Family office/silent investor vs. VC and bootstrapping. (I will not promote) A family office is interested in investing in our startup and giving us basically as much or even more than we were asking for to close our round. They’re a family office that prefers to invest in startups than pay taxes and expects a 2x return within 5-10 years. They’re not tech ppl and don’t have any interest or ability to help strategically and basically just let you do you. I’ve been wary of VC bc of their need for 10x returns and tendency to liquidate companies if they’re... 1 7 replies
I will not promote: Should I open source it? So I currently have 1 main startup (ai mvp generator) I am working on, but I plan to have one other side ai chat app. So keep in mind that's 2, now I have another idea for basically AI generated blogs/articles for startups related to their niche. But I don't have the energy or wish to make it a SaaS, I want it to be free, so should I just open source it as a mini personal project? I have a good scrapping backend which I use in to... 3 3 replies
Company Being Completely Impersonated - No Idea What To Do [i will not promote] Hey all We're a small fully bootstrapped software company getting prepped for our launch and completely by accident I came across an impersonated version of our company on linkedin. I don't really care for self promo but for context this is what they've done. Our domain is groas . ai, they've gone ahead and bought groasai . com and somehow managed to completely copy our website and put it as theirs. Our LinkedIn page is just groas, they've made one called Groas AI and taken all of our images etc. My email... 4 11 replies
How to Approach Startup Incubators? Local vs. Global Choices? I will not promote I will not promote Hey everyone, My co-founder and I are based in India, and we’re in the final stages of our MVP. We’ve started exploring startup incubators, but I’m wondering about the best approach. Should we first focus on getting some initial users to show traction before applying, or is a solid MVP enough to get in? Do incubators prioritize early traction, or are they more interested in the founding team and the problem we’re solving? Also, we’re considering applying to incubators outside India—maybe in the US, Europe,... 5 1 replies
Ignore advice on MVP having to be "crappy". i will not promote. I see a lot of places. Even YCombinator promoting the idea that an MVP has to be some shitty thing. NO.. This is wrong. The key idea of a MVP forming a **feedback loop.** You DO NOT have a feedback loop unless people continuously use it, and people will not continually use it, if it sucks. How good does it have to be then? It has to be better than whatever people are currently using, for the given "thing". If its not, then they have no reason to use... 2 20 replies
Copy or not copy [i will not promote] A well known angel investor in Hungary said it raises a red flag for him (and for most of the investors) if you answer "nobody" to the question of "Who are your competitors?". He explains it is the worst answer from an investor's point of view because of three possible reasons: * a) if nobody has done it yet, it is might not worth it to do * b) there are competitors, but you don't know your own market * c) there are competitors and you are aware of... 3 2 replies
What were the months leading up to your MVP first release like? I will not promote Just curious. What was it like for you? For me its a grind. **Everyday its one of these things:** \- Reviewing a current prototype. \- Testing the prototype on someone. \- Analysing feedback from tests. \- Creating the next prototype based on the feedback. \- Arranging interviews with target customers to ask probing questions. Its a **LONG** process. But I do see success on the horizon. The last half dozen prototypes have got significant improvements. The aim was to be better than anything else currently on the market by... 5 0 replies
I started a mental health tech company with no money, just grit and a team willing to bet on a vision. “I will not promote” I had no funding. No tech background. No safety net. Just a massive problem that no one was solving. As a firefighter/paramedic, I saw firsthand how broken the mental health system is for first responders. Stigma, long wait times, and EAPs collecting dust while people suffered in silence. I knew peer support could be the answer because it saved my life, but no one was building it the right way. So I did. With nothing but an idea and relentless belief, I convinced a team of brilliant people to... 4 13 replies
For those who bootstrapped AI startup, how much did development cost? I will not promote For those who has bootstrapped any AI startup, from AI agents to simple “ChatGPT wrappers”, how much did it cost to develop (exclude developer cost) Me and a tech co founder are planning a side project but wondering how the cost model will work out since AI is heavily usage based, unlike a typical SaaS where hosting cost is negligible during MVP phase. Obviously you will need to perform testing, researching prompts and models, etc. although small, these are variable costs so I wonder how everyone’s experience is like.... 4 7 replies
Looking for an investor in my psychology business. I will not promote. I'm looking for an investor interested in buying a stake in my psychological modelling/personality testing business ASAP. I'm developing a proprietary framework for personality testing and assessment and I need a small amount of funding to cover my basic living expenses. I'm offering a 80% stake - you get most of the profits while I handle all the work and development. Message me ASAP if you're serious and I can share the business plan. I need the funds today so please only message me if you are serious. 4 5 replies
