Startups Feedback Fridays - A Friendly Feedback Exchange For Ideas and Products |
- Feedback Fridays - A Friendly Feedback Exchange For Ideas and Products
- How did you come up with your idea? Do you have a compelling vision?
- Soft commitment for beta from exec at very large company. What should I have prepared going into discussions?
- Stop asking “Is this idea good”!
- How long should your seed money last?
- Advertising as a revenue source
- Is it possible to fund your own corporation (Delaware C-Corp) with your daytime salary on an ongoing basis? How?
- Startup suddenly drowned with debt due to the pandemic. Need advice on what to do to steadily get back on track.
- Possible to do partial early exercise of options? (83(b) election)
- Where can I find a curated list of IOT (Internet of things) startups in US?
- Do I file a DBA in every city or just my home town?
- Media Company/Blog?youTube Startup
- Cloud Based Inventory Management Software
- I need help identifying which role(s) of people I should be emailing.
- Is it possible to reserve a company name in Delaware without launching a business?
- Skills that make for a more "whole" founder
- Should I change my startup name? (Naming conflict)
- Hiring Big Law Firm vs. Small Law Firm
- What are typical costs for Seed raise? Fees to Whom?
- Filing Sales Tax
- US business registration for non-us residents
| Feedback Fridays - A Friendly Feedback Exchange For Ideas and Products Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:07 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Feedback Thread. This is the place to request feedback on your ideas and products. Be sure to give feedback if you are requesting feedback. Equivalent exchange goes a long way towards reaching your own goals and it makes for a stronger community. Please use the following format:URL: Purpose of Startup: Technologies Used: Feedback Requested: Additional Comments: 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. You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| How did you come up with your idea? Do you have a compelling vision? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:35 PM PDT Hi all. I'm an aspiring entrepreneur, looking to dive into SaaS/tech-related products. Over the past few months, I have read many posts and articles to educate myself in this field. All the resources I consumed point out to me that tech is the future and I want a share of the pie. Problem is, I feel a lack of motivation to start/build something. I do not have an idea that I so strongly believe in and wants to share it with the world. I also do not have a compelling vision that I can communicate to others at the moment. So some background info about myself: I'm an accountant (3 years experience since graduation) who just left my job due to personal reasons and hoping to start a new career, most ideally as a full-time start up founder. Ideas come and go all the time but so far there isn't one that I wouldn't mind spending 100 hours a week working on. I currently have a tech friend/co-founder who is very keen to build something with me. I don't want to disappoint him so I'm feeling pretty stressed right now. I have very strong interest in the health and fitness industry, and I foresee myself building something to serve this sector. I am intending to dive into this industry as my next career move but it will take some time for me to familiarize myself in this industry and wield out problems to be solved. I'm afraid that I will miss the opportunity to build something amazing with my tech friend. As you can tell I'm pretty conflicted. Will very much appreciate if you can share how did you crystallize your idea and whether you have a strong vision before getting started. Thank you in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:37 PM PDT I've built a technical product that is targeted for medium to large corporations. I've recently done several demos trying to get consumer feedback and and was fortunate enough that one of the executives I recently demo'ed for told me to prepare to beta with them. This is a fortune 500 company with over 100k employees. (though my product will only be used by a relatively small group to start) I am very confident about the tech stability, security, and ability to scale. However, I am extremely unprepared in most other regards. It is only me and one other person working on the project. I have a Delaware llc that I created on whim, but I am otherwise entirely unprepared for the level of business scrutiny I am likely to encounter in this process. Any advice on what I should do before my next meeting would be great appreciated. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Stop asking “Is this idea good”! Posted: 26 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT It was like only 6 months ago when I was in the same shoes. Having new ideas here and there and going around, asking people the same question. What do you think, is this idea good. Should I build it? I don't do it anymore. I'll write few points that will help you see why I've stopped it. Confirmation biasYour colleagues, friends, or family can tell you that the idea is good. Sometimes (less likely) they would tell you it's bad. As I said, less likely, since no one would like to harm your feelings. We tend to cheer up each other. If you haven't read it already – check The Mom Test– How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you*. To bring you closer this confirmation bias, imagine your friends ask you to a dinner. They prepare everything. Main dish, side dish, dessert. At the end they ask you did you like it? So, you know they put a lot of effort and it's really nice from them they invited you. To keep it simple, there can be three options:
