Startups Weekly Feedback and Support Thread |
- Weekly Feedback and Support Thread
- How do I put my failed startup on my resume?
- Startups, entrepreneurship and mental health
- Starting a tutoring business to help older generations with technology.
- Got hired as growth hacker - lack some experiences,tips?
- How to collaborate with a lab/scientists to create a better product.
- What does it take to grow a successful STEM research company?
- Advice for pivot (product, structural/team)
- For a minority owner in a LLC, is a right-to-force-a-sale clause important in the operating agreement?
- Best practices when hiring your first startup employee?
| Weekly Feedback and Support Thread Posted: 04 Mar 2019 03:07 AM PST 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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| How do I put my failed startup on my resume? Posted: 04 Mar 2019 05:53 PM PST Hi reddit, So after slogging away for the last 6 months on my own venture, I think I am going to have to shelf it for at least a year or two. I still really believe in the product, but there are personal life events that I need to prioritize. Context: I was trying to launch a Healthcare specific - B2B SaaS platform. I had my MVP and a pre-order form from a mid-sized healthcare organization before I went full-time. The pre-order form was not binding (they wouldn't have signed if it was), and they backed out about 2 months in because they "couldn't spare the bandwidth to integrate my platform" and told me to come back in a year. To be fair to them, the switching costs are quite high. What I've personally done: I developed the product and iterated upon it multiple times. After we failed to validate the product outside that one pre-order, we pivoted and I developed another MVP (current product) for us to test, which has gotten substantial interest, but no "validation". I led the sales efforts as well. I cold-called over 400 organizations, went to conferences, set up customer discovery phone calls, and did the in-person sales pitch if we got that far (only twice). Where I am now: I left a pretty lucrative position (six-figures, non-dev) and am pretty young (early 20s). It'd be simpler for me to get a job, but I'm moving to a city where I have no network and no reputation in the startup community. After six months I have $0 revenue, 0 employees, and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to summarize my experience in a couple of bullet points. Especially since it feels like I have accomplished nothing. Any help would be appreciated. I think I might too in my own head since this is the biggest, most public failure I've ever experienced. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Startups, entrepreneurship and mental health Posted: 04 Mar 2019 08:24 AM PST So, yesterday I was reading this text: https://www.inc.com/magazine/201309/jessica-bruder/psychological-price-of-entrepreneurship.html When I'm the middle of the text I'm thinking "man, this is talking to me on so many levels". Then I thought to myself that maybe there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there who is struggling with mental health issues silently. I could post this at r/entrepreneur but I guess the r/startup is more appropriate because the startup world is way more competitive and we, as company owners and CEO keep getting a high level of pressure for results. Back to the text: it seems like they were talking directly to me. Lately I've been dealing with some hard situations at work and at some point little things are driving crazy. Bottom line is: I started to search for medical health and it's been an amazing experience that is helping to deal with all sorts of situations (professional and personal ones, I mean, it's all connected, right?). So, I want to ask you guys: when working for or building your own startup, what kind of issues messed with your mental health and what you are doing about to deal with it? Let's start a nice discussion about startups, entrepreneurship and mental health :) Edit: typos [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a tutoring business to help older generations with technology. Posted: 04 Mar 2019 08:42 PM PST Hello folks, I've got a background in agriculture, consumer technology sales and am currently working in a large chain as a floor supervisor in customer service where half of my clients are elderly. I enjoy my job but as corporate slowly consolidates positions and adds services, it's not going to get easier. It's a fun challenge but the weight doesn't match the wage with the standard/cost of living where I live. I'd like to start a business tutoring older people and the elderly at their homes. Searching the web so far, I can't find an established local business that specializes in my city other than student volunteer programs. Thoughts so far:
Additonally, in the case that I get calls from family members wanting tutoring for their elderly, I'll have to think about forms/service contracts to instill confidence that I won't be taking advantage of their loved ones. I'd appreciate any advice or pointers! [link] [comments]  |
| Got hired as growth hacker - lack some experiences,tips? Posted: 04 Mar 2019 10:12 PM PST Hello and thank you for reading;) Shortly,got hired on growth hacker position for smal saas. My background is mainly ppc but always wanted to do something like brand building so i apllied. They know i lack some experience,so i am not properly hired,just in some phase testing. I would really get the job and need to prove myself useful. They do not actively do any marketing but already having happy users. My ideas so far (small b2b is main target): -Link building: forums and blog comments -Content:case studies -Fb: lookalike ads and competitor users -Google ads:competitors keywords -Cold emailing:to blogers and relevant potential users who could write about us -Reach out interesting fb group owners ask for post My questions: -Any area I forgot to cover? -Your favourite analysis tools or other magical tools i might not be aware of? Edit: typing [link] [comments]  |
| How to collaborate with a lab/scientists to create a better product. Posted: 04 Mar 2019 05:33 PM PST I am in the early stages of creating a consumer goods product that has a component that is relatively new and still being researched. I do not have a background in science, but would love to get in touch with labs that are researching this feature so that I can create a better product. This is my first attempt at starting a business and although I am learning as much as I can as quickly as I can, I am honestly pretty lost, and I do not have a mentor I can ask these questions to. If I can somehow secure a meeting with one of these labs, what should my next step be? Should I speak with a lawyer? How do these types of partnerships with labs form? Any other general advice for me? I am looking into possibly patenting my idea but am not even sure if I'll be able to get one. Thank you for your help! [link] [comments]  |
