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    Startups Update to getting taken advantage of

    April 26, 2019

    Startups Update to getting taken advantage of

    Update to getting taken advantage of

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:53 PM PDT

    A update to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/9qdzxn/am_i_getting_taken_advantage_of/

    ​

    It took me a little while, but after a few more straws:

    They told me I was a co-founder.. but wouldn't put it in writing, lowering my title giving someone else a promotion, putting a budget together where everyone else's salary is 2x.

    ​

    I said fuck it, pretty bad timing for them.. They are starting to manufacture more product, someone needs to fix / test current stock, and no technical people are part of the organization.

    So pretty high and dry...

    I felt bad until they told me I have to sell back my vested stock options ( ~1.75 years of work, ~10%), and then asked me to support this last manufacturing run.

    ​

    This is bull shit right? I feel like I should be pretty livid....

    submitted by /u/rizzleThrow
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    Turned my idea into a SaaS, where to go next with limited resources?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 11:52 AM PDT

    Hey, r/startups, first of all, I would like to thank many people and the mods in the sub. 2 months ago I only had an idea and you guys told me how to execute and now I have learned web dev and built the first version of the SaaS already.

    I have a few routes I can think of (or a mixture of them) and would like to ask for your guy's opinion on where to go next. My current situation: my SaaS is a platform that collects learning roadmaps, these roadmaps guide the readers to the state of the art resources to learn a field in a visually pleasing manner, or anything that can be organized into a flowchart (for example, the journey an expert took to get to where they are right now). But the important thing is that the website's users provide the roadmaps, so I need to ask people to create these roadmaps plus getting the regular user that uses the roadmaps.

    The routes I am thinking about:

    1) Get a designer & media person on board, refine the current website and slowly promoting the website as the website itself improves. I got some good critique from r/webdev on my website, so I know where to put work in.

    2) Growing my personal brand (I mainly focus on my tech youtube channel, still small though) until it is big enough and then share my website with my subs, hopefully, these users will stick around more because I have established my relationship with them.

    3) Have a good month of messaging people on different forums/social medias asking favors to make roadmaps for me. Surf around on Reddit and look for when people are asking how to learn something and shoot them a roadmap when appropriate (I am quite active in r/MachineLearning, people love to share resources there, an ML engineer shared his experience and I posted a roadmap version of it and it got 700 views and 3 registered users for that, pretty cool). This one month might help me understand the marketing portion of a business better, etc.

    4) Akin to the founders of Reddit, I would create roadmaps with different accounts in different areas and gather up to maybe 100 roadmaps that share resources and compile 100 life stories of inspiring heroes into 100 roadmaps (according to the "how Reddit got their first users" blog on r/startups, the founders of Reddit made fake accounts on their own website and initiated in fake convos to make the forum look like it's poppin').

    Thanks in advance for your feedback!

    submitted by /u/RedditAcy
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    Where can i write about my project?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 11:59 PM PDT

    Hey. I am working on my own internet project, and I have a question: where can I write about the project to present it and get the first users? I mean, maybe you know some websites where I can do this? I tried to write on some thematic forums, but they have two and a half users :) And after that, people really used my project. But again, the forums are very small for this.

    The target audience is F & M over 16, people who are concerned about personal information. Something like a social network, but not quite. Thank you very much for any information.

    submitted by /u/hidebyte
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    Series A vs Series B pref shares, who gets money first in liquidation?

    Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:30 AM PDT

    I was wondering, if there was a series A round, where investors got Series A pref shares and now there is a series B round, where investors will get Series B pref shares. If liquidation happens, does it matter if you have series A or series B pref shares? And if yes, who gets their money back first? If both of them have 1x liquidation preference, will it also matter if you are Series A or B, or net assets will be split pro rata? Perhaps there are any other possible restrictions or differences between Series A and Series B pref shares?

    submitted by /u/karu4
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    How to expand my business to internationally and compete with other companies?

    Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:26 AM PDT

    I am going to offer a service to other companies.

    I got a business idea, However there are few companies doing the same thing but these companies are not doing what i will going to do which is great and nobody is doing like this in the world and it is very convenient to other companies to do business with us and good for their users, but the problem is the rival companies are already have a billions of money and the have already captured the market, now how do i compete with this giant companies, if these companies get this idea they will also start doing and before i reach to those companies the rival companies may have already approach to those companies.

