I spent years learning to code. Dropped everything to live in a car in Silicon Valley so I didn't have to work at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
I then worked my way up to a $200k salary. Quit that to pursue being an entrepreneur.
Last year I made $20k and risked it all for this.
Thanks for your time and energy checking it out though. I'm looking forward to your version and if you have a role then I will gladly come work for you.
Don't get defensive dude, it's obnoxious. All he said is it's not in the ballpark as a product that has hundreds of developers and over a quarter of a century of development effort.
To be fair, the comment he was responding to didn't have any value. All it basically said was "I don't understand why people like this", which, in my opinion, is a lot more obnoxious than the response.
People who create and put things out into the world deal with these sort of comments all the time. I think it's fair to be critical of them.
It's completely fair to compare your product to its competitors (especially one you referenced in your post title) when discussing the pricing scheme you landed on.
You're in your emotions whereas you should be making calculated moves to increase your chances of success, off of free exposure you're getting here on HackerNews.
Your project looks really nice, it is nowhere close to the feature set AfterEffects offers and that's a fact - it has nothing to do with you as a person or your journey.
Furthermore, your project is not competing with AfterEffects, it is competing with Fiverr or not bothering with adding 'effects' to videos at all.
I'm curious and would like to understand it a little bit better:
You had a well paying job which would allowed you, in only 5-10 years to basically buy a house for half a million and then retire with the other half million.
What motivated you to build an Online Service?
What are your thoughts on your competitors? Like i do like your product from a first view perspective, butwhen i google 'online video editor' i do find a lot of alternative products.
Are there any long term plans when you would say you made it or where you would pull the plug?
I'd be able to live with the failure knowing I took my best shot at being an entrepreneur. Opposed to living a somewhat comfortable life not trying at all.
It's been a burning desire of mine. I truly fear regretting not doing this. If it fails, I am happy to try again.
I am ok with making $20k per year for the rest of my life if it means every year I can wake up shooting my shot to build something useful to others.
In regards to competition I am not afraid in the slightest. I do not fear others, they are just flesh and blood like I am.
That said I am reasonable when someone has a certain position, the good thing about space and time is that with proper course correction you too can find your own position. With correct defensibility you can own a certain position for as long as you have a good stance.
Video has been around since the first animators drew images in a flip book. It's not going anywhere. I believe there are gaps and this game is not zero sum.
I will continue to expand my knowledge on physics, computers, marketing, engineering, human/consumer psychology. I will continue to build relationships and find ways to leave people better than I found them. These are my principles and in these principles I feel confident.
Congrats on making the sacrifice to build something, and then following through to releasing this first public version. You will likely do quite well.
I would suggest, if I may, that you are going to get a lot of people dismissing your product, both now and in the future. If this is your first time being in the seat of both the creator and the public face for something you've worked so hard for, it's going to feel uncomfortable, and you will want to be defensive about their comments -- it won't seem justified that someone could make what feels like a low-effort, flippant comment about something you put so much time into.
In general it will be better to let it slide. They were not going to be your customers anyway. Lots of people will misunderstand who your target customer is. Power-users will say "why would I use this?" Or people who don't need any videos will say "there is no market for this." It doesn't matter, so long as people who are your target market see the value in it.
But more importantly, focusing on dismissive comments will take a psychological toll on you. You'll be sitting at dinner and feel angry about the jerk on the forum who said your work had no value. You've done great work, and letting those comments gnaw on you may make you doubt yourself, or think less of what you've built.
It's OK that not everyone sees the value in your product, nor should they: it just means you intelligently defined who you're going after. And that's great.
It'll take some practice and time to not feel the sting of negative comments, and the desire to argue with them -- to prove them wrong. See if you can be aware of your own emotions about them, and why they make you feel the way they do. As you do, you'll become fairly immune to it, and it'll help you truly enjoy the fruits of your entrepreneurial labor. This is a normal experience a lot of people go through.
Congrats again on a fantastic release, and for the dedication to give up so much to make this happen.
Sure it will but if you earn already 200k a year, your potential includes an increase over the next 5 years;
And sure thats probably slightly easy calculated but personally for me, living 5 years very frugual and then buying a house and then doing another 5 years and then stop working, is very reasonable when you have a salary like that.
The first 5 Years might mean saving a lot, but then you own a house. Payed, mortgage free; Very low base costs.
Depending on how big that house is, you are now able to invest even more longterm: Solar Power for example to keep your utility costs very low.
I agree. I'm puzzled why this is getting so much excitement, it's hardly in the ballpark of "After Effects".