com/pro

SYNTHESIS & DOSSIER

Retrospective Overview & Key Insights

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

@zenorocha's retrospective from 2020 captures the critical transition from initial concept to the first dollar of customer revenue.

Core Principles for Independent Builders:

Early traction rarely comes from passive launches; it requires direct manual outreach, personal network activation, and high-touch customer support.

Narrowing down the target audience to a specific niche allows solo founders to out-position generic horizontal competitors.

Underpricing out of fear of rejection is common; founders who set premium pricing often discover higher customer satisfaction and lower churn.

Community Debate Themes:

Discussions analyzed Show HN launch mechanics, cold DM outreach conversion rates, and the psychology of validating customer demand before writing code.

PEER EVALUATIONS

Community Discussions & Critical Reviews

High-signal perspectives, counter-arguments, and peer founder insights debated on Hacker News (8 total discussions):

JU @justaj Peer Contributor

2020 Thread ↗

This is honestly the first time I'm hearing about someone monetizing a color scheme. I didn't even now such a thing was possible.

Was it already popular before you started to monetize it? I see that the Github repo [0] has 12k+ stars, so I assume it was already pretty popular beforehand. Did you get more exposure (and GH stars) after the choice to monetize it?

Also, what things does the bonus screencast cover?

I just downloaded the Alacritty theme [1] and to my liking the background is too bright (I guess I prefer it darker than Dracula hehe), so I changed it to 0x000000, but other than that I like it, it's definitely pleasant on the eyes.

[0]: https://github.com/dracula/dracula-theme

[1]: https://github.com/dracula/alacritty/tree/af38d360e9589a75a27bc6d94f30b9931deb9e50

JP @jpistell Peer Contributor

2020 Thread ↗