- Feeling defeated - my startup has a similar sounding name that a multimillion dollar company has in my space - they reached out and told me I have to hand over my domain otherwise theyll take legal action
- Your social life is as important as your startup
- How to find co-founders
- Google/Facebook ads terminology/guidelines mind map + Landing page CRO checklists & LP wireframes, copywriting formulas & teardowns, + advanced Facebook ads targeting checklist
- Negotiating offer to jump ship for a competing startup
- Where to find early stage startups online?
- A startup full of unpaid interns? Is it normal?
- Outsourcing your code ?
- I have skills, time and money but no ideas.
- Part 2: First customer meeting. What to discuss, how to proceed, how to engage him?
- Need some help with software
- What would be the number of E-mail opt-ins to say that my idea is validated?
- Social network for startup?
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 08:30 PM PDT Hey guys, I'm the owner of a resume critique startup . The idea was to create an AI-driven resume critiquor so people can get their resumes reviewed in seconds. It only made $30 since launch, so I ended up just making the service free. Especially with COVID, I thought it'd help people out that need to get jobs so I put it as a free service, eating up the server costs. Two days ago (3 yrs post launch), a company in my space, whose name is COMPLETELY different (they rebranded years ago), message me on LinkedIn, telling me that they have a trademark on the name "The (companyname)", (mine is companyname, so comanyname.io) and hence if I dont take it down, they'll take legal action against me and file a UDRP. I single-handedly launched this startup in 2017, doing everything from the name, to the branding, to the middleware, to the backend engine that drives the startup. I made $30, and this company that's supposedly a multimillion dollar company is telling me to take it down. I'm not sure if there is any point of me posting this, except I'm just sad. This is my baby, I put so much into it. And even though it doesnt make shit, I still proudly tell people to go to resumator.io. Yet there's nothing I can do, except vent. I just feel really, really sad. And honestly, it's just pathetic. For a company making millions to go after me and threathen me with legal action, even telling me I must take it down by Tuesday. They rebranded years ago AWAY from that name and have a completely diff name. First the CMO came after me, then the CEO. Pathetic. It's a cruel world man. [link] [comments]  |
| Your social life is as important as your startup Posted: 06 Sep 2020 05:48 AM PDT I wanted to share some realizations I had recently with the hope that it can help somebody else who's just starting a business or to find people who might be sharing the same. I've been in the startup ecosystem for almost 2 years, in an industry that is currently growing (in other words - it's a hell to sell). For these 2 years, I learned A LOT. Maybe because I didn't have any previous experience and needed to learn everything the hard way, or maybe because I was too naive... The biggest lieWe all "know" that in order to succeed we need to work 14+ hours a day, 7 days a week, for months and months. After all, it's the hard work that makes the difference, right? "Work now, party later", "Work like hell" - And all the startup gurus are saying the same thing. Even more, our local startup community and friends are doing the same. You see FB & Instagram stories "Hustle at 2 am", then another story from the gym at 6 am. It must be the truth, but why we're not feeling happy, or good. After all, we're leaving the dream! The truth is - it's all a fucking lie. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Let me explain why. The truthNo one can deny that having a startup can be a fucking hell. Constant depression, stress, and anxiety can drive you crazy (especially if it's your first time). Somedays you just want to hide somewhere and forget about everything. It's even harder if you do that all alone - no cofounders, no friends (most don't really care about you if they don't need a favor), no girlfriend (or boyfriend), not working out or having time for yourself. It's slowly killing you from inside out. I've been there. You might not be realizing it at first, but at a certain point, all of this is starting to reflect on your business as well. Your social life is as important as your startupYour social life, friendships, nights out, working out, sexual life (having a girlfriend/boyfriend), time for yourself is as important as your startup (if not even more). I can't stress how crucial is that for your well-being. It's not about working hard, it's about working smart. It's about working 9/5 for yourself! And don't get me wrong there is a huge difference between working 9/5 for someone else & working 9/5 for yourself. Working 8h a day, 5 days a week will actually help you stay focused on the work. It will help you find ways to be more productive and work smarter than harder. Having free time (for your social life) will actually help you recharge your batteries. You'll be happier which will reflect tremendously on your startup. The gold environment is where there is a balance between the two. After all, we are humans - we need to socialize, to feel loved, to take care of our well-being. It's a long game and at a certain point in your business journey, you'll realize it. Why it can't be from the beginning? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 05:55 PM PDT I am trying to find co-founders for my startup. So far two people are working on the project myself and a friend. I am looking for someone who understands business and how to push my startup when it comes to investors. I have met with people in the past but as soon as they start doing the work they disappear or dont want to put in the time that is needed. Does anyone no I could place where I could find cofounders? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 09:22 PM PDT Spent all day taking everything in my head and putting it onto a mind map. It usually helps me find weaknesses in my understanding/skillset, improves memory recall, cements understanding, etc... so I try to do this at least once per business quarter. Mind mapThe mind map breaks everything into digestible chunks of 2 - 4 items per category/subcategory. It's pretty massive (around 6mb in size). The customer journey section is a bit messy, so I apologize in advance for that. Topics covered:
