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    Tuesday, December 8, 2020

    Startups Manic Mondays: Support To Get You Through The Week: Share What You Need Help With, Job Postings, For Hire Offers, or Resources

    Startups Manic Mondays: Support To Get You Through The Week: Share What You Need Help With, Job Postings, For Hire Offers, or Resources


    Manic Mondays: Support To Get You Through The Week: Share What You Need Help With, Job Postings, For Hire Offers, or Resources

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 05:08 AM PST

    Welcome to this week's Support Thread. Please refer to the below suggested formats to get the most out of this thread.

    Need Support?

    Please use the following format to seek support:

    SUPPORT REQUEST

    What I am working on: What I need support with: Why I need support with this: My questions to the community: Requested Resources: Relevant URL: [if applicable] Additional Comments: Please add any additional comments that may provide more context around what you need support with so others can provide the most relevant support or guidance to you.

    Job Provider?

    Please use the following format to post a job listing:

    HIRING Company Name and URL: Job Title/Role: Employment Type: [Intern] [Contract] [Part Time] [Full Time] [Remote] Job Description/Responsibilities: Necessary Skills and Experience: Requested, but not necessary Skills and Experience: Job Compensation: Willing to Relocate New Hire: [yes] [no] Job Listing URL: Additional Comments:

    Please add any additional comments that may provide more context around the job listing to make it easier for the right people to apply.

    Job Seeker?

    Please use the following format to post an offer to work :

    FOR HIRE Title/Role: Desired Location: Willing to Relocate: [yes] [no] Remote Availability: [yes] [no] Relevant Skills and Experience: Requested Salary/Hourly Rate: Resume/Portfolio URL: Additional Comments:

    Please add any additional comments that may provide more context around the job listing to make it easier for the right people to apply.

    Resource Provider?

    Please use the following format to post an offer to work :

    RESOURCE Organization Name and URL: Location Served: Resource Name: Resource Description: Resource URL: Resource Cost:

    Do not forget to explore the /r/startups discord. We have many relevant channels to seek support, post job listings, share for hire offers, and share resources. You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Reverse Engineering Your Outbound Activity

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 12:05 PM PST

    Cold Outreach alone drove over $1.2 million in sales for me over the last 4 years. Here is the system that got me there (and how you can build it for your coaching practice too)

    I personally love cold outreach because it's a really fast way to get results. You send someone an email/Linkedin/FB message, they respond, and you get them on a sales call. Simple.

    For that reason, as much as I love content & funnels, I'll always have a big part of my growth strategy based on cold reachout. In fact, when someone is just starting their biz, cold outreach is the best tactic because it's free, fast, and simple to execute.

    However, from speaking with a ton of founders in this community, the general sentiment is that folks here are using cold outreach more as an ad-hoc method (ie. "I'll do it when I have time"), meaning it's a bit inconsistent when it comes to actually landing clients.

    For that reason, I wanted to quickly share how you can build a system to predictably win a certain # of customers every month using cold outreach.

    Apologies in advance, this write-up is a bit long. I wanted to make sure I gave you all the details so you could start implementing right away.

    First off, before we even send a single message, it's important to understand your high-level goals, and what your daily activity will need to be

    What's important to understand about outbound sales is that it is a numbers game, meaning if you understand your input, conversion rates, and output, then you know exactly how much time and energy you need to put in to win 1 client.

    So the first thing we want to do is look at what your overall goal is. From there, you reverse-engineer that to find out the amount of activity you need to hit your goal.

    Let's say your goal is to make $250,000 in 2020 strictly from doing cold outbound (for simplicity sake, obviously you'll have other methods of getting clients so you can get your overall revenue to 2x, 5x, 10x).

    If your average customer value is $5000, than simple math shows that we'll need to win 50 clients next year to get to that goal.

    From there, what you want to figure out is how many qualified sales leads (or SQLs) you'd need to get those 50 clients. From my experience, a 25% deal win rate is typical on leads from cold outreach (ie. out of 10 net new sales conversations, you'll win 2.5 of them). This means you'd need to generate 200 SQLs next year to close 50 deals.

