I'd start with a public company that has very few customers.
For example, Palantir
1,860 karma · joined August 31, 2014
Email: wenbin@listennotes.com
For example, Palantir
And re-watch this also - Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7FTjhvZ7Y
We've been using Celery at ListenNotes.com since 2017. I agree that observability of Celery tasks is not great.
However, I find that when I realize a podcast is generated using AI and synthetic audio, I immediately lose interest. For me, the value of podcasts lies in authentic human conversations, and AI-generated content just doesn’t have the same appeal.
Probably it's just me being obsessed with old-school podcasts, though. I do believe there are listeners (not sure if many or few) who don't mind if a podcast is AI-generated.
before meeting a vc, i search their past interviews on listennotes.com to know what they'll likely brag about ...
it’s cross platform. I can see this be used as a geek-friendly Day One [1].
Thank you, @mitchellh !
Private podcasting / photo albums for family members, using Cloudflare Pages, R2, D1.
Just in case some people are on the same boat. Here's a simple process [2] to remove public ipv4 IPs from existing EC2 instances (no need to shutdown / reboot) -
1) Create a new elastic ip with autoassigned ipv4 IP - https://us-west-1.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-...:
2) Associate this new elastic ip to an existing EC2 instance. This will replace existing public ipv4 ip of this instance.
3) Create a new network interface - https://us-west-1.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-...:
4) Attach this new network interface to the EC2 instance. Now the EC2 instance has two network interfaces, thus two private ipv4 IPs.
5) Disassociate the new elastic ip & release the ip - https://us-west-1.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-...:
By this point, the EC2 instance doesn't have a public ipv4 ip anymore.
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[1] https://www.listennotes.com/
[2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38533725/can-i-remove-th...
https://www.listennotes.com/playlists/wenbin-fangs-podcast-p...
focused on individual episodes, no podcast subscriptions.
"Finished software" doesn't mean that developers will spend 0 time on it.
"Finished software" is in the sense of no major user-facing changes (i.e., new product features, experimental features...). To ensure "finished software" continues to run in the coming years or even decades, developers may need to keep up with operating environment changes (e.g., OS, hardware...) & continue to upgrade infra software / libraries for bug/security fixes & performance improvements.
Imagine that a tech company lays off all software engineers except for a few devops.
I see... It's bad UI design from me :( Need to work on a less confusing copy/UI.
> This is still a little weird, because I don't think I've ever heard of Amazon having "points".
You can earn "Points" with Amazon branded cards, e.g., https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_swpsf20_2c1_w?nod...
100 Amazon Rewards Points = US $1
> One idea: Instead of listing all ratios in common units on both sides of the ":", let the user select what they have and what they want. Something like:
> I HAVE ([]points []miles) AND WANT ([]points []miles []dollars)
Yes, this is on the roadmap. We have already integrated most of the commonly used rewards programs (in USA) into our database. The logical next step is to develop a tool that allows conversions like this: X points from Program #1 can be converted into Y miles from Program #2, and so on.
> Different question: How do you determine the value of points in the first place? If the best I can do with my Chase points is 1.7¢ at Hyatt, then what can I do to get 2¢ of value from them? Some internal shopping thing?
It's a cold start problem.
In an ideal scenario, we would have access to a lot of real transactions, such as X miles being used to purchase an air ticket worth Y USD, allowing us to calculate the exact value of 1 mile in terms of USD.
However, as we are just beginning, we have no users to provide this data. Our path forward is clear:
Step 1: We create a database and use estimated point/mile values found online, such as those provided by The Points Guy. While not ideal, this approach provides a necessary starting point.
Step 2: Users will be able to create accounts to track their points/miles and input real-world transactions.
Step 3: In the future, when we have enough data, we will be able to aggregate and calculate a more accurate value for points/miles in terms of USD.
Currently, we are at Step 1 :)
> 1. The exchange rates are confusing to me. For example, on the page for Chase Ultimate Rewards, I see things like > Exchange Rate (USD) > 2.00¢ : 1.20¢
> How am I supposed to read that? 2¢ becomes 1.2¢ doesn't mean anything to me. I'm assuming it means that 2pts : 1.2¢. Is that right?
In your example of converting Chase points to KLM miles, 1 Chase point equals 1 KLM mile. With a value of 2.00¢ per Chase point and 1.20¢ per KLM mile, this information helps you assess the worth of the transfer in USD.
By clicking on the "Exchange Rate (USD)" column header, you can sort and compare various transfer options. For instance, if you have 100,000 Chase points, you can evaluate whether to transfer them to Marriott Bonvoy (2.00¢ : 0.84¢) or Hyatt (2.00¢ : 1.70¢). Typically, the Hyatt option would be more favorable.
> 2. The Amazon Rewards ratio for miles is also confusing. What does it mean to get airline miles at Amazon? Why is that ratio different than the USD ratio?
Could you please specify the exact page you are referring to? Is it the page for converting Chase points to Amazon Rewards https://www.points411.com/p/chase-ultimate-rewards/ or the page specifically for Amazon Rewards https://www.points411.com/p/amazon-rewards/?
