Top all-time · #347
Stacking the Bricks
Personal blog · unicornfree.com · on HN as ahoyherestartupsbusiness
Stacking the Bricks is a personal blog at unicornfree.com about startups and business. Since 2010, 151 different Hacker News readers have linked it 241 times, most often “Why Blacksmiths Are Better at Startups Than You”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-01-10, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Amy Hoy's blog for bootstrapping and micro-business advice: the 30x500 class, finding niche pains before building, and side-project motivation. Most comments cite posts as support rather than judge them.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Recommended: side-project motivation, a 'great elaboration' on stacking bricks, finding niche pains first.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Ship more stuff. Make more money. Help more people.
Most-linked posts?
- /9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2010-05-18
- /7 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2010-05-17
- /30x5005 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-10-20
- Why Blacksmiths Are Better at Startups Than You5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2014-02-08
- Let’s Draw Back the Curtain4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-03-01
- Amy Hoy: Fuck glory, startups are one long con4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-11-29
- Why blacksmiths are better at startups than you4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-08-14
- How do you create a product people want to buy?4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2013-06-11
- I’ve Made $216,688 From Products This Year3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-10-20
- Don’t Follow Your Passion3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-01-26
What Hacker News says?
That depends on what you qualify a "startup." My husband and I run a SaaS/infoproduct business which grossed right around $600k last year and we do not work long hours (or even 40 hours/wk). In 2011, we invested heavily in our next product, a new office, a lot of lawyering & tax accountanting (and made a couple rather big (hiring) mistakes with money), so our take-home wasn't glorious, but next year it will be. We:…
Comment linking /
on “Farewell Stack Exchange”Submitted I’ve Made $216,688 From Products This Year as a story · 114 points
HN discussionAmy Hoy is a big proponent of bootstrapping. Her 30x500 class seems to rock (according to the sample materials she has out there), and she has some choice words on the subject: http://unicornfree.com/2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long...
Comment linking /2011/fuck-glory-startups-are-one-long-con/
on “Don't Be A Free User”Submitted Don’t bite the shit sandwich as a story · 105 points
HN discussionSo this is the third counterintuitive thing to remember about startups: starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working. Gaming the system may continue to work if you go to work for a big company. Depending on how broken the company is, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people, giving the impression of productivity, and so on. [2] But that doesn't work with startups. There is no boss to trick, o…
Comment linking /2012/why-blacksmiths-are-better-at-startups-than-you
on “Before the Startup”Submitted Why We Shut Down Charm on the Eve of Public Launch, at $48k/Year and Growing as a story · 88 points
HN discussionHe's attacking Amy Hoy, a vocal opponent[1] of the hype around startups whose current business is a time-tracking app called Freckle. Freckle's main attraction is that it has a pleasant user interface. I'm not sure how anyone was duped. I guess it's supposed to be dishonest if you're getting people to pay money for functionality they can get free elsewhere. [1]: http://unicornfree.com/2011/follow-the-money/
Comment linking /2011/follow-the-money/
on “Entreporn, The Fallacy That Wastes Your Life”Submitted Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down as a story · 61 points
HN discussion"If you genuinely have the spirit of an entrepreneur inside of you, it’s perfectly possible to build a $10k/month webapp business that can set you free." If you follow Amy's blogging on Unicorn Free you'll have a seen a recent post where she talks about how long it has taken her and Thomas to get Freckle to where they are now - about 2 years ( http://unicornfree.com/2011/drawing-back-the-curtain/ ). Both Amy and Tho…
Comment linking /2011/drawing-back-the-curtain/
on “Entreporn, The Fallacy That Wastes Your Life”Submitted Why I'm running a bootstrapping conference in Vienna, Austria as a story · 58 points
HN discussionDevops actually makes things a little easier I think. With Ansible, setting up a server on AWS feels a little like maintaining a vimrc file. Get a starter playbook from someone and run that to setup a server on AWS. Then you modify as needed as you go through your days as a developer. The great thing about Ansible playbooks is that it codifies the setup. You have a "recipe" that you can modify and run as needed. For…
Comment linking /
on “The Developer's Dystopian Future”Submitted Amy Hoy: Fuck glory, startups are one long con as a story · 54 points
HN discussion> So many times when speaking to employers/product owners about progressive enhancement of JavaScript components, the answer I get back is along the lines of "we don't care about that" or "we don't have the time" Stop talking. Start doing instead. Employers and product owners are hiring you for your skills, so use them. Don't ask permission to follow best practice, just do. You are more than a code monkey. Do your e…
Comment linking /2013/why-we-shut-down-charm-on-the-eve-of-public-launch-at-48kyear-and-growing
on “"Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23”Submitted "Let’s cofound a baby" and other phrases you should never speak as a story · 48 points
HN discussionThere’s a whole movement around Micropreneurship, which celebrates the fact that not all product businesses need to become "the next Facebook" to be successful. It all depends on your definition of success. http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/80.03.MicropreneurManif... http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com http://unicornfree.com
Comment linking /
on “Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50k/year in 2 years”Submitted Startups Do Not Prepare You to Create Products as a story · 44 points
HN discussionAmy Hoy has some suggestions on that under what she calls "Sales Safari" here: http://unicornfree.com/ Some of it involves hanging out in places where a market you know bitches about things, and find out what their issues are.
