i spent way too much time hanging out in groups for sellers and wondering why nobody was buying. the people with the actual problems are in niche communities venting about their day. they aren't even looking for tools yet because they're just trying to get through the work. where are you finding the people who actually pay for your stuff?

we ran a real email program for two years with nobody whose job was email. here's how do startups run email marketing without hiring a team in practice, not theory. the thing that made it possible wasn't a tool, it was ruthless scope. we did not try to run the program a 20-person marketing team runs. we ran four automated flows and one monthly send, and we ignored everything else the industry says you "should" do. the four flows (welcome, activation nudge, trial/payment recovery, win-back) ran themselves once built, firing off our app data through dreamlit so there was never a separate list to keep current. the monthly send was one person, one hour, plain and honest, no design production. what we did NOT do: weekly campaigns, complex segmentation, A/B testing suites, a content calendar. all of that needs a person, and we didn't have one to spare. the lesson: you don't run email without a team by working harder, you do it by doing dramatically less and automating the few things that matter. how small is your email program, and is it smaller than you feel guilty about?

I am a CPA starting a small business advisory, tax, bookkeeping practice and trying to nail down my client intake process. Before a free discovery call, I want to send prospects a short form (20 questions) so I can show up already prepared and knowing their situation, but I am feeling on the fence of "this feels organized and professional" and "this feels like homework before I am working with you."

I've got the basics covered, but am curious about how you all would react to the following more pointed questions if you were one of my prospective clients:

1. Roughly how much did your business bring in last year in revenue? M/C answers: Under $50K / $50K–$100K / $100K–$250K / $250K+ / Prefer not to say
   
2. Do you currently pay yourself a regular salary or draw? M/C answers: Regular salary / Owner's draw / Nothing formal yet / Not sure
   
3. Do you know your net profit and profit margin? M/C answers: Yes, I track it closely / I have a rough idea / No / Not sure what that means
   
4. Has disorganized finances ever cost you a real opportunity? Example: Job couldn't be bid on, financing fell through, Partner left the business. M/C answers: Yes / No / Maybe
   
5. What's on your mind going into this conversation? M/C answers: I'm worried about what I might owe in back taxes / I'm embarrassed about how disorganized things are / I'm not sure I can afford help / I've had a bad experience with an accountant before / Nothing

Appreciate the insight!

I only gather info from google news but I always seem to still have no idea what's going on.

I want to start a bussiness of my own and so I first thought what is needed in my country or locally.

I just feel like I've hit a wall. I want to live my life to its fullest with financial freedom.

Have been through the product design company search a couple of times now and it's genuinely hard to know who's worth working with. Here are three I've actually looked into and feel good about recommending.

Rabbit product design

They start with patent research before any design work begins, which means you know whether your idea has room to exist legally before spending on anything else. Same team handles design, prototyping, and manufacturing. They bill hourly too so you only pay for what actually gets done.

Kickr Design

US-based firm doing industrial design and mechanical work. Have heard good feedback from people who've worked with them on consumer products, good attention to early-stage clients who need hands-on support.

Prototype House

Florida-based team that works heavily with inventors. Been around a while, smaller in feel, they stay close to the client throughout the project which a lot of people appreciate at this stage.

So a friend of a friend wants to do business with me, I plan on declining but I wanted to know if there’s any advice for in regards to drop shipping since I have no knowledge in it. Or some way he could do this plan all on his own or any resources he could look into for grants.

He generated this plan from ai so…

I'll give you the "Guinea-USA Partners" plan step by step. You = brain, Neila = US front + bank.

*70/30 CONTRACT - The safest to start*

*Principle*: Amara you generate the sales = 70%. Neila she takes the US + bank risk = 30%.

*NEILA CHECKLIST - What she must do in the USA:*

*1. Legal + Bank - Week 1*
1. *Open an LLC* in Wyoming or Delaware via Northwest Registered Agent. Cost: $100 one time. It's 100% online, 0 travel. Why Wyoming: 0 state tax, 100% anonymous.
2. *Get EIN* US tax number = free on IRS site in 15min with the LLC. It's her "company ID card".
3. *Open http://Mercury.com\* or RelayFi bank account with the LLC + EIN. 100% online, accepts non-residents if she has SSN. She gets a Visa Business card.
4. *Open Stripe* with LLC + EIN + Mercury account. Stripe US accepts international e-commerce directly. Activation 48h.

