[ttraub]

He's getting 80% of the gross = 48,000/month. That's impressive income, half a million a year for what amounts to a good idea implemented at the right time. I love reading stories like this, and it demonstrates that there are still many opportunities out there. I don't understand some of these comments which seem to resent his success or belittle his company as "not a unicorn". That's good money, he works for himself, not beholden to investors or creditors, and he's raising a young family in an affordable region. Congratulations to him for a job well done.

[rscherf]

Thank you! I’ll be first to admit it was perfect timing (which wasn’t planned at all). The freedom is what I was looking for; if nobody buys it, I’ll happy just keep running it. If Stripe launches the same features, I’ll figure out how to pivot. Or, build something completely new. Who knows what the future holds.

[SpicyPico]

I foresee a potential scenario where Stripe hires you if they deem what you have created, and more importantly the person behind its creation, is worth integrating. I would be surprised if you do not see formal contact from them (if you haven't already)!

Great work.

[rscherf]

Thanks! I work closely with several people at Stripe already across many different teams, so not really holding out hope for anything. Very happy and content with where I’m at.

[sah2ed]

Slightly unrelated, from what web tools did you take these screen shots [1,2] that were shared in your interview?

1. https://s3.amazonaws.com/www.starterstory.com/story_images/i...

2. https://s3.amazonaws.com/www.starterstory.com/story_images/i...

[globile]

The first one is Zendesk [1]. Not sure about the 2nd one but I don't think it's Google Analytics.

1.https://www.zendesk.com/

[rscherf]

That’s right, second is Apptweak

[Antoninus]

“If Stripe Launches the same features” is a scary reality that I’ve been through twice. As a software developer with a young family the urge to pivot and take risk becomes less and less. Good for you for having the enthusiasm and energy to keep going.

[rscherf]

I should mention, I already went through that with Stripe once. I did an interview for Mixergy here describing what happened. TLDR: I built an analytics app on Stripe, then they launched Dashboard for iOS. Didn't matter because we knew we hit a dead end and weren't into it.

https://mixergy.com/interviews/ryan-scherf-payment-for-strip...

[zerr]

> had just built a new house in the suburbs

I'm more interested in this topic - any relevant posts? :)

[rscherf]

Ha, extra space was great, but hated the location. Spent all our time in the car (I was working remotely as an FTE), so basically stranded.

[thedangler]

rscherf I have a way for you to pivot for US and Canadian clients which could make you 100k a month. Please contact me. mhebel [at] gmail dot com

[PopeDotNinja]

There's nothing wrong with being lucky!

[cryptica]

It seems that almost all the successful startup ideas these days involve integrating with some major platform and reinforcing their dominance whilst being at their mercy.

[s_dev]

Stripe was a fragile little enterprise too at one time.