Startups Is it worth buying FB, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn followers or likes for your startup? |
- Is it worth buying FB, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn followers or likes for your startup?
- Starting a Newsletter
- Solo Founder equity
- App development
- Is AngelList a viable place to find a Technical Co-founder or Software Engineer to build your MVP?
- How To Find Answers
- Retail Start Up Equity Question
- Would you pursue a business that doesn’t have an immediate path to revenue but has mass user growth potential?
- Do you read marketing emails? Does email marketing really work?
- Question on sweat equity in fundraising
- [Question] RE: joining a Startup - CEO with past history of bad leadership..
- Forming a partnership, but I don’t really *need* the partners
- Growth Hacking for Seed Stage Startup - Keeping Expectations Realistic
- Late to market and worrying about competitors. How do I cope up?
- Tips needed for starting a Web App start up with a friend
- Do you feel like you have an ability to find unrealized talent (up-and-comers) in your hiring?
- To all those who've built successful startups, what would you like to see college kids do that help them think about and create better products? General Startup Discussion
| Is it worth buying FB, IG, Twitter, LinkedIn followers or likes for your startup? Posted: 30 Mar 2021 08:52 PM PDT I come across sites where they sell "real" followers for social media for your startups. For example: FB - Page like 100 for $20. You can also select regions you would like to target. IG - Followers 1,000 for $15. Some offers daily followers to show slow and steady growth. But is it worth it? Does it really carry value towards your business (since some of are based on targeted audiences)? Will is effect the business reputation in the long term? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2021 09:08 PM PDT Hi All, new in here but I'm happy that I found this community. I'm planning to start an email newsletter that I'm targeting the audience of my community. I would love to get your opinions and advice on some of the questions. Is it hard to start a newsletter ( technology, data, website. etc..) or the tools are available and quite easy? I would appreciate it if you throw some resources to use. What advice would you give me that you wish you knew when you started your own newsletter? Thank you in advance... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2021 11:03 PM PDT I am a solo founder. I made the mistake of incorporating as an LLC and am in the process of reincorporating as a Delaware C-Corp and am looking to raise funds. Assuming 10mil shares authorized at founding, what is considered normal/acceptable vs excessive amount for a solo found to issue themselves in the eyes of VCs? I don't want to approach any potential investors and have them look at the amount I have issues myself and immediately say no. Gust claims 4-5 mil is the normal (https://gust.com/launch/faq/articles/as-a-sole-founder-how-many- The company is at MVP stage and growing capabilities, so I am not just starting this thing. I am 2 years into it. It is a software company. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2021 01:04 AM PDT I have a new retail business I will be opening up soon and I need to find an app developer. Does anyone have recommendations or know of a good app service that might could handle this? It will need to involve several locations, customer tracking and vip membership program. [link] [comments]  |
| Is AngelList a viable place to find a Technical Co-founder or Software Engineer to build your MVP? Posted: 30 Mar 2021 02:19 PM PDT I don't have any software engineers in my LinkedIn network that I think could get the job done, and I'm done trying to find someone on Reddit. Could AngelList be a good place to look or is that more so for established startups looking to hire standard employees? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2021 07:28 AM PDT I've started my first start-up! It's food based and I've found my supplier, created/ordered the packaging, nearly finished the e-commerce website etc etc. I am not changing the food item in any way - I am repackaging it (with permission) - and the supplier already has all the necessary FDA approvals. Do I need any kind of FDA approval myself? If I'm decanting the product (that I've bought in bulk) into smaller portions, do I need to do so in a specific environment by law? Do I need to rent a space specifically to "package" food? Again, I'm not changing anything about it. I do find that I have so many questions and have no idea where or who to ask. I'm not even sure what kind of insurance I need. My budget is finite so there is only so much I can do when it comes to seeking legal/business advice. Oh hi Reddit! Where do you all get your "advice"/questions answered? [link] [comments]  |
| Retail Start Up Equity Question Posted: 31 Mar 2021 01:02 AM PDT Start up Retail business questions I have worked and negotiated deals for 5 separate locations to open a few retail businesses. Here is my question, I initially thought I would just be acquiring product from a top tier supplier at a reduced rate however now that the supplier has seen my locations, he wants to partner. What is a fair amount to of equity to give to the supplier if he is. Ow willing to provide flower at zero cost and we split net profit at end of each month. I have 75% equity so what is a fair amount? I have worked my butt off for the last year to secure deals however he has the product that makes this whole idea work. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2021 09:23 PM PDT I'm curious on the communities thoughts on how you would approach evaluating an opportunity if the initial goal is to get as many users using your product as possible as opposed to trying to monetize right away. For example, let's say you're in a B2C space for a software product where you want to reach a critical mass of daily active users before you try and monetize because monetizing would detract too much from that growth and reduce your potential. Would you work on something like that? What considerations would you think about before jumping in? I.e, something like a Lunchclub where you make zero dollars but are just going after user growth. [link] [comments]  |
