▲ 12 points

Ask HN: Do you market your side project?

by chrisfrantz·9y ago·11 comments·view on hn ↗

Why or why not? I see a number of amazing projects on here every week that would grow if given a bit more publicity outside of an HN comment. But, I also understand the desire to want to build vs sell. If you could partner with someone to help market your side project with an equity or rev split, would you?

11 comments

I am currently working on a side project and once done will try to do the initial marketing and user acquisition myself, just to practice that skill, as I haven't done that before. However, since I am more interested in building right now than anything else, I would be very interested in partnering up with someone who could take care of the marketing and sales side of things and would be open to both rev share and equity split. OP are you asking because you are interested in marketing a finished product for rev share / equity?

Hey buliam,

I'd love to chat if you have a few minutes, email is in profile. I'm really asking though because I see a ton of opportunity in the form of abandoned side projects on HN. Connecting sales with product seems to be the differentiator with smaller side hustles, just as it is with many larger breakout products. Filling a niche and finding PMP is always the most important goal, but it doesn't help to have a little kickstart with a funnel full of users, especially when still working towards PMP.

Yes and no. I did market my side project but am re-writing it and changing basically the whole thing, including the core of what the software generates, so it is silly for me to continue marketing the old version. Once I get my new version close to release I will start marketing again.

I have no qualms about paying somebody to help market but only if there was a way to actually track what their sales were. I wouldn't want to give equity or revenue based on them just marketing but would give a commission on each sale they generated.

If the project is complete, then rev share. If they have good track record then don't mind equity.

Ex: I have a self-published book https://hapibook.jjude.com. The book is complete. I'm creating videos. In this case, I don't mind sharing revenue.

Is this something that you have done before? If so, how did you approach people to market your product and what does such an agreement look like? (50/50? Rev share for a period of time vs indefinitely? )

Currently not doing any marketing, just going around and grabbing the first users one by one, to iron out the product and learn more about usage.

Planning to present on HN though when beta state will be reached :-)

Some mints on acquisition: Product Hunt, show HN, Personally recommend your friends (get the first 100users one by one), pitch to review sites, regular blogging, shameless plug on reddit.

I would definitely.

I would go for revenue split which is simpler to track and set up.

If they had a track record, I would.

Which would you be more open to, rev share or equity in the project?

It would depend on what was being done, for how long.

However, revenue sharing is going to makes sense for everyone, more of the time. Equity is only going to pay out during a liquidity event, and effect on revenue can be measured in a fair and ongoing manner.