Top all-time · #16971
Steve Ridout
Personal blog · steveridout.com · on HN as steveridoutstartupsprogramming
Steve Ridout's personal blog at steveridout.com covers startups and programming. Since 2013, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 9 times, most often “Readlang – My Bootstrapped Language Learning Web-App”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-06-20, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- Readlang – My Bootstrapped Language Learning Web-App3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-03-22
What Hacker News says?
Creator of the Readlang here. I started this at the very end of 2012, and save for a few months contracting have been working on it full time since, doing everything myself. Growth has been slower than I’d like but just enough to keep me motivated. It's a freemium webapp, originally designed to reduce the frustration of practicing my Spanish by reading novels, and later adapted to work on any webpage as a browser ex…
Comment linking /2014/03/22/readlang-my-bootstrapped-language-learning-web-app.html
on “Show HN: Readlang – Learn a language while you surf the web”Submitted Readlang – My Bootstrapped Language Learning Web-App as a story · 65 points
HN discussionCongratulations! I quit my job about 19 months ago and had the luck to get immediately re-hired by my former employer as a freelancer for a few months on a much higher rate ( http://steveridout.com/2012/12/30/a-welcome-delay.html ). This, combined with living in Madrid now instead of London, has given me enough runway to live cheaply for another 2 years if needed. I've been working on my current SAAS project http://…
Comment linking /2012/12/30/a-welcome-delay.html
on “I quit my job, and I'm excited about a more independent life”Submitted I Bought Back My Acquihired Startup as a story · 26 points
HN discussionSEEKING WORK - London UK, Madrid Spain, or Remote - Backbone web-apps - Node.js I have over 10 years experience in software development, including desktop software with C++ and Qt, and currently focussed on web development. Examples of work here: http://steveridout.com/about/ I'm currently bootstrapping a webapp for language learning http://readlang.com and am looking to split my time between this and freelance work…
Comment linking /about/
on “Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (January 2015)”Submitted Essential Javascript Libraries as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis blog post of mine hit HN and led to Duolingo's CTO and co-founder offering me a job back in 2016: https://steveridout.com/2016/01/04/readlang-3-years-as-a-one... I joined them shortly after and a year later I sold Readlang to them. In 2021 Duolingo IPO'd and I'm now financially independent, which may not have happened if not for writing about it on my personal blog. (Oh, and I really ought to write another blog…
Comment linking /2016/01/04/readlang-3-years-as-a-one-man-startup.html
on “Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?”Submitted Readlang – My Bootstrapped Language Learning Web-App as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Surprise Visitors as a story · 1 points
HN discussion