Sweat Equity Question So I have a sales guy wanting to earn equity in my company. I'm having a hard time figuring what would be fair. **So for example-** Revenue $14 million Profit Margin 20% Income $2.8 million we had an offer to be bought a couple months ago at a 6x multiple $16.8 million The guy wants to be able to earn up to 20% equity in the company. My thoughts are 10% earned equity $1.68 million income would need to be brought in. Which is $8,4 million revenue he would... 2 1 replies
Advice for filing taxes for Delaware CCorp? Launched a startup this year with my cofounder and eventually formed a CCorp with Stripe Atlas. We are a marketplace type business and managed all of our transactions with stripe. We did about $90k in GTV but made no profit ourselves. What do I need to do to properly handle my filings? Can I do it myself? 2 0 replies
Nervous about MVP launch I’ve recently developed a simple MVP for a b2b2c startup platform and now that im nearing the release I’m having second thoughts. This is my first startup and from a technical perspective it’s def not perfect and I’m also worried I’m a solution looking for a problem. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach these fears? 5 0 replies
Need Advice Hallo guys,I need advice.A guy approached me with an idea that needs a programmer (I am the programmer).After evaluation it's a 6 month to 12 month coding job without any payment. The other guy only contribution is the idea.Then after finishing the product this idea guy will use it for his business and give me 5% of the profit eg if the company makes 10 million and profit is 2.5 million then developer gets 0.05 X 2.5M = 125000. In addition to that if it's used as saas platform... 2 3 replies
Suggestions for beginner books I'm building out an MVP and have the tech side handled but I don't really know squat about 1. Sales 2. Marketing 3. Running a company. I'm not in the US but I figure there's plenty of things that are in common regardless of country. Do you have any suggestions of books or other sources to give me a handle on these subjects? 1 1 replies
Is Notion that good? A lot of people seems to adopt Notion. I haven't used it yet but I can imagine what is it. I usually just use documentation feature of whatever task management software I use, but making sure I can easily export it at short notice. Currently I use Fibery - not promoting, but it should be pretty similar with ClickUp, Jira, etc. Is Notion really that good? btw, I prefer to write in Markdown since I am developer. 4 7 replies
Why don't we talk more about value? I see so many posts here pointing fingers at sales and marketing, but I don't see a lot about quantifiable VALUE of the product/service Founders are putting forward. What will make an organization, nay, a person at an organization who is trying to keep their job and get ahead, take a chance on reccomending your solution? What's the return on investment? What's the risk? Basic Time/Money/People returns. If clients can't do it faster, cheaper or without resources, and you can't do a simple math equation to show them how... 4 4 replies
How to find a co-founder? I am a technical person. I built a web3 product from ground up. Think web3 + creator economy. The product is live but since it's a marketplace style model ( being vague here), I will need someone on the business side to get it off the ground including some seed stage funding. How do I go find these individuals? What qualities do I look for? 5 3 replies
If you could do it from scratch what policies, techniques, and processes would you do from day 1 to set yourself up for success? X-post -- Several friends and I are starting a new venture. I want to capture every possible advantage as we start. We are all experienced in startups, but this is the first one we have built together. We have the tech side handled, and have no external investors or debt. I'm looking for startup hacks to keep people motivated. For example: - We are doing radical transparency internally, so every partner knows everything about the business. Every day we do a standup about pipeline, funnel, runway, burn rate, cash...... 5 2 replies
How Can I Succeed in the European Market with Handmade Rugs? Hi everyone, I’m looking to expand into the European market with handmade rugs and would love advice on how to make it successful. Specifically, I’m curious about: * Effective ways to market handmade rugs in Europe. * How to connect with interior designers, retailers, or architects who might be interested. * Insights into pricing, logistics, and any key cultural preferences I should know about. If you’ve navigated a similar journey or have expertise in this area, I’d greatly appreciate your input. Thanks in advance! 4 1 replies