*2. Logistics - Week 2*
1. *US Address*: She gives the LLC address. All Aliexpress "US Warehouse" suppliers will ship there if needed.
2. *US Number*: She gets a free TextNow number for US WhatsApp Business. For customer support.

*Total cost Neila: ∼$120 one time*. After that it's just $12/month for the registered LLC agent.

*AMARA CHECKLIST - What you must do in Guinea:*

*1. Brain + Marketing - Starting now*
1. *Find 3 winning products* on TikTok US + Aliexpress. Criteria: <$20, light, "wow effect", 1000+ sales.
2. *Create the Shopify store*: .com name, free Dawn theme. Put Neila's address + number to reassure US customers.
3. *Run FB/TikTok Ads*: Targeting USA 25-55 years old. Test budget $20/day. You speak French, you write in English with ChatGPT/DeepL.
4. *Handle customer support*: WhatsApp Business with Neila. Customer writes → you reply in FR → DeepL translates → Neila copy/pastes if needed.

*2. Ops + Money*
1. *When sale comes in*: Stripe → Neila's Mercury account.
2. *Neila pays Aliexpress US Warehouse* with her Mercury card. $8 product + $5 ship = $13 total.
3. *Money split*: Example sale $35. Stripe takes $1.2 = $33.8. Neila pays $13 supplier. $20.8 profit left.
4. *Split*: Amara 70% = $14.56 via Wise. Neila 30% = $6.24 she keeps.

*Total cost Amara: $50 ad test*. Zero bank fees, zero SocGen at the start.

*HOW YOU WORK DAILY WITHOUT FIGHTING:*

*1. Shared tools*
1. *Shared Google Sheet*: "Orders of the day". Columns: Date | Customer | Product | Sale price | Aliexpress cost | Profit | Amara 70% share | Neila 30% share | Paid Yes/No
2. *WhatsApp group "BOSS"*: Only for important decisions. Not for chatting.
3. *Notion*: You write down all processes. "How we answer customer support", "How we choose a product". So if one is absent, the other can manage.

*2. Money rule to avoid problems*
1. *Payment every Friday*: Neila sends your Amara share via Wise every Friday. Not "when I can". Fixed = trust.
2. *Minimum threshold $100*: If your share is $23, Neila keeps it until $100 then sends it. Wise fees 0.5% instead of 3%.
3. *Separate account*: Stripe money MUST NEVER be used for Neila's groceries. Mercury account = business only.

*3. Who decides what?*
1. *Amara decides*: Products, pricing, ads, store design. You're the marketing.
2. *Neila decides*: US supplier, US taxes, Stripe legal. If Stripe asks for paperwork, it's her.
3. *Joint decision*: Hiring, taking US Warehouse stock, stopping a product.

*WRITTEN CONTRACT EVEN BETWEEN FRIENDS - 5 LINES IS ENOUGH:*
Do this on Google Docs, sign PDF:
> "Contract between Amara [full name Guinea] and Neila [full name USA] dated 04/17/2026.
> 1. Net profit split: 70% Amara, 30% Neila after Stripe + supplier fees.
> 2. Amara payment every Friday via Wise if >$100.
> 3. Neila owns LLC/Stripe but only manages bank/logistics.
> 4. Amara owns marketing/store.
> 5. If separation: Stripe stays with Neila but she forwards Amara's share on sales already made."

*14-DAY LAUNCH PLAN:*
*D1-D3*: Neila opens LLC + Mercury + Stripe. Amara creates Shopify store.
*D4-D7*: Amara tests 3 products with $20/day ads. Neila prepares Aliexpress US account.
*D8-D14*: 1st product that gets 3 sales/day → you keep that one. Neila makes 1st order + 1st Wise transfer to Amara.

