AI Enabled Social Listening Tools for competitor research? Hey everyone, I’m exploring the idea of creating a social listening tool that scans various social media platforms for competitor insights, analyzes user feedback, and identifies weak points in their offerings. The goal is to turn this data into actionable insights that can help us develop better products. But before diving deeper, I wanted to ask: **Has anyone come across tools that are effective for competitive research, particularly ones that won’t break the bank?** As early-stage startups, we often have tight budgets, so finding affordable solutions is crucial.What tools or platforms... 4 0 replies
Off my chest - i think my startup is headed for failure I'm not sure why I'm even writing this but just need to vent. I'm an early stage engineer on a product that launched around 6 months ago. I joined well before we launched and was the second engineer. At first I really believed in the idea (and I still do), but what I'm noticing is that from an operational standpoint this company is doomed and I'm not really sure what to do about it. It's incredibly disorganized, beyond the obvious "well its a startup". There's nagging bugs that the... 3 0 replies
A Missed Opportunity: How I Shelved My Idea and Watched Someone Else Succeed Hello everyone, I’m currently 17 years old. When I was 16 about 1 to 1.5 years ago I was trying to come up with a good startup idea. I spent a few days conducting market analysis, thinking about gaps in the market, and eventually, I came up with an idea that I believed had real potential. The idea was a mobile app. The core purpose of the app was to use artificial intelligence to estimate the average calorie content of food and drinks based on photos submitted by users... 2 0 replies
Pre-Seed Investment I'm co-founding a UK-based business and we're looking to raise £400k in pre-seed funding. We're currently part of an accelerator, and one of the founders is based overseas but will return to the UK by mid-June, while the other is based locally. At the moment, we're focused on building our app and need a minimum of £15,000 by February to help support this process. I'm curious if anyone has advice on raising funds, as I've found that finding angel investors through LinkedIn or online can be challenging. Any tips... 3 0 replies
Does registered company name matter? I've been working on a medtech idea for a couple of years, even ran a trial with a company in Europe through my old contacts, and I have a trademark registered with the classes to cover where I'm taking the product. Now I'm ready to make it my full-time thing and I've just convinced an old colleague to join as CTO to get the product more polished and scalable for a real market launch. My CTO will need a salary in six months, and we'll definitely have some legal... 1 0 replies
Founders, how do you deal with mental health struggles? As a founder, how do you take care of your mental well-being? What are the biggest challenges you face like anxiety, sleepless nights, constant instability, or that gnawing fear of failure? Do you work through it alone, or do you lean on a therapist, coach, or some other support system? Sport? Hobbies? I’ve been running my startup for three years now, and honestly, it’s been a rollercoaster. Lately, I’ve been wondering if therapists or coaches who usually deal with “routine” career issues could really understand what it’s like to... 5 0 replies
Struggling with sales, marketing, operations, etc Hey SaaS community. I'd like to do a pulse check to see how many of you are struggling with non-tech related, startup activities? Things like market research, competitor analysis, go to market plan, sales, etc.? For me this has been a weakness. I'm a solo technical founder, working on an experience and conversion rate optimization SaaS. I've been on the technical side of things for a long time and can pretty much code anything at this point. All the other stuff however, well, it's all new, and hard. Anyone... 2 0 replies
Blew my opportunity? For the past two years, I’ve been running a B2B platform / service (bit of both) as a side project while studying (now working full time). I landed a few big clients with strong revenue potential, but limited time and resources meant I couldn’t market it effectively. Now, competitors, both local and abroad, are building almost exactly the products, and it feels like I’m too late to stand out. I’ve considered niching down, but it would mostly be a branding change that risks excluding other customers. At the same... 5 0 replies
Startup/vc fund investors: what are terms to look for or watch out for in LP Agreements? First time venture investor in a new fund - I have a high degree of confidence in the GP team but anything I should look out for in the documents that would be a red flag for any of you more experienced folks? I.e. limits on expenses/discretion in certain areas. It's a 2 & 20 with a "European waterfall" which I'm told is quite typical but people always say that. Not seeking legal advice, just things that you might (a) like seeing or (b) dislike seeing in your binding... 2 0 replies