Founder Led GTM/Sales Hi I was wondering if there’s a good resource or course to learn more about Founder led GTM/sales. It seems there’s a lot of information out there on different strategies and SOPs. We’re not a Sales or BizDev experienced team, was wondering if there’s a good way to learn, other than hiring a fractional CRO. 4 0 replies
Need early AI integration advice for prototype Seeking guidance - made a local python application that tracks user behavior- input/data is written into a local DB (sql lite). Goal is to have a an early prototype that uses AI to learn a user's baseline behavior and alert to deviations or abnormalities. Problem is, limited on both budget (free/open source preferred but not opposed to paying) and AI dev experience. Current main focus is completing a prototype, whether using local AI (like llama3) or cloud AI. Really looking for suggestions or recommendations on easiest and most efficient... 4 0 replies
Prototype testing Hi everyone! Would anyone be able to recommend a public prototype test site? We are entering that stage and want to expose our product to a neutral testing audience. I'm new to the game and wonder how much benefit your startup derived from the experience and whether it was worth the investment. Thank you. 3 0 replies
Main struggles with marketing ? What are the main struggles of marketing SaaS ? I've seen a lot of people say that the hardest part of SaaS is marketing. as a B2B marketer, I am wondering what are you struggling with ? and also, it would be helpful to provide some context : - Problem - ICP - Budget - A link to your tool maybe I can help you with some advice or someone else will. 4 1 replies
Business strategy partner I'm a big fan of new ideas and new ways to do things. About 6 weeks ago, I met Don who's now my *business strategy partner*. We meet every week for an hour (more time and more times if needed). I tell him about my business. He tells me about his business. I tell him what I know. He tells me what he knows. But Don and I have separate businesses. I don't own any part of his business. He doesn't own any part of my businesses. We don't... 2 1 replies
Developed MVP and my partner ghosted me after getting funded 120k USD It’s more of a vent out post for me. I’ve been doing freelancing since the last 4 years and during this period, I started off with nothing but curiosity for building platforms where I could connect people together. I still remember my first project was a fun project where I developed an app for my own university students where they could post random things related to day to day, date within university, gossip around, meet different communities, get to know about cafe menus and things which revolved around specifically... 5 10 replies
Career guidance Career guidance I loved entrepreneurship ever since I watched shark tank since I was a lil kid,I wanna definitely do my man but I don't know what to take bachelor's I don't want to study engineering esp in country like India I love maths and business I'm a public speaker won prizes in business pitches too any advice (I understand degree not important but still) also if I take design what are the options?what business I can start ? Also all development and launch how can I do without... 4 0 replies
Online Reputation AI - Startup got stuck Hi, I‘m one of 3 co-founders of a startup that built an AI-driven SaaS and App product this year. We‘re coming from an SaaS background, two of us senior developers (in the 3% of highest earning freelancers in Germany) and expert in our fields. The third is a seasoned sales strategist. We have a minor 4th co-founder (legal advisor). The company is self-funded, no investors. Our tech is owned by us, built by us and the product was already operational after a few months. We basically solve three data... 4 2 replies
Hiring technical team software engineer/full stack as a non technical founder tips to assess competency Hey guys I run a non profit enterprise where we help legacy enterprises and also brick and mortar non profits and charities transform digitally through Ai driven solutions and also building right infrastructure for them government and companies pays us to deliver this service so we don’t charge our clients. We are growing the team and wanted to know more about how you would go around hiring someone if your non technical. 5 0 replies
Can you make someone a successful entrepreneur? I could use some advice. I have a family member I really care about and trust a lot. I’ve been giving them tasks to help with one of my business ventures because I want them to eventually take over so I can focus on another. But here’s the thing: they don’t seem to have that fire in their belly. Sometimes it feels more like I’m managing an employee than working with someone who’s truly invested. They say they want it, but tasks often get left hanging, and there’s just... 3 10 replies
