HACKER Q&A
📣 c7DJTLrn

Can I realistically build something that makes money in 6 months?


I realise variants of this question are often asked on HN, so I apologise in advance.

I'm a DevOps/Software Engineer and I've just left my job at a large company you likely know of. In short, the project I was on imploded and management were sociopaths, so I've been in a depressive state for a while. Financially speaking I'm in a good position, so I'd like to allocate 6 months to see if I can build my own thing.

I have a number of ideas, but I'm having a hard time separating the ideas I'd like to build from the ideas that will have paying customers. I don't have any prospective customers yet either. Frankly speaking, I have no experience getting people to hand over their wallet for something.

Am I out of my mind or is this doable?

  👤 justinludwig Accepted Answer ✓
"Makes money" in the sense that someone will pay some money for it, absolutely. "Makes money" in the sense that it will adequately compensate you (and your collaborators), almost certainly not.

Most successful businesses take years to build (at which point they suddenly look like overnight successes to outside observers). But you can definitely prove out the concept for a product (or several) in six months -- and decide then if it's worth continuing to pursue, or if it's time to go back to a paying job.

👤 JoeyBananas
Yes. You could join an existing company and build something for them.

If that's not what you had in mind, then you have to state where the goalposts are.

Maybe your constraints (e.g., doing it alone as a solo engineer) are the true blocker.

👤 android521
Hey I am on the same boat and just started two weeks ago and will plan to release an app and try to start making money within 6 months. I believe it is completely doable. Start with the vision. If everything goes right, what would the best possible outcome be in 6 months? Then think about which would have to be true for that possible outcome and then try your best to achieve it. eg. 1. you must be able to build an MVP within a couple of months 2. you must be able to find an initial set of small customers to try out MVP and get them excited (measure active usage or willingness to pay 3. you must be able to improve your product based on feedback or pivot 4. you must be able to find a way to scale by finding more customers without breaking bank. etc
👤 dyeje
It’s doable. The challenge typically isn’t in the actually building though, it’s in finding people willing to pay. I recommend trying to acquire customers with mock-ups / clickable prototypes. If you can get 3 or so customers to sign contracts based on that, it’s likely worth building.
👤 janosdebugs
Yes, it is doable, but you will probably have to stop thinking about it as a software engineering problem and think about it as a 95% business problem. Who are your customers, why would they buy your stuff and not the competition, who even is the competition, how much money does acquiring and keeping a customer cost, etc etc. If you really need inspiration, watch a few episodes of Dragon's Den and pay attention to the questions they are asking.
👤 hnaccountme
Most likely no. But good luck
👤 rtcoms
https://twitter.com/levelsio Did some like 12 projects in 12 months and the focused on the project which got most traction.