Additionally, could you clarify what you mean by "getting airline miles at Amazon"? Are you referring to transferring Amazon Rewards to airline miles? As far as I'm aware, there is no option for such transfers from Amazon to miles.
> 3. Also, your links have a little arrow (→), which usually means the link will point to another website. But that arrow is on all your links, including internal ones. This made me a bit hesitant to click on any of them at first, because I was looking for more links inside your site.
Good call! Definitely will make the UI less confusing :)
Step 1 (almost done with v1): Have a database with rewards programs names & base transfer rate (which don't change often).
Step 2 (TODO): Add more dynamic things, e.g., bonus transfers
Step 3 (TODO): Allow people to sign up and keep track of their programs & points/miles
Step 4 (TODO): more tools based on Step 1 ~ Step 3
However, in practice, indirect transfers usually don’t give you good exchange rates - I might be wrong though
As you accrue more experience in the software industry, whether as an engineer or a technical founder, it's not as though you become capable of writing code ten times faster. What truly increases isn't your typing speed, but rather the leverage you gain from developing an intuition for discerning what to build versus what not to build, as well as what to purchase versus what to create from the ground up.
Furthermore, the situation isn't always black and white. There's a middle ground. Initially, you might lean on third-party solutions, gradually replacing them with in-house solutions bit by bit. You may even find yourself with a mix of in-house and third-party solutions. There's no need for it to be an absolute 100% in-house or 100% third-party solution. You could have a 49% in-house and 51% third-party mix, or perhaps an 80% in-house and 20% third-party split.
There are no standard templates to follow. It's all on a case-by-case basis. However, a general principle I found useful is that the more closely a decision ties to revenue generation, the more control you should ideally exert over it.
I seldom log into either the PayPal or Stripe dashboards. I've developed several integrations into our internal tools to streamline processes. For example, these integrations allow us to view all payment transactions across different platforms and handle refunds.
Both PayPal and Stripe have been configured to automatically deposit payouts into our company's bank accounts each day. This feature initially required us to contact PayPal to enable it (via PHONE CALL!), while with Stripe it could be activated with a single click.
The outcomes have been more than satisfactory:
- When it comes to Listen Notes, PayPal dominates as the preferred method of payment outside the US.
- In terms of managing chargebacks, PayPal has significantly outperformed Stripe for us. With an approximate win rate of 100%, it far exceeds Stripe's virtually zero success rate.
This experience underscores the need to look beyond initial developer convenience and consider factors such as global user preferences and chargeback management. Despite the initial time investment, the long-term benefits of integrating PayPal have been remarkable.
Instead of Monthly Billing, a Daily Alternative for SaaS: https://www.listennotes.com/blog/instead-of-monthly-billing-...
self hosting is a cool thing if you have the time & expertise to do it right.
oftentimes things that look easy inside silicon valley / tech bubble are not so straightforward to others. reminds me of the “you can just set up ftp on linux” comment on the dropbox show hn post :)
btw - It's great to see the use of various 3rd tools to launch an API business:
- auth0-hosted page for login
- stripe-hosted checkout page for billing
- metabase for user dashboard (e.g., api usage stats)
- gitbook for api docs
We used to build these things from ground up ourselves [1] :)
[1] https://www.listennotes.com/blog/how-i-accidentally-built-a-...
“Just” run ngnix on your own servers from different geo locations. ngnix is very versatile, eg, load balancing, rate limiting, rule based firewall, caching…
but one important reason why saas/api/cloud businesses exist is that people don’t want to run their own servers for every project.
but recently i would use cloudflare pages, r2, d1, zero trust… in many cases, we don’t want to put eggs in the same basket. but in some cases (eg, building mvp, toy projects…), it’s convenient to be on an all-in-one platform .
for example, i recently launched a cms entirely on cloudflare: https://www.microfeed.org/
a book i always recommend is https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-One-Person-Business-Gr...
I've been looking for affordable hosting solution to serve multimedia files, e.g., podcast audio, which is typically the biggest part of cost for hosting.
Cloudflare R2 is an attractive solution. R2 doesn't have egress fee and the free tier includes 10 million read requests/month [1]. Is 10 million a big number? Yes, at least in the podcast industry. If your podcast has 10 million listens per month (or let's be conservative, "only" 1 million listens/month), you could already make big money [2] while still in the free tier of R2! In other words, whenever you'll pay for R2, then you become a very successfully podcaster :)
For other Cloudflare products that we use in microfeed
* Zero Trust (provides logins to admin page) [3]: 50 users for free - how many admins do you need? 50 users enough? :)
* Pages [4]: 100,000 functions requests/month for free. This should be enough for personal/small-business type websites.
* D1 [5]: No pricing info yet. But they'll likely charge by # of reqs/month.
* CDN / Firewall / Cache / DNS etc.: there are other Cloudflare products you can use for free.
Probably the biggest price you'll pay when using microfeed is your time :)
There are (almost) one-click SaaS solutions that save you time, but you'll pay with money.
There are multiple-click self-managed solutions that save you money, but you'll pay with time.
[1] https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/platform/pricing/
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+downloads+does+a+po...
[3] https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/zero-trust-services/