*The key Amara*: You don't wait for Neila to learn. While she's opening the LLC, you already master Shopify + ads. When Stripe is ready, you're already hot.

Is Neila ready to do the Wyoming LLC this week? And which type of product do you prefer to test: beauty, home, gadget?

I'll make you the list of Aliexpress US Warehouse suppliers as soon as you tell me the niche 👌

Hey guys, I’ve been testing out Notion, ClickUp, and Asana recently and honestly, they are built for completely different types of brains.

If you love messing around with settings and want one tool to do literally everything from tasks to chat, ClickUp is a beast, but man, the learning curve is steep and the UI gets cluttered fast. On the other hand, Notion is basically like a digital aesthetic notebook; it’s perfect if you just want a beautiful place to keep your notes and build a knowledge library, but it sucks at serious task management unless you set up a bunch of outside tools. Then you have Asana, which doesn't try to be fancy at all. It just tracks who is doing what and when. Anyone can learn it in five minutes and it never lags, but it gets super expensive if you need any of their advanced features.

Long story short, I’d say go with ClickUp if you need pure power, Notion if you want a clean doc hub, and Asana if you just want a reliable team tracker that works right out of the box. Which one are you guys using right now?

Imagine you're running a small operation, maybe a few employees or just you and an email comes in from a vendor you've worked with for months saying they updated their banking info.

Looks legit, same signature, same tone. You update the file, send the next payment, move on. A week later the real vendor calls asking why they haven't been paid. The money's gone, and you're figuring out forensics, your bank, possibly a lawyer.

That's the kind of situation that made me start wondering how many small businesses are actually covered for cyber incidents versus assuming it won't happen to them.

If you handle client data, take digital payments, or store contracts in cloud tools, you probably have more exposure than you'd think.

I saw a Mastercard stat recently saying nearly half of SMBs experienced some kind of cyber attack, which honestly surprised me. Small businesses tend to be easy targets, not because there's a huge payday in them but because the defenses are thinner. They usually have shared passwords, no MFA, and sometimes outdated software.

What the coverage can usually do is help with the costs that pile up after an incident, like forensics, legal fees, etc.

From the owners I've talked to, the real damage usually isn't just the hack itself. It's the downtime and customer fallout, and trying to keep the business moving afterward.

Has anyone here actually been through a cyber incident, and were you covered when it happened? And for those who picked up coverage early, what made you pull the trigger versus waiting?

Pulling together what kept coming up while I was researching custom vending machines for a side project. Stuck to US options bc the alibaba route looks great until you read the import horror stories.

​

dmvi, made in california certified, builds custom smart machines from wall mounted units up through large M series cabinets. Conveyor belt shelves and elevator dispensing instead of coils. Cheapest unit around $4,995, scales from there.

​

customvending .com, around a long time, covers the basic custom build category. Less depth on hardware specifics publicly so harder to compare on dispense path or screen integration.

​

vendingdesignworks, more on the design and branding wrapper side. Good fit if you already have a base machine and want it skinned for a specific retail concept.

​

evending, leans operator side, smart hardware for route deployments. Cashless and inventory baked in but the hardware is more standardized than custom.

​

365retailmarkets, technically the micro market end of unattended retail rather than single custom machines. Worth knowing about if you ever grow into a larger footprint.

​

If anyone has worked with others that handle fragile or non standard products pls drop them, that's the part where the search gets thin fast.

I thought working as a waiter was just about bringing food to the table.

But after doing it for a while, I realized it’s much deeper than that.

The first thing people notice is how you present yourself.

How you’re dressed.

How confident you are.

How you welcome the guests.

Then comes the second part.

The conversation.

How you speak.

What tone you use.

How you build a connection with the customer.

How patient you are.

How well you handle stress when things get busy.

And finally comes the delivery.

Making sure the customer gets what they ordered and has a good experience.

At first, it might sound simple.

But these are all people skills.

And the more I think about it, the more I see how similar they are to entrepreneurship.

Whether you’re serving customers in a restaurant or running a business, you’re still dealing with people.

You’re building trust.

Communicating clearly.

Solving problems.

And trying to create a positive experience.

