Startups Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week |
- Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week
- Why ideas are worth almost nothing
- [STARTUP TECH ENTREPRENEURS WE NEED TO TALK] *R&D Tax Credits* Tech founders are using them to claim thousands of dollars every year? Has anyone here been through the process?
- For those on here that have been working as a VA what would be the better option?
- Free paid media & ad management services in return for testimonials
- What are the major works we need to do in the early stages of a Startup?
- Question regarding surveying or interviewing your mobile app’s users.
- How does everyone handle the ebbs and flows of motivation?
- Trying to find WHAT is right for me
- Buying half, learning, buying other half
- How to raise pre-seed/seed during COVID times as a Silicon Valley outsider?
- Early concept validation with users - how have you done it?
- What are the best softwares for User Engagement, In-App Messaging, Push Notifications, On-Boarding, Product Tours etc..
- What’s up with the recent surge in flying car startups?
- The ultimate new business package of skills?
- Online marketplace / aggregator - efficient solution but how to start out?
- Do invest in security AI startups?
- Starting a business in developing countries
- Partnering with big company for SaaS product - how to propose divvying up sales?
- Does anyone have any experience setting up referral codes and deep links in their freemium mobile app? I want to know how I can work out how many leads each marketing channel generates and how many people subscribe from each.
| Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week Posted: 07 Oct 2020 06:06 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Social Club thread.Share what events and meetups you are going to so we can discover new ways to be social together offline and help grow your local community. Focus on sharing events that are happening within the next 7 days of this date of this submission. Anything that falls outside of 10 days will be removed, no exceptions. No duplicate posts. If you happen to be attending an event that is already posted, leave a comment to inform the community that you will also be there. If you are hoping to organize something on your own, outside of an existing event, feel free to use this thread to rally some people together to meet up. Please use the following format to share an event: Event Name and URL: Location: Event Date: Event Time: Event Description: Event Cost: Discount Code: [if applicable] Please use the following format to organize people to meet up together: Location: Purpose of getting together: Suggested Places to meet up: You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Why ideas are worth almost nothing Posted: 08 Oct 2020 12:35 AM PDT I just saw yet another post for help where the person didn't want to say what their idea is. You've probably all heard that ideas are worthless but I'm going to try and lay out why execution is everything. I've built a business that has over a million in sales annually but covid has flattened our growth from 300% yoy to 0%. So we need to switch things up. I've got a fantastically talented team, so I worked through every lost sales over 3 years and why, formed a hypothesis about the problem. Thought about it for a while had an idea that seemed to tick the boxes and the team liked it so we started that direction. Then one day the lightening rod hit. I had a great idea how for what we needed to build, it wasn't the mostly generic thing I first came up with, it was new and it was going to be great. I told the team they thought the idea sucked. I drew pictures and workflows and explained all the rational and I managed to move some people to on the fence. So I just said fuck it and built the prototype myself. The suddenly everybody was like oh this is actually great. I have a team of people who have been living this problem for 4 years, who are passionate about what they do and super talented, yet they couldn't see all the detail in my head about how to actually make the idea work, so they didn't get it. This happens with things big and small. Another one from last week was after my direction, the designer made a design that was a little ambiguous the coder interpreted it wrong and for various reasons the team was convinced that the way it had been done was actually better because it allowed the user more freedom. So much so that it caused quite a dust up. Anyway to keep everyone happy we went with new user testing, they were amazed at how much new users struggled and quit the product with their way and all the alternative the users just glided through. It is so hard to get people to fully believe and buy into your vision for a product, it takes constant work to keep course correcting and to figure out what battles are close enough it's not worth fighting. Vision isn't a once off, it's a constant. Also the thing is that no matter how novel your idea is you'll probably find that there are competitors. With our first product we didn't do deep competition research, when people saw our product they had never seen anything like it and we thought it was totally new. Turned out that 2 competitors had had the idea 5 years before us. Also turned out that some people liked our execution more, so it wasn't a big deal. Even with this latest product when we went looking we found competition. Luckily not as well set up as us and their products kind of suck but they had the same core