    So, here's where you have to be a bit more assumptive. We need to figure out how many total people we need to cold outreach to get to those 200 sales appointments (SQLs). A good conservative guess is 2.5% for a positive reply rate (if you have your own data, use that instead).

    So 200 divided by 2.5% is 8000 reach outs.

    That's a pretty gaudy number, but actually quite manageable. Because let's say you work 22 days a month (264 days a year), you'd only have to do 30 reachout PER DAY to make your 8000.

    This makes it WAY more achievable, because now you know EVERY SINGLE DAY that you have to do 30 reach outs. It's no longer this colossal unobtainable goal.

    Another factor is channel selection

    Not every channel will work for you.

    Who is your audience? Where do they spend their time?

    If you sell to musicians, Insta might be better. SaaS founders? Linkedin is perfect.

    Don't always assume email is the solution. No single channel is best. It depends on your market.

    Keep in mind, different channels require a different strategy. The copy, frequency, and calls to actions that work on email are different than on FB or LI.

    Be careful to adjust depending on the channel.

    The key to outbound success is CONSISTENCY

    A big reason why most people fail using outbound is because they treat like a necessary evil. You might find yourself making excuses to avoid doing it since it's painful and tedious.

    But the challenge is, outbound ONLY works if you are consistently doing it everyday.

    Now, I'm not going to try to make you love outbound, because I KNOW doing it sucks. Your motivation is fleeting and unreliable. It'll never be enough to get you to do outbound every day.

    Instead, what is more effective is to build habits and systems which make the act of doing outbound simple. If you have processes in place which make doing outbound mindless and part of your daily ritual (think brushing your teeth, making your bed, etc), then it's easy.

    So here are my 4 core pillars of making outbound a HABIT and a SYSTEM:

    1. Cold outreach is a dedicated task that I put in my calendar EVERYDAY from 8am to 11am. It is closed off, no meetings can be booked in that time frame, that is what I do. When you do outbound only "when you feel like it", you won't do it. However, if it's in your calendar and you do it everyday, it eventually becomes habitual. This is how you make sure you get 30 reach outs done per day, and 8000 done over a full year.
    2. Use technology to help you understand WHAT you need to do everyday. Tools like Outreach, Salesloft, Mixmax, and many others are super powerful because it'll just feed you a to-do list of exactly who to email and exactly who to message on Linkedin, every day. People struggle doing outbound because they don't know who to email, when to email, what to email, etc. All the guesswork is removed since these softwares automate much of that off your plate.
    3. Track your results using a CRM. Things will get confusing if you have 10 prospects you're trying to win at any given time. It's far too much for you to remember in your own head, or even in a janky spreadsheet. Invest in a cheap CRM like Hubspot or Close.io so you can keep all your prospects and their notes. Staying organized helps you make more money. Not to mention, it's super motivating when you can log in and see all the deals you're about to win.
    4. EVENTUALLY automate, so that you can ensure your outreach volume and frequency meets the minimum requirements for success. Don't do this immediately, as that will kill your conversion. Do it manually, figure out how to make it work at a high rate, and only then do you use tech to offload the work. By the way, automating doesn't mean replacing ALL personalization. You still need to personalize to get results. It's just that automation can help with certain parts of the process that seem to be consistent across all your outreach.

    So hopefully this has helped. Without these systems in place keeping me accountable and organized, I would've NEVER been successful winning business using outbound.

    Now, I'm aware that I didn't really share anything about how to find leads, build lists, write good outreach copy. I didn't want to spend time writing an essay. If there's interest though, you can comment below and I'll consider writing something later when I have time about those topics.

    Either way, definitely comment about this topic and share your experience or ask question. I love being part of this community!

    Cheers y'all

    submitted by /u/ly93
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    I'm going to launch a SaaS startup soon, what taxes am I liable to?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 11:39 PM PST

    I'm launching a SaaS startup in the coming weeks in US, Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia ( Australia and New Zealand ), and India.

    I was wondering what kind of legal taxes would I be liable to.

    Some helpful information : the startup is not registered yet ( it'll be registered as a C-Corp in Delaware if things work out ), rn it's based out of India.

