Does anyone have any experience growing a side-project into a startup?

Okay, so that is my goal now. And it has been during the last 3 - 4 months.

More than a year ago, I launched a website called Failory, where I published weekly interviews with the founders of failed startups. It went pretty viral and 300 - 500 users began arriving at the site every day.

However, a few months ago I decided that I should stop publishing only these interviews and begin publishing more content related to startups. That is why I started launching a series of tools and content pages. During the last 4 weeks, I have been re-designing the entire site so as to change the sense of the site. Today, I launched Version 2.0 of Failory on Product Hunt [LINK] and a lot of other communities.

Right now, the site generates around $300 per month, so I am trying to grow it into a bigger business generating at least $1,000/month. I am about to hire two marketing students that will help me create and publish content, and I am buying some tools to help my in this process.

My question to you all is if everyone has any experience growing a side-project into a business. Moreover, any recommendation and advice is accepted! I am really looking forward to hearing your feedback.

 

My first company was that. I used to build websites on the side. I was doing maybe 1 to 2 a month. I got laid off from a corp job so I was like let me see if I can increase that. So in 2007 I started a marketing and web design company. Ended up selling that in Jan of 2015 and spun off the hosting company from it as the new owners of the marketing company did not want to host any web sites. Since that time I have gone from leasing 1 server to owning all our servers in two locations.

It was never easy. But if you put in the work and take feedback from people you can do it. That is the biggest issue I see now days are business owners are not open to feedback and they think their way is the best way. I just say be open to people that have gone from where you are to full blown company. They must have done something right.

best of luck to you

 

Hey there! Thanks a lot for your advice. I am constantly asking for feedback to users and trying to give them more value

 

I personally think you already made a critical mistake. You found a niche, grabbed a catchy name, and found content that people wanted to view. So you started posting interviews with failed startups and the videos went viral to the point that hundreds of users started coming to the web site every day............................. So instead of you building off of that niche you decided to completely change the direction of your site? Isn't that the definition of a terrible business decision?