Hey everyone,

I’ve been pondering this question a lot lately and wanted to get your thoughts. When you’re building a startup, how much does your location really matter?

The Case for Location Being Crucial Access to Talent: Being in a major tech hub like Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston can give you access to a larger pool of skilled professionals. These areas are often home to top universities and a high concentration of experienced workers in tech and related fields. Networking Opportunities: Physical proximity to other startups, investors, and mentors can be invaluable. In-person networking events, meetups, and conferences can lead to partnerships, funding opportunities, and valuable advice that might be harder to come by if you’re in a less connected area

Investor Access: Many VCs prefer to invest in companies that are nearby so they can be more hands-on. Being in a location with a high concentration of investors can increase your chances of securing funding

Market Proximity: Depending on your product or service, being close to your target market can be a significant advantage. For example, if you’re developing a fintech product, being in a financial hub like New York or London could be beneficial

The Case for Location Being Less Important Remote Work: The rise of remote work has made it easier to build a team from anywhere. You can hire the best talent regardless of their location, and tools like Slack, Zoom, and Asana make it easier to collaborate across distances

Cost of Living: Major tech hubs are often expensive. Rent, salaries, and other operational costs can be significantly higher. Starting your business in a more affordable location can help you stretch your runway and reduce financial pressure

Technology and Connectivity: With high-speed internet and advanced communication tools, you can run many aspects of your business from anywhere. Cloud services, online marketing, and e-commerce platforms have leveled the playing field for startups in less traditional locations

Quality of Life: Sometimes, being in a less hectic environment can improve your quality of life and productivity. Lower stress levels and a better work-life balance can lead to more sustainable long-term success3. Personal Experience and Thoughts From my own experience and what I’ve observed, I think the importance of location can vary depending on the stage of your startup and the industry you’re in. Early on, being in a major hub can provide critical resources and connections. However, as your company grows and remote work becomes more feasible, the importance of location might diminish.

What do you all think? Have you found location to be a significant factor in your startup journey? Or do you believe that with the right tools and mindset, you can build a successful startup from anywhere?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

PS any founders in Boston currently building something

SaaS Specific:

Onboarding emails.

If you are getting a manageable amount of new users/trial sign ups (your definition of manageable), you should be sending a hand written email to every single user that joins.

Take a minute to figure out who they are. Use this information to improve their experience.

My product had 9 new trial signups last week.

I sent them each an onboarding email reiterating how it can specifically benefit their business.

I have learned something incredible from each interaction, but more importantly, I significantly lowered the time to value.

Roll up your sleeves and help your customers. If you don't do it, someone else will.

I will keep this anonymous since the post is meant to be purely informational.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 1 (0-1𝐤): 𝐀 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐤𝐢 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭
We wrote a simple post about creating flashcards using ChatGPT which got over 100k+ impressions and drove our early growth. We specifically chose this subreddit knowing it would be the densest place for our target audience.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 2 (1𝐤-10𝐤): 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 + 𝐓𝐢𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐤
We started posting short videos about the platform on Tiktok and convinced one single Twitter influencer to review our product publicly. This specific post got us fewer than 100 users but the after effects were CRAZY! Several other influencers voluntarily started posting about us and racking up over 5m views on Twitter just in the next few days.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 3 (10𝐤-100𝐤): 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐬, 𝐑𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬, 𝐓𝐢𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐤
Some of these product reviews organically started popping up on Reels and many were made in languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai as well. Within the next 3 months, it pushed us to over 50k users. Our audience started getting very global (over 120+ countries) and to serve these new users, we translated the entire product into 20 languages which contributed to more growth. In hindsight, we probably should have postponed this and focused on local audiences first. More on this in a different post maybe. From there on, people started inviting each other to the platform and word-of-mouth wheel started spinning.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 4 (100𝐤+): 𝐒𝐄𝐎, 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐬
Now by early 2024, our blogs, use case and comparison pages started getting ranked really well by Google. We ended on the first page for a bunch of common queries like "Study with AI". And we never spent a dollar on Google ads in this process.