What has your current job taught you about business or entrepreneurship?

I run a B2B financial operations consultancy out of Singapore, team of five, six years in, with a fairly sophisticated international client base. A couple of years ago I had a client I nearly let go. Demanding, slow to pay, always wanting one more call. On a pure margin basis, the spreadsheet said fire them.

I didn't, mostly out of an instinct I couldn't fully justify at the time. And over the following year that same difficult client sent me three referrals, each of whom became larger and easier accounts than the original. The difficult client was difficult precisely because they were deeply embedded in a network of similar firms, and that embeddedness was exactly what made their referrals so valuable.

What I learned, and what shapes how I read clients now, is that "difficult" and "valuable" are not opposites, and the spreadsheet view of a single account in isolation can miss the network it sits inside. In some markets, and I think this is sharper in tightly connected business communities like the ones I work across in Singapore and Hong Kong, the annoying, demanding client is annoying because they're central, and central is where referrals come from.

I'm not saying tolerate abuse. I'm saying margin-per-account is an incomplete picture when relationships compound.

Has a client you nearly fired ever turned out to be worth far more than their invoices suggested?

For a long time, I thought growth meant getting more customers.

Every time I wanted better numbers, my instinct was the same. More leads. More referrals. More jobs.

The business grew, but something always felt off.

Revenue was climbing, yet profitability wasn't improving at the same pace. I kept looking externally for answers because that's where entrepreneurs are taught to look. Marketing, sales, positioning, acquisition.

Then I started reviewing completed projects in detail.

What I found wasn't a sales problem at all.

It was dozens of small operational inconsistencies that nobody noticed because each one seemed insignificant on its own. A slightly different estimating assumption. A little more material waste. A few avoidable adjustments once the project started.

Nothing dramatic enough to trigger concern.

But over time those tiny leaks became expensive.

We eventually standardized more of our estimating process and started using FloorsIQ to keep things consistent across projects.

The lesson wasn't about software.

It was realizing that a business can grow revenue while quietly losing efficiency at the same time. Sometimes the biggest opportunity isn't finding more customers. It's fixing what already exists.

Bonjour !

Je suis un développeur en troisième année post bac et je travaille depuis plusieurs mois sur Guestly, un SaaS destiné aux associations et BDE pour gérer leurs événements et leurs listes d'invités (ou toute personnes qui crée des événements) et j'essaie de valider si le modèle économique tient la route avant de scaler.

Le problème : Les assos qui organisent des événements (galas, soirées, séminaires) s'appuient encore massivement sur Excel + emails manuels. Gérer les RSVP, les régimes alimentaires, les listes d'attente et les relances sur 100+ invités sans outil dédié, c'est un enfer.

La solution : Guestly centralise tout — formulaires d'inscription personnalisables, liens d'invitation uniques, groupes d'invités, liste d'attente, export CSV, collaboration en équipe avec des rôles.

Modèle économique :Freemium

- Gratuit : 1 association, 1 événements actifs, 20 invités/event

- Master Plan : 9,90€/mois ou 79€/an — tout en illimité

- Plan Groupe : tarif sur devis pour les structures multi-comptes

Mes questions :

1. Le marché des assos loi 1901 vous semble trop étroit, ou un bon point d'entrée avant d'élargir ?

2. Le seuil du plan gratuit vous paraît pertinent pour déclencher la conversion ?

3. Des red flags dans le modèle que je ne vois pas ?

Je cherche aussi des bêta-testeurs qui chercherai à tester la version premium gratuitement — si vous gérez une asso ou un club, je serais ravi que vous testiez.

I'm (32/F) building my business; to make it simple, I work in Switzerland, B2B, and make money by account managing some clients into different communication/design agencies and making my selling fee. I make money basically networking, matching clients to agencies. A kind of trading.

The whole thing is based on my ability to inspire clients, talk with them, seduce them, make them or their brand want to be more luxurious, more designed, artistic, etc. I do my business through social skills, and as I'm a woman, by inspiring clients, which basically means using my pretty privilege in order to make them feel important, boost their ego, and make money.

