Ask HN: 10-year dev, tried earning on the side for a year – lost $2,200
4 comments
Carlos's comment in here is great too and I have nothing to add to that but on the flip-side of that, I would argue for you to find things which you want yourself and if you see a market for that.
For example, from what I am understanding, you position the time spent into a product as waste if it doesn't generate revenue and are finding people who can ditch the idea if it doesn't generate revenue.
You are better off also finding things that you want to build which you are happy building because I feel like more than anything, its hard to be spotted when you are small and to be trusted with.
Imagine I was the telegram (subscription?) user and I trusted that you will continue it but it turns out that it wasn't profitable so you closed it.
Say, I was invested into your product and was paying you what I thought was right but then you closed because it wasn't enough (and that's okay too!) but the next time I will try to learn to not use products which make small money and hey this becomes a vicious cycle because everyone starts out small!
I also wish to know how you lost 2200 dollars because it seems that you did end up making profit and only lost when you invested 800 dollars, I am unable to understand that part, so please do clarify.
Another point but if you are great at coding, I would suggest hackathons to get service credits which you can then use for side-projects without burning money or partnering up with someone. I do feel like it might be worthwhile of your time as well
Hope this helps, My point is mainly to do something which you can be proud of yourself in it of itself and can be passionate about because I have seen multiple businesses which don't work until they do.
Maybe Sunk cost bias and Survivorship bias and that's fair. In that case, I actually recommend carlos's advice too. Both advice are great (in my humble opinion)
For example, from what I am understanding, you position the time spent into a product as waste if it doesn't generate revenue and are finding people who can ditch the idea if it doesn't generate revenue.
You are better off also finding things that you want to build which you are happy building because I feel like more than anything, its hard to be spotted when you are small and to be trusted with.
Imagine I was the telegram (subscription?) user and I trusted that you will continue it but it turns out that it wasn't profitable so you closed it.
Say, I was invested into your product and was paying you what I thought was right but then you closed because it wasn't enough (and that's okay too!) but the next time I will try to learn to not use products which make small money and hey this becomes a vicious cycle because everyone starts out small!
I also wish to know how you lost 2200 dollars because it seems that you did end up making profit and only lost when you invested 800 dollars, I am unable to understand that part, so please do clarify.
Another point but if you are great at coding, I would suggest hackathons to get service credits which you can then use for side-projects without burning money or partnering up with someone. I do feel like it might be worthwhile of your time as well
Hope this helps, My point is mainly to do something which you can be proud of yourself in it of itself and can be passionate about because I have seen multiple businesses which don't work until they do.
Maybe Sunk cost bias and Survivorship bias and that's fair. In that case, I actually recommend carlos's advice too. Both advice are great (in my humble opinion)
I'd say making money consistently is more about being a good businessman than just being a good developer. Understand your market, validate demand before building (and build incrementally), have a clear sales/marketing plan and choose trustworthy partners carefully.
chadtd1(1)
Last year I decided to seriously try making money on the side. Here's what happened:
*Attempt 1: Built a product (Telegram subscription bot)* Built a content subscription platform on Telegram — paid tiers, built-in shop, automated operations. At first it kinda worked: ~$70/month on ads, ~$110-140/month revenue. Tiny margin, but hey, it's positive. So I tried to scale — pushed ad spend to ~$280/month. Revenue? Only ~$220. Scaling literally made it worse. Turns out the small profit was just a lucky pocket of cheap traffic, not a real business. Shut it down.
*Attempt 2: Partnered with someone to build a product* Found a partner — I build, they sell. Built the whole thing. They tried promoting it for about two weeks, didn't see quick money, and just... stopped. Product died on the vine.
*Attempt 3: Another partnership* Different person, different project. I did all the dev work, delivered the finished product. Partner ghosted. Never heard from them again.
*Attempt 4: "Trust me, it's easy money"* Someone convinced me their business model was printing money. I invested ~$800 to get in. Lost all of it. Classic lesson, expensive tuition.
*Attempt 5: Freelancing* Started looking at freelance projects. Reality check: a $7,000 project takes one person roughly 2 months of full-time work. As a side gig on top of a day job, that's brutal. The per-hour math is honestly depressing once you factor in communication, revisions, and scope creep.
*Attempt 6: Small gigs* Just did a simple website for a friend — $300 for 2 days of work. Fine as a favor, but obviously not a path to meaningful income.
*Net result after one year: -$2,200 and mass of time gone.*
Here's what I think I've learned (but I'm not sure I've learned the right lessons):
- I can build things, but building ≠ earning - I keep falling into the "trade time for small money" trap - Partnerships have burned me every single time — I do the work, the other side flakes - I don't know how to find clients who actually pay well - My product attempt failed because I had no real distribution strategy — just threw ads at it and hoped - I'm apparently an easy target for "easy money" pitches
I'm not looking for "learn to code" advice — I can code fine. What I can't figure out is the business/money side.
For those who've broken out of the "skilled but broke" cycle:
- What actually changed things for you? - Did you find a specific niche? Change how you find clients? Build a different kind of product? - Is there something obvious I'm missing?
Genuinely asking. I'm not trying to promote anything — I just want to understand what I'm doing wrong.