Startups Weekly Feedback and Support Thread |
- Weekly Feedback and Support Thread
- Stress of being a Co Founder? Ever feel like closing down
- I was about to share a beta with friends when I discovered my domain is blocked on facebook
- How to keep motivated while working alone?
- What is the correct way to quit at a start up
- Getting rights to music in case a passion project turns into something bigger.
- Valuation multiple estimation for this startup doing $3M in ARR?
- So I'm about to take on a person as a lead developer... legal Qs?
- Looking for advice to streamline the international shipping/customs process
- Co-Founder is still part-time
- Is a marketing person necessary in all cases?
- Appropriate timeline for website startup?
- I can't see reason to get investment in my startup
- Trying to find business partners through cold emailing and cold calling
| Weekly Feedback and Support Thread Posted: 29 Apr 2019 04:07 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
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| Stress of being a Co Founder? Ever feel like closing down Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:54 PM PDT Hey everyone, I feel like many start up founders always and must put on a resilient face for their investors, VCs, and customers. However, do any other founders feel like they are reaching a breaking point and want to just go back to a more cushy high paying corporate job? Some context - I started a tech start up 18 months ago and its objectively going well. We have top VC backers, paying top tier customers and about to raise our next round of capital. I currently have 18 people working for me and we are about to grow to 40 post this round. However, I have some personal things going on with my family that is keeping me from my A game. I tried having my co-Founder take on my role, but our lead investor made it clear that they want me to continue my role as a condition of continued investment. I work 80+ hours a week and always putting out fire drills. I am exhausted... I believe in my company and I do not want to let my employees down. However, I am almost near a breaking point. I know if I quit, it will be something I will regret given I built this company up. I am wondering if any other founders, especially those with VC backers have ever felt like throwing in the towel? If so, how did you get yourself out of it? Also, do you sometimes feel alone about the stress of work? I feel that others do not understand the stress of making sure your business has liquidity to make payroll every quarter. Would love some supportive thoughts from someone in a similar situation. [link] [comments]  |
| I was about to share a beta with friends when I discovered my domain is blocked on facebook Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:09 AM PDT I've worked hard for the past couple of months building an automotive listings search engine. I'm about to share it with my friends on Facebook to get feedback, create the facebook page, and spend a little on ads to validate the idea. But i discover my domain has been banned for community violations. The only thing I can assume is someone had spammed with the domain before I acquired it. Although it doesn't appear on any other blacklist. I've been trying to contact facebook through various methods to have the domain unblocked or at the least discover why it's blocked. But that seems like an impossible task. It's left me exhausted and defeated after a week of trying. It's hard or expensive and hard to find a quality domain. I'm not sure whether to keep going with the existing domain, or try and find a new domain. I've looked for new domains, but can't find anything I like. [link] [comments]  |
| How to keep motivated while working alone? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:08 PM PDT Hello everyone. I've started my own business about 1 year ago. Most of the time I need to do a commercial, going door to door to establishments to try to sell my product. There is a big problem that most of the time the owners aren't there and I have no way to reach them. I get very demotivated because I need to go alone everywhere and hear consecutive no's or not being able to talk with the manager and getting no answer by email gets me frustrated. I know from experience that my earnings are quite good if I do my best but it's hard to get motivated to get out of bed in the morning and leaving for the uncertainty as my main job consists on a one time only sell. I'm trying to expand the business to Webdesign and digital marketing because I had good results in the past as a Microsoft Webdesign 3rd place on a national contest 10y ago (before going to college and following the management area) and a Google Marketing certificate. So, what do you think would be good to motivate me? Do you think I should dedicate to Webdesign and Digital Marketing? If so, what's the best way to reach clients for these kind of services? Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