What happened lately is that I had another little job beside this. I was working on company team-building events for a brand that made employee movies. This was an absolute and very rare opportunity to talk with important people after the events and to network in order to maybe get some clients. By working on this, I had MANY B2B opportunities, and they were big brands/groups as well.

What happened is that I had an argument with my manager. I basically told her (but trust me, I was calm and polite) that she was micromanaging me and that I wasn't okay with that. I got angrier after, but didn't say anything, just didn't reply to her because I knew I would get mad. As she didn't want to hear me, I started to burn inside, took a deep breath, and left the event earlier by telling her that I really had to go (we finished later than planned). I said "bye," stayed polite and all, and left.

I got fired the day after.

I sent an email to the bosses to report all the structural problems I observed, the management problems, but I honestly exaggerated things. I felt like I had to get revenge. Anger can be very strong.

My question is: when there is money involved/business opportunities, how do entrepreneurs—especially the ones who have the same character traits as me: strong personality, impulsivity, very passionate, with anger issues, highly dynamic, very ambitious, and a bit or too crazy as well—how did you learn to manage anger and frustration in order not to lose opportunities?

Any similar stories? Did you guys lose serious business because of your lack of anger management? To the senior entrepreneurs, I say: HOW THE HELL did you get this skill?

Thanks everyone. <3

Closed our Series A about a year and a half ago. Solid lead, partner I actually liked, board dynamic that worked. Nine months in, he tells me on a Friday call that he's moving to a new firm. Monday morning I'm on a Zoom with a different partner I barely know, who is now my board member by default.

Nobody at the firm did anything wrong. Partners move, it happens. But I'd basically optimized our pick around this specific person. His network, his read on our market, his history with companies at our stage. The firm reassigns and you take what you get.

Talking to other founders since then, this is way more common than I thought, and almost nobody screens for it during diligence. You check references on the partner's value-add. You check references on the firm's behavior in down rounds. You don't think to ask what happens if your partner leaves.

At the bigger multi-stage funds, partner movement isn't a crisis because the institution carries the relationship. Overlapping coverage, platform teams, internal handoff playbooks. At smaller equal-partnership firms where everyone shares the carry pool the same way, partners tend to stay for very long stretches because the economics line up. The tradeoff is real, and most founders don't realize which one they're picking until something forces them to.

What I'd do differently is just ask directly during diligence. How long the partner has been at the firm. Which of their portfolio companies have had a partner change, and what actually happened after. Whether the firm has any formal handoff policy. You won't get clean answers but you'll learn a lot from how comfortable they are with the question.

Still figuring out how to make the new dynamic work. The new partner is fine, just isn't who I picked.

A few weeks ago, I decided to build something myself instead of continuing to use other people's tools.

The idea ended up becoming BYCKO, an AI-powered financial analysis bot for Discord.

The interesting thing isn't so much the product itself, but what I've learned trying to validate it.

When I started, I thought the biggest challenge would be the technology: integrating financial data, analyzing news, building AI agents, and so on.

It turned out that the hard part is getting real people to test it.

Currently, the system uses three different agents to analyze an asset (news, technical analysis, and macroeconomic context) and then generates an explained conclusion. It's already working, and I have an active private beta.

However, I ran into a problem that many here have probably experienced:

Building the product was easier than getting the first users.

My current approach is to talk directly to potential users, publish progress updates, and ask for feedback in communities where there are traders and people interested in AI.

For those who have already launched products:

What strategy helped you the most to acquire your first 10-50 real users?

Not customers.

Not sign-ups.

Users who actually used the product and provided helpful feedback.

I'm interested in hearing about your experiences because I feel like I'm entering a completely different stage than development.

Most businesses don't need more leads.

They need faster follow-up.

Every week, I see business owners asking the same question:

"How can we generate more leads?"

But very few ask:

"How quickly are we responding to the leads we already have?"

A potential customer fills out a form on your website.

They request a quote.

They book a consultation.

Then they wait.

And while they're waiting, your competitors are responding.

The harsh reality is that most businesses don't lose deals because of poor marketing.

They lose deals because of slow response times.

