HN Explorer

AMA: I make $100K+ ARR from my microstartups

167 points by 1hakr ↗ HN
Hello everyone, I’m Hari, and I’m a serial Microstartup Maker. In the last 4 years, I made:

• https://visalist.io, an all-in-one visa requirements website for travelers with 300K Monthly Active users

• https://anexplorer.co, an all-one File manager for phones, watches, TV's and tablets on android with crossed 1M downloads recently

• https://acrypto.io, a cryptocurrency app to track and get real-time alerts with 200K downloads

• https://simpleops.io, performance, web vitals and API monitoring tool for websites with 2000 users

I started my indie maker journey to become financially independent and travel the world. I had a simple and small goal, build things I wanna use and make $100/day. It started slow, I had started building and improving while traveling, it took a while but I crossed $100, then I crossed $200/day. Then pandemic hit and I went back to $100/day, but after 6 months and building a new microstartup, it slowly picked pace and again crossed $200/day then I crossed $300/day, now I'm close to $400/day and my next goal is $500/day.

If the momentum keeps up, I will hit $150K this year.

AMA!

And if you wanna know the learning that I share, follow my journey on https://twitter.com/1HaKr.

123 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 181 ms ] thread
Rastonbury
What's your playbook for marketing? This seems to be something you have nailed

And how to you make decision on how you split your time between the four?

1hakr
I usually tweet WIP screenshots and tease whats coming, then I do a public launch on PH, LinkedIn, Facebook groups and Indie Hackers. But always before bulding a microstartup, I have the organic growth channel figured out. For example with https://visalist.io it was SEO, with https://anexplorer.co it's ASO

I put all my focus on one when i'm getting started, but after its feature complete then i move on to the next. I spend around 20% of my time improving/fixing existing ones.

jdc
Here's a question for you from somebody that does _not_ know SEO at all. How good / close to the state of the art is Moz these days?
Arech
Hari, do you use/rely on any kinds of paid traffic, such as AdWords&etc ? What's your experience with that?
1hakr
i dont do any paid marketing
cauliflower99
When you say you put all your focus on one, does that mean you focus completely on an MVP, or are you confident enough at building stage that you have a good product and so build as many features as you can?
itisit
Congrats on being your own boss! How much time do you spend on these sites, in any aspect, per week?
1hakr
Thanks mate! I usually spend around 5-10 hours per week
daveguy
Does that include social / professional networking / advertising / marketing / promoting / etc. Or just technical aspects? (Notice you said about 20% on existing businesses)
1hakr
Yes that about sums it up
dchi
If you designed a semester-long microstartup course targeted to fresh CS grads, what does the syllabus look like?
1hakr
Thats an interesting one which i have never thought about. So it would divide into 4 chapters and go in details for each

- Problems to solve

- Poduct/Solution

- Growth/Marketing

- Pricing/Business Model

- Audience/Users

Then at the end have assingment to build a microstartups based on whats learnt!

bitcoinmoney
What’s your stack? Do you see yourself making a master class out of this or at least a YouTube channel?
1hakr
I use Vue JS, Node JS and Go Lang. If i get enough interest, i would love to share my learnings and thoughts on youtube.
onelastjob
I'm thinking about learning Vue and Go. When and why do you use Node.js instead of Go for the backend?
InvOfSmallC
When you start, services like Heroku, Firebase etc.. gives you a lot of power. Imho it's never a good idea. For example I have server rendered websites in go sdk (with the template engine) and other website in full node js stack (in my case react but the concept stays). I don't really see a use case for mixed use since having two different languages slow you down.
megraf
How do you manage taxes? Have you dealt with a lawsuit?
1hakr
I have a company setup, so everything related taxes is setup through it. No lawsuit so far .
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batmaniam
Cool, congrats on the success! With that amount of traffic and payments, do you encounter credit card fraud? How do you deal with it?
1hakr
Yes, i have unfortunately, i have to pay from my pockets sometimes but stripe has been very good.
cweill
Congratulations! What kind of corporate structure do you use for your microbusinesses? Delaware LLC? Also are you based in the USA?
1hakr
Yes, i have unfortunately, i have to pay from my pockets sometimes but stripe has been very good.
leohonexus
What's your playbook for identifying worthwhile ideas to start developing?

Any ideas you thought had great potential but turned out mediocre / failed? And vice-versa?

1hakr
I see a potential problem, see if I can solve it. See if it's already being solved, if not I pitch the idea to few people. If atleast 50% got excited. I pick this idea to build
arthurcolle
Do you write everything yourself? Do you write the backend in python/ruby/whatever and then use Java/Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS or do you use a framework like Flutter to generate apps for both ecosystems?

I know how to write backends and APIs across a few languages but I really hate the walled gardens and can't even enjoy writing code for a single ecosystem vs. just writing more logic in a Rails controller or something (to further a project)

Just curious - good job getting things deployed and actually catering to niches!

