Hey everyone! I’m 17 and just finished creating an API for stock market analysis. It took me about a week to build and focuses on a specific investment niche that I couldn’t find elsewhere. Someone from Substack already showed interest in using it. Now I’m trying to decide between two options. I could list it on an API marketplace but the fees seem pretty high. Or I could wait until I make around $5000 and then create my own API management system with features like API keys, usage limits, and payment processing. Does anyone know good open source tools for building your own API platform? What would you do if you were in my shoes? I’m getting tired of building software projects that don’t get much attention, so I really want this one to actually make some money.
Don’t build your own platform yet - huge mistake. You’ll get buried in technical debt: payment processing, rate limiting, API management, monitoring, docs hosting. That’s 3-4 months of dev work before you can even start marketing. You’ve got Substack interest already, so prove your concept there first. Yeah, 20-30% fees suck, but you’re paying for customer acquisition and infrastructure you’d spend months building anyway. Hit consistent monthly revenue and learn your users, then look at Kong or Tyk for self-hosting. Your biggest risk isn’t fees - it’s building something nobody wants.
I’ve built several revenue-generating APIs, so here’s my take: start with a marketplace first. You need to validate there’s real demand before spending months on infrastructure. Yeah, marketplace fees suck, but they handle security, billing disputes, docs, and discovery - building that yourself costs way more than $5k. I learned this the hard way. Spent 6 months building my own platform too early instead of improving the actual product. Once you’re pulling $2-3k monthly and know you’ve got product-market fit, then think about your own platform.
Honestly, at 17 just get it out there and start making money ASAP. Yeah, marketplace fees suck but you’re paying for infrastructure you don’t have to build or maintain. Focus on improving your API and getting customers instead of getting stuck building payment systems. You can always move off the platform later when you’re actually making decent money.