How did you get around suppliers/mfrs wanting to pick and choose whether they think your product is worth their time or not??? Looking to hear what you might have done to get a supplier to listen and make your product. It's been evident for many years that suppliers would love love love to have a cargo ship load of an order. The reality is they still have to prove themselves and their skills. It's already known that they want to work with projects that use materials they already have too. They don't want to hardly lift a finger it seems beyond anything basic and common to them. You cant just approach... 2 0 replies
What’s Your Daily Struggle as a Startup Founder? Let’s Build a Tool for That 🚀 Hey r/startups community, As founders, we wear a thousand hats—juggling everything from product development to marketing, fundraising, and team management. But let’s be honest: there are always those nagging day-to-day challenges that slow us down or just feel *unnecessarily complicated*. I’m curious: **What’s that one recurring problem you face in your daily grind?** * Is there a repetitive task that eats up your time? * A tool or integration you wish existed to streamline your workflow? * An idea you’ve had for solving a problem but don’t have the... 1 2 replies
Reverse engineer 2025. How to plan realistically? Hey everybody. Happy new year, new goals, new plans! 🗺️Story: I’m use to detailed reviewing the year that has past and building a very thorough annual plan according to what I want to archive in the next 12 month 📈 … And then reverse engineer monthly and building a weekly plan from that. ❌ But my problem: ➡️ I’m always overestimating how much I can do in a week. When building things from scratch, it’s hard to know precisely how time it’s gonna take. And this pushes the whole... 3 3 replies
Been in startups for the past 2 years as a non-tech founder: Here's what I learned so far As a non-tech founder, the past two years have been a rollercoaster. Here’s what I’ve learned: ▪️Build in public: Sharing progress, setbacks, and learnings attracts valuable feedback and connections. ▪️User feedback is gold: Talk to users early and often. It’s the only way to build what people actually want. ▪️Collaborate wisely: The “who” matters more than the “what.” A strong cofounder/team makes all the difference. ▪️You don’t need a unique product: A product doesn’t have to be unique and new to succeed. Don't stop building just because something smiliar... 3 1 replies
93yo serial entrepreneur launching "LastMatch" - a dating app for hospice residents. Hey Reddit! 👋 After successfully exiting my previous startups (denture cleaning subscription service and arthritis-friendly NFT marketplace), I'm excited to announce my next disruptive venture in the silver-tech space! The Problem: You know what sucks more than being in hospice? Being in hospice and single! As a 93-year-old founder who's seen it all, I noticed during my weekly bingo sessions that many of my fellow seniors are looking for that special someone to share their remaining journey with. The current dating apps are too focused on "long-term potential" -... 1 1 replies
Only 4% of companies ever earn $1M ARR Let's look at the stats and be honest with ourselves. There are no VC sugar daddies and sugar mamas coming to save us. So we need to starting rely on ourselves, if we want to make it to the other side. There is a proverb that says something like, "if you want to go fast you go by yourself. If you want to go far, you better bring company." It's time to prove to ourselves that we are who we say we are. In 2025, we're going to need... 5 2 replies
How regularly do you ship updates? Hey Founders, I'm a tech founder, and we recently launched a social media app. Right now, our small team is juggling two critical areas: marketing to acquire users and developing new features to retain and engage them. I’m curious about your experiences or insights: - How quickly should we aim to release new features to keep users engaged without overwhelming them? - Are there any best practices for balancing feature development and user acquisition efforts? Would love to hear from other founders or anyone who's been part of a... 5 0 replies
How do startups evolve when two create identical products (just out of coincidence) and both start taking off? This is something that concerns me but maybe it's not as concerning as I thought. When you're focused on a product, and you launch, you want to be the first. This way you have a bigger splash and more people talk about you. However, in reality I'm sure there are situations where two products hit the market and pretty much do the same thing. I guess what you do in this situation is just really focus on the customer and try to carve out a niche? Like they do... 5 5 replies
How to sell digital products(templates) on etsy?what kind?experienced people dm I'm a school student and want to earn income online.I have an old pc to run basic programs in web so stuff like editing can't be done except canva.I heard some of the people here are expert in getting online clients. I'm kinda good at canva. Can people with experience on online business similar to selling digital products like notion and canvas templates walk me through. I need a guide on how to start and succeed in this online business of selling digital products on etsy,gumroad of whatever it... 1 0 replies
Just read the YC Guide to Co-Founder matching - seems like I made all mistakes in the world Long story short - I've got a consultancy business that I've been working on since 2021, slowly getting attention and trying to scale up. So far, everything happened organically, and I've invested zero dollars in growth. But I'm like really bad at sales. I once sold a brand new 500 quid bike for 25, to give you an illustration. Thought it would be a good idea to find someone experienced, and share a big chunk of the company, to get things going. I filled out the form on Y... 4 0 replies
At what point did you believe that your startup WILL make it? Just curious, I’m building software that’s growing every day, and part of me feels like this is it. But I’m trying to stay grounded and not get ahead of myself. For those of you who’ve been here, when did you know your startup would actually succeed? Was it a specific milestone, feedback, or just a gut feeling? Would love to hear your experiences to keep things in perspective. 1 1 replies
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