Appointment Reminder Blog

> barely profitable

Patrick wrote "year in review" posts going back to 2006, and they include full numbers, so you can see for yourself. Profit margins in 2014 (the most recent review) were at a whopping 60% across all his businesses. (See here: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/12/22/kalzumeus-software-year-in-review-2014/)

> closing down

He sold his SaaS businesses, and they are operated by other people. Here's a podcast episode about it: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-episode-13-selling-online-businesses-with-thomas-smale/

They are still in operation, and presumably still profitable:

https://www.appointmentreminder.org/

https://www.bingocardcreator.com/

> Growth or death

Not really. Moving past patio11 as an example, just look at local businesses in your community. The ones that have been there the longest (> 50 years) have undoubtedly gone through periods of both growth and decline (I don't mean decline toward death, I mean decline for a bit and then start growing again). Many of the ones that have been there for about 20 years will have reached a sort of "asymptote" of growth--they would have grown for the first 10 or 15 years and then stabilized around a size that feels "comfortable". There are many more businesses in the world than just start-ups and public companies.

Even if you were to scope it just to software/SaaS product companies, there's minimally hundreds of these in the world and dozens of them have HN accounts. Most don't post on threads like this, so I feel the need to pipe up and say "This is quite doable, and done, much more than you might expect."

I run a small software company (two, technically). Products include Bingo Card Creator (http://www.bingocardcreator.com), Appointment Reminder (https://www.appointmentreminder.org), and occasional offerings for training for other software companies. I used to do consulting, too, but quit to focus on products.

I'd describe it as "modestly successful." It's the sole financial support for my wife and I. I'm the only full-time employee of the business (for a very quirky understanding of the words "full-time").

Congrats Patrick!

A small piece of feedback. On this page: https://www.appointmentreminder.org/a/calendar - I am wary of testing it because I'm not sure who'll see my phone number if I do. In other words, it's not clear if this demo is just for me or if this is a "demo sandbox" for anyone to use.

BTW, love the outrageous enterprise pricing that makes the small business plan look better, as well as the blatantly fake "HOT" tag - you shipped today! it gets hot fast in Japan! ;)

Not so sure about this "All questions are answered by our lead engineer. (Your business is too important to trust to a call center..)" - smells a little bit fake. I like Garrett's style better: http://sifterapp.com/support (scroll down to the green box).

Just my quick first impressions. Congrats on a new beginning!

I would expect speech therapists to want to pay for the app, speech therapy apps and apps for doctors in the states are usually pretty pricey.

I wouldn't expect any medical office to balk at $9/mo . . . if anything you should raise the price, that seems too inexpensive. I'd do three plans $49, $99 and $199 depending on features/levels you can offer or maybe per doctor/staff/patient depending on your app.

Do you have Hipaa style privacy laws regarding electronic medical records in Brazil? That usually commands a premium here so same app for non-medical $99/mo for medical $199/mo.

https://www.appointmentreminder.org/pricing

I think you're pricing too low, if it provides value speech therapists are going to expect to pay for it.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

If the vendor doesnt have pricing on the website, they dont sell to people like you. They only sell to people with big money to spend, and you should buy from someone else.

If you are buying from someone like AR who _does_ have pricing on the website (https://www.appointmentreminder.org/pricing), then you must have a special requirement, and as such you should have the call or you're wasting his time and yours.

Generally when people tell you "it depends on what you need" they really do mean it depends on what you need. If you're going to run AR in a hospital for 1000 emergency surgeons, vs your run a 3 person beauty salon. If you're the former, patio11 sending you an email saying "it'll be $x/mo" is meaningless.

Nope. Keep going. "Integrating mobile feedback" is a feature. See if this helps: a benefit is something my mom would understand, or a CEO would understand. What basic business function is improved by "integrating mobile feedback"? Why do I want a range of input and media, and why mobile?

Feature/function/benefit language is tricky, but it's extremely important.

Here is a fantastic example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.appointmentreminder.org/