    ​

    How to reach all companies before rival reach to them?

    submitted by /u/sandy_patel
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    How to raise little money without having any customer

    Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:18 AM PDT

    I am working on an EHR software startup for past 6 months. I don't have any paying customer yet. I am talking to a potential customer and building some stuff as per their requirements. But it's going to take longer then my runway. I need some money to keep going until I can get enough paying customers to support the startup cost ( including my personal expense , me being the only employee currently). Investors mostly won't fund me at this stage I think, because of no customer. One option I see is for me to get a contractor job on side. Is there any other way you would handle this situation ? Thanks

    submitted by /u/viscerapro
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    Scaling Product, with Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia (YT video summary)

    Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:12 AM PDT

    Original video: https://youtu.be/TCA\_7RVo7Uo

    • (1:48) In Silicon Valley there's a myth that you must solve problems in a scalable way, that you write some code and you reach plenty of people. They tried that with Airbnb, and so zero growth. But they then they understood that it's ok to start with things that don't scale: they saw than many room listings had terrible photos, so they went to NY for a weekend telling their first users that they would go to them and take professional photos of their apartments on their behalf. Since they were there to do the photos for 30 hosts, they talked to them, saw who they were using their product, and realized that these users were not using it the way it was meant to be used (they basically did some informal UX research).
      (8:10) It's there that they saw the distance between the product they had built, and their actual market, their users. But then they went home and immediately started implementing ideas they had gotten and telling their hosts about it. They immediately double they revenue but also their audience, by pure worth of mouth, and all because their initial hosts started to love them. New hosts would see the quality of the initial hosts' photos (the ones taken by Airbnb founders during the weekend in NY) and so they also uploaded very good photos, and so on in a virtuous circle. As quantity and quality increased, they finally started getting bookings. Today they have tens of thousands of professional photographers for all major cities, that a host can request for free to their house.
    • (12:22) At the beginning they struggled to get funding, because people didn't believe in the idea of getting strangers to sleep at your home. They had to come up with a way to build trust between hosts and guests. The analysed the acceptance rate for guests according to the length of their presentation messages and other things, and came up with guidelines and suggestions.
    • (15:40) Just like "it's a lot easier to mold concrete when it's still wet", it's easier to set the culture of a company while it's young, and that will be a tremendous impact as it grows, and so they always spent a lot of effort in hiring great people that shared their values. Gt the right people and the culture will follow, not the other way around.
    • (16:42) For the first 2 years, the co-founders themselves attended all interviews. As they needed to scale, they trained people to do interviews like they would do it, by looking for their core values and making sure that candidates believed in what they believed.
    • (19:16) Dog feeding (which is an expressions meaning "use your own service") is very important to stay engaged with the result of what you do at work, and to be in customers' shoes, and so and their encourage all their employees to rend their apartments on Airbnb. They also give some credit to employees so that they can travel around and use Airbnb as guest.

    The rest of the summary is here: https://www.fastrecap.com/content/scaling-product-with-airbnb-co-founder-joe-gebbia/

    submitted by /u/mbellinaso
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    Starting up Retail Store with a partner going through life issues (?)

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:48 AM PDT

    Hi there,

    I would like opinions on what to do in a general partnership when a partner has seemed to have lost morale in the project and not putting in the time expected.

    My two partners and I are starting up a retail store. We are all great friends with each other.

    We have discussed this business for over a year and have just begun our three year lease contract with the commercial space.

    We have a general partnership in the state of CA to open and run this store. We have been painting and setting equipment, decor, purchasing agreements, and are still furnishing this space. There are still many tasks to do as well as inventory to purchase. We are now one month into our lease and hope to open in two to three weeks.

    Problem is: one of the partners (also the lowest % owner), who claims this is his dream, will be running this store as General Manager has been going through depression (?).

    He claimed he had cold and hot flashes, numerous headaches, soreness, and nausea. He has been out for a week.

    He now claims he has been diagnosed with depression from his doctor due to his life's/parent's expectations and failures, and was prescribed medication (uppers).

    He came back in for two hours to help with furnishing the store and setting up. However, he has a low motivation level and is very melancholic towards getting any work done. The other partner and I are concerned if his enthusiasm and commitment to making this store successful will improve in time before opening. We have been putting in numerous hours in each day (at least eight) to getting this store to open while this partner is "recovering". We feel it is unfair but do not want to push him to put in the time and effort due to his condition.

    The two of us are lost as in to how to proceed in this situation.

    Edit:

    Thank you for your replies. They are definitely insightful to how we should proceed. We appreciate it!

    submitted by /u/TurtleTheTruth
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    How do you find people to user interview?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 10:42 PM PDT

    Hi Everyone,

    ​

    I have recently been having trouble finding people to user interview for a side project I'm working on (I want to speak with them on the phone for ~30 mins). I was wondering if anyone could share / expand on how they usually get in touch with strangers for user interviews — I want to speak with strangers because I feel like talking to my friends will bias responses.

    ​

    Overall, I'm wondering what strategies / mediums you all have used to successfully find people willing to speak about a specific domain.

    ​

    Thanks in advance for the help!

    submitted by /u/democratizetech
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    How should I go about finding a CTO... and should I?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 09:38 PM PDT

    I am a 22 year old web developer and I got a fantastic idea for a web app on a fateful 4/20/19.

    I have been building on it every since and have been putting in lots of time since I am currently FUNemployed.

    BUT, I feel like my skills are lacking. I have had plenty of professional work experience but they were always in a startup scenario without "mentors" to help guide me.

