Tell HN: I just made my first sale
For the past year, I've been working on a side project called Outpan. Basically it's an app store for web apps (apps written in JS/HTML/CSS).
The whole project started out as a simple directory but a few days ago I finally finished the payment/store functionality and released it without any fanfare. To my surprise, one of the developers found out about the new feature and added a paid app priced at $5 (https://www.outpan.com/app/d0b0885a8d/voice-music), I genuinely thought the price was waaaaaay too high and there weren't any proper screenshots (I think the developer was just testing the waters) but the very same day a user actually bought the app!!!!
Even though it's only $5 and the user seems to not have liked the app (I reached out to them and offered to issue a refund but they refused!) this is still a crazy milestone for me as all this happened without a shred of marketing and totally organically! I've already put a ton of work into this project but now that I know that there seem to be people willing to transact on my platform I'm super focused on improving the entire buying and payment experience to perfection.
Anyways, a really small amount of money but a giant amount of excitement lol Please ask any question you might have about my experience, would be happy to answer.
@ent101's retrospective from 2020 captures the critical transition from initial concept to the first dollar of customer revenue.
Discussions analyzed Show HN launch mechanics, cold DM outreach conversion rates, and the psychology of validating customer demand before writing code.
Congrats! Hopefully single-sales days will soon be commonplace. However, be prepared for droughts as well -- I sell at app that sells 2-3+ copies per day on average, but sometimes I go 2 weeks without a sale and some times I get 20 in a day. There's little correlation between sales so what matters is long-term trends.
Awesome and congrats! - Can I ask - How do you (intend to) deal with tax from sales generated overseas? Would you outsource this, or manage it yourself? I intend to release also, but I'm not quite at the release stage. My mind is full of these non-software related questions...thanks in advance.
That's a cool idea. And congratulations!
However, I get an error in my console when I navigate to an app:
Chrome on macOS
“The 3 most harmful addictions are cocaine, carbohydrates and a monthly salary” says Nassim Taleb in his book black swan. I guess the first sale from the product you built also goes in the same line but in a positive way!
Well done, and incase you don’t know about it I recommend talking about this on IndieHackers.com for more exposure and helpful advice.
Disclosure it isn’t my site, it’s well known / respected on HN though.