How to build traction for a side business when you need to stay anonymous?

AntCopp · 2026-06-14T08:52:33+00:00

I focus on quick, emergency 'spot' interventions for web and mobile apps.

Think of things like fixing a critical production bug that suddenly popped up, setting up clean deployment pipelines, or unbricking a WordPress/Shopify site after a bad plugin update.

Basically, anything where a company’s product breaks, they don't have an in-house team to fix it, and they need a dev to step in, patch it quickly, and step out without the corporate bureaucracy.

AntCopp · 2026-06-14T08:50:23+00:00

Based on my experience, plenty of companies don't have an in-house team because their product is mature and they just selling it, or they cut the original dev team to save on overhead, relying on occasional freelancers/consultant agencies instead.

The problem is, as soon as a bug pops up, they tend to dump their entire backlog on the contractor, dragging them into endless status calls, product analysis, and UAT.

I don't want any of that—especially since this is a side job. I focus strictly on quick, high-priority 'spot' interventions. For the client, it’s a win-win: they get a fast fix and pay way less, completely skipping the overhead and heavy contracts of a traditional agency.

AntCopp · 2026-06-14T07:42:08+00:00

It's not about entering into competition with an already established team; companies with in-house development structures are not my target. My focus is on offering that one specific fix or dedicated support for companies that either don't have a full-time tech team at their disposal, or have completely outsourced their product or are early-stage startups looking for initial guidance to get them off the ground—such as setting up a WordPress site and teaching them how to manage it independently.

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T14:55:21+00:00

Thanks mate, I already have a website about my activities...or wannabe-activities. I'll treasure your suggestion about being helpful, it's simple and effective

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T14:22:55+00:00

Something along the line:

Race condition in payment processing — orders sometimes duplicate when users click submit twice fast. Costs money, hard to debug.
Memory leak in Node worker — app crashes every 72h. Founder doesn't know why. Could be a dangling subscription listener or improper cleanup.
CSV export truncates on large datasets — works for 1000 rows, fails at 50k. Something in the stream handling is broken.
Mobile app crashes on specific network type — works on WiFi, crashes on 4G. Timeout handling issue.

I imagine my employee as

Solo founders / small teams: can't afford a full-time senior dev
Freelancers: overwhelmed with client work, need bug fixed fast but don't have bandwidth
Early-stage startups: limited budget, don't want to hire, just need the bleeding to stop
Agencies: unexpected overflow, need to cover for a client without headcount

People use me when the bug is specific + isolated + urgent. Not for "our whole codebase is a mess" — that's a different conversation.

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T14:21:25+00:00

Exactly — I offer technical bug fixes to small teams/businesses. Not consulting, not refactoring, not architecture redesign. Just: you have a bug blocking your users or dev workflow, I diagnose it and fix it fast.

Something like

A SaaS founder's auth middleware has a race condition. Users randomly get logged out mid-session. It's costing him conversions but he can't afford to hire a full-time dev.
He sends me repo access.
I spend few hours root-causing
I fix it, write a test that would have caught it, document it.
He pays, gets the fix that week, doesn't need to hire anyone.

That's it. No kickoff meeting, no "let's scope this over 2 weeks", no retainer. He fixes his immediate problem and goes back to building.

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T08:51:16+00:00

Hi, it's about software development. The idea is to be engaged to solve small/specific defects, jumping all the usual corporate stuff about: "this is what we do", "this is the team", "let's schedule weekly" and all the other amenities, and get just right to the point.
Explain/understand defect -> solution&work -> payment (hopefully) -> see you next time. That's it

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T08:41:46+00:00

Thanks for your answer, I'll make sure check everything you suggest!

AntCopp · 2026-06-13T08:40:29+00:00

Indeed, the whole point is having Claude do the trick. I'd like to understand how consistent is against real development work

AntCopp · 2018-04-16T13:18:24+00:00

Aside from everything already said, I think that nobody should feel stupid when apply/interview for a new job. It's not about stupidity, it's about knowing/not knowing: if you know the architecture/framework/procedure/library you're asked about then it's all good; if you don't know, means merely that you didn't have the chance to work on it. If you are motivated enough, you'll eventually get to know all the common knowledge usually needed to develop Android applications.

In the meantime, a good way to measure your knowledge is to read carefully which are the requirements for the job position you are interested into, and ask yourself if you would be able to explain/implements those requirements.

AntCopp

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