idea. I've been in the startup game for a while and it seems like even with wholly new things, if there is a set of circumstances in the world that give you the spark of something original and great, that has never existed in the course of humanity, then it probably happened to a few other people and some of those people probably have access to lots of cash. Execution is so key, Google wasn't the first search engine, Facebook wasn't the first social media platform. You don't need to be the first or the richest but you need to realise that you're in a race from the outset and execute to make something that some people love. If I can take everything of value you have to offer a company from one post, then you had nothing of value. Edit: The point is not that ideas are totally worthless, a vision is more than an idea, it's a lot of ideas and decisions, communication, leadership BUT people scared to share a one reddit post's worth of information on their concept when asking for help. They have nothing of value to lose by sharing and in fact people can't help them effectively unless they tell them their idea. Edit 2: People complaining about me not sharing my idea. It's all over my post history: My company makes enterprise grade, high performing machine learning easy. We automate a lot of the work a data scientist would do manually and do it to a a very high level of quality automatically. Feel free to take that idea and make a company. You have my blessing. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2020 06:21 AM PDT As a tech founder, this is something that I'm seriously considering. For those wondering what R&D Tax Credits are:
Any insights or recommendations would be very welcome! [link] [comments]  |
| For those on here that have been working as a VA what would be the better option? Posted: 08 Oct 2020 03:09 AM PDT For those on here that have been working as a VA what would be the better option? So I've decided to start up my own VA business but I'm stuck as to what I should call it. Originally I was going to call it "Outsource*****" but I'm not sure whether I should now because it's meant to be a virtual assistant business with Mabey some services out souced. I don't want it to be a full-on outsource company. So I'm not too sure how the name would work out even though it is unique compared to the other VA companies. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Free paid media & ad management services in return for testimonials Posted: 08 Oct 2020 02:45 AM PDT Hi! We're starting a new digital strategy agency and are looking for businesses to work with for free. In exchange, the business owners would allow us to use their business name/logo on the clients/testemonials section of our website. If you're interested message me! :) Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| What are the major works we need to do in the early stages of a Startup? Posted: 08 Oct 2020 02:44 AM PDT Hello everyone, We as a team started working on a fresh vegetable delivery service in India. We researched about our competition, market size and app development. Most of the team members are new to this work. They have full enthusiasm to work on this but they don't have complete knowledge. We want to make them strong. So, what type of skill sets we need to teach them? and what type of works we should do in the early stages of the startup? Based on that we will divide our team and will focus on specific works. [link] [comments]  |
| Question regarding surveying or interviewing your mobile app’s users. Posted: 07 Oct 2020 05:20 PM PDT If you were going to survey or interview users of your mobile app to solicit honest feedback, determine what is liked, not liked, and where the app could go moving forward (and if pivoting is required), what are the top 1 or 2 questions you would ask? [link] [comments]  |
| How does everyone handle the ebbs and flows of motivation? Posted: 08 Oct 2020 12:01 AM PDT I know Im soliciting "Ive got big balls" answers here but I think we all feel vulnerable and insecure fromt time to time, if we admit it or not. We want our brilliant ideas to succeed, So, you have this great idea, work work on it every day, think it about it every waking min, then all of a sudden you read something or listen to something that gives you major discouragement, something that makes you think "ah f**k it, whats the point, I might as well chuck it in and move on. Its been done before and no one is going to want it. im too old, its too late, The chips are stacked against me. I dont have the money. Its so much work etc" You know, every excuse in the book not to go on! We´ve all most likely had tens of ideas over the years that we were super pumped about for a certain time, and then lost interest in or decided against pursuing (hopefully from well informed decisions!) What I find helps me is going for walk with business audio books, usually gets me out of theses funks. Clear goal settings, and deadlines THINKING, aka identify the problem, facing it even though it might cause pain and figuring out how to solve it. "oh snap, that already exists, well how is what I want to offer different Etc) Being at rock bottom. Vision board not putting all eggs in one basket, ie "if this fails, what's the worst that can happen? Ive always got X to fall back on" Thinking how proud my parents will be (they already are btw) and what i could do for them [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to find WHAT is right for me Posted: 07 Oct 2020 10:28 PM PDT Hi