As of March 2024, we shifted our focus on the B2B product but the B2C product continues to grow and serve users.

If anyone has more questions about this journey, happy to answer questions as much as I can!

Looking for affiliates

Looking for affiliates

Looking for Partners

Calling all People: We are on the lookout for driven individuals interested in becoming affiliates or types of "promoters" to help us expand our local mattress sales in the Maryland area.

About Us: Based in Maryland, we are a dedicated store committed to providing high-quality mattresses to our local customers. With our production and delivery processes maintained properly, we're proud to offer top-notch products to our customers.

The Opportunity: While our production and delivery are running smoothly, we recognize the need to increase sales and expand our reach within the local market. This is where you come in! As an affiliate, you'll play a crucial role in promoting our mattresses, driving sales, and earning attractive commissions in the process.

What We Offer:

1. Quality Products: Our mattresses are crafted using premium materials to ensure comfort, durability, and a good night's sleep for our customers.
2. Competitive Commissions: Earn top up and commissions for every sale you facilitate.
3. Flexibility: Work at your own pace and schedule, fitting your affiliate activities around your existing commitments.
4. Support: We will aid you in the whole process, we will not abandon you when tough times comes. We will give as much info and support that we can to help you.

How to Get Started: Interested in joining forces with us to revolutionize the local mattress market in Maryland? Simply reach out to us via Whats app to express your interest and learn more about this opportunity. Or message me on Reddit.

Conclusion: Join us as an affiliate and together, let's transform the way Maryland residents experience sleep and comfort, one mattress at a time! (That was corny lol)

My main goal right now is to validate the problem I’m trying to solve. I’m an SME in the space and built a survey in Typeform with 14 questions that aim to validate the problem.

It’s a B2B product and I used Apollo to drill into the segment I want to target and source emails. Then sent the emails via Apollo. The email introduces me, the problem I’m solving and asks them to take the survey with a link included. I sent it on Thursday around 10:30am EST.

I worry that it just looks like a phishing email. I wanted to make a nice one through Mailchimp but they require that your audience is subscribed.

Should I try LinkedIn messenger?

Thank you

My to do list has hundreds of items on it since I’m one of the sole developers and scientists at a marine science biotechnology startup. Since I’m a scientist/programmer, I can work at any hour of the day which means I often find myself working 12 hour days or on the weekends because to accomplish a big task I need to build several smaller tools to accomplish individual steps in the larger task. Also, I have to read scientific publications in between.

My question is if anyone recommends podcasts or audiobooks (can’t commit to extra reading) that can provide advice and insight for managing my work life balance?

Once again asking for someone working in the industry to reach out

I’m looking to start a biohazard removal company in my area and am in need of a mentor or just someone I can bounce some questions off of, preferably with another business owner or someone who works at one. Information online for this industry is pretty scarce… Thank you!

More than a decade ago, I was a technical startup founder who failed. I was making what would have become Uber or Lyft, but I sucked at sales and ended up failing. I then decided to pursue a career in sales and fell in love with it. I've now sold to companies that have revenues in the double digit billions at the enterprise level. Looking back, I've come a long way, and my startup failing pushed me in career from engineering to sales.

Now it doesn't seem that long ago, but it's hard to remember what exactly I struggled with so much back then. So anyone else have troubles with sales? Anything I can answer for you?

I am currently reading Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson.
Unless a startup is going to IPO in an year or so, those ESOPs are worthless. In the book, it has been mentioned that investors get preference shares while employees get ESOPs, which are common shares. There are several ways in which your ESOPs are made worthless:

• Mostly those preference shares have participating liquidation preference, at ~1-2x. For example: If a VC invests $10 million for 40% of the company, ESOPs are worth 20% and founders have 40%, then:
  • If the startup is sold for less than 2x ie. $20 million, VC gets all the money and the employees get nothing.
  • If the startup is sold for more than 2x, lets say $30 million, VC gets $20 million + 40% of remaining $10 million ie. $4 million. VC gets $24 million in total. Founder gets 40% of $10 million = $4 million. The employees get 20% of $10 million = $2 million.
• VCs normally get anti-dilution protection in case of down round. This anti-dilution clause will directly dilute ESOPs and founder shares even further.
• VCs get drag-along rights. When a startup is getting sold for less than the liquidation preference, VC can exercise his drag-along rights (if in majority) and make the founder and ESOP holders vote in favour of selling the company, even though the ESOP holders won't get anything.