| What is the correct way to quit at a start up Posted: 29 Apr 2019 11:24 PM PDT Hi all, My current company has only 40 people, and the department I work in only has 4 analysts. So its a small company, and we are a small team within it with a lot of responsibility. I feel that I want more money and this company can't provide it and so have been looking for other jobs. I recently had a "culture interview", which has put me in what I hope to be a good position to get a job offer, however I won't find out until Friday. What is the correct way when it comes to quitting. Should I provide a heads up that I have been looking elsewhere (maybe say something like I was approached by a recruiter about a role and it seems interesting?), or irregardless of small company or not, I should stay absolutely quiet until I have the new offer in my hand. Don't celebrate too early effectively and risk being out of this job and not getting the new one.....or worse: Staying in this job after going on about looking for new roles and not getting anything. Thanks all! [link] [comments]  |
| Getting rights to music in case a passion project turns into something bigger. Posted: 29 Apr 2019 02:29 PM PDT Three of us have been working on this social app that revolves around music and are super excited by the concept. We feel we could be on to something and that feeling seems to be echoed by our peers we've shared the concept with. Since it's an app that revolves around music, we need music! For now we've decided to build our MVP integrated with Spotify. However, Spotify does not let you make any money off your app in case you're integrated with them (At least that's what I understood from my research). In the off chance that reception is warm and this does take off, how do we go about getting rights to music without sacrificing our ability to generate revenue? Moreover, Spotify has API hit limits and we would most definitely have to move on from Spotify as we scale. [link] [comments]  |
| Valuation multiple estimation for this startup doing $3M in ARR? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 04:52 AM PDT I was discussing valuation with a friend who owns a fairly young startup. His SaaS business is in a very large US industry (Shipping/Logistics), and they're doing roughly $3M in annual recurring subscription revenue, of which $700-$800k was profit last year. While this is overall little information, what's a realistic valuation revenue multiple for a company like this? 5X, 10X, 20X? From my understanding, the US shipping/logistics industry is a $700B+ market that continues to grow at a rapid pace. [link] [comments]  |
| So I'm about to take on a person as a lead developer... legal Qs? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:54 PM PDT So I've been talking with somebody to do the development work for an idea I have with the idea that I'd give some equity stake in the company for his efforts. As I'm very early in the process right now, what's the best legal frameworks to think about as I approach this? My company has an LLC but beyond that most of this has been 'back of the napkin' type of work and only now have I started the UI foundation (in flight, under contract) and the development work. I was going to contract the work out overseas but there's a guy who has some interest and his skillset is more attuned to the problem at hand. My concern of course, is that he works on this thing and runs away with all the work -- which I'm sure there is a method to protect legally. However the other concern is that he builds the idea, thinks it's great, and then re-builds it himself separately -- not stealing the IP, but all of the framework that makes it something that might be profitable. And lastly, the concern of him starting out strong and then doing absolutely nothing -- and getting a portion of equity for his efforts without long term commitment. Appreciate if you guys can shed some insight, any templates you can share for these protections, etc. Right now there are only two people running with this (myself and a friend) and are working on the business and high level architecture, so the development lead is important as well. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for advice to streamline the international shipping/customs process Posted: 29 Apr 2019 02:19 PM PDT About a year ago, I quit my job at a non-profit and started a company in Bali. We work with local artisans to create 100% handmade beach goods. All our materials are sourced from local Bali markets and with every purchase made, we donate an English dictionary to the Bali Children Foundation helping children in need access greater opportunities. I'm looking for advice to streamline the international shipping and customs process because it has been my biggest headache in the first year. Any ideas? