Show HN: Analyzing 9 years of HN side projects that reached $500/month
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 planning my own side project and wanted to see patterns, not just success stories.
Available at [https://haileyzhou.gumroad.com/l/pknktt] ($49) as html report and raw .csv data.
Data source note: All from public HN posts 2017-2025. I did the cleaning, categorization, and cross-referencing.
Happy to discuss methodology or findings. Curious what patterns others see or if this matches your experience?