How do you know when your startup is ready? (I will not promote) First time startup founder here. I always hear the sentiment of "perfecting before launch" but does that mean you should rush to release a product before it's ready? How can you tell the difference between trying to perfect a product and having a product that is ready for market. Not sure if that makes sense. Is there a certain time limit? I see people who say they have been working on their startup for 1.5 years and others who released after just a few months. How do you know... 4 4 replies
What do you do to motivate yourself through hard times? I will not promote. Not sure where to start. I’ve been at it for 18 months, 4 months ago I went through a pretty nasty cofounder breakup after spending most of our time and money developing a product no one wanted, and the few who did were people I just did not want to build a product for. So I laid off all but one engineer to reduce burn rate while we figure something else out. At the beginning of the year we pivoted to something I think people will use, but I... 1 5 replies
Build community around my company for dance (I will not promote) Hello! I'm working on a startup in the dance space. It's most likely going to be a consumer/apparel brand but I'm exploring other options. While I go through customer interviews, MVP designs, etc. I realized I should be building my customer list as well as engaging with my early adopters as much as possible. Here's what I've got sketched out, any advice/feedback would be helpful: 1. Invite only community on fb for early adopters: purpose is to share updates on product development, get feedback, iterate, etc. FB because that's... 1 2 replies
Investor and repayments. I will not promote Hi all. Trying to understand how it works with investors and repayments. If an investor has invested in a business, say 10 million. Does it mean we have to start paying back monthly from the second month or only when you are making a profit? Current business is making a profit of about $20k a month but wanted to understand how repayments work with investors. Thanks 2 2 replies
Ambassador / influencer agreements (I will not promote) Quick question for people who work on marketing heavy start ups at an early stage - how exactly do you usually structure comp for ambassador / social media influencer agreements? I am creating a platform that WILL use promotional codes, so that is an option for me. Here are some questions: Flat fee OR % based on people who used their code or both? How does this compensation agreement change based on follower count / reach / etc. and how to reliably measure this and appropriately reflect this in... 5 1 replies
Why doesn't anyone talk about SEC filing when raising with SAFE? And also what's up with non-accredited investor law? [I will not promote] First-time founder here, trying to navigate early stage funding. I've watched and read tons of content on raising early money with SAFEs, including many by YC itself, and they are all like "Yeah, it's super easy. Just sign the document, take the check, and then get back to building your thing." But none of them have said, "oh and don't forget to file Form D within 15 days". Why? Also after digging into it more, it looks like you can actually raise from up to 35 non-accredited investors. Yet... 3 0 replies
Similar platforms to YC job search [I will not promote] Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows a platform similar to YC's job search. A platform with early stage startups for global recruitment and open positions. If anyone knows any similar platform or could recommend from personal experience with them, i would love to hear. Good luck to everyone! 5 0 replies
Need Advice on First Investment Term Sheet. I will not promote I’m part of a startup (KSSB), and we’re about to close our first investment round. We’ve been offered RM500k for 20% equity, but the terms are a bit complex, and I’d love to get your thoughts on whether this is a fair deal or if we should push back on certain clauses. Here’s the gist of the term sheet: 1. **Assets**: All assets (brand, IP, etc.) stay with KSSB. 2. **Receivables/Payables**: Existing shareholders (us) have to take over all receivables and payables as of the closing date. 3. **Funding**:... 4 0 replies
Who do you follow on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.? (i will not promote) I am just starting out with my social media build for my company, and as a startup founder, interested to hear who or what you as other founders follow on different platforms? Are there good groups to be in, are there good people you just always follow because their content is helpful? Cheers 3 0 replies
Drop some stories about what happens to founders and founding teams when startups aren't successful [I will not promote] Recently I've been considering starting up or joining an early stage startup as a founding engineer. While the positive anecdotes are well known, like cashing out millions and then going on to startup even bigger companies, I'd love to hear tales from places where things didn't work out. What did the founders and the founding team members do after shutting shop? Is it hard to find roles after that or do you have to settle for relatively junior or lower paying roles? 1 0 replies
