Startups Weekly Feedback and Support Thread |
- Weekly Feedback and Support Thread
- My co-founders are trying to get me out... What would you do?
- $15 million offer! Should i just sell or continue working on my vision
- Patent Problems
- How to bring in a business partner
- How to transition to a new CTO as a non-technical CEO?
- Starting a new company, how much percentage to own is fair?
- How do I find clients for my consulting practice focusing on services (not coding)?
- Have 25K: help us re-orient?
- Initial Investment Strategies
- Whats the best way to get in contact with bigger Brands & Companies
- Building Startup with University Support?
- "I love this feature" buttons in the web app
| Weekly Feedback and Support Thread Posted: 30 Apr 2018 04:08 AM PDT Create something? Let's see it! Feedback or Support RequesterPlease use the following format:
Post your site along with your stack and technologies used and receive feedback from the community. Please refrain from just posting a link and instead give us a bit of a background about your creation. Feel free to request general feedback or specific feedback in a certain area like user experience, usability, design, or code review. Feel free to request support with hiring talent, finding a job/clients, recruiting a co-founder, getting your pitch deck made, or anything objective based that is specific to your startup. You can also receive advice and feedback in instant chat using the /r/startups discord. Feedback Providers
Support Providers
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| My co-founders are trying to get me out... What would you do? Posted: 30 Apr 2018 04:16 AM PDT A startup (less than 2 years old, with 3 family members) approached me with a contract for 10% equity earned over 10 months to grow the online marketing. In that period, the startup got into prestigious accelerator programs (where they listed me as a co-founder) and achieved 9,000% YoY growth (750 users - 70 000 users a month). At the end of the contract they devalued my time for the next contract, so I chose not to continue with them. They began aggressive dilution, 5 months later have asked me to remove all instances of co-founder as they prepare for seed. They have made 2 offers to buy my shares, I turned both down because I worked my ass off, I think the shares are worth more, and the offer is paid over 12 months. I also know that they are about to get an investor onboard for possibly 3x the amount they are prepared to pay me for my shares. I did not respond positively enough that I would remove the co-founder title so they blocked me from the company slack, email, analytics and drive. I feel its a hostile situation. Do I have grounds to keep my co-founder status, should I just take the exit? [link] [comments]  |
| $15 million offer! Should i just sell or continue working on my vision Posted: 30 Apr 2018 09:42 AM PDT So my name is Glen, and i am a 18 years old Albanian guy living in Germany. I came here when i was 16, just so me, my stepdad, and a friend of our family could work on something we had been planning for quite a while. It was a business idea which ended up working quite well. It made us some money and it continues to do so, passively bringing about 2000 to 4000 dollars a month. As a side project i started a startup focused on teens who move with their families and find themselves in totally alien environments. For me it was just a little something i felt like doing. I wasn't in for the money, and i wasn't in for recognision. Honestly i just wanted to practice my coding, test myself, and help other people who were going through the same shit i did. Well it has been making a total in the 7 digits with about 85% of it being pure profit. Needless to say me and my family have been really comfortable since. After two years of hard work, i was approached by a company in a similar Field looking to purchase it. I thought they were joking but then someone flew from Australia to have a meeting and discuss about the offer. It looks legit enough, they have all the paperwork ready, they've seen the statistics and they are 100% positive that they want to buy the whole "company" (which includes two small websites that help the main thing) for about $15 million (somewhere around that.) Now if i keep it I'll make about $15 million in profit in the next couple of years but it's just to hard to refuse something like this? All they are waiting for is my ok and I'm thinking about just selling it and going home with some mad money. On the other side though if everything goes good (kind of risky) and i keep it i will make just that in about 5-6 years. I have to give them an answer by the end of the week. What would you do? (Also i was asked not to disclose any details about my company or them online until we make a definitive decision) And a question : If i sell it for $15 million right now, approximately how much will go to tax? I heard somebody mention about $5 million which is really fucked up if true [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2018 01:38 AM PDT So my partner and myself have been working on a site that to put it very simply deals with the collection of online data