Company
Date Published
Author
Twilio
Word count
1275
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Aaron Porter, founder of MyPhoneTap.com, shares his experience launching a web-based business on a tight budget. He launched his service using Twilio's features to record phone calls without requiring anything from the end user, finding it unique and competitive pricing. Aaron kept costs down by registering a domain name for $7.69, getting free email service through Google Apps Standard Edition, hosting on Google App Engine for free initially, and using PayPal as a payment processor with no fees. He spent around 40-50 hours developing the website himself or used free tools like WordPress, Joomla, and Gimp to create it. Aaron's total cost came out to $27.69, with most of that going towards Twilio's account. Despite not spending much on marketing yet, he hopes to get a few visitors through word of mouth and social networking sites before considering pay-per-click advertising.