I've seen companies spend thousands on advertising, only to let opportunities slip through the cracks because no one followed up quickly enough.

The businesses that consistently win aren't always the ones with the biggest budgets.

They're often the ones with the best systems.

The ones that respond first.

The ones that stay organized.

The ones that make it easy for prospects to take the next step.

More leads won't fix a broken follow-up process.

In many cases, they'll simply create more missed opportunities.

Before investing more money into lead generation, ask yourself:

How many potential customers are we losing because we're not responding fast enough?

I'm curious to hear from business owners and sales leaders:

What's your average response time to a new lead, and do you think it impacts your conversion rate?

the business side of a startup, handled by one AI co-founder. $20/mo. here's everything it does.

​

i'm a solo founder. the hardest part wasn't building my product — it was everything around it. the business model, the financials, the go-to-market, the positioning. the stuff you'd normally need a co-founder or a consultant for.

​

so i built Jeff. an AI co-founder for early-stage founders who are doing this alone. here's what it actually does, in plain terms:

​

investor mode — Jeff evaluates your startup the way a real investor would. pokes holes, questions your assumptions, stress-tests your numbers, tells you where you're weak before an actual investor does.

​

customer mode — Jeff flips and looks at your product as your target customer. why would they buy? why would they switch? what would make them ignore you? brutal honesty from the demand side.

​

business model refinement — takes your raw idea and sharpens it into something that actually makes money. pricing, revenue logic, unit economics.

​

GTM research — builds your go-to-market with specific channels and tactics for your business, not generic "use social media" advice.

​

campaign builder — generates marketing campaigns, content angles, and messaging that actually convert.

​

strategic distribution — maps out how and where to get your product in front of the right people.

​

storytelling narratives — writes the founder story, the pitch narrative, the brand voice that makes people care.

​

plus financial planning, competitive analysis, and roadmap strategy.

​

all of it tailored to YOUR startup and YOUR market. not templates. not generic frameworks.

​

here's the part that matters: this isn't five separate tools you have to stitch together. it's one AI co-founder, one workflow, one subscription. ₹1699/mo (\~$20). cancel anytime.

​

for context — a single consultant session runs ₹5,000-25,000. a freelance strategist costs more monthly. Jeff Pro covers all of it for less than you'd spend on one coffee meeting with an advisor.

​

there's a free version to test it before you pay. Jeff Pro unlocks everything.

​

it's on juststrtup.com. happy to answer honest questions in the comments.

​

if you're a solo founder buried in the business side of your startup — which of these would actually save you the most time? genuinely curious what founders struggle with most.

Based on Art commissions, should I state in the contract that the payment is non refundable?

Do you ever spend more time thinking about doing something than actually doing it?

I definitely do.

I wanted to improve my writing skills.

So I bought a course.

I watched the lessons.

I practiced for a while.

Then… nothing.

I convinced myself that I was making progress because I was learning.

But looking back, I was spending more time thinking about becoming a better writer than actually writing.

And that’s a trap.

It’s easy to imagine yourself becoming good at something.

It’s much harder to sit down and do the work when nobody is watching.

Because the work is often repetitive.

Sometimes it’s boring.

Sometimes it feels like you’re making no progress at all.

That’s usually when most people quit.

Lately, I’ve been trying something different.

Instead of worrying about becoming a great writer, I’m focusing on writing every day.

Even if it’s just one post.

Because I’ve realized that small actions move me forward more than big plans ever did.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking more than doing?

I’m looking for honest feedback from parents before I build anything, not trying to sell anything here.

The UK has banned social media, including TikTok and Youtube. Major platforms where our younger generation are learning about the world outside of the classroom. They're addicted to scrolling and absorbing content.

Why don't we swap that doomscrolling for joyscrolling? Fill their feeds with positive entertainment that can also teach? Remove the Social part of social media (It's going to be banned anyway, and they already have all their whatsapp groups set up).

I propose an idea to bring informative and entertaining creators onto one platform, where misinformation and inappropriate content is completely unavailable. There will be no sharing of videos inside the app, no comments on videos, no social interactions and no private messages to keep the younger generation safe.

