Alternatives
Products that do what After $30M in Sales We've Switched Our Business Model does
To date we've been selling IT training courses on DVD's for approximately $400 a piece. We create the curriculum, create the content, market it ourselves, everything. We've sold almost $35 million dollars of our own IT training one course at a time to about 50,000 customers in 147 countries. Being in business for a number of years we've built up expenses to approximately $500k and we're risking it all to start from 0 subscribers with the subscription model. Completely bootstrapped, no outside money.
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It's been a long slow hog and I almost gave up a few times (more than a few) but when covid hit this year it gave me some time to really focus on my product. There were stupid user journey things that I knew needed fixed. There were some features I knew needed added. And I knew the pricing was wrong. I spent some hardcore time working on these things back in March / April and since then my MRR has continued to grow. My product is SongBox (https://songbox.rocks) - it's an alternative to things like bandcamp and soundcloud for creators who need to share audio files privately.…
2020
- 3SP
Several years ago, I had a client whose salespeople were using Excel to generate sales proposals. This was inefficient and the resulting documents looked awful, so I developed a new process for them using a no-code platform. It featured a web form that was tied to a workflow engine, and a fancy PDF got emailed to the customer to sign. When the client loved the solution, I knew I was on to something. However, the no-code platform wasn't very customizable, so I decided to rebuild the process as a SaaS product. The client's CTO wanted in and we became cofounders. Today, we passed the…
2021
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- 5MP
My story: I founded this a couple of years ago because my school (I was 11/12 at the time) had recently purchased a library system which was horrible and ugly. I thought it could be made much better, so I coded for months on end to get this product working. I submitted this to a TV competition on national TV and got the opportunity to pitch this product in front of 500,000 viewers. I received a bursary of €2,000 from the show and used that money to grow the business. Currently the business is thriving and is growing rapidly. I'd really appreciate any feedback you might have. Thanks, Shane
2013 · libramatic.com
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- 7ML
I made a post a few days ago asking if any software companies/start ups needed technical video tutorial writers and I had a few very interested and serious respondents email me. I've been looking for something to do with this domain hence I give myself a Christmas present.
2013 · helpknow.com
- 8IB
I’ve always found it funny how simple feedback widgets end up as $20–$30/month products. The tech is dead simple, infra is cheap, and most of us here could rebuild one in a weekend. So as a “principle experiment” I built my own today as a side project and priced it at 1 dollar. Just because if something is cheap to run and easy to replicate, it should be priced accordingly, and it’s also fun marketing. 1$ feedback tool. Shipped today, got the first users/moneys today, writing this post today. Side Sunday project, then back to the main product tomorrow.
Dec 2025 · onedollarfeedback.com
- 9IS
I'm tired of seeing founders building stuff for months and years that nobody would ever pay for. They just don't see it, like most other founders learn to do. Business validation = making money, and nothing else really. If you really wanna make money this year, I can help you do it.
2025 · validatedsaas.com
- 10MA
Hi there, So a buddy a couple of days ago came up with the idea for a new SaaS product regarding gpt and image generation. We did a quick MVP that barely works, it breaks almost 50% of the time but we still wanted to validate the idea before going all in. We have almost 1k followers on Twitter together. Did a quick post describing the idea with a stripe link in the comments with a 5$ value, no landing page, and no shipped product. In exchange, the buyers become beta users. Around 30 mins later we got our first sale next 30 mins another 5$ and so on. Do we consider the idea validated? The…
2023
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2022 · youtube.com
- 12MA
I was shopping around for a marketing animation. Typical cost was +$1000. I looked for a more budget option, and the only way to do it was actually to make it myself... Here's what I used... Goanimate 1-month subscription: $79 Voice actor from O Desk: $25 A couple of sound files: $5 Other tools used: PowerPoint, Paper53 It took about five full days, 10-12 hrs a day, to finish it. I'd appreciate comments and suggestions...or any ideas for a new scene. The animation is about our online test prep service called CUVE. We currently have a beta version for SAT math. (www.cuve.me) Thanks.…
2014
- 13FR
Hey HN! We're launching Founderpath today to help saas founders raise cash without diluting their company Instead of a merchant cash advance needing to be paid back within 6-12 months, our standard deal is 15% interest, 4 year payback, $200k check We get no equity, no warrants, no weird covenants, and don't require personal guarantees This cash is way cheaper than if you were to raise from a VC (normally diluting your equity pool by 20%+ and losing a lot of control via a board seat and veto powers) We're around all day today showing demos & answering questions over at…
2020
- 14A9
After analyzing 9 years of HN side project posts, I found some counter-intuitive patterns about what makes projects profitable. Three things that stood out: 1. B2B dominates: 73% of $500+/month projects target businesses, not consumers 2. Speed matters more than polish: Average 47 days from launch to first sale. Most started charging with 3-5 core features. 3. Pricing cluster: 87% price between $20-49. Low enough for impulse purchase, high enough to be sustainable. I compiled this into a dataset of nearly 700 projects with tech stack, pricing, and timeline data. Built it because I was…
Feb 2026
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Take first spot by just paying $1 extra. Forever backlink.
12d ago · takefirstspot.lol
- 16OD
2018 · springzo.com
- 17AF
As a product manager I've used different feedback tools and almost never liked the design and experience of the widget. And pricing of some existing tools is just way too high, at least for indie makers or small businesses ($35 for 100 responses...). That's why I've launched Freddy Feedback (today!). You can find it on www.freddyfeedback.com. Curious to hear your feedback (very meta ;-)).
2020
- 18GS
I'm building a startup every 4 weeks. Startup #1 is a service where you can hire a virtual assistant for $2 per task, http://JFDI.ninja. For more about my project: http://4weekstolaunch.com
2017
- 19HM
2018 · intello.io
- 20FO
GTM iteration is slow by nature. Test the price, wrong. Fix the message, doesn't convert. Try a new audience, wrong segment. Pick a channel, no traction. Each mistake costs a month. By the time you've iterated to something that works, the market has moved - especially now, when AI is reshaping what buyers want every quarter. We built RightSuite to compress that cycle. Describe your offer and target audience. The system runs it through a synthetic buyer population and tells you what's likely broken before you go live. It won't replace talking to real customers. Nothing does. But it means you…
Apr 2026 · github.com
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Hello everyone, I just launched my bootstrapped (no funding) online learning startup, after 3 years of solo development part-time (2 to 3 days a week) - https://onlinecoursehost.com I would love for you guys to go through the landing page and give me your feedback on the page itself, the idea, the pricing model, any feedback would be much appreciated. About the product, it's an online course hosting platform. Online instructors upload their video courses, integrate with Stripe, set a price, create a course landing page and website home page (there is a website builder component to…
2021
- 22CF
Hey HN, I'm Namanyay from https://gigamind.dev/. One of the most empowering applications of LLMs is enabling non-technical people to build apps and products. This value is reflected in the revenues of companies like Lovable and Bolt. Many of Giga's paying customers are business executives building valuable automations and internal tools that increase efficiency. But, the incumbents currently operate on pay-as-you-go pricing, which is a predatory business model that I ethically disagree with. I believe the future of vibe coding tool pricing needs to be outcome based vs PAYG.…
Nov 2025
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For years, I have struggled to understand my cash flow and save for the future. In addition to that, my wife has many credit cards and accounts that complicate matters. I am building a tool that connects all our accounts, helps us create a budget, and tracks and adjusts expenses on the fly. I am also sprinkling some AI magic on it for financial suggestions. I am looking for feedback on the implementation. More importantly, I am looking for more beta testers to improve the product.
2023 · financemadelovely.com
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