for calculation and redistribution. After writing thousands of lines of code we have found that a potentially competing company in market has a patent on an algorithm that may have some overlap in the wording with ours. My issue with this is that after reading through the patent filing it seems to me as being extremely broad. I equate it to something like a patent on "collecting peoples likes and dislikes on the internet". Our website takes a different approach to the issue and has no real relation to the other site, but this, in my mind, overreaching patent has me concerned. How do I go about this issue? Our site has the possibility to take some of their users, and I want to make sure they don't try and pull something on us. Any help is appreciated, thanks! Please excuse any spelling errors its 2am. TL;DR: A small website has a broad patent that could possibly be used against us. Advice needed. [link] [comments]  |
| How to bring in a business partner Posted: 30 Apr 2018 12:56 PM PDT Hi, I have a very small forum of professionals of a specific field (let's say they are dentists), it has 3k daily visits. I'm making big changes (moving to a better platform, better domain) and I would like to bring in a dentist onboard. The forum is not generating revenue but I think it has great potential (there are no big competitors in my country, and it's growing despite I'm making no effort to make it grow) Without a dentist onboard, growth rate will be very slow. That's why I would like to have a partner or a employee to:
I think that a partner will be more motivated than an employee, but I'm not comfortable by giving someone 50% of the (future) business without knowing how much will he work if currently there is no money, specially because the site is already running and growing. What do you think is the best path to bring a partner? 1- Should I hire a dentist for some hours per week and later ask him if he wants to become a partner? I think this is the best path, but it's expensive and I do not have a lot of money. 2- Should I ask him if he is wants to volunteer until the site growths from 3,000 to 6,000 visits and then he will have 50%? 3- Or should I just him give 50% if he commits to work? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How to transition to a new CTO as a non-technical CEO? Posted: 30 Apr 2018 01:33 PM PDT Hello, My CTO (and co-founder) decided to step down and accept a full time job at a top silicon valley company, as he is graduating college and needs a visa, and is worried about not having industry experience if anything goes wrong. This is in the middle of our users growing, press writing articles about us, and waiting to hear back from key accelerators. We have a pretty unique concept in the share-economy and over course of 8 months have validated our market, added users, built the mobile apps and back-end. We are close to being ready to launch a private beta and had told users and press we would launch the app in the summer. He wants us to add a third founder that can pretty much take his place as he steps back into more of a consulting role, with occasional coding if needed. Obviously his equity would drop to single digits and he understands and is OK with that. Problem is I am a non-technical CEO, with a background in advertising, feature film, and marketing. I am full time on the business and now sort of feeling kind of lost. My network does not include many developers. My CTO's network is primarily college students whom have accepted jobs. He wants to be helpful and will look over any credentials of any potential new founders, but essentially I am in a position of mostly having to find them myself. In the past, Meetups have not been very efficent for me. I joined Founderdating but it does not look like a very helpful site. I don't want to come across as one of those non-technical people trying to pitch their startup idea to developers -- i know the feeling coming from animation, everyone has a "comic book" or "idea" they want you to make. I am based in NYC. How can I best approach this situation? Any advice would be appreciated. I am worried about randomly picking and pitching to anyone that can code and have not had a chance to work with before, but at the same time don't want to completely push on the breaks as we have momentum. Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a new company, how much percentage to own is fair? Posted: 30 Apr 2018 07:17 PM PDT |