1hakr
Instead of looking from tech perspective, i try to look from the solution perspective. I see what can be done in short period and i choose that. If i need to learn a new thing then i will learn or else i will use what i already know.
arthurcolle
So you contract it out?
1hakr
nope, i build them myself.
arthurcolle
so server side you use Go, and then implement native apps for each ecosystem? Sounds like a lot of work! How do you decide what to prioritize? How long did it take you to launch the web analytics app for example?
1hakr
Simple ops took a month for building and one month for beta testing
MattGaiser
How do you find things worth building?
1hakr
I pick the problems i personally face and then see if it can be solved and has potential to make a revenue out of it. Then i pitch the idea to few people. If atleast 50% got excited. I pick this idea to build.
notabanker
Appreciate your being candid about your revenues.

Since you are quite transparent and forthcoming about your revenues, I urge you to take it a step further. It would be very helpful if you could share a screenshot from your payment processor to substantiate your revenue claim. Could you do that please?

koopuluri
Why not take it at face value?
notabanker
We're all strangers on this forum. Half take the numbers at face value, the other half doesn't.

The allure of this thread is the author's claims on revenue. I'm asking on behalf of the latter half of hn, that would like to believe but would like to see verification first.

john_yaya
$100K ARR is not really that out of the ordinary for something like this, I’m inclined to believe them without verification.

One thing that bugs me, though, is that his solutions are in already very crowded spaces. It seems like it would be difficult to siphon off users without a significant marketing spend.

secondaryacct
This, right here, is the marketing spend. I work in a bank in Hong Kong and look at me hearing about his mini craps ahah
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math-dev
Yeah this looks like spam otherwise, he/she just linked stuff all his sites otherwise

Even if he does provide a screenshot, I am not sure if an AMA is the best type of post for Hacker News - there is no unique or insightful content in the original post apart from a set of links

1hakr
I could do that but its not one single place i get revenue from like

- Google PlayStore - Apple Appstore - Google Adsense - Google Admob - Stripe - Affilate Revenue

logyclog
How did you market them initially?
1hakr
I usually tweet WIP screenshots and tease whats coming, then I do a public launch on PH, LinkedIn, Facebook groups and Indie Hackers. But always before bulding a microstartup, I have the organic growth channel figured out.
kopos
Thanks 4 the AMA.

How many projects did you launch before you arrived at these top 4?

How do you arrive at an idea worth pursuing?

Where do you start?

How long do you spend before you chuck off a project not worth pursuing more?

1hakr
I have launch around 7 or 8

I see a potential problem, see if I can solve it. See if it's already being solved, if not I pitch the idea to few people. If atleast 50% got excited. I pick this idea to build

I dont take more than a month to validate any idea

coolandsmartrr
Your projects look cool!

How much time do you spend on a project before you start to monetize or move on?

1hakr
Thanks, i try to not take more than a month to validate a micrstartup.
stickfigure
In this same time period (4 years), how many microstartups failed validation and were abandoned?
1hakr
Around 12 failed validation
theindianappguy
please share their link if live and a blog on what you think went wrong
inson
do you make hybrid mobile apps? What frameworks do you use for mobile apps?
1hakr
No i havent made any hybrid apps. I have built only native apps so far.
ApolIllo
How do you identify which problems are worth solving?
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1hakr
I pick the problems i personally face and then see if it can be solved and has potential to make a revenue out of it. Then i pitch the idea to few people. If atleast 50% got excited. I pick this idea to build.
zaptheimpaler
Wow nice job. How did you transition into being a full-time maker? Did you have a job and build one of these on the side?
1hakr
I quit my job and worked on these full time.
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xwdv
Have you actually made $100k+ yet or is this projected?
xmprt
Based on the given timeline, it seems like it's projected unless he went from $100/day at the start of the pandemic to $300+/day by September 2020 (ie, in about 4-5 months).
1hakr
Yes i have crossed $400/day, its been 4 years now.
xmprt
Sorry. I meant to say that while you've probably make 100k net over 4 years and that you have 100k ARR, you haven't yet had a single year with 100k income based on the timeline you've given.
iammisc
Do you do it all yourself, or do you outsource anything? I'm impressed by the landing pages. Any tips?
1hakr
I build everything myself. There are so many no code tools, out there. Start with them, so you to go live will be much shorter and you will be able to validate your idea in a short time.
esjeon
How much time do you spend on your new/old projects? How much maintenance?
1hakr
new - 80% old - 20%
fighterpilot
How long did it take you to get competent enough with your stack in order to be able to actually execute and build these yourself? Did you learn these skills through prior employment, college or self-taught?
1hakr
Half i learnt then during my employment, Half i learnt when i need to build a specific thing.
xcambar
OP is testing their next microstartup on HN with this thread :D