| Do you read marketing emails? Does email marketing really work? Posted: 30 Mar 2021 01:08 PM PDT Since we have launched our beta products (related to cybersecurity), our marketing guy insists on collecting email from the web and doing an email marketing. There are even some startups to give you a lead list (an excel file containing potential customers info, including emails) per week! However, as the technical team, we are not sure that will work. Firstly, we can disturb our potential customers. They may not want to learn about our product and/or offer. Secondly, none of us read marketing emails. Last but not least, it can be even illegal income countries (we are not sure about that in all countries sending marketing emails are legal) What do you think about marketing emails? Do you have an email marketing campaign? Do you read marketing emails? And more important, would you want to now an offer from a startup related to your services? [link] [comments]  |
| Question on sweat equity in fundraising Posted: 30 Mar 2021 09:07 AM PDT Background:I am a 24 year old who has built a team of 4-5 developers that has been working on a B2B Saas product since January 2020 in the PNW. We raised 80k to date from a single investor which allowed us to start paying people in November. He is my team leads dad and has relevant experience building a huge company that IPO'd. But doesn't have any real connections we can utilize to raise more funds. He invested early on due to his son being on the team, even though the product wasn't quite there yet to inspire investment. We are still 2-3 months away from launch but our product is good enough now to show we have the ability to follow through and are past the idea stage of a startup. In the few meetings with potential investors so far everyone has been very impressed with the product in its current form. But we simply arent meeting with enough potential investors to get the ball really rolling. Our Problem:Not enough connections to potential investors for a pre-seed venture. I have tried some angel groups but all of them were averse to the pre-seed stage of investment. We have enough funds for the next 4-6 weeks but that wont last us to when we need to launch and beyond. The Current Situation:I have 2 avenues to drum up more warm leads on investors. The first is a salesman in the PNW with around 2 decades of experience working in our target industry and working with hundreds of business owners in the industry. He is willing to connect us to to these owners to see if they may be willing to invest, or let us utilize their operations for testing. Although we will only work with 1-2 companies for testing as it requires me to be hands on for that process. The second is a lifelong CFO who has connections to VCs and professional investors in our area and also would be willing to make connections for us. He has helped me with the pitch deck over the last year and we finally have reached the point where the deck is in his opinion, ready. But both of these individuals would want equity for making these connections. Which I am not opposed to as we have around 2% of stock in unassigned shares available currently. We need to raise another 320K to close out the round. My Question:If we were to grant either or both of these individuals equity, what kind of terms should I be expecting? What is reasonable for the situation? Any response is appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| [Question] RE: joining a Startup - CEO with past history of bad leadership.. Posted: 30 Mar 2021 10:50 PM PDT Hi Everyone, I am so, so puzzled by this opportunity that a recruiter presented, so I kinda wanted to ask you guys with perhaps more experience in joining early stage startups - like are these red flags? The CEO of this startup has a deeeep background of being top dog in a healthcare field. Well renowned field leader, doctor. He started a startup which failed. Now, with a major VC backing him, he is starting another one, something along the line of the previous one. Difference (other slight pivot of the business model) is that he is co-founding this new startup with partners from the VC fund. VC fund has good track record of investing in successful healthcare companies. I don't know too much about the VC, other than they are huge. Sounds good so far, right? However when I sleuthed around GlassDoor of his old startup, there are pages and pages of reviews saying scathing remarks of C-level leadership, specifically towards the CEO. Some of the comments are that CEO disagrees when delegating power/control, and shouts/belittles employees publicly, micromanages even tech decisions (he doesn't have tech product experience), spur-of-the-moment leadership decisions, etc.. really bad reviews. Seems like he drove the company to the ground. Firing /demoting if employees disagree/challenge him, high employee turnover rate. So that's the setting. I reckon VC fund is wise enough and thinks by including partners as co-founders, they can perhaps guide the product and C-level leadership to a more "mature" dynamic. They probably are thinking of firing the CEO in case things go out of hand. The CEO probably could've wisened up himself, and learned leadership from his mistakes. The product perhaps might have a better market fit. What I got from all this is that he's one of those gung-ho, my-way-or-the-highway type of a person, at least from the recruiter. The recruiter used words like "eccentric" to describe the CEO. I have known a few of these types working as doctors, so I totally grasped the picture. So, am I too optimistic in thinking that this time it might be different? Perhaps people never change - and perhaps there are too many co-founders, and it might be the same spiel, different company. What would you do if you were in my shoes? [link] [comments]  |
| Forming a partnership, but I don’t really *need* the partners Posted: 30 Mar 2021 05:25 PM PDT So for the past few years I've been consulting with a company to create their line of business application, and last year I decided to break code on my own app that I could sell to competitors in their space. I felt I could create a better app than what my competitors would offer(honestly better than what was created for the company I'm consulting for too). I'm not using any of their code and completely redesigning everything. Also, there is absolutely no "secret sauce" I could steal. My client is closing and brought up spinning off a new company to sell the line of business software, and I would be a partner. This seemed fine originally, I could merge the code bases and it would get to market a lot sooner. However, while going through some partnership discussions, I'm realizing they are brining absolutely nothing to the table. They've also already flaked out on a couple of contracts and I'm stuck trying to figure out how to manage $10k in bills that they verbally told me they where going to pay. One potential partner got upset that he was only going to be on the board(aka just getting a check if we are profitable) and not involved in the day to operations, so he told me he wasn't going to participate in an event we had planned that would kickstart the product. The problem is I would feel like a complete asshole if I told them the deal is off and started bringing my own product to market, and also I'm kind of scared they would take me to court. But I also can't picture going into business with people who are extremely petty and flakey. However, we've known some of these potential partners for YEARS, so there is a small personal attachment too. Also, the way it's looking, I'm taking 100% of the risk and will be the only one actually working on it. My biggest dilemma is that I want to bring a product and competition to this space, and I believe it can work. I think I know my answer here, but just wondering if anyone has some similar experiences they can share. Also, I've left some things vague for obvious reasons, I hope that's not an issue. [link] [comments]  |