Link: http://www.xmind.net/m/B2KKmu *Best experienced on desktop A few tools (Google drive docs)
Have fun! [link] [comments]  |
| Negotiating offer to jump ship for a competing startup Posted: 06 Sep 2020 03:08 PM PDT I currently lead operations (customer success, support and renewals) for a small enterprise software company. My current employer has 25 FTEs and generates $7 million in annual revenue. I report directly to the CEO, who is the sole decision-maker as this is a bootstrapped company. My current boss is a micromanager and has made some ethically questionable decisions, so when a larger competitor reached out, I was curious what they had to offer. For context, the competitor is VC funded and has approximately 150 employees and $25 million in ARR. I quickly learned that I am underpaid and overworked for this niche market, as the employee to revenue ratio indicates. Next week I'll be receiving an offer from the competitor. This will only be for an individual contributor role (think: technical solution manager) but offers a higher base salary and better benefits. The challenge is I believe the competitor is likely to lowball me (relative the position's range), despite moving quickly on my candidacy and having very positive feedback throughout. During this process, I've been discussing two different roles at the same level with one offering higher total compensation due to commissions. They're now trying to say that they want all new hires to start in the lower paid role. I'm not thrilled about this, and the recruiter threw out some salary numbers at the lower end of the range ($125-135k). As I have experience in this specific niche and would be taking a cut in seniority to work for them, I believe I should be an exception to start in the higher paid role and receive the higher end of the salary range ($150k+). I am very likely to receive a counteroffer from my current boss, as my role is business critical and we're understaffed as it is. In terms of the comparison between the competitor and my current employer: *Overall compensation: Likely competitor as my current compensation is ~ 25% bonus, which is variable from quarter to quarter and heavily taxed How should I approach this? My current employer is less than ideal, but I already have a better title and more influence than I would have at the competitor. I would also need both a promotion (think: VP of Operations) and raise to stay but have a good chance of getting both. (I received a promotion and raise early this year, but both were underwhelming.) I know I need to ask for a few days to think about the offer and then come back with a counter. How should I approach this with my current employer? If the initial offer is decent, I'm thinking I skip straight to submitting my resignation to get a strong counter while I'm still negotiating the competitor's offer. (My boss tends to only offer significant incentives when forced.) Thoughts? Notes: I'm borderline FIRE (financially independent/retire early) but would like to work another 10+ years in tech before pursuing lower paying work that I enjoy more. While I have options aside from these two employers, finding a comparable position outside of this niche would be more difficult. TL/DR: Receiving an offer from a stronger competitor in the market and will need to negotiate. Also hoping to get a counter from my current employer. Need to get the last, best and final from both quickly in order to make a decision. [link] [comments]  |
| Where to find early stage startups online? Posted: 07 Sep 2020 12:45 AM PDT I'm talking about VERY early stage startups. The period when MVP is being tested, the period before any accelerators or incubators get their hands on them. My assumption is that early stage startups would be an ideal fit for my services, and I want to test that. Are there any specific websites, forums or online "hangout spots" where these startups can be found? [link] [comments]  |
| A startup full of unpaid interns? Is it normal? Posted: 06 Sep 2020 03:48 AM PDT Hi, so I have a dilemma what to do. A week ago I started a 100% remote internship at a startup. It's supposed to last 6 months. It's registered as an LTD in the UK and I'm also based in the UK. My role is a graphic designer. I'm still a student and I already had two unpaid internships in startups abroad (with only paid accommodation costs - these weren't remote internships) before this one. Now when I joined the team I learned that most of the employees are unpaid interns too. There are like between 11-20 people in the team. We all work remote across various countries on 4 different continents. I think the only paid people are the experienced devs and the founder and his friend. The whole UI/UX design team are two MA students who are unpaid interns too. The marketing team consists of 3 UK-based students (again unpaid) and one Indian guy who is like the marketing executive/manager, but from his LinkedIn profile and his posts there it seems like he's unpaid too (he referred to it as an internship so that's why I think so). The branding of this company isn't great. Frankly, it's not really developed yet. Like, their website and logo looks good, but there is no set style for the social media graphics. This week I was expected to produce some graphics for social media which I did, but I heard from one of the other designers that the boss doesn't like some of it, that "it doesn't fit the brand". The problem is, there are no other social media posts (they just started) to rely on for the guidelines in terms of style. There is no designer employed to develop the brand visual identity, the UX/UI people focus more on the app itself and the marketing people are just a bunch of unpaid students with no background in branding either. I could develop the brand style myself, I think it'd be good for my portfolio. However, it would take time especially with me working here only 10 hours a week and the boss is very pushy with timing and says we need to start posting social media content asap. I also feel like this internship may interrupt my studies. Now I don't have uni yet, but it starts next week. I agreed to do this internship for approx. 