| How do I find clients for my consulting practice focusing on services (not coding)? Posted: 30 Apr 2018 06:26 PM PDT I want to launch my own consulting company - I have over 20 years of experience and many contacts in the industry. Sadly, those contacts are "doers" - e.g. lower-end staff, not the decision makers. These are my "brains on tap" folks. I know my business well, worked as a consultant for some very well known Fortune 100 companies, but those gigs were basically sub-contractor gigs. I want to go out on my own and write my own ticket. My specialization is migrating companies to the cloud, plus legacy (on-prem) end-to-end support/consulting/etc. I can pretty much handle Level 1 - Level 4 + architecture, etc. and have folks who can jump in and help out, however... no money. I work in tech presales now and learning the business aspect of this specialty, but to go on my own I need clients. I need sales. Right now it's just me. So, what are my options to get this biz off the ground - get clients - without sales or marketing or... much budget? Is it even possible? How do I find and convince the clients to even talk to me? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2018 05:31 PM PDT So we are a team of three undergrad sophomores with skill in programming/CS and ML. We have won some in-school and outside-of-school venture competitions with various ideas in healthcare and education technology. But these fields, as you may know are heavily regulated and young people like us with no experience have a harder time making it into these markets. So we ended up ditching both ideas due to our lack of expertise in these fields. But we don't want to waste our 25,000. Can you guys redirect us to some markets (food? Music? College advising? Etc.) that are not heavily regulated and are suitable for 20 year olds like us. We will then sit on it for the summer and think what specific problem to address. But we would really appreciate some pointers. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2018 04:43 PM PDT Hi everyone, I've spent the last couple of months working with various designers, manufacturers and marketers to get the ball rolling. I'm looking for a couple suggestions, on my initial order I'm thinking about purchasing 300 units. Do you think this is too large of initial order? Some Background: My product's target audience is mainly college students, young adults, and parents purchasing my products for their sons/daughters. It is a game I played while at my alma-mater. I am simply improving upon an already existing market. In order to get margins to a semi profitable levels 300 seems to be the minimum I can get away with. Do you suggest opening a Shopify store prior to listing my products on Amazon? What marketing strategies do you think will work best for young adults? I was thinking Instagram and Facebook. Any and all ideas are welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| Whats the best way to get in contact with bigger Brands & Companies Posted: 30 Apr 2018 06:09 AM PDT Good day r/Startups I'm in the middle of planning my startup business, where the idea is that we want to distribute clothing. the plan is to have this as a side project, while I finish my education. This is meant to be a hobby that I can gain some experience from, so I'm more prepared for future projects. I have recently hit a wall. I find it hard to find a seller or partner who is at the same terms as me. Wholesale is an option, but it would speed up everything if I could get a company under me who has already established a brand. So my Question is, how do I get over this wall? Are there any platforms to find potential partners? How do I pitch my idea to these people, without just being just another startup? What do these people want to hear? Should I build my own brand first before even attempting to reach out? If that's the case, what would a good cause of action be to take next? Other advice on this topic is also fully appreciated! Looking forward to seeing what you guys have to say. I also hope these questions will help others with the same problem.
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| Building Startup with University Support? Posted: 30 Apr 2018 11:36 AM PDT I have created a project plan for a software product and believe it has potential for commercial success (once it is built), but requires significant resources to develop. I am meeting with an entrepreneurial research professor at a prestigious large university (they have their own lab and department with students at all levels). These resources could help bring the idea to fruition. We have already discussed the project at a high level, and the professor likes it. My goal is to ultimately partner and gain access to the university's resources. This is not my first entrepreneurial venture; I have experience building startup teams and successfully pitching projects to investors of many sorts (accelerators/angels/VC's). This is my first time taking a different approach - meeting with a university professor who focuses on research for a living, to discuss an entrepreneurial idea - and am wondering:
Thanks everyone! Edit: I reached out to the professor first, as the project relates directly to their research/publications. [link] [comments]  |
| "I love this feature" buttons in the web app Posted: 30 Apr 2018 11:26 AM PDT For use cases where space is not a constraint, how do you guys feel about inserting buttons that let users mark features they like with a button click? Sort of like a twitter love button with a small text caption. My personal use case is B2B but I don't think it would scream unprofessional. I am concerned though, that it "beta-izes" the look of the web app. Just curious what other developers think about this or have done in their projects. Or what other entrepreneurs have had their devs build for them. [link] [comments]  |
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