Ask HN: Do you have a side project you want to sell?
A thread similar to this was posted ~1 year ago by illdave. I think it's time for an updated 2014 version.
If you have any side projects that you've built and that you no longer have time for, list them here and let's see if others want to buy it from you.
519 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 380 ms ] threadI wish I had time to build it, but I don't. It's a simple idea, where we had moderately good execution and big ideas for the future. Future plans were to expand to Doodle Packs, with themed artwork (also for sale, perhaps).
The image detection code (doodle placement) was pretty hacky but functional. The app has about 10,000 downloads, maybe 1,000 active (close to 0 marketing). I envisioned updating it with new doodles, better image code, sharing options, etc, and re-launching in the next couple months...but realistically that probably won't happen. Maybe you could make it happen? :)
I think the 'insert randomly' is a nice feature, but if I were to work on this, I'd focus more on letting users insert their own content. Catwang sells 'Doodle Packs' but I think they're missing a couple of things which your image detection is approaching: the ability to make your own stickers (out of friends, perhaps) and the ability to draw on the image (like Snapchat).
HTML5 game similar to risk. Rails/Angular/Redis/Heroku
Took over two years to build. Now it just needs a bunch of players. Monetization isn't built in yet but it's ready for it.
If there was no list of people who deleted me, does that mean it hasn't happened? Was it working properly?
> You may cache data you receive through use of the Facebook API in order to improve your application’s user experience, but you should try to keep the data up to date. This permission does not give you any rights to such data.
[1] http://socialfixer.com/blog/2013/10/27/facebook-doesnt-want-...
It's a torrent uploader & indexer. It's written in Ruby with Sinatra and fairly extensible.
I wrote it a couple years back, but got shut down by my parents and school administrators. Pity.
Contact: purchase@bernsteinbear.com
- http://www.tweepsect.com/ - Gets 300,000~600,000 pageviews per month (about 1/6 uniques), makes a couple hundred bucks from ads each month. Been around for almost 5 years.
- http://colorblendy.com/ - There's also a Chrome app (20k weekly users), website gets about 4,000~8,000 visits/month. I had some ideas for making a "Pro" edition with things like importing/exporting colors from/to CSS stylesheets. Probably need to do some more market research before diving into this.
- http://wedomainsearch.com/ - Few hundred visits per month, brand new (built several months ago). Fairly cool idea that is really valuable for founders/hobbyists, I use it all the time. Needs some love for promotion and monetization, though.
I love working on these little stand-alone projects (a few more here: http://shazow.net/, also my email address if you want to reach out), sometimes I wish I could just whip them out and sell them as a living but the code alone is never as valuable without putting in effort into growing the audience.
Thanks for putting it out there :)
I have a few more projects in the pipeline that I've been reluctant to publicize, but now I'm suddenly feeling more motivated, ha. :)
Unless you're reluctant because they need a cleanup, in which case, do that, and then post in next month's thread ;)
It erks me that different words 'stalkers' and 'stalking' are used to refer to the two parts of the graph, when there is no distinction between them.
Confused me that's all :)
[1] http://antizapret.info/index.php --- see for yourself (108.162.196.104)
Unfortunately not much happened with it. I joined Google to work on an in-house social analytics product, but most of it never launched. I've since left Google so I don't know what's going on in that department anymore.
I'm working on https://briefmetrics.com/ now, which is vaguely in the same space as SocialGrapple, sans the social for now. :) I'm considering introducing some social metrics into the email reports someday. I'm also working on splitting up the pieces of the project so that most of it can be open sourced and thereby guaranteeing some kind of continuity for loyal customers.
The fundamental product I wanted to build is done, so it basically runs itself while I do business development and sales. Eventually I'll need to dive back into the code to add more features I have on the roadmap, but I work best when I "switch modes" for spans of several weeks at a time so it may be a while. :)
The current revenue is about $250/mo. I've been trying to focus more on agencies with many clients and offering them custom-branded whitelabel emails reports for their customers. Making some progress on that end.
At the same time, as you can tell, I kind of have a habit of doing other random projects on the side, so things take longer than they should. :)
I love projects like this, particularly because although the income seems modest, I frequently live in developing countries for long stretches, where $250/month trickling in pretty much pays for the necessities.
Here, I'll write it down just so I can get it out of my head. :)
* Hobby: $4/mo (paid yearly), limited to 1 site and 1 recipient
* Startup: $10/mo, unlimited sites, unlimited recipients
[Custom Branding]
* Freelance: $35/mo, custom branding, 10 sites
* Studio: $85/mo, custom branding, 25 sites
* Agency: $150/mo, custom branding, 50 sites
It's a lot of plans but maybe the two-bucket separation would be manageable. Or maybe I need to do a more fluid $4-5/mo/custom-branded site plan, but pay-per-use plans typically doesn't perform as well for non-developers.
I realize that may sound weird. I'm ok with it.
Real-time engine in C, python-based tools. Language and encoding identification and classification technology. Primary market is filtering for kids, currently the only category is pornography. Manual support for violence.
Contact: noah[at]noahlitvin[dot]com
Chemical.io is a free cloud based lab management system that lets you catalogue chemicals using a smartphone and automatically re-order chemicals when running low.
It's an excellent domain and the software is very polished so it would be a great investment for prospective buyers.
I'm also open to offers on http://www.libramatic.com/. It's a cloud based library cataloging solution that lets you catalog books by scanning the ISBN using a smartphone's camera. It's currently in use in over 1,000 libraries and has a number of paying customers on monthly and yearly subscriptions.
Feel free to hit me up at s@chemical.io
Target market was medium/large organizations -- think large incubators, co-working spaces, companies. These separate organizations would have their own landing pages, learning cultures, etc.
Simple battle-tested assigned chart app for companies or venues to sell tickets to venues. At least $1m in sales has gone through it. I'll sell the code or the service for cheap, I don't have time to market it so it's just sitting there.
The coolest feature is that seat updates are "live" (using polling) to everyone, so none of that "you have 15 minutes to complete your order" crap you normally get when buying tickets. It's now a cross-platform HTML5/JS frontend, originally I made it in Flash.
Tool that allows users to create their own tours using Android Photospheres and embed them on their website/view online.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0zk_VuX2b0 for a demo of the interface
Our current commitments prevent us from finishing it.
I generate quite a lot of revenue for them from ads (about 500,000 hits per month), but they have so much potential and I don't have time to invest.
Are you up for it?
purchase at bernsteinbear dot com
http://teamrelaychat.nl/bouncer/ just the bouncer part of it. Has a hand full of users. Mainly exists because I use it.
Never done any serious marketing for either.
http://snaproulette.io/ Chat Roulette for SnapChat
Private Group Classifieds. Facebook groups are increasingly being used for private craigslists, but they are not well-suited to buying/selling. There is no search, no alerts, and are very time consuming to manage.
Built with Rails 4, Postgres, Resque. Got it to a functioning point and then had to switch gears to other clients/projects/work. The plan was to charge individuals for the tools (search, alerts, posting limits) rather than charge for a group, since they would just run to FB then.
the next retirement wave (i.e. lots of RVing) is just beginning. this is a huge opportunity.
Insurance and others is a minor sticking point I think, but should be workable. On the plus side, unlike house swaps, they don't have to be simultaneous.