Paying customer should be your measure – other indicators may be dangerousMy point is that the only validation is a customer willing to pay you money. Until then your idea is not validated. And you keep fighting to validate the idea as soon as possible. Relying only on the feedback, without talking to potential customers may be dangerous. Let's consider these two cases:
Would you listen those negative feedback if your idea is already bringing you $1.000 MRR? And also listening hyped feedback for one year won't pay the bills. Good ideas doesn't automatically mean good businessPitching your ideas to VCs is less about the idea and more about execution, market and numbers. Not only VCs, but any investors. Go to your local businessman and ask for a money, first thing you'll gonna hear is like – how many users can we sell this to? They don't care about your blockchain use case. Average idea with perfect execution can be way better than perfect idea with average execution. Think about timing as well. You set up everything perfectly but the timing was just bad. Let's use corona pandemic as the example of bad/good timing. You could have a business idea that is based on real, physical events in your surroundings. Out of the sudden you don't have any new events. And scheduled ones keep cancelling for the rest of the year. You might have great idea but it's simply not the time. On the other hand, you can have average (or even some crazy) idea that could be valid in corona times. Let's say you start ice-cream deliveries to a doorstep. On a sunny day. Who would have though it would work. But again, timing. You could take an opportunity and sell WordPress sites to small business to help them. Nothing innovative there. Just timing and the raise of the demand. And that's why…… I don't ask if the idea is good or not anymore. Let's just try to ship the first version and see the reaction. Reaction of the real market, not our friends, not other makers. [link] [comments]  |
| How long should your seed money last? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:01 PM PDT Currently raising seed money for an emerging country payment solution, with some very promising investors. However, because we operate in an emerging country, our revenue per client is extremely low. I can work backwards to see how many clients I need to sign to stay afloat, but wanted to know if there was a rule of thumb. [link] [comments]  |
| Advertising as a revenue source Posted: 27 Jun 2020 01:38 AM PDT So the product I am talking about is something on the lines of reddit/Quora but for a nicher audience. Personally I would prefer a direct payed subscription based service but the thing is that most readers don't like to pay for this type of content. So the natural solution is targeted advertising. A lot of blogs use this so clearly it must be working in some sense and then there are obviously Google and Facebook whose entire trillion dollar business model is based on this so clearly this model can work excellently at scale. But then there are large platforms like Twitter, SnapChat, reddit, Quora and medium which seem to be struggling with advertising based models. What are your general views on ad based model ? When will it work and when it won't ? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jun 2020 12:52 AM PDT Hello! I'm just starting this all out as a solo founder, and I've been finding it exceedingly difficult figuring out how I can personally fund and bootstrap my own company. I'd like to fund it with my paychecks from my day-job until I start hopefully bringing in revenue. From my research, it seems like I could pursue something called equity funding or loan funding for self financing my company, but the details start to get a little fuzzy for me if I want to, let's say, fund my corporation once a month from my personal income that I make from my full-time day job. Am I setting myself up for a mess if I essentially am loaning my company ~$5k every month from my personal money to cover operational expenses + paying other 1099 contractors to help me build out my product? My thought was just that I'd make a transfer from my personal checking account to my business checking account once a month and record it as a loan that I would pay back to myself once my company brings in cash? My concern is in that "continuously" loaning my company money this way could cause the IRS down the line to say that my personal and business finances are too intertwined? Or is this actually how I should be doing it? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:57 PM PDT So my friend and I started a broiler chicken business in our province in the Philippines. We steadily increased our production from 10k birds to 50k birds. All of which are augmented by debt. The finances were in very good condition until the pandemic came. We lost a portion of the principal due to the unexpected drop in revenue. Right now, we are paying one debt to the other and patching things up with debt. Since we are a startup, I doubt there are people willing to infuse equity. In finance perspective, our situation is terrible. Any suggestions on how we can get back on track? We already downsized production, had cut unnecessary costs, and sadly had to lay off some employees. Really appreciate any insights from everyone. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Possible to do partial early exercise of options? (83(b) election) Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:57 PM PDT I'm about to join a startup and I'm considering early exercise of ISOs via 83(b) election. It's a standard 4 year vesting schedule with 1 year cliff. Is this election "all or nothing" or can I choose to early exercise a portion of the options, say only the 1st year's worth? [link] [comments]  |