10 hours a week. However, I get messages like everyday through the past week, I think I spent like 2-3 hours just on the calls/virtual meetings alone. And then in just 7 hours I'm expected to prepare all the other files for all social media channels. It makes me anxious because I feel the time pressure and I don't really want to work more than the agreed 10 hours as it will result in me having less time for my uni and college (I'm taking two courses this year). After I raised some concerns regarding lack of branding direction during the all team meeting (I mentioned I've already worked over 10 hours this week - which is true - I said it bc I felt the need to justify why I didn't manage to do some other stuff (illustrations for the app) they wanted me to do), the boss called me privately and said "doesn't it says 10 to 20 hours in your contract?" It's a bit of a red flag for me, felt like he tried to pressure me to put in more work hours during the week, even though the contract states "approx. 10 hours" and this guy himself said during the interview that "it's 10 hours, it's like a one full-time work day a week". So my questions are: what do you think about situations like this? Should I leave this start up or do you think this experience is still worth it? Is it exploitive behaviour from the founder's side? Or am I overreacting? I don't mind working or doing some projects for free in order to improve my portfolio, I've done it in the past. But at the same time I don't like being taken advantage of and that's how I feel right now given that there are no senior graphic designers (or you know just normal paid designers employees) or even marketing & PR people to mentor me properly in my field. In the previous startups I've been in the ratio of interns to employees was much more healthy like 2-3 interns to approx 12 paid employees. TL;DR: The vast majority of the people in the startup are unpaid interns, including me. I'm a graphic design intern, but there is no senior/normal paid graphic designer to provide me with mentoring. The boss tries to push me to work more than agreed 10 hours a week and I'm scared it will affect negatively my studies as I take two courses this year. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 03:40 PM PDT Im thinking about outsourcing my code for a business idea I want to work on. What was your experience outsourcing code ? Pros and cons to developing in-house ? Before I drop the $$$ I want to make sure it's not with ripe with problems and if it is what they are so I can properly pre-manage them [link] [comments]  |
| I have skills, time and money but no ideas. Posted: 06 Sep 2020 04:56 AM PDT I'm a full stack developer. I have worked for a number of startups, and while doing so have developed some good skills and saved around $80k not including emergency funds. I want nothing more than to go out do my own thing. I have a fairly regular work schedule these days and have time each evening which I usually spend working on my skills. I would love to use that time to start building something but I for the life of me can not figure out what. Any advice on coming up with ideas would be appreciated. I have read a thousand times to identify and work on a problem in what you currently do, but no matter how hard I look I don't seem to be able to see an opportunity around what I do. Maybe it is just me, not sure. I just know I can't keep working on other people's dreams. [link] [comments]  |
| Part 2: First customer meeting. What to discuss, how to proceed, how to engage him? Posted: 06 Sep 2020 11:31 AM PDT In my last post everyone advice me to talk to the customers to listen to their problem instead of developing an MVP. I now got a customer who is willing to talk for 15 mins and who is a decision maker. I have only an idea and all I want to do is to listen to their problem and I am not bothered about giving them a solution (i can ask for what you think if you have a solution like my Idea). But this is my first ever sales/business perspective discussion(All I had only technical discussions). I am bit nervous, i am confused how to start, what to ask. How was your first experience? How did you manage? What advice you can give to a tech-guy- who-doesnt-have-salesMarketing-skills? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 09:10 AM PDT I have about 8 or so part-time employees I pay in bitcoin. They send me invoices every friday but sometimes I lose their emails as they get marked as read. Is there a simple to use (either free or self-hosted) platform I can install that will allow me to track invoices and allow the contractors to submit them? Doing email doesnt' scale very well. [link] [comments]  |
| What would be the number of E-mail opt-ins to say that my idea is validated? Posted: 06 Sep 2020 09:59 AM PDT I'm trying to validate an idea without building the actual product. The service itself is supposed to be a niche content platform with some social features. I have a landing page where people would leave their E-mail if they are interested. So, what would be the number of opt-ins indicating that the idea is worth the effort? I think that the only realistic monitizing strategy for such kind of service is ads and that would mean that I need a good number of users to make it viable, especially considering that infrastructure costs will be on the higher side because of the content storage aspect. If the idea is good enough, I will be building MVP myself and let's say I can make it in half a year in my spare time. I need some indicators because I already have a project going on in completely different area with completely different tech stack where I'm in the process of building the MVP. The other project is impossible to validate the same way because it is all about the implementation and just listing the features says nothing. For the argument sake let's say this is a mobile game (not quite, but close enough to give an idea why it is so hard to compare). I feel like both ideas have great potential and both solve problems I have. Given decent implementation, I would love to be an active user of the first one and pay for the other. Do you have any indicator number of opt-ins that should make me reconsider my priorities right now? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2020 04:46 AM PDT Hi everyone, I've a question. Is there are a social network for startups? Like LinkedIn but for startups. I ask because I'd like to join a community similar to LinkedIn or Facebook where I can connect founders and popularize my startup. I know ;) this group is one of them. I ask if there are other our there. I'd be glad if you give me your suggestions. Thank you in advance! [link] [comments]  |
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