These are some points from just 2 chapters of the book. The book has 19 chapters. Here are real world examples of the above things in action:

• Founders and employees of Truepill got $0 even after a $525 million accuisition.
• Employees of Eero got $0 even after a $97 million acquisition.
• Founders and employees of FanDuel got $0 even after a $465 million exit.

This might be the reason why we see popular founders working on their 2nd/3rd startup, even after a successful previous multi-million dollar exit. They might not have got any substantial exit from their previous startups. They won't be able to discuss such things in public due to non-disclosure agreements.

Mind you these are the stories of startups that got acquired. Startup returns typically follow the power law ie. 2-5% of startups are responsible for majority of returns, all other startups fail. So, not only your startup needs to get acquired, it needs an acquisition amount significanctly greater than the liquidation preference. The other option is an IPO. This is the only legit way for employees to mint wealth since preference shares get converted to common shares before an IPO, so no liquidation preferences here.

So the best option for both founders and employees is to either not have a VC altogether, which means bootstrapping. In that case, everyone will get money on a pro-rata basis after an acquisition. The other option is an IPO, in which everyone gets wealthy.

Hey guys, I have noticed a lot of founders utilise marketing through influencers or marketing themselves either through Reddit or such social media platforms to gain traction on their products. Can a few of you share some stories on strategies you guys used and some pain points that you always face.

New Update[]

The guy who pretends to run a VC and hosts weekly meetups in Bengaluru, Hires across USA and India

Buckle up, folks, because what you're about to read will make your head spin. This isn't your average run-of-the-mill scam—oh no—this is a masterclass in deception by none other than Sridhar Arunagiri, a man who has taken "faking it till you make it" to a whole new level! 🕵️‍♂️

Here’s a blow-by-blow of the shocking, fraudulent schemes he’s running, infuriating, offenses:

1. FAKE CREDENTIALS AND DECEITFUL ALUMNUS CLAIMS Sridhar proudly parades around claiming he’s an alumnus of a prestigious institution, but guess what? After checking with the university, it’s confirmed: HE NEVER ATTENDED! That’s right, he never even stepped foot outside India. Every international business claim? Pure fantasy. Academic credentials? Nonexistent. //

2. FICTITIOUS COMPANIES & NONEXISTENT PORTFOLIO He lists company after company on various platforms, but here’s the kicker: NONE OF THEM EXIST. His so-called business empire? Smoke and mirrors. Every company he says he has backed? Shell entities—fake, fabricated, and fraudulent. Even the seemingly legitimate companies in his "portfolio"? He somehow fabricated links to them. How, you ask? We’re all still scratching our heads. //

3. RUNNING A SCAM NETWORK AND EXPLOITING TALENT He recruits graduates from top universities, but instead of offering real opportunities, he exploits them for free labor. The tasks? Meaningless. The compensation? Nonexistent. He lures talent from places like San Francisco and New York, cities he’s never even visited, trapping them in his web of lies. //

4. DEMANDING MONEY FOR FAKE JOB OFFERS Yes, you read that right. He demands money from candidates to "secure" job offers. One person forked over 52,000 INR for a position that never existed. Another poor soul was scammed out of 25,000 INR for a fake course. His modus operandi? Create fear of missing out, present himself as a ‘savior,’ and force people into decisions with false urgency. Boom—money gone, future crushed. //

5. UNPAID "HIRES" AND EXPLOITATION THROUGH FAKE ACCELERATOR PROGRAMS He’s been hiring fresh graduates and offering them nothing in return—no compensation, no experience, and certainly no opportunities. These hires work on his sham companies, while he makes empty promises and just keep doing "meetups" and "networking events." And then there’s the accelerator program he pushes—total scam. Don’t fall for it. //

