I launched the first version of https://ipinfo.io a few hours after having the idea - but it was just a super simple webpage at the time. I added the API within a few weeks I think, and that's when it started to take off. It was probably around a year before I added paid plans though, and another year before it started bringing in decent revenue, and then another year before I started working full time on it. See https://getputpost.co/from-side-project-to-250-million-daily... for some of the story.
I've worked on tons of side projects before this (most unsuccessful, some with some success - busmapper.co.uk, donothingfor2minutes.com). My advice would definitely be to launch early and improve things over time.
I'm sure there were already IP APIs available before you launched, what do you think helped you fight through the crowd to become as big as you are now?
Simplicity. You had to signup and register for an API token for the others, and then read the docs to figure out how to parse the response or work out what field you wanted. Can't get much easier than:
Of course it's now evolved past that point. You can signup for an access token, we offer additional data sets (carrier detection, hosted domain details, ip type etc), and we've done a ton of work on infrastructure to handle over 300 million API req/day at very low latencies and without any stability issues, but simplicity and really focusing on developers is what I think helped with the initial growth.
That question has over 1/2 MILLION views over an 8 year period, and is still very active almost every day.
Creator of ipinfo.io has posted his solution with link back somewhere in the middle / bottom, and still manages to get a lot of referrals from there. He wrote about it here at HN few weeks ago. Here's that thread : "How I Took an API Side Project to 250M Daily Requests (ipinfo.io)" => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14678473
Surely that's only if you can make more than the delta by investing the cash is something else? So in your example it'd make sense if you could invest in something that returns more than 4% (7 - 3)? Otherwise you could make more money by not taking the loan.
Right, but the alternative for Amazon isn't liquid cash, it's Amazon stock, which they believe will increase in value faster than the interest on bonds (not unreasonable imo).
If they had $16B lying around in cash, yes that question would probably make sense. You also have to take into account where that money is, since you can't bring overseas money within the US without paying a tax.
Some great points, and I totally agree with all of it. The parent implied that it always makes sense in general to borrow if the return is greater than the interest:
> If your investments make a better return than you'd pay interest on debt, it makes sense to take out a loan
What doesn't add up? If your investments make more money than the interest you pay on debt, then conceivably you're making more money than you are paying in interest on the debt correct? The situation I imagine here is that if I have $X in cash and a house costs exactly $X, I would rather invest all of $X in a place that gives better returns than the interest on a loan for $X, because I will be making money.
> If your investments make more money than the interest you pay on debt, then conceivably you're making more money than you are paying in interest on the debt correct?
Yes, you're making money, but you're making less than you could have without the loan.
In the original example there was an investment that returned 7%, and a loan was available for 3%. You can choose to invest your own money (let's assume it's $100,000), or to take a loan. If you take the loan you're making $4000 a year (4%) from the investment, and if you didn't take the loan you'd be making $7000 a year (7%). You're worse off!
But you have still have your original $100k, so you can now go and invest that. Say you find another opportunity that returns 4%, and invest your money there. You're now making $8000 a year ($4k from the investment with the loan, and $4k from this new opportunity) You're better off!
But what if you can only find other opportunities that return 2%? If you were to invest your money there you'd be making $6000 a year, so you'd still be $1000 a year worse off for taking the loan!
My point is that it doesn't always make sense to take the loan. There's a trade off - you're taking worse returns in exchange for having additional capital available to you. If you can invest that capital in something that returns more than the delta between what the original returns would have been and the interest on the loan only then does it make sense. If you can't get better returns that the delta you'd be worse off - at least in terms of returns, perhaps that's something you're ok with to have additional capital available.
Great advice. This is pretty much what I did when working on https://ipinfo.io on the side (now fulltime).
For support tickets I use and highly recommend helpscout - it's cheap, and works well. The android and iOS apps need some work, but it's possible to do basic issue management from mobile.
Neat, congratulations! I know a few people that were active in that space and none of them managed to make it profitable and they all faded out again. It's important that services like these exist and even more important that they are viable businesses otherwise you are building on quicksand.
Yes but what's your revenue? Please consider going transparent (i.e. http://www.transparentstartups.com/) and making an interview with one of my fav websites indiehackers.com
Providing revenue and financial metrics are really get eyeballs as this info is rarely available for early stage companies. Balasmiq used this very well, they released early on monthly financial status blogs, which almost all managed to reach front page/top of HN. So, take it as another guerilla marketing channel.
I heard Zuck give a talk where this came up. If I remember correctly, his board said he should take the money. He replied that all he'd want to do after selling FB would be to start another social network, so why not just keep working on the one he'd already got?
Would the contract not define a non-compete clause, though? I mean, much less reason to buy it if the ones buying it from just do the same thing again, under a new name.
I've worked on tons of side projects before this (most unsuccessful, some with some success - busmapper.co.uk, donothingfor2minutes.com). My advice would definitely be to launch early and improve things over time.