    Apart from filing for GSTIN and IEC ( Importer/Exporter code ) in India, what other legalities would I need to fulfill in the rest of the mentioned locations to start accepting SaaS payments?

    submitted by /u/arismission
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    Startup Founders: Would you appreciate an employee setting up a meeting to discuss what it was like to create a startup?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 05:53 PM PST

    Genuine question: as a startup founder, would you appreciate an employee approaching you, asking if its possible to squeeze in a meeting to ask questions about the general experience of founding a startup?

    I'm at my first job out of college, working for a successful startup for the past 5-6 months. I've really began to think about my career as a whole and where I am headed. I've toyed with the idea of eventually starting something myself. In my head there's nothing more exciting than working on something that is my own. I would much rather work hard on something for a few years for it to fail, than sit at a 9-5 job that I am moderately interested in.

    Even though I am on very good terms with the founders, and they are genuinely nice people, I am hesitant that approaching them might signal that I am looking to leave. What do you think?

    submitted by /u/alt_jam
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    Things starting to move

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 12:12 PM PST

    I need to find a start up attorney or mentor that can help me talk through some important decisions that are coming up. I believe we are about to sign our first client and we're finalizing discussions with a strategic partner about revenue splits and advisor equity. Can anyone help point me in the right direction to find someone to bounce these ideas off of? Thanks

    submitted by /u/NowYousCantLeave1
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    Moving from Operator to Manager

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 11:33 PM PST

    Good day to you startupians. My business is about to begin hiring like crazy over the next few months and a lot of the work that me and my cofounder have been doing is going to get offloaded in place of people and project management. This is a really exciting time for us but as someone with not that much management experience, I've also have some anxiety about being propelled into such a different role.

    Do you have any advice for me on making this transition, or perhaps amy recommendations of books/articles? I'd be very grateful for anything you're will to share.

    submitted by /u/Oneandaharv
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    One stop shop for rapid prototyping plus low volume injection molding US manufacturing. I'm planning on building a injection molded widget and going with a one stop shop for design / tooling / packaging in the US.

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 06:19 PM PST

    One stop shop for rapid prototyping plus low volume injection molding US manufacturing. I'm planning on building a injection molded widget and going with a one stop shop for design / tooling / packaging in the US. Has anyone went with this approach before? I figured this would have a reduced risk of IP theft. And Quicker cycle time if it does have an unexpected high ramp rate. Is there anything else I should consider with this approach?

    submitted by /u/Silktree836
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    Who do I need to hire next?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 11:12 PM PST

    Our performance has so far been great and I'm ready to scale the team, but the problem is I'm not sure who should I hire now.

    I have a full team of developers, support, copywriters, designers, etc. but I just feel like something is lacking. We're good but we're not amazing. Our marketing is good, but not stellar.

    I feel like I'm missing something that would give me an edge, but what is it?

    All the PMs and business development people I interviewed were not up to my standards and had extremely different ideas and concepts from what I had in mind. I don't care about PM concepts I need someone who can think out of the box and invent everything as they move forward as I did.

    I need someone that can be the glue that brings everything together, and I have no idea what type of person that might be.

    I'm a solo-founder of a bootstrapped startup. My main product was launched last month after 2 years of development done mostly by me. We reached $30K+ of sales which was better than expected and we're looking at $100K/Month by Q2 2021.

    For reference, we're working in a semi-vertical industry that we basically invented in B2B networking software and hardware.

    I thought about getting a cofounder but I'd need to work with someone for a year or two before I have enough confidence in them.

    The problem is I don't have the time to micro-manage everything like I used to as I'm launching my second startup very soon in a different industry.

    I would appreciate any advice from someone who's done this before.

    submitted by /u/TheReverent
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    Would the tech industry be better off without VCs?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 09:22 AM PST

    I've been thinking about this for the last decade or so and curious what you gentleman think.

    For a moment, let's ignore HOW we would remove VC from the equation. That might be intractable. However, I think VC suffers from the following problems:

    • The 'blitzscale' problem. This is a new one but VC can crush competition by essentially buying a large market before competition arises. This is bad for the economy, bad for innovation, etc. We can't just have ONE company per vertical.