Press (I WILL NOT PROMOTE) Every now and again I find out about a product through reading articles that appear in my Google news feed. Does anyone have experience getting coverage in this kind of article whether it's with a trusted news site or some random one that's managed to get into Google recommendations. Do you have to pay, is it who you know or can you do a press release and get people to pick it up? Thanks! 1 0 replies
Users don't care about your Idea (I will not promote) Users don't care about your idea. Most startups start with this mindset: "I have an idea for an app / software / business. It helps users achieve \*\*\*\*. It's gonna be the next big thing." This is wrong, as: 1. it assumes that you already know what users want (no one exactly does). 2. It doesn't consider that users are not patiently waiting for your app/software and may be already using something similar. 3. used by many founders who care more about riding the shortest, biggest trend than solve... 4 0 replies
where to start with funding/pitching/customers/vendors, I will not promote I have a start up idea in hardware domain. I have a plan and what I need for my startup to survive and scale. But I lack the knowledge on how to get funding? what grants are available?whom to talk to? how to get connected to an angel investor? what do I need to do now to have my start up by early next year? how to approach customers and so on. any advise related to any questions above will be highly valuable to me. 2 0 replies
You built it... but how do you get people to use it? (i will not promote) I want to hear from those who’ve actually launched a SaaS, how did you get your first users? What worked, what flopped? Whether you cracked the marketing code or are still figuring it out, share your experience! -What strategies did you try after launch? -Where did you focus—ads, content, cold outreach, influencer marketing? -Which platforms or communities helped the most? -If you had to start over, what would you do differently? Every SaaS founder faces this challenge, so let’s make this a valuable discussion. What’s been your biggest lesson... 2 13 replies
Anyone use Gust? Their info prompts have a 450 characters (& spaces) limit --- I will not promote Filling out your profile with prompts like this: "Describe the competitive landscape and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. If direct competitors don’t exist, describe the existing alternatives." Squeezing that into 450 characters w/spaces is ridiculous. 3 2 replies
best way to accept payments?, i will not promote what's the best payment gateway for my new startup? i sell digital goods, and right now i'm taking payments manually through paypal and cashapp, but it's eating up too much of my time when i could just automate it. paypal business seems decent, but are there better alternatives? something with an API would be ideal. stripe isn't available in my country, and some gateways require business permits, which i don't have. any suggestions? 5 4 replies
I'm an Australian hiring overseas (I will not promote) Hi! Ok so I'm not quite ready for this yet, but I am considering it later this year. If it helps, I'd like them for tasks such as customer support, data entry, maintaining social media channels and that sort of thing. Is Online Jobs PH still the trusted go to? Does anyone have any advice or resources to help me understand what I need to know? (I don't know what I don't know. 😅 I don't want to hop on a hiring website and be stung with something I... 1 0 replies
What Problems, Questions, and Roadblocks do Founders Face Constantly? What Results do You Want to Achieve? (I will not promote) We all know being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. Business is hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it. As an entrepreneur myself, I’ve dealt with an insane number of problems, overthought endless questions for what seemed like an eternity, and there was always something in the way—always a roadblock. * What business and personal problems are preventing you from achieving your goals? * What questions do you constantly face in your venture? * What roadblocks keep appearing? What is keeping you stuck? * What results do you want... 4 0 replies
Funding for non-revolutionary startup? - I will not promote I'm currently in the process of self funding a project that isn't revolutionary. I would go so far as to say it's unsexy, possibly even boring. It's in a space that has considerable expected growth both in the US and globally, something on the order of 100's of billions in the next 10 years. The primary competitor in the space has raised $30m overall with pre-seed from some notable investors due to connections (at least according to Crunchbase). My question is: how difficult would it be to get seed... 3 13 replies
Seat-based Pricing Implementation Suggestions, i will not promote I'm just getting out the door with an MVP and have decided to go with seat-based pricing. That said, I am trying to figure out which payment service to go with and how to actually implement it with a focus on simplicity for now. I've worked with Stripe before, but looking at their docs it seems like the seat-based pricing is going to be fairly involved. The only way I can see to do it is to treat it like a usage-based system, and then just send them the... 4 0 replies
