What’s the best and efficient way to market your startup to get customer? (I will not promote) Bootstrapping and building a startup is great n all. But what’s the point when no one’s knows about it. How do small SaaS companies market their products to get early customers? Don’t say do things that don’t scale etc you can only get so far with that. 2 0 replies
Any recommendations for how to get my first users in a peer-to-peer app? "i will not promote" I will not promote. Without going to in depth, im launching an iOS game next week that requires users to get matched with each other. Any ideas for how to get users. I will be running paid traditional ads, have partnered with different orgs who will promote to their members (who knows if they will actually do this), and have a social media following of 75k+ people. Despite this, im worried I won't have users. I fully believe in my idea and it's possible that im just letting doubt... 3 2 replies
Brainstorm Solutions: How to Prevent Buyers/Sellers from Regressing to Informal Credit? (Trade Finance Platform Case Study) "i will not promote" A startup partnered with an NBFC to formalize informal trade credit between sellers and buyers. Initially, 8,000 sellers and 39,000 buyers engaged in peer-to-peer trust based credit: sellers extended informal credit on sales to buyers, creating trust but lacking structure. **The Intervention**: The startup introduced a platform where: * Sellers received **instant payment** for goods/services. * Buyers gained access to a **30-day interest-free credit period**. The model prioritized onboarding sellers first (due to the instant payment incentive), with buyers joining through seller **The Unintended Consequence**: Over time, buyers **preferred transacting with sellers who... 2 0 replies
'CEO Cloning': Is Anyone Else Going to This Extreme? I will not promote CEO cloning is where the CEO takes an employee they believe is a long-term rockstar, and essentially duct tapes them to their hip so the employee can learn to mimic how the CEO thinks. And then that employee 'clones' other employees. On My First Million Podcast, Mr. Beast discussed his concept of 'CEO cloning,' which he attributes to a lot of his success. Yes, in some ways, this is fairly normal and obvious. But I mean explicitly and very intentionally doing this regularly, like to the extent where the... 4 20 replies
LLC ownership and taxation question - "I will not promote" Fellow startup crew - After 23 years in the corporate rat race, I've decided to start something on my own. I'm not going big bang with VC funding, etc., but completely bootstrapped to begin with. I'm based in the US and from my research, I understand that you do not need to be a citizen, nor have a work permit to start/own an LLC, as long as you have someone with a work permit as an employee or a partner. If this is true, I'm trying to understand some... 3 2 replies
Seeking "Pre-seed" Investors | Co-founders | Partners for CPG (I will not promote) Hello Community! I have an MVP for a NEW Food & Beverage CPG startup, with an extensive market research business plan, estimations for the manufacturing costs, and a 2-3 year Go-to-market strategy with assumptions. It’s also live on a website as a landing & info page - mainly for investors to learn more and see an online presence with images and videos of the product. I have a patent-pending status on the unique packaging, a trademark for the name and a Pitch Deck with limited but promising traction. Like others who have... 5 1 replies
How do growing startups manage their cashflow? - [i will not promote] i will not promote I'm working with several early-stage companies and noticed a concerning pattern: brilliant product ideas but chaotic financial management, especially around accounts receivable. I'm curious about: 1. For those who've worked at/founded startups, what systems did you use to track who owes you money and when it's actually coming in? 2. How much time do you spend chasing payments each week? 3. What's your biggest frustration with getting paid on time? 4. Have you found any tools or methods that actually helped predict when clients will... 5 0 replies
What do people think of Startup Bookkeeping products? Like Pilot, Fondo, Haven, etc. (I will not promote.) Like title says - are these platforms actually helpful, or do people still prefer a traditional firm or DIY early on? Is cost of using one of these justified? Tax season is here, and I’ve noticed a lot of startup-type companies (and super small biz in general) suck at having their financials ready on time. Do these platforms help prevent that, or do they just pump out ass reports? Would love to hear from people who’ve used them or if these all are trash, what they would prefer? Thanks... 4 3 replies
Help hiring a CTO [I will not promote] Hey guys, I'm currently in the process of hiring my first CTO for a startup. I have a good all around skillset; I can do sales, marketing, designing for websites and apps and I can build financial models and interpret them, but I'm at zero for is technical skills (coding). I want to understand every part of my startup to be able to address and solve any issues in any aspect of it with whichever team mate is looking over that side of the business. My 2 questions are:... 1 12 replies
How do you do "sell first, build second"? - I will not promote I get the general idea of the "sell first, build second" principle but I'd like to get some inputs from people who actually made that happen as it seems to be as the best approach to start a startup. So far, I've always built the product, at least the rough 1st version, but would love to sell my next idea first, and then spend more time building it. I will not promote 5 28 replies