    • The geographical bias problem. VCs tend to operate out of silicon valley (at least pre-covid) which means companies that evolve outside of SV have a major disadvantage.

    • The money begets more money problems. This is an issue of high net worth individuals, using their money, to make more money. It reinforces the problem with limited access to capital.

    • The gatekeeper problem. If you want to get funded, you have to get VC interest and that's not always easy for everyone. There are lots of apps that struggled to get funding even though they were amazing, had traction, etc.

    Curious to your thoughts. I think it's probably NEVER going to happen but an interesting discussion regardless.

    To be clear, my personal criticisms of VCs aren't universal. I think we could reform the process and I do think that VCs themselves are trying to address some of these things directly.

    The Blitzscale problem is a big issue I'm concerned about as I think it's very anti-competitive but I'm not sure what practical resolution we could have. Maybe reducing long term capital gains for funding in excess of a specific set amount.

    submitted by /u/brainhack3r
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    I have a new design for a kitchen product but need some help do design the prototype and injection molding tools. I'm thinking about going to fiver and hiring support to draw it. The question is if I do this to prove out the feasibility does it affect my ability / complicate the patent process?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 12:19 PM PST

    I have a new design for a kitchen product but need some help do design the prototype and injection molding tools. I'm thinking about going to fiver and hiring support to draw it. The question is if I do this to prove out the feasibility does it affect my ability / complicate the patent process? Can they somehow claim rights to the patent. does the patent need to be submitted first. I mainly want to prove feasibility before spending money on patents but I the same time I don't want to lose my ability to patent because of it.

    submitted by /u/Silktree836
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    Looking for advice on how to prioritize the beginning tasks?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 09:20 AM PST

    Before reading just know I am in early stages of getting started and forgive me if what I have said is incorrect

    For backround, Im in California. I do not currently have all the funds needed to do all the tasks I need but I want to make sure I am moving steady as well as making progress

    1. Domain name is bought.

      I need to also purchase hosting and fix the webiste too but need to do more reaseach into this. Im not too educated at the web building part.

    2. I have a name for brand.

    No logo, no tademark done. I am fresh into the start and want to see whats necessary to move forward.

    1. Whole sale and bulk

    I need to purchase wholesale and bulk for what inwant to do. Im in California and ive seen i can get a liscense for 180 or so

    4, resale license

    The items ill be selling wont be my own. Again, im in CA any advice on how to ensure im doing this properly.

    I see articles saying I need my buisness registration number and company name and im unsure on where to start. What should I prioritize first? My buisness will be online only.

    Thanks so much in advance for advice !!

    submitted by /u/klymfs
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    New business and back taxes question...

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 07:19 PM PST

    Owning a business while owing back taxes

    So long story short, I'm in discussions with an individual about starting a business together. That individual owes the IRS somewhere between $10-$15k in personal back taxes. Maybe more. The business would be 50/50 ownership, with both parties providing startup capital, and 1 private investor loan. The business would purchase an existing franchise operation.

    So my question is, if we go in to business together and see our plan through, can the IRS at some point come after the business assets?

    We live in Texas, USA

    submitted by /u/captainbob19
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    We're building an e-commerce marketplace for small businesses and having a real hard challenge on how to structure the marketplace charges.

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 10:55 AM PST

    We've two approaches to make money from the marketplace we're offering. 1. Subscription - We can ask the sellers to buy the subscription plan at a flat rate per month so we can list his products on our marketplace. 2. Transaction based pricing - We can charge the seller on every transaction. Here again we have 2 options. Charge some X% on every transaction OR we can set some standard flat rate on every transaction.

    In both the cases, a 2% of transaction will go to payment gateway anyway.

    I'm finding it really tough to decide which one will be the best considering the target market is small time sellers. How do we make sure that the sellers don't feel like we're eating away from their transaction?

    We need to make money to pay cloud, development and operational charges.

    Is there any standard metric for ecommerce marketplaces?

