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263 points 1ilit | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source

One year ago I open-sourced my very first 'real' project and shared it here. I was a college student in my senior year and desperately looking for a job. At the time of sharing it i couldn't even afford a domain and naively let someone buy the one i had my eyes on lol. It's been a hell of a year with this blowing up, me moving to another country, and switching 2 jobs.

In a year we somehow managed to hit 26k stars, grow a 1000+ person discord community, and support 37 languages. I couldn't be more grateful for the community that helped this grow, but now i don't know what direction to take this project in.

All of this was an accident. But now I feel like I'm missing out on not using this success. I have been thinking of monetization options, but not sure if I wanna go down that route. I like the idea of it being free and available for everyone but also can't help but think of everything that could be done if committed full-time or even had a small team. I keep telling myself(and others) i'll do something if i meet a co-founder, but doubt and fear of blowing this up keeps back.

How would you proceed?

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flashgordon ◴[] No.43628202[source]
As someone who is afraid to release personal projects I think what you have done is amazing. Id love to learn From your experience. You are being too humble but this kind of growth is very hardly an accident!

I'm not a monetization expert by any means so take all this with a pinch to salt. If money is not an urgent factor for you you can see how far you can take it especially towards "other verticals". If you can displace any existing incumbants doing so would be easier without the responsibility of supporting paying customers.

replies(1): >>43629907 #
1. 1ilit ◴[] No.43629907[source]
appreciate it!