| What does it take to grow a successful STEM research company? Posted: 04 Mar 2019 04:05 PM PST Is it a matter of networking and having contacts with many scientists and potential investors? Or is it more about your renown as a scientist and having an strong publication portfolio as to impress other researchers? Or should I forgo studying what I'm wanting to research entirely, and instead study business (not that I plan to drop my degree; I'm just curious as to whether being business-minded is more important than a foundation in the actual field). Disclaimer: I realize me asking this question means I am definitely not prepared to start my own company. I have a long way to go and am looking for a place to start. Any advice at all is welcome and appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice for pivot (product, structural/team) Posted: 04 Mar 2019 08:17 AM PST Hey, I thought I was on track for a very successful startup career beginning about 18 months ago. I definitely made some mistakes, but none that i'm too deterred by. I'm just trying to figure out how to move forward. Background Me I'm an econometricist by trade, worked in private equity strategy for a while, took a year off to learn to code, realized I hated development, and got a job in product running the machine learning algorithms designed to buy ads at a DSP (demand-side platform) for RTB (real time bidding) on mobile devices. It's close to the very heart of the very complex ad tech data market (along with attribution trackers and the ad exchanges themselves). I'm also very passionate about econ (macro specifically) and was an early crypto adopter (like 2011/2012). The First "Business" The DSP i worked for went bankrupt for several reasons. Whatever, I thought. As I was casting around for another job opp, a CTO of a similar company approached me, looking for someone who was familiar with crypto, economics, and the RTB data market to write a whitepaper for a blockchain marketing solution. He's a great guy and very smart, and I said sure. We made a written (but not enforceable) agreement for cash / equity. I didn't really know what I was doing, that's ok. He also has an operations lackey who is basically a coat-rider and does a lot of the blocking and tackling for the CTO. He's a piece of shit who is all about his ego despite contributing little value, but it's not personal despite me never wanting to work with him again. The product was essentially a marketing product platform to engage users on a P2P basis, and access users directly via the blockchain, rather than interacting with 3rd parties in balkanized silos. The idea being, "if i'm an app and want to run an ad campaign on existing users, why would i give Facebook $0.10 per converted user and never see that money again, when I could just give $0.05 directly to the user, and they might spend it in the app again." There's a lot more to it, but that's basically the original premise. First business outcome The CTO was a CTO and not a CEO for a reason. I wrote the whitepaper (along with someone else the former CTO brought on). We talked strategy, implementation approach, market validation, etc. His conclusion was that this would be hard work, the project is too big, and he decided to split off on it to do something smaller and "more executable". He and his lackey have no made yet another generic DEX (decentralized exchange) which has shown basically no success, and I wasn't interested in joining, both due to the weak product strategy, as well as the lack of effective vision. The Pivot I think the project absolutely has legs and I am not the tired late-30s guy that the CTO is. Containerizing and monetizing mobile data has benefits for the mobile user, sell-side apps, and apps & 3rd parties trying to use the data. The CTO said he would "underwrite" materials for me, but not offer a lot of support. The other guy I worked on the whitepaper with is now my "advisor," though he isn't particularly helpful for MVP execution (yale / wharton B school grad, VC experience, is super smart, nice, and great to bounce ideas off of).
TLDR lol, sorry, wtf do i do? I've lost my "technical resources" - the former CTO / lackey combo had blockchain engineering resources we were using, but once we split off, I lost those. They were also delivering the operating costs to make that happen. So now I'm not sure what to do - I have a developed and validated idea, but I'm not sure how to start executing. Do i work iteratively with contract devs? Do i go out dating for a cofounder? Do i enroll in an incubator / accelerator? I really want to stay out of the entire VC machine, but i realize that may make it more difficult for myself. I could argue for or against any of those choices. I'm living just fine right now - crypto has done...erm... quite well since i got started, so i'm not really worried about money. But those are savings that I can't really invest in my business, beyond a few dozen thousand dollars probably this year. I really dislike the whole startup cycle, and I'm not trying to raise an asston of cash. I want to build a good product, and build it right - this isn't about ego or money. Any thoughts would be appreciated - I know i've left a lot of detail out, but trying to strike the balance between brevity and detail. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Mar 2019 09:39 AM PST For a minority member of an LLC (under 20% ownership), how important is it to have a right-to-force-a-sale clause in an operating agreement? In other words, the ability of the departing member to force to company to purchase his ownership interested based upon an agreed upon payment schedule. I am facing this issue with my company, and I am concerned that as a minority holder in a small-medium sized private company, my ownership interest is not very liquid, so this type of clause will insure that when/if I depart, I could be compensated for my ownership interest. Aside from the issue of a company coming up with the cash to pay out the departing member, is this a reasonable clause? [link] [comments]  |
| Best practices when hiring your first startup employee? Posted: 03 Mar 2019 09:43 PM PST What are some best practices when hiring new employees at a startup? 19 year old entrepreneurs hiring a CTO. We actually have no idea how to go about this. For our purposes he has to be technical. So far we posted online and have been texting candidates on the reg. Everyone has built an app these days. Looking for part time candidates to build our app. Also bonus points to whoever can also share; how much did you guys spend on tech talent cash wise to build an app and how much do you pay for your UI? [link] [comments]  |
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