guys, I'm not pretty sure if this is the right place to ask this question. If you know a subreddit where you'd think it is more suitable please tell me. SO: I am a business and economics student from Germany - so sorry for potential language mistakes.. The title already tells.. I am trying to find what business is the right one for me. Let me tell you a little bit about my personality. I always wanted to be my own boss but because of parental pressure I gave in and am currently going to college. I do not have much of an technical background (mechanics, software etc.) But I have always been told to be a good speaker (gestures, tonality etc.) and sometimes even to be almost "manipulative" (not in a bad way though). So my question is how do I turn that into a business of some sort? I appreciate every answer. [link] [comments]  |
| Buying half, learning, buying other half Posted: 07 Oct 2020 05:30 PM PDT Hi all - I don't own a business but ran into an interesting opportunity. What do you think? And what are some recommendations? My daughter does gymnastics at a gymnastics gym. It's rather smaller than the surrounding competitors but I'm finding that is a selling point for those parents that bring their kids there (instead of the puppy mill gyms). The actual gym needs a face lift, help with migrating from paper to online, advertising and marketing. Bones are there, but it's run by a man who seems tired and quite frankly, depressed. He's done everything himself - my husband is in IT so can handle the migration online and the advertising/marketing. The gym has virtually no online presence. Business is mostly by word of mouth. And I can handle the day to day (being in corporate business myself). Only one of us will quit our jobs once we go fully 100%, but at 50% we will continue to work FT. I've known the owner for a couple years and we've had some serious conversations about buying into the business (starting at 50%). He's agreed to teach me and my husband the business, how he runs it, what needs to improve and so forth... and then when comfortable wants to be bought out for the remaining 50%. We will have all the details set on a writer contract. I've asked for balance sheets for last 3-5 years, full class offerings (which has much room for improvement), and business goals. What else needs to be done? I'm new to all of this but don't even know where to start! Also, he is on a 7 year lease (one year 3 of 7, now) - and I've asked for a copy of this as well. I'll analyze the numbers, but from conversations I think he is just depressed and wants out. His wife is terminally ill and he needed to send his daughter back to Europe to live with his parents while he cares for his wife. It's sad - but I think he's just lonely and likely wants to go back to Europe and wants out of the business. It's located in NY/NJ area. Initial price discussed was 120k, but I need to see numbers to see if this makes sense (I think it's high, but I think he will go down). I think I'd aim for 80k [link] [comments]  |
| How to raise pre-seed/seed during COVID times as a Silicon Valley outsider? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 08:25 PM PDT Hello, I'm a founder based in Europe and almost done with MVP (should be launching in the next month or two). After launch and some initial traction, I'll start looking for pre-seed/seed funding. I want to raise from US investors and avoid the local ones in Europe. But I have practically no network in The Valley. How would you do it if you were in my position? Should I just look for lists of pre-seed/seed funds online and cold contact their partners through email and social media? Any better ideas? P.S. I'm currently applying to accelerators (YC, Techstars, etc.), but I'd like to hear if you have any other ideas. [link] [comments]  |
| Early concept validation with users - how have you done it? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 12:52 PM PDT I have identified a number of problems which I believe my product will solve. What steps can I take to validate my assumptions with actual potential users, given that I have no working prototype to demonstrate? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2020 10:17 AM PDT The company I work for is a startup mobile application. We have a lot of new user downloads every month (55k) and quite a few active monthly users (130k) as well. I am looking to beef up our User Engagement to increase conversion and retention. What are the best softwares for User Engagement? Specifically looking into softwares that offer in-app messaging, push notifications, on-boarding, and product tours. Right now, we are using Firebase for pushes and in-app messaging A/B tests. The UI/UX kind of sucks and does not really allow us to create a customer product journey. I have been doing some research and poked around on G2 Crowd, but I figured I always got a lot of value out of this community. The lower the cost the better, but definitely willing to spend if the tech is badass. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| What’s up with the recent surge in flying car startups? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 12:23 PM PDT Anyone have any insight into this? It seems to me in the past few months on LinkedIn I've been seeing more and more job postings from these different startups specializing in personal flying transport like Kitty Hawk, Wing, Joby, Wisk, and others. A couple years ago, Airbus opened a small outpost office in Silicon Valley to recruit VTOL talent and a few months ago I even saw a job posting from Hyundai, the auto company, that was trying to launch a VTOL "division". Is this a new bubble of sorts? [link] [comments]  |