Comment linking /
on “Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50k/year in 2 years”Submitted Amy Hoy: Why Blacksmiths are Better at Startups than You as a story · 43 points
HN discussionFigure out who your audience is. The easiest is to pick someone like you or who wants to be like you. Are you a rubydev? You can probably solve problems for aspiring ruby devs, etc. Consultants can solve common consulting problems, (brennan dunn did ( http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/rate/ ). Find out where your audience hangs out online (forums, reddit, hackernews, blogs, etc). Start systematically going through th…
Comment linking /2014/from-zero-to-3k-mrr-in-10-days-the-story-of-rubysteps
on “Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50k/year in 2 years”Submitted Don’t Follow Your Passion as a story · 40 points
HN discussionIf you need some additional motivation, I recommend Just F*cking Ship ( https://unicornfree.com/just-fucking-ship/ ). It helped me get out of a rut and focus on what's most important.
Comment linking /just-fucking-ship/
on “How to Ship Side Projects”Submitted “Nobody will pay $10,000 for an Apple Watch” and other reasons you can’t sell as a story · 36 points
HN discussionI agree, kinda. I'm glad for the author's success so far (and, as another HNer said, that the word "lifestyle" has not yet reared its head in discussion). On the other hand,back in October, about how my products had brought in $216,000 in revenue in 2010 to date (from $0 in 2008), and I got maybe 30 votes on HN, barely made it onto the front page: http://unicornfree.com/2010/i-made-216668-from-products/ Which leads…
Comment linking /2010/i-made-216668-from-products/
on “Building a Web Application that makes $500 a Month – Part I”Submitted Nathan Barry’s $5k App Challenge: My Seasoned Bootstrappy Advice as a story · 36 points
HN discussionAmy Hoy has a great elaboration on this strategy at https://unicornfree.com/stacking-the-bricks
Comment linking /stacking-the-bricks
on “Building an Empire with a Single Brick: Meet Patrick McKenzie”Submitted Developers, Designers: Make an Infoproduct as a story · 32 points
HN discussionTrying to pick things not yet mentioned. Cooking blogs (I read a bunch more, but these are the best): http://thestonesoup.com/blog/ http://smittenkitchen.com/ http://globaltableadventure.com/ A blog ostensibly about learning Japanese but really about learning anything: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ Humor: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ Programming: http://prog21.d…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Apart from Hacker News, what else you read?”Submitted What To Do When AllThis Steals Your Photo & Bio as a story · 23 points
HN discussionFrom where I'm sitting, you hit the nail on the head. They COULD have monetized, theoretically, but not once the die was cast. Yes, lots of people have built CMS platform businesses where they charged money. But Posterous was probably, as you say, bleeding money, because they were not designed from day 1 to subsist on $12-49/mo subscriptions. The choice of the "grow big or go home" model of startup results in a catc…
Comment linking /2012/the-startup-graveyard-continues-to-fill-up
on “Posterous will turn off on April 30”Submitted 4 Years Into Our SaaS: Why Bootstrapping Was the Only Logical Choice as a story · 22 points
HN discussion