how advertise that my startup is for sale without saying it **how can I sell a startup without sounding desperate ...** **let's say considering the amount of money invested and the number of users the startup is initially successful.. with better management and investment the potential is high and it can go up** say we know ho much is the evaluation 5 0 replies
Looking for a technical co-founder who wants to start a business in the fitness industry I’m in the early stages of building an innovative e-commerce brand. My background is in sales, marketing and e-commerce. The closest thing on the market to the type of product is Smiirl, the digital counter which links to social media via an API. I’d be looking for someone who could help on the software hardware of the product. Ideally UK based and excited to join me on the journey and equity split. Please reach out if this sounds fun! 3 0 replies
Raise an A or a seed extension? My B2B SaaS company just crossed 1mm in ARR, doubling from last year. We had some angels and have a total capital in today of around 3mm. We need to raise in the coming quarters, but I’m not sure if we should be pursuing a 2mm seed extension from angels or small funds on like a 20mm SAFE, or going after a true series A and trying to do 5-6mm on 25-30mm pre. Curious on perspectives. 1 0 replies
Looking to connect with fellow founders and investors in San Francisco We are expanding our company from Europe to San Francisco in February, and we are fundraising $1M. Building an AI for exposing fake news and verifying information across the internet. Currently in the process of building the network from scratch in there, so would love to connect with other founders and potential seed investors, and meet up in person once we are in the valley. Would really appreciate any intros or tips :) Thanks community 5 0 replies
launch fast vs launch well I have been wrestling with this problem for a while - very much still unresolved, but here is my current thinking. I have now launched 4 different products. Took me anywhere from 3 months to 4 hours. As a recovering perfectionist, I have taken a big issue with the notion of launching fast. I couldn't fathom the idea of publishing something to the world that has mistake (I am getting better at it :) ). And you can confirm this notion very easily: most users will not return to... 2 0 replies
Hey, what's wrong? *This is* /r/startups *emotional support thread. There will be no problem-solving here, no judgement, no networking, no advice. We're here to be heard, be understood, and be told that it'll be okay, that whatever happens, we care. Still, be tactful and classy in how you vent your feelings and share your frustrations. Act in a mature manner. This is meant to be a safe place to support emotional and physical health and there is a zero tolerance policy in effect. Be kind. Please report any conduct that is in... 1 0 replies
AI travel toolkit discussion I have an idea and would like to discuss it with you. The idea comes from. when tourists enter a country where the language is not their native one, they often face many issues related to travel information, such as language barriers, gathering travel information, and making bookings. The idea is to create an all-in-one app that integrates these services. It would use AI-driven search to optimize the efficiency of information retrieval, while also offering translation and guided tour features in case of poor network connectivity in certain countries,... 1 0 replies
How can I test a free web-tool? (to share and monetize wearable data) I built a web tool this week to encrypt, share and reward **Wearable Data.** Honestly, it makes no sense that our data is freely shared without us getting anything in return. AI models are already hitting a data-wall through net-scraping; and raw data like our wearable data is way more valuable than we realize. My challenge now is that I don't know how do I beta-test this tool: I call it intra (If you want to analyse, it can be found at : \[ intra . so \] no spaces) Any... 1 0 replies
AI is replacing everyone, why not politicians / bureaucrats? Is it a good idea to build something in this space? What could be features / functions for such startup? 1. Policy making 2. Policy review 3. Integrating public feedback on specific policy 4. Evaluating different aspects considering historical data 5. Spending in different projects 6. Open bidding so that anyone can bid and public can review / vote on bids, evaluation of bids, assessing vendor capabilities 4 0 replies
How do I Meet Co-Founders? I’m getting desperate here… where do you people hang out? I’m more of a developer so socializing doesn’t come naturally to me and networking isn’t my strong suit. I can’t seem to crack the code on meeting other early stage founders. Are we really such a rare breed? 3 0 replies
Feedback Friday Welcome to this week’s Feedback Thread! # Please use this thread appropriately to gather feedback: * Feel free to request general feedback or specific feedback in a certain area like user experience, usability, design, landing page(s), or code review * You may share surveys * You may make an additional request for beta testers * Promo codes and affiliates links are ONLY allowed if they are for your product in an effort to incentivize people to give you feedback * Please refrain from just posting a link * Give... 3 0 replies