| Growth Hacking for Seed Stage Startup - Keeping Expectations Realistic Posted: 30 Mar 2021 12:33 PM PDT So I was just hired on to the core team for a high-growth startup. We are currently at $400k in convertible notes, with an expected institutional round of $1.5m that'll close 3-6 months from now. I'm the head of marketing and user growth, which I'm pumped about, but here's the thing: the product is still in development, the MVP will go out to beta testers in July 2021, the official launch will be around November 2021, and the founder is expecting a waiting list of 100k people before the product even launches. How do I explain to my founder that 1.) this will be EXTREMELY difficult to do in this short timeframe, and 2.) this is not going to be possible without putting a LOT of money into marketing? I worry that the founder thinks "growth hacking" is something you can do on a low budget early on, but since the product isn't even finished and I'm essentially a one-person marketing team, that's just not the case. Overall, I just don't want to be blamed when we don't hit these projections if I'm not given the resources and support I need to make this work. So my question is: how do you all deal with certain delusions your CEO may have? And how do I approach setting more realistic expectations without him being disappointed / thinking I am the problem? Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Late to market and worrying about competitors. How do I cope up? Posted: 30 Mar 2021 01:09 PM PDT Lockdown has created many opportunities. Many people at scale might have came up with the same idea as everybody was facing the same problems. I too had my idea last year and I have been working on it on-and-off ever since. But it is in this January that I built the team, and we started the development of the platform. We are three people with full time jobs trying to build this platform by making some time in our every day lives. It's been 3 months and still the platform is under development. (Only 30% is complete.) I am seeing many startups entering into the same space releasing the same kind of product that we are working on. In fact, the one that was released during Jan now has more than a 1 million users. Some other startup has close to 5 million users. These companies have raised $6M and $10M respectively. Lately, I am seeing these new startups that just entered the market; raising s**t loads of funding from big VCs. All all this is good, but I am seriously concerned how am I going to compete with these guys now. They have huge money in their pocket while we are a bootstrapped company. And everyday I feel like I am losing out on users though our platform is not yet launched and still under development. How do I cope up with this? What mindset do you suggest is the best at times like these? [link] [comments]  |
| Tips needed for starting a Web App start up with a friend Posted: 30 Mar 2021 03:04 PM PDT I started this coding side project, and my friend gave me an idea. I agreed that she could be the co-founder and get equity if our project generates revenue. Would I need to give them a contract to sign, and if I decide to monetize the web app, would I require a company credit card, or can I use a personal one? I would be doing all the coding and most of the project management, and she would design the UI/UX and give some ideas; what are some recommended equity prices? Since we are only in high school and this is a side project that we are hoping to monetize, is a contract/bank account really necessary? [link] [comments]  |
| Do you feel like you have an ability to find unrealized talent (up-and-comers) in your hiring? Posted: 30 Mar 2021 12:47 PM PDT Something I'd heard in a convo with other founders stuck in the back of my mind and came back up in a conversation with a founder I work with. Someone mentioned 'unrealized talent'. Primary question: Do you feel like you currently have any capability to find and benefit from unrealized talent? If so, how do you go about it? I don't want to prescribe that age is the only factor here, but I'll admit the phrase "young and hungry" comes to mind. I see many non-technical, later career founders that are GREAT at finding fractional, expensive, experienced individuals -- but few that are great at finding young and on the way up talent. I think back on my own first startup roles as a community manager who parlayed talking to customers to a role on a product team -- then a head of product and first employee at my next company, with no formal training, with a $75k salary (2014 or so) -- and I was GLAD to be making that. I always tell the founders I work with that I believe these people still exist, though I've had a hard time finding them myself. Do you all think you do any better at this? Any thoughts/recommendations? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2021 03:48 AM PDT I'm a CS Junior and I realise the question isn't very specific but I was very curious to know if there was something that you think you did back in college that set you up on a path for building better products. Based on what I've heard successful entrepreneurs say, there isn't anything specific that set them up for success and it was just the general intrinsic motivation to create stuff for themselves and/or others that was necessary. I like software and made a few projects but never with the intent to build it to a point where more than a few people use it. I'd like to learn more about building the right habits in college and learning what to focus on when building something significant. What would you have done differently when you started up and what advice would you give me, a 20 year old beginner? Thank You. [link] [comments]  |
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