Advisor comp? i will not promote We're at an early stage. We have an MVP and a few customers in unpaid pilot projects. I'm putting together an advisory board. These will be fairly well qualified folks (lawyers, senior engineers, etc.) I've seen a lot of different advice around comp. Everything from: \- Find people who will do it for free (only comp Board members, not Advisory Board members) \- Pay an honorarium or a modest per-meeting cash fee \- Give them equity, potentially with a FAST agreement Interested to know if there is any consensus... 1 1 replies
What To Do When You Feel Lost? i will not promote I'm feeling lost right now. I want to found my own software startup, but don't have the money to right now, and I'm not into the idea of burrowing other people's. I decided to start some side hustles to raise some money- mainly writing and game design- but I feel uncertain about each of them. 5 0 replies
Those of you that deployed AI applications and businesses... how? I will not promote. I will not promote. Hey everyone, came on here because I was looking to deploy an mobile application with an AI backend. It's a prediction model that predicts future data points based on previous. I have a technical background, and I know everything I need to build the product. I wanted to hear your guys' experience with deploying the AI backend. What are the best options to deploy my AI algorithm? A low cost method, as this is an MVP. What have you guys done in the past? 1 21 replies
After two $500 MRR products, we might have found the one - I will not promote We spent the last 8 months building: 🅰️ a performance management tool for startups - yet to realize it was not a pain for them, so we moved upmarket 🅱️ a job scraper for freelancers - good initial traction, but too low ticket for our taste Out of these customer calls, we realized a much bigger need: recruiting is VERY time consuming. 1️⃣ Recruiters spend 10h+ sourcing per role 2️⃣ Outreach results in <10% reply rate 3️⃣ Calibration between hiring manager and recruiter takes on average 2-3 weeks 4️⃣... 3 6 replies
Anyone else struggle with staying consistent on personal & work goals? [i will not promote] I've always struggled with staying on track and motivated, and I'm sure others do as well. Would anyone be interested in forming a cohort of founders to do weekly (or daily) accountability, checkins, and maybe do Atomic Habits-type behavior coaching? The goal would be to help us all achieve our goals. Comment if interested 2 5 replies
Founders role as business scales? I will not promote Hi all, I’m wondering what roles does the jack-of-all trades founders do after the company scales? We are in the process of raising and it’s going ok so we should be able to hire more technical people build out the scaling required etc but the thought occured to me what happens to my role? I started the business solo as I was passionate about my vision, my co-founder joined along the way and he’s way more experienced (founded and exited multiple times) and he deals a lot with strategy,... 3 1 replies
Looking for People Selling to Startups To Beta-Test Our AI-Powered Prospecting Tool - I will not promote Hey all! I’m looking a small group of people selling to Seed / Series A startups in the US to test an AI-powered prospecting tool we’ve built. This tool is built to analyze thousands of startup websites to surface potential customers that you would have a difficult time finding on traditional prospecting tools like Apollo. We are team of founders who had a really hard time finding prospects for a previous niche technology product using traditional prospecting tools, so we wanted to build a tool that solved this problem.... 5 4 replies
CTO Knowledge Gap, I will not promote I have worked in the data field for 10 years. As the company’s first CTO, I have expertise in infrastructure, data analytics, BI, data science, data engineering, leadership, and related areas. Data is the core of the business. However, my challenge lies in my limited expertise in software development, which is the topic I’d like to address. What development roadmap should I follow to ensure this gap no longer hinders my effectiveness in my role? 1 5 replies
I will not promote - Coder abandons MVP after payment and I feel sick that I have to start over Just a sick feeling right now. A coder thats been working on my mvp for the last month just stops giving updates. No access to the code (found on upwork, good reviews, good history). Now I’m having to probably start all over again. Waitlist of 200+ people built up in 2 weeks. Many conversations with potential partnerships. I paid for the mvp and now, ghosted near the end. When I saw work stalling due to his other job, I mentioned that after the mvp is done, I would need... 3 21 replies
I will not promote ,$150k secured how should I scale my org Long time lurker and first time poster. I am semi technical person , meaning I can code full stack but haven’t in 10yrs. So I can get back and polish my skills and start building. I am interested in developing ai solutions I have customers lined for the product concept I am working, customers are willing to be design partners and pay. Not LOI but I have worked with them in the past and they are willing to convert , in fact they are eager to. Okay main question,... 1 10 replies