I will not Promote - Struggling to Expand Beyond One Client I’m currently in a bit of a tricky situation as the CEO of a company that has been working with the same client for the past two years. We’re a small but dedicated team with 15 developers, all working within the fintech space, and honestly, our relationship with the client has been fantastic. We deliver great work, and the team is really solid. But here’s the thing – we’ve been stuck with just this one client for far too long. Over the past couple of years, we’ve tried a... 1 3 replies
Is it normal for your first business to take a lot of time to launch due to miscommunication? I will not promote I came up with a business idea almost 2 years ago, left my Job last year in May. Was on a sabbatical for 5 months since the Job I left was too taxing on me health-wise. I have a non-technical background so last year in October I met 2 people to partner with who are Full Stack Developer, one of my partner had a business in the past which failed due to COVID and the other is a good friend of mine. Note : The 2 partners have a... 1 8 replies
Looking for a tool to semantically search a massive codebase - I will not promote I have a million-line codebase that no one fully understands, and debugging is a nightmare. I need a tool that indexes the code, creates vector embeddings, and lets me search for relevant code using natural language (e.g., "correlation matrix plot coloring"). Ideally, it should be low/no-code to set up and have a GUI for searching. Does anything like this exist? Looking for paid or open-source options. 5 0 replies
Why is there no global lost and found with a viable business model? "i will not promote" This could be crowdsourced on both the lost and the found side with collaboration over time with police departments, USPS and other ubiquitous public services for dropping off/collecting lost and found items. Rewards could be offered with a fee taken by the L&F service and public service departments, great for the environment and create a lot of feel-good moments. Seems very easy to build, thoughts? 3 6 replies
Why is there no global lost and found with a viable business model? I will not promote. This could be crowdsourced on both the lost and the found side with collaboration over time with police departments, USPS and other ubiquitous public services for dropping off/collecting lost and found items. Rewards could be offered with a fee taken by the L&F service and public service departments, great for the environment and create a lot of feel-good moments. Seems very easy to build, thoughts? 3 15 replies
What’s Your Biggest Headache When Handling Your Taxes? I will not promote I’ve been trying to figure out what makes the tax process so challenging for business owners. Whether you’re doing it yourself or eventually turning to an accountant, I’d love to hear about the real issues you face. * If you handle your own taxes, what part of the process trips you up the most? Are there confusing forms, software limitations, or unexpected pitfalls? * For those who gave DIY a shot and then switched to professional help—what was the tipping point? * Have you tried any tax software? What... 1 7 replies
How much information is too much “I will not promote” Ok gang, I’m currently building out a website to get gauge interest for my startup. Question is, when asking people to sign up, how much information should I ask for? Just name and email perhaps? Would VC’s find this information useful to show that there is interest in my business? “I will not promote” 4 2 replies
What accelerators will help me move to SF? I will not promote We're building a tool with a validated MVP in the data operations LLM training space. With the experience of founding team, we're sure we could have raised and kick off well if we were in San Francisco. We would like to join an accelerator program that might help us move to SF in the next two months. What are our best options? Tried YC two times but the traction we get in our country is not enough to demonstrate well to fit into YC's needs, so even with a... 2 3 replies
🚨 Is your startup struggling? 🚨 📉 Sales dropping? 💡 No product-market fit? 🤯 Devs and business teams out of sync? [I will not promote] Sounds like you need a **Product Manager**. But wait… **Do you REALLY need one?** 🤔 "Nah, we’re a startup; PMs are for big companies!" Wrong. I’ve **built & launched 0-1 products**, scaled them to **x,000+ users**, and **grew revenue by 25%** in just months. "But what if I need more than a PM?" Lucky you—I'm not just a PM. I had: * **Master’s in Data Science** * **Good in Python & SQL** * **Strategic partnerships & revenue growth** * **Sales, technical, and leadership skills** "Okay, but can you work... 1 0 replies
Seed Founders: Have you ever considered venture debt after raising your round? - I will not promote This is not a promotion, I'm just curious and would love seed founder feedback: For those of you who don't know, venture debt is a type of loan offered only to founders who have already closed a round with VC money. These loans are usually given as a percentage of what you raise (figure 20-40% of the raise amount), and it's generally used for the purpose of giving you extra runway (this makes it more likely you'll reach your A round raise, and make your A round valuation higher... 5 8 replies