6. OPERATES EXCLUSIVELY OUT OF WEWORK Where does this self-proclaimed business tycoon operate from? A flashy high-rise office? No. Just a shared desk at WeWork. And even that’s stretching the truth. He doesn’t have a legitimate address anywhere, but he sure loves to flaunt his WeWork membership like it’s some kind of golden throne. //

7. FAKE SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE & "STARTUP" NONSENSE Every day, you’ll find him posting absolute nonsense on LinkedIn—building this startup, launching that venture, saving the world one idea at a time. It’s all fluff. His entire social media persona? Crafted just 4-5 months ago. Before that? Crickets. This man has no history, no background, no legacy—just lies. //

8. FAKE CLIENT LIST AND AI-GENERATED COMPANIES He proudly touts a "client list" on his profile, but all of the companies listed are his own, non-working, and AI-generated websites! None of his "clients" are real. The investments he brags about? Utterly fake. The only "real" company he ever registered, Famwork, has been struck off. Nothing is legal. Nothing is legitimate. //

9. LIVING A FAKE LUXURY LIFE He wants you to believe he’s rolling in cash, living the high life, but in reality? He lives in a shared, modest space. And while normally no one cares about personal living conditions, this is a man who goes to extreme lengths to pretend to be wealthy, projecting an image that couldn’t be further from the truth. //

10. MANIPULATING YOUNG PROFESSIONALS WITH LIES His whole strategy revolves around creating fear and a false sense of urgency. He manipulates you, makes you feel like you’re missing out on the next big thing, and coerces you into following his lead—only to leave you empty-handed and out of money. //

11. SCAMMED MONEY FROM MULTIPLE INDIVIDUALS As if all this isn’t enough, there are multiple reports of Sridhar scamming people for cash. 52,000 INR here, 25,000 INR there—he’s collecting from unsuspecting individuals who think they’re investing in their future. Instead, they’re lining his pockets. Just type his name on linkedin and search in posts. //

12. UNREGISTERED "VENTURES"—A HOUSE OF CARDS Every company he boasts about? Nothing more than paper-thin ideas. He doesn’t have a single legally registered entity. It’s all one big house of cards, ready to collapse at any moment. And when it does, don’t be the one left holding the pieces. //

FINAL WARNING: DON’T FALL FOR HIS LIES Sridhar Arunagiri is a scam artist of the highest order. He’s built a mountain of lies and is sitting on top of it, laughing at everyone who believes him. I urge you—don’t be deceived by his false image. Investigate, dig deeper, and you’ll see what I’ve seen: a fraud with no shame. //

Have you encountered Sridhar or fallen prey to his scams? Drop your observations. If you’ve lost money or time, report him to the authorities ASAP.

❗ DO NOT attend his meetups, join his accelerator programs, or engage with his so-called consulting services.

Spread the word—let’s stop this scammer in his tracks.

Hi,

I recently launched an investment research platform and I am trying to find different ways to let the world know (marketing). I don't know much about marketing, but I am looking for groups and ways to advertise it, especially now in the beginning for free.
I know I can't self promote here because its against the guidelines but do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Drones and UAVs are poised to become a crucial part of our world in the near future. However, one of the main challenges they face is their limited battery life. Striking the right balance between battery size and drone weight is essential, as heavier batteries can significantly impact a drone's efficiency. This limitation forces drones to frequently return to their base for recharging, hindering their operational range and efficiency.

The inspiration for a solution struck me while driving one day, as I noticed a pigeon perched comfortably on a billboard. It occurred to me: what if drones could do the same? This idea led to the concept of transforming billboards into charging hubs for drones, providing them with convenient places to recharge mid-flight. After refining the concept, I took the step of filing for a patent to protect this innovative idea.

This solution leverages the existing infrastructure of billboards that are already widespread across cities and highways, making it an ideal network to support drone operations. By converting these billboards into charging stations, we can significantly extend the range and functionality of drones, opening up countless possibilities for industries that rely on UAV technology.

Would love to hear your thoughts / feedback on this.

