One of my recent fascinations after reading the real founding story of Twitter is the concept of hacker side projects. Sure this is nothing new, but day after day I keep hearing about cool new projects being developed by folks already working at startups. Like working at a startup isn’t crazy enough these guys have been able to develop separate money making applications that may some day turn into an actual startup.

The newest side project that I was introduced to is Paperphobic. Paperphobic is an easy way to keep track of all your receipts, warranties, return notifications, statements and tax info – basically all of that cumbersome paperwork sitting in the top drawer. According to the site “PaperPhobic tracks receipts and expenses from any camera phone. We make expense reports easy for executives, and we help consumers to protect their assets.”

The concept is simple: take a picture of your receipt/document and email it to Paperphobic. Once in the system you will be able to sort, organize and report on all of your information. Not to mention you can now throw out all of that extra paperwork and have access to your documents on the go via the mobile application. The service isn’t just for the every day consumer though. It currently offers a four tiered freemium model. You can get started for free, but to get additional features you have to become a paying customer. Currently, plans include Savvy Consumer ($4/mo), Executive ($9/mo) and Business ($99/mo).

Paperphobic is the brainchild of Robby Grossman a developer by day at Cambridge based oneforty and hacker by night. Grossman came up with the idea because he was sick of constantly sorting through the clutter of paperwork on his desk and having to scan everything in order to keep track of it. Not to mention when a document was scanned he couldn’t take it with him on the go, there was no cloud solution.

So what does any good hacker do when they encounter a solvable problem? Solve it.

Paperphobic initially launched back in November of 2010, but recently received some serious user traction due to the launch of its iPhone app in early February. I asked Grossman about this recent growth, and what improvements the app offered that the existing service did not offer. “Not much”, he said over the phone. How could an app launch with no serious service improvements drive user engagement? “The app is a crucial marketing tool. For the hacker community it’s a little counter intuitive, the app doesn’t provide much more functionality, but because it’s on your home screen it gets people excited about it and people using it,” replied Grossman.

Paperphobic isn’t the only mobile receipt and document manager on the market. Competitors include Expensify and Expener. I asked Grossman, how one man Paperphobic could compete with these established brands. “We want to compete on ease of use, we will not have every feature out there on the market, but ease of use for our consumers is my main concern.”

Check out the rest of our conversation below as Grossman talks about how the community around him has reacted to his side project, how much time he works on Paperphobic and some advice he’d offer to other hackers out there with side projects.

How has your full-time employer oneforty and the Boston startup scene taken to your side project?

Everyone at oneforty is really supportive, I don’t have to hide behind any walls or anything. The Boston startup scene as a whole has also been very supportive. A lot of folks from the community have been Tweeting and promoting Paperphobic as well as offering feedback and insights into the product.

How did you initially get the word out?

There is this kind of hacker mentality that if you build something cool people will find it and it will explode, and that is just not true. Spreading the word has definitely been the most challenging.

I initially promoted the Paperphobic launch on hacker news which drove a few thousand visits and have just been using Twitter and Facebook organically. I have also spent some money on Goolge AdWords which has been the most effective way to convert users.

How much time do you spend on Paperphobic?

It’s a ten hour a week thing. Unlike a full time job where you always put the same amount of time in every week, side projects for me tend to be some sprints and then some breathing room and then more sprints and breathing room. Heavy weeks are around 20 hours but light weeks tend to just be a few hours monitoring traffic.

How much money do you make off Paperphobic a month? Are we talking rent money or beer money?

It will pay for all the beer I want in a month [chuckling]. I am encouraged that it can get there, but am ramping up marketing and promoting it slowly because it is totally self funded.

Any lessons learned out there for other hackers developing side projects?

The hacker mentality is to just to dive in and start coding, but using mock tools and constantly iterating on them has been the most successful way to acquire users and make the product useful for consumers.

Marketing is the most challenging part! Marketing a side project, with no real time to do massive inbound marketing and search optimization is really tough though.

I definitely encourage any technical person with creative ideas to explore side projects. It has been an incredible learning experience for me and more fulfilling than just creating one off coding projects.

Are you a hacker working on side projects? We want to know. Hit us up info[at]bostinnovation.com.