    Has anyone else ever been in this situation? If so, what did you do?

    As much as I would love to hire some fancy pants professional, I am pretty broke haha.

    submitted by /u/name_is_Syn
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    Do you need an mvp/ to test the market for something that already has proven market value?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 12:46 PM PDT

    I have already wrote a roughly 9 page long business plan and am in the beginning of building an mvp for the mobile app and the thought just occurred to me of whether or not I would even need to develop this before seeking funding. Here's the thing - there is one other competitor in the market but they are only available in 7 states at the moment, my app would be instantly available in every state because of a slight change that I would be implementing. They are very successful in the states they are currently in and there only in their second year with roughly 3-4 million in annual revenue, so would I even have to go through the months of developing the mvp and testing the market if it's already a proven concept? Just want to collect thoughts before I potentially waste months of time building this

    submitted by /u/dcavs
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    Where do you go for advice?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 08:58 PM PDT

    I'm the founder of a startup that focuses on manufacturing various certain biotech items. We are currently entering into the contract/negotiation stage with our first major client, a national distributor and this sort of deal will put us on a path to be able to quit our jobs in the next year or so.

    The problem is that while me and my partner had the technical know-how and understanding of the market to come up with products that we knew would catch on, we have no business experience. Being the head of the team it's fallen on my shoulders to make the major decisions and negotiate terms of the contact that we will all have to sign.

    The issues we are currently negotiating on with this distributor range from relatively minor (who pays for samples) to much more major ones that can impact us down the road. But these contract negotiations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to questions i have to figure out to ensure our success - operations, project management, financing, etc the list goes on.

    I read as many MBA/CEO/startup books as I can. I've taken an MBA course online and I listen to audiobooks about management and startup related topics at the gym. I feel like I've grown by leaps and bounds in understanding business but it never feels like it's enough and there's a never ending stream of questions that need to be answered.

    I feel like there must be a more efficient way to address these sorts of things. Is there? Or is it just wishful thinking?

    Who do you go to for advice? How do you go about answering the questions that no doubt you have to confront? Are there forums? Do you have mentors? Do you sit and talk with a lawyer? More subreddits?

    Honestly, ANY advice would be greatly appreciated.

    submitted by /u/mcrocop
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    Advice for building a B2B landing page that converts

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 06:19 AM PDT

    Hello guys! I hope you are having an awesome day. Do you have any advice for building a B2B landing page that converts?

    We are struggling right now. We are investing money in ads and visitors bounce off. This definitely means that either our content sucks or that they are not interested in what we do. However, if they are clicking our ads, this means that something attracted them to visit our website. We have googled it and looked how our competitors are doing and they do not seem much better, but they have a well-known brand and a lot of money and social proof.

    Any advice how can we find a way as a start-up?

    submitted by /u/pinkdata1
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    How to join startup as a student to work remotely

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 12:28 PM PDT

    Hi, I'm student interested in Hardware design (eg. creating schematics and PCB layouts) and would like to join some of the hardware related startup (something including designing PCBs). My problem is that I can't find any startup interested in collaboration with me. I tried one website and applied to some but haven't heard from them. I'm just finishing high school and going to university but I have some experience working on side projects and participating in competitions.

    How and where are startups that are willing to let people like me work with them (even for no equity and salary),

    thanks

    submitted by /u/griz17
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    How to make contact? Extremely frustrating(!)

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 12:18 PM PDT

    Hello there!

    I am feeling frustrated and lost. I've been sending so many emails, messages and even personal video messages to owners/managers. The response rate is insane low. I don't sell them anything at first. I only introduce myself and that I am curious what kind of problems/challenges their company is facing.

    I am trying to collect data so I can see a certain pattern in what needs there are for that niche.

    How do I get in contact? It's extremely frustrating to not get any response so I still can't launch my business because I've got no data to work with.

    submitted by /u/JelleLars
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    What are the top 3 traits you want in an investor?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 01:26 PM PDT

    I'm curious about how you find investors that are right for your company. I know that different founders search for different things. Some want to raise money from a former founder. Some want to raise from someone who will be helpful with recruiting or partnerships. Some want to raise from someone who has invested in another founder they know. Overall, I'm just trying to figure out what's most important to other founders.

    ​

    ​

    What would be the top 3 things you look for as a founder, when seeking good investors for your company?

    submitted by /u/streulpita
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    Where would you go from after releasing a product?

    Posted: 25 Apr 2019 03:40 AM PDT

    Hi everyone,

    I've been working on a product in my spare time which is related to recording and viewing complaints and feedback from customers to help businesses learn and improve their services. I just released this product and now I sort of stuck on where to go after release. So, I've done some reading and many resources say to advertise a product with PPC services. But I'm not sure if this should be done straight after release.

    So what will be your next step after release? Would you start marketing with PPC or is there something in between?

    If I'm missing something, let me know.

    submitted by /u/azhan15
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