Hey y’all, just looking for some information. I am interested in the wholesale/distribution business. How does one eliminate the “middle man” and get products straight from the source? Say I wanted to buy non alcoholic beverages in bulk, instead of going to distributors to get them how does one cut them out and get it directly from the manufacturer for even cheaper price??? Any information is greatly appreciated

📀 Hello fellow entrepreneurs!

I’m curious about how you protect customer data and other critical info in your backend systems. What approaches do you use—encryption, tokenization, zero-trust? With all the methods out there, how do you balance security and performance?

Another thing I’m wondering about is the financial side—how much do you invest to keep your data secure? Is data protection a significant part of your budget, and how big of a concern is data leakage for you?

Finally, has anyone experienced a data leak before? I’d love to hear about the lessons learned and what changes you made afterward.

Looking forward to your insights!

I have been in the marketing game for the last 5 years and the landscape is fast changing with AI, TikTok and more. Here are the 4 trends I have noticed particularly in 2024.

• LinkedIn & Reddit: LinkedIn & Reddit are turning out to be powerful marketing platforms for not just B2B but also consumer brands especially with founder-led marketing.

• AI Automation: A lot of marketing is getting cheaper and faster with AI. There are already tools like Wosily and Pulse that are essentially AI content writers helping you publish blogs, emails faster.

• Nano/Micro-Influencers: Brands are teaming up with smaller influencers who have killer engagement rates. Plus, they’re way more budget-friendly.

• Short Video Content: TikTok and Instagram Reels are the way to go. Short, snappy videos are capturing attention like never before!

Have you noticed any trends I left out? LMK in the comments

Startup founders, how much equity do you give to your earliest employees?

Context: joined a pre-seed startup as their first full-time employee (besides C level executives). Due to lack of options (tough job market) took a significanly below-average salary, no equity. Healthcare startup, my role is MLE. Building one of the core tools for them. Startup has almost raised seed, a couple of $M's. I will be negotiating my salary soon, they wanna offer a salary+equity package. What's a reasonable equity % I should be targeting?

Thanks!

Less and less people want to buy in this economy, but even fewer people know what to buy.

And that’s where the problems is (or an opportunity, depends how you look at it).

• They don’t have the budget:

The thing about not having budget is that what you’re offering isn’t valuable enough to your prospects, where they could earn or save more money.

If your solution doesn’t connect how it would tangibly make their life better in a financial way, you will never be able to get through them, and they will always tell you that they don’t have a budget.

• They don’t trust you:

So many people have been burned by useless products, and mediocre services, that they don’t want to engage with companies and people that sell a similar thing

The only way to get out of this is to make an incredible product… this will help you get better testimonials, more word of mouth, and increase your NPS (Net Promoter Score).

I recently talked about this in my podcast with Ex-CMO/CRO of Slack (Bill Macaitis)… Still working on editing this podcast, but I’m excited to share this conversation, it’s value packed!

• You don’t promote yourself enough:

Sometimes it is as simple as you not promoting yourself enough.

For this, you need to focus on tracking inputs… Like how many cold calls are you making? How many cold DMs? How many ads are you testing? How much budget are you using for your ads? How many social media posts are you creating?

Track your inputs, and soon enough you’ll start moving towards your output goals as well! …

With all my experience in running a business and working with other businesses, I’ve found that there are so many moving parts within a company, that if you don’t fix 90% of them to at-least a base level, you’ll never be able to get off the ground.

And that’s where the problem is (or an opportunity, depnds on how you look at it).

If you fix these moving parts, you’ll start to get more leads, and more importantly better quality leads.

What are some of the moving parts you’re working on fixing right now in your company?

Hey y'all, we've recently started a marking push, overhauled the website, and our machine learning team has done drastic work to improve the reviews & auto pr descriptions. That being said, would love some candid feedback if you or your team members would consider using a tool like ours and if not, why not.

Our company is Korbit AI and we do context based, AI code reviews and automated PR descriptions. While we have been getting more traction since some of the updates and larger companies are starting to sign up, I would really appreciate some honest opinions on why you *wouldn't* try a tool like this in hopes we can use that info to alter marketing etc.