    Please suggest and advise.

    submitted by /u/bitchyangle
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    How much to spend on Kickstarter marketing?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 03:25 AM PST

    I have an awesome idea and thinking about ways to make it happen.

    The project would cost at the very least $50-$100k which I don't have, so I am thinking the easiest way to would go with Kickstarter.

    My question is how much do I need to gather to be able to generate enough traction to make project visible on Kickstarter and spread the word, so to speak?

    Any info would be deeply appreciated!

    submitted by /u/Whatthe7593
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    Clothing startup

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 01:04 PM PST

    Hey,

    Little bit of a backstory, it's my second go around at launching a clothing brand. Last time was a little rocky and I learned my lesson about working with a partner for something so small scale at first, it was his idea but I was providing the startup capital. This time I'm going it alone.

    So I'm gonna ask a few questions, ANY answers are appreciated here.

    Design: I've got the design worked out, I've just got to work with a graphic designer to get it finished. I was thinking UpWork (I've done some freelance stuff there before and it went smoothly) Would this be the best option? Also previously we had struggled with finding a way to get good product photos. Any tips for this? & as far as getting it modeled with professional photography, does anyone have any experience there? I'm not even sure where to start with that.

    Vendors: As far as buying wholesale I'll probably use the vendor I did last time but does anyone have any recommendations as far as vendors go?

    Advertising: I've also got the advertising mostly worked out, but i've never worked with AdWords before so that's something i'll be looking into, what's the best way to go about learning that?

    *Printing*: By far my biggest problem is actually getting the shirts printed. Previously I was using a guy that was local, who was more or less.."underground". He never got me my shirts in a timely manner and I had to bug him, he was basically just some dude with a screenprinter in his garage. Are there screen printing companies out there that would charge a reasonable price? I found an actual business that did local team jerseys and company shirts ect. but they charged way to much and there's no way I could turn a profit paying that. I understand the cheapest way in the long run would be just to buy a screenprinter and do it myself but i'd like to avoid that if possible.

    Shipping: For anyone in the business already, what shipping method do you use? Previously I was able to use the stamps account at my full time job (struck a deal with the owner). Stamps was pretty expensive and the flat rate boxes aren't too much cheaper. After I figure all that out I have to decide about charging shipping, I noticed the first time it was just easier but I think a lot of the lost carts I had were due to shipping.

    Copyright & trademarking: where do i start with this? How much is required? Do I have to have the LLC setup?

    Is there a better place to source this information? I've looked around for a "starting a clothing store" reddit but I haven't really been able to find anything. I'd like to connect with someone who is experienced in these areas, I will pay for a "consultation" or however they would want to work that out.

    I've got plenty more questions that are more in depth and I'll save those for later down the road. Thanks a bunch for reading & thanks for any answers in advance.

    submitted by /u/IWishIwasAwhale1
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    Working/Partnering with my competitor?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 12:05 PM PST

    So, there's this idea I've working on for a long time, I did marker research, found some leads contacted some but they wouldn't work with me because I don't have a company yet, I'm planning to start a small office for it but it may need a lot of time so I was thinking that my competitor have the resources but doesn't have my strategies, I was thinking of getting into a meeting with were we can discuss partnering with each other. The thing is, I'm may be afraid of that he can now be aware of some of my strategies and use it for his own without my permission or even without me. I didn't expect things to come this far, although I was planning to crush him once I have all the resources I need but I didn't get any, and probably won't What do you guys think?

    submitted by /u/A-Axelord
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    Reducing Production Costs

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 12:00 PM PST

    I'm looking for a guidance on how to reduce material costs.

    So let's say my startup is manufacturing patio swings ( it is not). The design consists of a metal frame and wood slats. Let's say I think they would sell for $500 each.

    I tally up the materials needed for a prototype, do an internet search for metal costs, get a quote for wood and it totals $400 in materials alone....before labor.