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Apr 2019 05:47 PM PDT Hey Reddit, I need some help ! Me and my co-founder started an AI project in February. I came up with the idea, we discussed and settled on it. In the project, I'm the JS person responsible for the website and sales while he is the CTO responsible for the AI. He's been working part-time during the nights since then, but because his job is very demanding, sometimes he works 1,2 hours on the project and go to bed. Meaning: our core project progress is quite slow. (He is a very good engineer tho, he studied at MIT and I'm sure that if he decide to go full time our project could have a real shot) Meanwhile, I'm working full time on it so I had the time to make the sample website with front/backend, promo material, interviewed potential customers and prepared everything needed so we can actually try to sell a MVP on the market when ready. The chicken/egg problem is: I think he will go full time when we have revenue, but we will never have revenue if he doesn't have full time. And I am also afraid to put him against the wall, ask him to commit to it and scare him away. (he's a risk averse type of person) Because of this all, I decided to make some side projects to occupy my mind and, perhaps, get additional income, but since I started doing that, I'm feeling that I am not 100% in either project. (i'm an all or nothing type of person, haha) So, what should I do? Should I ask him to commit, or should I keep giving him time developing the tech until the MVP (due to June) and then wait until we get some sign of traction? - Thanks ! [link] [comments]  |
| Is a marketing person necessary in all cases? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 01:32 PM PDT TL;DR: Is a marketing person necessary if I don't see a need for one in my business? My product/service has been in development for a few years and I have a good understanding of how I want to build my start up. I've worked with an adviser briefly and she often insisted that I get a CMO. She's experienced however I felt she was applying a general requirement for startups, that didn't seem to make sense for my startup. I've seriously considered a CMO after her persistent persuasion, but I can't see my money being spent adequately through marketing efforts. I don't see a place for one in this startup. I've developed multiple software products with millions of downloads across PC and mobile platforms without the use of a CMO or any marketing for that matter. Whenever I've involved marketing efforts they've barely contributed and have lost us money in my previous venture. [link] [comments]  |
| Appropriate timeline for website startup? Posted: 29 Apr 2019 10:00 AM PDT Me and my team are in the very early stages of a startup - we've got a domain and a lawyer to help us with legal issues, and we're pushing for an alpha launch in August. We have yet to write a formal business plan (just a lean canvas) or marketing plan. I am working on a timeline of things to get done before alpha. What are some important action items to get done and how long would you say we should take for them (ie write a business plan by mid May, how long to take to write a marketing plan, etc)? [link] [comments]  |
| I can't see reason to get investment in my startup Posted: 29 Apr 2019 02:41 AM PDT Skip to TL:DR for question. To clarify, I develop products on the side and can generate enough profit to cover the vast majority of my funding needs. My startup has incredibly low expenses, I'm the sole developer and collaborate/commission with people when required for certain needs. My expenses are just under $10k with software expenses being $1400 every 2 years. Revenue from the side project games I produce can potentially range anywhere between $600k-$4M annually. The service I'm producing in my startup is something I personally value greatly as I'm convinced of the problems being solved and opportunities to come. TL:DR: It's difficult for me to understand why I should still seek external investment if self funding is adequate. Is it possible to scale the business largely, without external investment? Would appreciate any comments. [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to find business partners through cold emailing and cold calling Posted: 29 Apr 2019 03:00 AM PDT Hello, I'm currently working at a start-up that is looking to raise part of the capital we need through partnerships with other businesses. Our offer would be basically that we're selling a very unique way of brand exposure to a lot of people for a limited time (a month)+ other benefits in exchange of money (staying vague on purpose because i'd risk doxing myself otherwise). Our main issue is that as a startup, we don't have that big of a network and so it is one of my tasks now to find some partners that would be willing to shell ranging from 50k to 500k in exchange of brand exposure and good PR (Their logo would appear on national news etc). Considering the amount required, we only try to contact C-level executives. I'm gonna be real, our main tools of communication are garbage and don't represent what we're selling well but i have been reprimanded by my boss already for spending time on fixing them as we "don't have time". We also "don't have time" nor money for me to attend networking/business events or me spending time away from our HQ because i need to do other stuff as well. Considering my current limitations and the fact that our start-ups isn't well known, i've been struggling to close on any deal and stuck with cold emailing and cold calling that yielded poor results if any. My emails are getting opened but not answered and when i call, they say they'll pass along to the person in charge of sponsorships for them to study our offer but we never really get any positive feedback. Thoughts on what i could do better and/or differently ? [link] [comments]  |
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