This is not meant to be a promotion post, and legitimately looking to learn from other people rocking startups trying to build up a larger customer base etc.

Any feedback is very much appreciated

Thank you in advanced,

Riley

Hi! I’m leading a small dev team of 3 developers, and we’re working on an MVP for a cross-platform app using Ionic/Capacitor. We’ve reached the stage where we need to start iOS development/testing and eventually publish to the App Store.

At the moment, only one developer is actively working on the iOS side, but the other two may occasionally need to help troubleshoot or run builds.

We’re considering two options and would love some advice:

1. Buying a Mac Mini (M2, 8GB RAM, $500) and hosting it ourselves so all developers can access it for builds and testing.
2. Using a cloud-based Mac service for development, testing, and deployment.

Some key factors:

• We’ll need the setup for build automation and occasional testing on physical iOS devices.
• Budget is tight, as we only have enough funding to deliver the MVP to a few clients, so buying a MacBook for everyone isn’t feasible right now.

What’s the more cost-effective and practical route for a small team like ours? Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hey, I'm a solo founder for the moment and am continuing to look for a co-founder while the MVP product is being built.

I'm having a couple of challenges with contractors that I want to talk through.

I don't have any founders in my current network.

How do you find people that can be a sounding board and understand the journey/early challenges?

Coexsys. Is this company name and also brand name for its products that complicated for people to pronounce and remember?

This name represents a B2B saas. it has been incorporated, registered and also has published trademark.

So yes, Lots has been invested in this .

However, I have observed that people find it difficult to pronounce and I often correct them.

Does anyone here think that this is going to be a problem growing this company because it is difficult to pronounce ? Your thoughts?

How do I get the rights to put reading materials on my webpage?

I do plan to build my own website that provide reading materials for my viewers/readers. However, I do realise that you cannot simply copy other people's book and put on your website because it can lead to copyright strike.

Dear experts, can you give me the detail process of how do I acquire permission to post on my website? For start, I do plan to start with manga.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you

There are these organizations that don't give startups funding, rather they'll provide services to help you get it: prepare pitch decks, reach out to VCs, connect you to exclusive networks, give investor banking advice, etc. Some charge a few thousand upfront, some take some equity, some take a percentage of the capital raised.

Have you ever worked with such companies? What were the red flags (or good signs)? What should I look for when talking to them?

I am not a tech guy like you guys. I have experience in construction and big projects like large factories, and I have used some of the tools out there for it from big ones (oracle, sap etc.) to small niche ones. All of them are quite inflexible even though they have many features - too many features and most are not well made or suitable for large projects and many teams involved. My needs are also not met by software like Smartsheets which seems more suitable for small projects or 1 team, although they have some nice features for working together which is missing in the big softwares.

I know how to code a little bit I used to make mobile game 10 years ago for fun, and I am working on my own solution for over a week. I just want to solve my own problems first, and it seems to be working well, but it would be a long journey to make something people will want to use and more importantly pay me. I am using chat gpt to help me with the things like to learn how to put my code on amazon web service which I don't know.

Right now all I am doing is managing my next 2 weeks tasks and gives me 1 click ability to email the people involved. Obviously this is far from ideal, but it saves me about 15 minutes. Right now even though we use dedicated software, the process is far from good and broken.. we rely on manual processes just as much as software. I am making a list of things I think will be good to have and just from the 24 things I have added to my excel it seems they will save me about 4-6 hours a week if these were included. And maybe they will help in other companies too?

Now I wonder since I am a noob in business, and I have only ever worked for other people, how can I take this to the next level? Is this worth doing you think? I think it is, right now I am saving 15 minutes. Maybe in 2 months I will save 60 minutes. Eventually many hours. but I don't know enough about business.

Hey 👋

Our small team of engineers has built an AI-powered platform for the rental market, and we’ve got a live prototype that’s already gaining traction. But we’re struggling with user friction and really need an experienced product designer to help smooth out the experience.

We can’t offer a salary right now, just equity as a founding team member. I know this is a tough sell, so we’re also looking for advice on how to attract talented people when we’re not able to pay upfront. For those of you who’ve been through this, how did you find and convince key team members to join your startup for equity only? Any tips or strategies that worked for you?