    Do I walk away from the idea? I know it's possible to negotiate bulk prices but what can I hope for 30%,40% reduction?

    submitted by /u/GustafsonGustoferson
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    How exactly did you find an investor for your startup?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 03:54 AM PST

    Cold calling? Cold emails? Did you have a family member or friend fund you? How did you find someone to invest in your startup and how did you ask them? Lots of people say that you need an MVP to show to potential investors and I hear lots of stories about how showing an MVP resulted in an investment. I get that part but where/how do you find investors? People make it seem so easy.

    submitted by /u/TrickyRicky750
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    Generating B2B Leads!

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 03:04 AM PST

    Hey Guys,

    B2B is a competitive space, and generating quality leads is a long game.

    I've been running ads for a while now, and have generated multiple leads for my agency as well as my clients.

    Here's what you need to know:- - Offer is Important:- If you're generating leads, chances are that your product/service is expensive, and nobody pays for an expensive thing by watching one ad, so giving a offer is necessary. A one-month free trial of your SAAS product, or a free consultation call, or a free analysis of your lead's business, a ebook, white papers, etc are some of the ways you can benefit your leads and start the process of building trust with them.

    • Facebook Groups:- Create a private group where people can come and talk about the topic around the problem you're solving. Be active and create engaging virtual events to keep everyone on the loop. (Promote this using FB Ads)

    • E-mail List:- This is a very common tactic, but you can use it because it works! Create a weekly e-mail list that shares information on how to fix {problem you're solving}. (Promote using FB Ads)

    • Use Facebook Lead Forms:- This is a easy way to get necessary information of your potential leads (E-mail, Name, No., Website). This information will help you build your e-mail list, as well as understand your potential lead's business, and see if they can be your potential customer.

    • Use Video Content:- We all know how engaging a video ad can be, so create a video talking about a specific topic around the problem you're solving, and talk about the solution. Provide benefit through that video, and people will start following you/your page.

    Anyways, this is a long game, and cold leads have to be nurtured to make them "hot leads". Most B2B space have a lot of competition, so how you treat your leads will show them how you'll treat them when they become your customer.

    Good luck!

    submitted by /u/kushalgothi
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    Resources for understanding the life cycles of start-ups (I.e startups for dummies)

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 07:05 AM PST

    Hi all, I am an urban planner/policy analyst with 5+ years of work and trying to make moves into a tech job/startups.

    For years I've watched companies like Air BnB and Uber disrupt the way cities work (for better and worse) and how they've hit brick walls when working with government. I can help with that.

    I'm trying to get more tech literate but I would love your help. I've been reading books, (just finished only the paranoid survive'. I creep this sub daily, and follow hacker news and listen to tech podcasts. But would love any recommendations on free courses or resources that can get me up to speed so that I understand 1. The process of how startups work, stages of funding, major barriers etc and 2. How do add value to a startup with a non tech background.

    Basically I want to be able to hold my own and understand what is being talked about.

    Any recommendations are very helpful!

    submitted by /u/SnooDucks3859
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    Niche-first or problem-first?

    Posted: 07 Dec 2020 02:10 AM PST

    Many of you are familiar with this recipe for a bootstrapped business: take a niche, listen to them, find their most pressing problem, then build a solution. However, all the success stories I read recently started differently. A founder realized they have a problem, realized that their niche has the same problem, and built a solution.

    For example, I'm reading Zero To Sold by Arvid Kahl, and they started with the problem they had themselves. At the same time, the book clearly advises to find a niche and then find their critical problem (page 24).

    Personally, I'm leaning towards "problem-first", because it's more fun to solve your own problem than someone else's, plus you get a lot of feedback from yourself. On the other hand, it's sometimes harder to find a niche, plus your problem seems to be more important than it is really. In the end, you tell yourself that if nobody buys it, at least I'll use it myself.

    For example, I'm building a productivity extension for GMail, and I don't have any idea about the niche I could sell it to. I just hope that if I love it, there might be a few hundred people in the world who would love it, too. On the other hand, I know that if I go and talk to, say, accountants, they would have a lot of manual labor that can be automated. But that's a totally alien crowd for me, and I would do it only if I were hard-pressed to have a working business in a short time.

    What do you think? Are there many bootstrapped startups that succeeded in going niche-first?

    submitted by /u/uluhonolulu
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