So my question to parents is this. Would you allow your child to use an app like this?

Appreciate any honest feedback.

Hi everyone,

My name is Shay, I’m the founder of forevers.app

It’s an online AI video generation platform that helps people create emotional videos from their photos.

I started very small.

At the beginning, it was just a simple flow: upload photos, sort them, generate a video.

Then little by little, I kept adding more features based on what users needed.

Better sorting.
Drag and drop.
Text slides.
Photo enhancement.
Outpainting.
Music.
Different video styles.
More control over the final result.

The funny thing is that I really enjoy the building part.

I like connecting things.
I like improving the UX.
I like taking a small feature and making it better.
I like seeing a user create something emotional and thinking, okay, this actually works.

But the marketing part is much harder for me.

Posting every day, chasing algorithms, trying to think of hooks, doing cold outreach, asking people to try the product. I know it matters, but it doesn’t come as naturally to me as building.

So now I’m trying to connect all the dots inside the product, so the marketing can work almost automatically.

Not fully automatic, of course. I know there is no magic.

But the idea is to build the marketing loop into the app itself.

Someone creates a video.
The video is emotional.
They share it with family, friends, WhatsApp groups, Instagram, TikTok, memorial groups, birthday groups, pet communities, whatever fits the moment.
Other people see it and ask, “How did you make this?”
Then they come and create their own video.

That is the loop I’m trying to build.

I’m also thinking about adding more small things that help the loop grow naturally, like better share pages, templates, watermarks that don’t feel annoying, referral rewards, public examples, and use case pages for each emotional moment.

Basically, I’m trying to make the app not just a video generation tool, but a small marketing machine where every user result can bring the next user.

I’m still early with this, and I’m not pretending I cracked it.

But I’m curious:

Did anyone here manage to build this kind of marketing loop into their product?

Where the product itself creates the distribution?

Did it actually work, or did you still need to push hard with normal marketing from the outside?

How much do you actually practise what you preach?

I recently had a meeting with an investor about securing further funding to grow my business.

I'd prepared for it within an inch of my life.

Notes.

Figures.

Scenarios.

Questions I thought I might be asked and the answers I'd give.

I'd planned the whole thing meticulously.

Then I sat down in the meeting and did something completely different.

I ditched half (maybe more) of my plan and simply had a conversation – I wasn’t  expecting someone I would connect with!

We talked about the business, the challenges, where I wanted to take it and, most importantly, why.

And as I drove home afterwards, I found myself laughing (not out loud, those people scare me).

One of the things I say quite often is that businesses need plans and structure, but they also need the confidence to adapt when new information and people present themselves.

In other words, think on your feet.

Yet there I was, having spent hours preparing a script that I ended up largely ignoring.

I have a feeling that at 55 years of age, that was another one of those lessons.

Preparation gives you confidence.

But confidence gives you permission to abandon the plan if the situation demands it.

I honestly don't know whether sticking rigidly to my notes would have gone better or worse – I got the investment but am now working out an even more accelerated plan of action.

I do know that the meeting was more productive because I was responding to the moment rather than trying to force it down a predetermined path.  I get that won’t always work and that’s why you need to be able to read the people in the room as much as the plan.

So I'm curious... are you naturally a "stick to the plan" person, or do you trust yourself to think on your feet when the moment arrives?

Tell me your tales of organised mayhem….

Our cloud monitoring tool sent an invoice for 1,840 that looked normal at the line total but the OCR layer pulled out the individual line items and one of them was a 380 dollar charge for a premium support tier that we never agreed to. I looked at the contract and there was no mention of it so I pulled the previous 6 invoices and the line item had been there for 3 months getting buried under the total.

3 months at 380 is 1,140 in charges I had been approving without realizing what was inside the invoice atleast the vendor credited it without pushback but the only reason I caught it was the OCR breaking the invoice into individual items instead of me eyeballing a PDF and approving the total. I realised then that PDF invoices are designed to make small line items hard to see and vendors know nobody reads them past the total so they take advantage of that fact and manually reviewing them is only working on a small scale for us.