| Where can I find a curated list of IOT (Internet of things) startups in US? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:45 PM PDT I'm working with a IOT startup based in Delaware and we are searching for all the IoT startups in US so that we can maybe collaborate in a possible way. We have already collaborated with few startups inside and outside of US but it's hard to find more so we can pitch them the core idea. [link] [comments]  |
| Do I file a DBA in every city or just my home town? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:12 PM PDT According to Massachusetts General Law, c110 §5, any person conducting a business in the Commonwealth, individually or as a partnership, under any title or name other than the actual name of the person conducting the business, must file a Business Certificate (DBA) with the Clerk of the town or city in which the business has an office. If I am starting a business from home where I will provide a service in multiple cities in my state, do I have to register my DBA name in every town I do business in or just in the one I am based out of? I know it says where I have an office, but imagine for a second that I file a DBA in my home town, and then later want to do business with a company in Boston and then later in Springfield. Do I have to register in every town/city before I can do that business? What if someone else register's in their town/city with the same name? [link] [comments]  |
| Media Company/Blog?youTube Startup Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:48 PM PDT Hi Everyone, I recently started my company and have been hitting my blog pretty hard with a few posts each day. This is my first month and I am closing in on 2000 views of my site. I wanted to check with you on ideas of ways to get more traction and ways to advertise a blog. I have not done many YouTube videos as of yet and assume those could drive traffic to my site as well but wanted some thoughts on trying to grow my userbase and have consistent views of my site. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Cloud Based Inventory Management Software Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:49 AM PDT Hi everyone, I am looking for a good cloud based inventory management software to manage a small warehouse. Is anyone particularly passionate about a software they are using/have used? Some quick details here: • Relatively low order flow - probably less than ten shipments a day going out for the next 3-5 years • Low SKU count >100 individual SKUs • All orders will be created internally (not e-commerce) • batch order and order kitting required • Integration with quickbooks preferred Any input will be appreciated! Thank you all! [link] [comments]  |
| I need help identifying which role(s) of people I should be emailing. Posted: 26 Jun 2020 01:03 PM PDT Hey there - I recently launched a custom deck / presentation service based on my design skills and experience designing decks and have narrowed down my target audience being Tech Startups for the time being. That said, I'm wondering who the most optimal people in these teams are that I should be cold calling? Presentations can be both internal and external in a company, so I'm not sure if the person I should be reaching out to would be director of strategy, or the head of marketing or even the CEO, although I imagine they'd be too busy - or is it a bad idea to even cold call two people of the team? Any input is welcome, thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Is it possible to reserve a company name in Delaware without launching a business? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:09 PM PDT I need to start a C Corp in DE in the next few years, and I'm wondering if it's possible to reserve a company name right now so that I can avoid annual taxes and other fees while the business is not operational. I assume that the company name needs to be unique in each state. [link] [comments]  |
