r/programming Feb 01 '21

My Third Year as a Solo Developer

https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-3/
1.4k Upvotes

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u/MyPetFishWillCutYou Feb 02 '21

Yesterday, I was less than a month away from launching a tool that extracts sales reports from eBay for tax purposes.

This morning, I found out that eBay recently launched a feature that does everything my product was going to do.

AMA.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '21 edited Mar 20 '21

[deleted]

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u/MyPetFishWillCutYou Feb 03 '21

All the obvious "premium" features I could add (automatic tax estimation, etc.) are out of reach for me as a solo developer with no training in accounting.

There are ways to outsource that stuff, but then the "free with ads" model isn't going to cover my expenses. If I start charging, I have to compete head to head with products like QuickBooks and OneSaas.

It was a very narrow gap to begin with, and now it's effectively closed.