| The ultimate new business package of skills? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 07:12 AM PDT Posted this on /entrepreneur before I found this subreddit. I'm looking to start a new business, but have been hesitant to take the plunge again for a number of reasons-
Do you need a business degree? Or beyond intermediate accounting knowledge? Can you base the success of a new brand on marketing and design alone? Any other tips or skills I should accumulate before my next ride? [link] [comments]  |
| Online marketplace / aggregator - efficient solution but how to start out? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 09:37 AM PDT Let's say I wanted to build an aggregate marketplace that allowed you to easily and elegantly search for licensable photography pulled from across all the different photo licensing websites. As a customer you could easily find what you need in one place instead of searching across different platforms - and when you found your photo, you simply click-through (direct link) to the photo licensing website in order to complete your purchase. Clearly this might be a welcome solution for the customer side. But how would one go about convincing the supply side (licensing sites) to allow you to display their content with the click-through? Even without taking a commission at first, it strikes me that they would be very wary of letting a service like this take foot, knowing it has the potential to hurt their direct traffic. It's a bit chicken and egg - you need the aggregate of content in order to feed the demand, but you need the demand in order to obtain permission and ask for commission. Am I missing something? Is this just a poor idea? [link] [comments]  |
| Do invest in security AI startups? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 05:35 AM PDT Hi everyone, I'm currently a student and during my free time, I discover solutions to real-life problems. I was reading recently about hacking attempts are occurring roughly 40 seconds. I recently discovered a solution that could be the solution. It is basically a prototype for now. The question is now in terms of funding, is this something investors would investigate? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a business in developing countries Posted: 07 Oct 2020 09:09 AM PDT Is "whatever has worked in developed countries" a good strategy for business ideas generation in developing countries? I think this is how China was able to grow so fast. Simply doing what has worked in the West. Are there possible pitfalls one should be mindful of when testing viability of an idea? [link] [comments]  |
| Partnering with big company for SaaS product - how to propose divvying up sales? Posted: 07 Oct 2020 06:31 AM PDT Hi friends! Brand new to the startup world. Recently bootstrapped a very small company that focuses on making law school education more efficient, it's essentially a new study tool that we plan to sell to law school students using a SaaS model. We're in some promising talks with a major education company who wants to partner with us - my team would develop all the content for the service with a few legal scholars who are on our team, and do front-end development of the tool, and the company has a team that could do all the back-end development, plus marketing/sales/etc. The company wants to know how we want to arrange a partnership. We originally planned on just doing our end of the work for a hefty flat rate, handing it off to them, and being done with it. However, the market for this tool turns out to be a lot bigger than expected, so we've decided we would rather take a pay decrease of the up-front price but maintain some ownership of the product and remain entitled to an ongoing cut of the SaaS sales. The up-front cost on the education company's end would probably be relatively minor, and it's projected to easily pay for itself within the first 6 months, with very minor ongoing costs after that (just maintenance and minor updates). Pretty low-risk. They've made it clear that they definitely can't do this in-house if we didn't partner with them, which puts us in a pretty decent position (but we also can't do it without them, at least not on such a big scale). But I have no idea how to structure this, or even where to begin a discussion/proposal. This isn't in the wheelhouse of anyone on my team (full of digital designers and lawyers who don't specialize in this contract stuff). I truly don't know if 5% or 50% is more reasonable. Do we propose revenue-sharing? Profit-sharing? Some sort of equity? And what's a reasonable ballpark percentage of sales to ask for? Truly appreciate you all reading - looking forward to hearing anyone's thoughts! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2020 05:37 AM PDT Would generally be great to hear your set up process step-by-step and how you went about doing this. It would even be interesting to hear what software you were using for deep links (e.g. branch.io?) and what you use for analytics (e.g. mixpanel). I would really like to start marketing but I want to take a scientific approach and have no idea where to even start in terms of developing and getting everything set up and ready for me to start testing the water. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
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