| Skills that make for a more "whole" founder Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:20 AM PDT How do i learn the "business" side of things? The top successful founders have a good grasp of both technical and business side of things, how do i go about acquiring business skills? What skillset should i even be after when it comes to business? I'm talking about the ability to spot new trend and create a decent business plan. From my limited experience, this'll give you a great headstart when you wanna build a company as you can not only execute it but also assess the opportunity or atleast be heavily involved in both. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I change my startup name? (Naming conflict) Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:35 PM PDT I recently learned of 2 new products that compete directly with mine and we all have similar but slightly different names. Mine launched well in advance of these other two so there's a case to be made for trademark violation. That would depend on the results of our respective trademark filings which were sent in around the same time. However after reaching out to one of these companies (which is much larger than mine) they said they wouldn't change their name. So now it seems I can either live with the similar names, push toward litigation, or rename my startup. Living with the similar names is a lame option as it will probably cause confusion and make our brands feel generic to consumers. Pushing toward litigation will require a waiting period to see the results of the trademark applications. Then it would require tons of money, time, stress, and uncertainty which would ratchet way up if it actually becomes a full blown lawsuit. If it's unsuccessful and the best option is still to change the name, then a lot of time and resources were wasted growing a brand that will have to be changed. Changing the name would require a re branding campaign. The startup gets hundreds of daily active users and a couple of customers a day. In my mind it's still very early days for a massive market and we haven't really started a strong marketing push yet. So I'm leaning toward this option. The old name was very strong so I'll be sad to see it go. But I think I've found a similarly strong name to replace it with. Anyone else faced with a similar situation? What course of action seems best? [link] [comments]  |
| Hiring Big Law Firm vs. Small Law Firm Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:15 AM PDT I need to form a somewhat complicated corporation and am looking for advice. I am in the process of attempting to find an attorney or law firm to work with for advice, formation, etc. I need to decide between two firms. The first is a large firm with lawyers in every state I work in plus some. They have over 100 lawyers and their primary focus is business law. I have not gotten exact numbers, but I am not that worried about cost unless the numbers are ridiculous. The lawyer I'm working with is an associate. Then we have a smaller law firm. It's 2 lawyers who only focus in business law. They have the bar in most of the states I work in but not all. The cost is $250 an hour for most things. My question is more is it worth it to work with a big firm instead of a small one? I am looking to create a long term relationship and do not want to have to find another lawyer. I went to college with both of the lawyers that I'm considering hiring, but the way I look at it is if I go with a bigger firm then I can leverage others in the firm. Every problem I have has someone there who's experienced in it. What do you think? Have you had a bad experience with a big firm? [link] [comments]  |
| What are typical costs for Seed raise? Fees to Whom? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 06:38 AM PDT We completed a F&F round (a little over $100k raised) and have some cash on hand. Launching a B2B2C blockchain-enabled data management and media platform to solve a customer loyalty problem. Looking to raise $5M to $7M to build team, add capabilities to the platform, and attract larger customers. Projected $5B revenue within 5 years. Based in US. Founders and Advisors have established contact networks, so not seeing any need for broker-dealer or "finders" to identify investors. (I know my way around Crunchbase, AngelList, and LinkedIn!) We will need to validate accredited investor status. And, our attorneys will need to review various documents (PPM, SubAg, W-9). Anything missing? Assuming no commissions paid to B-Ds, what would be typical "cost of raise?" Half a percent? One percent? And what would the line items be that comprise that aggregate figure? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:03 AM PDT Hi Hope everyone is good! After some advice regarding sales tax and more specifically filing. I'm looking at using some kind of automation software like TaxJar or Avalara which I can obviously hook up to Stripe and will ensure automatic calculation of the appropriate rate of sales tax based on where the customer is and apply it to the checkout. Both of these also provide automatic filing of sales tax reports as required. My question is, are these reports completely legit, or would I still be best getting a CPA to look over them and filing them, I mean are the reports which Avalara and TaxJar file on my behalf comprehensive enough and complete enough or would I be better of having a CPA do them. For reference - Avalara charges $44 per return filed and TaxJar gives you 12 free filings per year and beyond that they cost $35 per return filed. Can anybody advice on what the average cost to have a CPA file a sales tax return is? [link] [comments]  |
| US business registration for non-us residents Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:46 AM PDT Hi, I have been going through a lot of articles and finally settled on Delaware and Wyoming as they have business friendly environment and also a person doesn't have to be in the US to form a company. Does anyone have experience with this and which one do you recommend? Last one - Is there any service you have used to form a company [link] [comments]  |
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