matt1

Great points - thanks for suggesting that approach!

Appreciate it!

Thanks for saying so!

Appreciate the heads up here. I've been working remotely since I left the Air Force a decade ago so it won't be much of a change, though it is going to be interesting to see how my schedule changes now that I now don't have to juggle contracting anymore. Any other suggestions are welcome!

Hope it's a good fit for the competitions! You can create timelines with up to 10 events for free, so it should be more than enough for that purpose.

Best of luck!

Here's a similar thread about my decision to go full time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34248481

I'm not and don't plan to share revenue numbers. Not much benefit.

Thanks! And yes, without the right SaaS metrics, it can take a very long time to grow to a meaningful amount of revenue. I'd recommend anyone interested in starting a SaaS to get familiar with the economics and relevant metrics before building a product.

You may have seen the old post about that experience, but here's a link in case not: https://mattmazur.com/2016/01/04/building-a-startup-in-45-mi...

I never hid the fact I was working on side businesses, but also didn't go out of my way to tell coworkers. Don't think my CO's knew about it. I knew a few other officers who had side businesses, though not in the software space.

Hope Preceden is a good fit! It doesn't have all the bells and whistles as other Gantt chart tools, but that's exactly why a lot of people like it.

Appreciate it!

Missed opportunity right there :)

It's never to late to start something new. In a decade you'll wish you did.

I was lucky to find someone who can both design well and implement the changes in the codebase (using Tailwind CSS which I'd highly recommend). You can obviously have two separate people (one to design, one to implement), but if you can find someone who can do both it will simplify things.

For Preceden, we kind of just went page by page converting the old design over to Tailwind, making improvements along the way, and gradually ripping out all of the old CSS that had accumulated over a decade of me working on it. As I built out new features he would help with the design, but he spent the majority of his time improving the existing design.

Congrats on starting the newsletter and for your progress!

Here's a link to his site for anyone interested: https://thursdaydigest.com/

Glad you found Lean Domain Search useful!

Regarding the idea for Preceden: it was a combination of seeing a lot of coworkers struggling to create timelines while I was in the Air Force plus an interest in visualizing the life stories of some family members.

And for better or worse, that's why it's a general purpose timeline maker tool, not one focused just on project managers or just on genealogy or any of the other myriad of use cases people find for it. In retrospect though, I should have focused because it would have simplified a lot of things (copywriting, features, marketing, and much more).

Thanks! It was not an easy decision even after getting Preceden to where I wanted it to be financially.

Thanks!

Deploying a change to fix the typo now - thank you for pointing it out!

Glad you found that SQL screener interview question helpful and sorry if the date/time manipulation made it more complex than it needed to be :).

Regarding the visualization capabilities: I would change the shape of the events from a line to a solid bar. When you combine that with the connections (which you're already using) it will look more like a directed graph like you're interested in. End dates are optional for events, so you should be able to get by with or without it. Happy to discuss more over email: help@preceden.com. Regardless, good luck with your visualization, it's a fascinating use case.

+100

Like I mentioned in another comment, the Microconf community is a fantastic resource for learning how to build this type of business: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34248246

Mostly, yes, though I've worked with a few contractors over the years to help with specific things.

Preceden has been sitting at the top of page 2 for "timeline maker" and related terms on Google for about a decade which is... fun.

You bet!

Thanks Rob! I have you, Mike, Sherry, and the Microconf community to thank in large part for showing me that this route is possible. I also have a copy of Start Small Stay Small, The Single Founder, and Keeping Your Sh*t Together on my bookshelf next to me (all highly recommended for anyone here interested in this approach to building a software business).

Initially my intent was to go from full time employee to a ~16 hours/week contractor so I could spend the rest of my time on Preceden, but I wound up also picking up contracting work with my former employer (Automattic) and found myself working 30+ hours/week contracting. So much for focusing on Preceden.

Eventually I stopped contracting at Automattic and gradually reduced my hours at Help Scout until it made sense for me to go full time on Preceden. I'm fortunate both Help Scout and Automattic were open to me contracting as it made this transition much easier than it would have been otherwise.

My design skills are alright (see the 2019 screenshot in the post), but it took hiring a designer a few years ago to take it to the next level (see the site today). I found him on Tailwind Discord and have been very fortunate to work with him.

In retrospect I should have found someone much sooner given how important aesthetics are for a visualization tool like Preceden.

Thank you!

Kudos to Automattic and Matt Mullenweg for keeping it running 10 years after its acquisition!

Noted - thanks for the nudge to work on it!

It's come a long way since the days of our old Orlando Tech meetups :)