Instagram's new API is open to regular users as well (that's what Tweet Photo uses), but I believe it's read-only.
Zapier etc probably have special deals with Facebook.
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Currently building: startup.jobs betalist.com wip.co buildinpublic.com roomai.com yay.camera highscore.money and more
https://x.com/marckohlbrugge https://t.me/marc
Zapier etc probably have special deals with Facebook.
I wouldn't rule our selling a side project if you don't have the net work though. These days there are more and more platforms popping up to help you do that.
Some that come to mind:
I just want to add that while it might be possible for you and me to "build this in a weekend" (although in reality it always takes longer considering all the edge cases), for other businesses it might be cheaper than just buying an existing app. They know what they are getting versus hiring a freelance developer, writing a spec, managing them, etc, etc.
Fun side-note: I actually had another service called "EmbedTweet" back in the day when Twitter didn't have their own embed functionality (yes, that was a long time ago). They listed my service on of their official help pages.
So yeah combined with the fact there are so many "tweet"-based names, I think you're safe using that term. Oh, and when creating an app in their Developers portal the require you to enter a name, and they don't flag "tweet" but I think they do flag "Twitter".
If I could offer one piece of unsolicited advice, it's to build in that viral loop I did with "via tweet.photo". I think that alone 10x'd the user base and possibly the valuation as well.
P.S. I saw you're in Bali. Which part are you from? I've lived in Canggu/Ubud/Lovina for a while. Hope you and your family are staying safe in these trying times.
So yeah, those are definitely two unfair advantages that are hard to replicate.
I guess the underlying two lessons are:
1) build and own your own acquisition channels if you can (I initially built BetaList to promote my other startup at the time), and
2) leverage whatever advantages you have. For me that happens to be the fact that I can quite easily get some initial traffic, but if you're a great writer you could use that. If you have a great personality you could invite yourself to podcasts, if you have a certain technical skill perhaps you build what nobody else can.
FWIW, I don't think it's worth paying people to write a press release. If you're an indie maker it's much more compelling for a journalist to hear from the founder directly. Just make sure you have a story worth sharing with their audience. (in a way your "pitch" is just as much a product as your product itself. But in case of the pitch you're trying to convince a journalist you have an interesting story to tell their audience wants to hear).
And while you can find many chat communities, they always seem like more of a distraction than something that really motivates me to do by best work.
So I created WIP[1]. Initially it was just a Telegram group chat, but with the added twist of being able to share what task you were working on. This oriented the discussion around the actual work people were doing, rather than just chit-chat.
Over time this evolved into more of a platform with a website, Desktop apps, etc. But the core remains the same: an online community of makers/bootstrappers/solopreneurs working in public.
[1] https://wip.chat
The majority of the time was spent in those first few days were I built the initial product. Tweet Photo is technically quite a simple product, especially if you're familiar with the relevant open source libraries and APIs which I was anyway.
But for me the main "cost" was knowing the APIs could change and I'd need to be ready to make the necessary changes.
While I appreciate you being a paying customer, unfortunately you're in minority. When Facebook changed their API earlier this year and forced me to rewrite a part of the codebase I seriously considered just closing down the site. The service generates $140 in monthly revenue which is nothing compared to my other products. So my time is best spent elsewhere.
So when the buyer approached it wasn't just a way for me to cash out on the business (and make more money than if I just kept it in maintenance mode), but also a way to increase the chance of Tweet Photo sticking around long-term.
The new owner has both the resources and incentive to keep Tweet Photo running. As they are financially invested, plus they have a large userbase they plan on cross-promoting it to. Which means Tweet Photo will start generating more revenue, becomes more valuable, and in the end will have more reasons to be maintained and developed.
With regards to the EULA: Tweet Photo is a bit of an outlier in that it has to adhere to both Twitter's and Facebook's terms of service, so there's some protection in that. If the new owner were to violate those terms the whole service could be closed down.
Based on some initial tests and analysis of Tweet Photo's current funnel, that $20,000 goal seems more than plausible.
But you're right in that it's definitely not certain and this type of deal has some inherent risk.
It's not a life-changing amount of money, but I think it's a more typical example of what you can expect when selling a bootstrapped side project. Hopefully it will inspire some of you who have been on the fence to start your own project.
This new app comes with many new technologies. Some of which are already extracted into Rails (ActionText and ActionMailer), and some that will be (completely new approach to frontend with an all new Turbolinks).
At the same time Stimulus is getting mature.
All the excited around this, is motivating people to start creating helpful Rails resources[2], which in turn leads to more excitement.
[1] https://hey.com
[2] https://twitter.com/marckohlbrugge/status/127174984488606105...
Basically it's a new, unreleased version of Turbolinks[1] + StimulusJS[2]
The "native" apps are wrappers [3] for the webapp, but with some native integrations for navigation, etc.
It started out as a Medium post[2] describing how to set this up with Zapier. Seeing how much traffic it got even years after publishing it, I decided it was worth turning into a standalone service.
While the post helped me validate there was demand for such a service. I didn’t validate people were willing to pay for it. So user growth has been good [3], revenue not so much. (less than $1k MRR)
Something to keep in mind when you go this route. Be sure to validate people are willing to pay for a solution. Building something aimed at businesses is probably a good idea.
[2] https://medium.com/@marckohlbrugge/a-better-way-to-post-your...
For example, here’s my todo list menubar app launched many months before Remember: https://wip.chat/menubar
I bet other people will reply with similar looking apps launched months before mine :)
Our focus has been on increasing the product for our existing members, but eventually we'll be improving the homepage/etc for people not yet familiar with the service.
BetaList (startup discovery platform) was created before Product Hunt, and WIP (our community for makers) is an offshoot of that. Product Hunt eventually launched a similar service.
FWIW, I have to strongly disagree that WIP is primarily motivated for self-promotion. It's really more like a virtual co-working spaces where we all share what we're working on (hence the name), exchange feedback, keep each other accountable, etc.
BetaList and Product Hunt are indeed partly about self-promotion and partly about discovery.
The idea was to provide a definitive resource which was more user friendly than just a bullet list of links.
If you did come across it, I’m curious to hear if you have any suggestions on how to improve it.
For most members $20/mo (or $150/year) is well worth the boost in productivity and connections made. That said, if you decide it’s not for you I’d be happy to refund the $20.
Alternatively you can set up a linter that doesn’t let you push your code until it’s properly formatted and/or well-tested.
With regards to more higher level stuff such as setting and working towards goals, I find a “mastermind” group invaluable. It’s a group of like-minded insividuals who meet up regularly (offline or online) and discuss what they are working on. Having a structure in place to make sure everyone has to share their progress or lack thereof is key.
Shameless plug: I built WIP ( https://WIP.chat ) To solve this exact problem. It’s a community + group chat of makers where we actually share our todos and the progress we make. (this makes it very different from your typical group chat)
Of course you could also set up something similar yourself with a group of friends. A weekly Skype call with Google Doc. Etc. Whatever works best for you.
Edit: typos