If you happen to be a designer interested in chatting about joining us, feel free to DM me—but any advice on building out a solid early team would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks!

Hey guys,

I have been deep into building a website over the last six weeks or so. It's my first time doing this "seriously", in parallel with a busy job. Before starting, I had a brief validation phase primarily through social media through ads and getting feedback from friends and family. It went okay, and I had a conversion ratio from ad to website visit of about 2%, which I think is decent, and received an OK amount of sign-ups.

However, I feel I am hitting some kind of wall here mentally, where I am starting to doubt the idea itself (which I was very excited about a few weeks ago) and its potential (which I was convinced was big when I started out and had good response in the validation phase - and told myself the market is big (I have done my research, and it is big, but I haven't done a CDD on it...)).

I guess this feeling is not unique, and I am simply wondering how others in here deal with this?

The backlog of necessary stuff to do before I can consider it functional and useful is a few more weeks at least, and it feels like a long period before I can get it out to people and potentially see 0.0 interest...

Founders who have raised a pre seed, seed, or series a what were the biggest pain points of fundraising? Looking to hear what all your pain points were in the beginning of finding VC or investment capital. I am intrigued to hear all of your answers. Whether it was getting in the right room with the right investors? Was it getting in the wrong room with the wrong investors? Was it wasting time on getting in front of the right investors? I am looking to hear all your guys thoughts or different spins on this question.

A few years ago, my co-founders and I were facing challenges scaling our startup’s payment infrastructure, especially when it came to managing recurring subscriptions and optimizing payment flows. We couldn’t find a single solution that covered everything we needed, which led us to bootstrapping a subscription management, optimization, and analytics tool with a payment orchestration layer.

Here’s what we focused on:

Subscription Management (with Payment Orchestration)

Managing subscriptions became a key priority for us, particularly automating recurring billing for different pricing plans. To ensure smooth payment flows, we integrated payment orchestration directly into subscription management. This allowed us to:

• Automate Billing: Simplify the recurring billing cycle for upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations without manual intervention.
• Payment Orchestration: By supporting multiple payment gateways and methods, our system intelligently routes payments through the most efficient gateway based on customer location, currency, or payment type. This not only improves transaction success rates but also allows for redundancy in case one gateway fails.
• Dunning Management: We implemented strategies to handle failed payments automatically, reducing involuntary churn through smart retry mechanisms and customer notifications.

Optimization

One of the biggest challenges we tackled was optimizing the entire payment experience for better conversion and retention. With the tools we built, we were able to:

• Checkout Flow Optimization: We designed customizable checkout flows, so we could A/B test different payment processes, messaging, and user experiences. This allowed us to refine our checkout process, reduce friction, and boost conversion rates.
• Smart Payment Routing: Our platform dynamically routes transactions to the best-performing payment gateway based on real-time conditions (e.g., location, currency, payment method), helping us lower payment failure rates and transaction fees.
• Churn Prevention: We used predictive analytics to identify at-risk customers and optimize retention efforts, whether through personalized outreach or improved payment retry logic.

Analytics and Insights

To scale effectively, we needed full visibility into our payment processes, so we built advanced analytics tools that gave us real-time insights. These tools allow us to:

• Track Subscription Performance: Get a detailed view of key metrics like churn rate, revenue trends, and customer lifetime value.
• Revenue and Growth Analysis: Use data to forecast revenue, monitor the success of new pricing models, and tweak product offerings.
• A/B Testing & Optimization: We use the data to experiment with pricing strategies, checkout flows, and payment methods, continually optimizing based on real-time feedback.

Since building we've seen a significant market for this - our sales calls have an 80-90% success rate. We are able to significantly improvement your ability to scale and retain customers. I’m curious—are other startups dealing with similar challenges when it comes to subscription management, payment optimization, or analytics?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated as I want to learn on how to make efficient and effective session making before I onboard people onto my team and becoming senior partners I made a mistake with a previous partner I don’t want to do the same again.