Startups Founder Salaries @ Pre-seed & seed |
- Founder Salaries @ Pre-seed & seed
- Do I really need an MVP if the product already exists?
- What should I do with an app that I worked hard on but am no longer passionate about?
- I can’t take it anymore with my business partner/cofounder help
- Replace my only Developer
| Founder Salaries @ Pre-seed & seed Posted: 18 Jan 2022 05:53 PM PST So I've tried to read up on this topic and theres quite a lot of disparity on it. Some say they don't pay themselves anything until Series A, others say founders get $50k... I've even seen some say founders get $100k! So I wanted to get the community's view. Consider this hypothetical: Let's say you raised $125k pre-seed and 6months later raised $2mil Seed. Let's also say you just came from a decent paying job paying ~$90k/yr. How much would be "acceptable" to pay yourself at pre-seed and seed based on those funding rounds? [link] [comments] |
| Do I really need an MVP if the product already exists? Posted: 19 Jan 2022 08:39 AM PST I have an idea for a business and there is 1 fairly sizable competitor. Looking at their product and customer reviews, I can see my idea clearly works. The problem is proven, the solution is proven, and it seems there are people willing to pay good money for it. Can I skip the MVP if the whole point of it is to check if the product is viable...because it clearly is? My USP would be in marketing and price, which I don't think is really part of the MVP stage? The only benefit of the MVP I can really see is that it tests my ability to sell the product, before putting time into perfecting it. I could be terrible at sales. On another note, is it better to get an MVP made through a supplier if I could eventually learn how to do it myself once I bought the equipment and had some trial and error? If the business works I'd want to outsource manufacture. Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| What should I do with an app that I worked hard on but am no longer passionate about? Posted: 18 Jan 2022 08:28 PM PST Worked on a social app for about 1.5 years (including prototyping and ideation) which is all about sharing recommendations with friends. Outsourced dev for a web, ios, and android app. Did basically everything else on my own. I really thought it was a great idea, but I had no idea how hard it would be to actually gain traction for an app like this in today's hyper-saturated consumer software market. I realize now after working for 6 months at a real startup that just reached product market fit how many people, how much capital, and how much luck it takes to actually get a software startup off the ground. About a year ago, I ran out of steam and stopped maintaining the app, primarily due to cost and time. I've just been paying the monthly AWS fees which are not huge, but I'm thinking about shuttering it, given that I've lost the passion for the project and it never really gained much traction. It's sad because a handful people are still signing up organically pretty regularly (a few every week), which tells me there's probably some interest in the concept/idea, but the app itself just doesn't have the stickiness, either b/c the product isn't what people expected or the UI is too complex (I made the mistake of over-developing features instead of sticking to a strict MVP). I guess my question is - what should I do with this thing? It's clearly not something that would sell for big bucks, but should I try to find a buyer, someone who might find it interesting and run with it? Or should I just cut my losses and chalk it up as a good business learning experience (which it definitely was)? EDIT: thanks all for the feedback. i agree with all the comments about trying to get user feedback, looking for a pivot, an accelerator, etc. as being paths forward to commercialize the app. i'm just limited in the amount of time i can/want to spend on this now. Microacquire or open-sourcing are interesting ideas that I hadn't thought of - thanks for those. I might let it run for a bit and see if any obvious pivots come to mind and if not, take one of those approaches. When I started this thing, I was considering business school which was far more costly than developing this, so I was fully prepared to lose my investment on this, as in my mind it was a good way to get some real business experience vs. theoretical classroom knowledge. I learned a ton through this process, especially how important it is to talk to your customers FIRST and FOREMOST and to make sure you build something that people actually want and can easily understand. The notion of "if you build it, they will come" definitely does not apply in software. Even if you're offering it completely free with no ads, you're still asking people to give you their most valuable possession - their time and attention. I also realized that you really need a team of cofounders, people who can cover each others weaknesses, who can help share the tremendous workload, and who can keep you motivated when things get tough. To the questions about outsourcing, I found a company overseas that does software dev via google search. There were some challenges in terms of communication, but overall, I found they did pretty good quality work for a fraction of what it would cost to get done in the US. I think I paid 5-10k for a flutter mobile app, which translated to both an ios and android. You give up some of the smoothness that comes with native ios and native android apps, but I found this to be a great way to get a fast and cost-effective MVP. My current company that I work for as an engineer (valued at a few hundred million) also started this way a few years back using outsourced development, so if done correctly, this can definitely work. [link] [comments] |
| I can’t take it anymore with my business partner/cofounder help Posted: 18 Jan 2022 09:24 PM PST When we started the business i came up with the concept and reached out to get my current cofounder who got on board for our business. We never had any sort of agreements but we have an LLC. For a year I became sick and she wasn't empathetic. As got better I picked up the work and started contributing more but everything I do she crucifies and nothing is ever good enough for her. She is nitpicky and petty and my friends and our mutual friends all agree that she is not emphatic, is not someone they would work with, is setting the bar way to high when we have only been operating for a few months and haven't met any of our sales goals. We have tried mediation and it didn't work. Im at a point where I don't want to give up my business all together but I want to step down as a cofounder but I don't know what I can propose to her. A silent partner? I don't know I just don't think I can go on like this working with her. But I also don't want to give up my business all together. What can I do? I am open to hiring a COO and having them do all the work and giving them a stake in the business and creating a contract that requires that I get a % of the business so long as I am investing in it and I can't be taken out unless the business dissolves or I rejoin in a different capacity. I am talking to a lawyer soon but since we don't have an agreement I think anything goes. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 18 Jan 2022 04:17 PM PST I have a long time developer who i think i need to move on from. He's not w/o some talent and rate is good. He keeps up on skills BUT: (list of grievances)
He's been with me for 10 years - and my only developer for more than 5 years. He's overseas, I'm American. He has no equity. I thought if i could get the business rocking I could slide someone in over him that might jive better, but my energy and culture are dying. I need to break out. Its a big project, and seems to be well-organized, reasonably maintainable and even my muppet-level codability can build it. No ownership / IP issues. but I am terrified that new developers will struggle. It would be a struggle to have much concurrency with a second developer, but perhaps some is affordable. Any next moves to ease a transition? P.S. he would say he is underpaid and he is right... but that only would seem to address issues # 1 & 2. EDIT I've paid him ~ 400K over the years which is is not so bad for emerging Europe I think..... [link] [comments] |
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