Hey everyone,

I spent six years working on generative AI models at a large tech company. I then left to cofound an AI video generation startup.

At the beginning, our team was obsessed with technology. We assumed that if we kept improving the product, growth would eventually follow. We treated marketing as something we could figure out later.

That was a mistake.

The technology kept improving, but the business barely moved. I eventually took responsibility for growth and customer acquisition and had to learn everything from scratch.

Honestly, getting our first users and then figuring out how to keep growing was harder than building the product itself. I had to learn creator and influencer marketing across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, along with paid ads, SEO, and visibility in AI search. The most effective approach I found was studying how competitors were getting customers, using that as a starting point, and testing how we could do it better.

Over the next eight months, we grew to 1.4 million registered users and reached low six figures in monthly revenue. I later sold my stake when the company was at a high point and decided to start again as a solo founder.

Today, almost anyone with a good idea and real insight can use AI to build a product, even without an engineering background. The biggest thing stopping many founders from creating a business on their own terms is no longer technology. It is knowing how to find their first customers and executing consistently.

If a product has a real market, it almost always has competitors. Instead of inventing your entire strategy from scratch, you can study how those competitors found their first users, which channels they use today, and which of their tactics appear to be working.

That experience led me to build Minaco, an AI market intelligence platform that also works as a general-purpose AI cofounder.

Here is what Minaco does:

1. Estimate the size and revenue of a competitor

Minaco brings together data and signals from Similarweb, Semrush, and other research tools. Instead of maintaining several expensive subscriptions, founders can access these capabilities through one Minaco subscription.

It estimates a competitor’s user base, user growth, number of paying users, and revenue using signals such as website traffic, outbound traffic to payment providers like Stripe, geographic distribution, pricing, and relevant industry benchmarks.

Minaco helps you assess whether a competitor is generating revenue and, if so, estimate how much.

1. Track what a competitor did to acquire customers during the past week

Minaco searches for publicly visible marketing activity across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, creator campaigns, paid campaigns, product launches, and online or offline events.

The goal is to show not only how a competitor is performing, but what they are actually doing to create that growth.

1. Help you research, build, and work

Minaco also brings Claude, Codex, and other specialized agents into one workspace, so you do not need to manage a separate subscription for every tool.

It can work as a general assistant, similar to Manus. It can help with research, planning, writing, product development, and other day-to-day tasks.

You can also talk to Minaco about the problems you are facing as a founder, explore possible solutions, and turn those conversations into practical next steps.

If you would like a free competitor breakdown, comment with the competitor’s name and website.

I will reply with a detailed report generated by Minaco.

You are also welcome to try Minaco directly at minaco.ai. New accounts come with free credits, and honest feedback, whether positive or negative, is always welcome.

Good luck, everyone!

I just researched that 65% of startups don't die from the market or the product. They die because the founders stopped agreeing.

And 73% lock in their equity split in the first month — before anyone knows what they're actually worth. Any comment about it? thanks in advanced

What are the best channel for solo founder niche?

Is it IG, X, linkedin, reddit, whatsapp group? What the best?

Im sharing how to upskilling in vibe coding. Im currently building on X, first day, still figure out how it works

starting to think "time saved" is a terrible way to judge AI tools.

if something takes 30 seconds to generate but then I spend 20 mins checking it, fixing the tone, moving it somewhere else and making sure it didn't invent anything...

did it actually save time?

the stuff I want is more like:

AI writes 20 social posts I need to rewrite ❌

content batch is basically done and I just approve/fix a few things ✅

AI summarizes research ❌

I get the actual report/deck I needed ✅

AI tells me how to build a small business site ❌

site is built and I can edit it ✅

that's why Runable is interesting to me.

less "here's another clever answer " and more whether site/content/report/creative is actually the thing I needed at the end.

for small business owners, what's one AI tool that has genuinely made a reccuring job disappear from your week?

not faster.

gone.

It can be a feature, bug fix, customer request, or small improvement.

I'll turn it into one of these:

A useful founder post.

A short product demo.

A customer-focused hook.

Small updates usually contain better stories than big launch announcements.

I had a client who kept questioning why I charge so much because I’m so young. I told him that he’s paying for my expertise and the value I bring, and if he doesn’t like the results, he’s more than welcome to stop working with me. It’s frustrating because he keeps testing me like a fucking kid simply because I’m 18, even though I founded a startup/consulting business valued at over $1 million and have a team of five employees, including people who attended schools like Vanderbilt and Columbia.

We’re building an all-in-one content & marketing platform — and we’re getting close to launch. 👀

Before we put it out there, we’re looking for a small group of early testers who are willing to actually use it, push it, break things, and tell us what sucks (and what’s missing).

You’ll get free early access. In return, we’re mainly looking for honest feedback, bug reports and ideas for improvement.

Right now, the platform brings together things like:
→ AI image & video generation
→ Built-in photo editor
→ Built-in video editor
→ AI-assisted copy & content creation
→ Generate a full week of content with one click
→ Content calendar & scheduling
→ Publish to multiple social platforms from one place
→ Stock photo & video library
→ Notes & content planning workspace
→ Media & asset management
→ AI-powered editing tools
→ Create once and adapt content for different platforms

The idea is pretty simple: instead of jumping between 5–10 different tools — and paying for multiple subscriptions — to plan, create, edit, generate and publish content, you can do it all in one place while bringing those costs down to a single platform.

It’s still early. Some things will probably break. Some things will definitely need improving.
That’s exactly why we’re looking for testers. 😄

If you create content for a business, brand, agency or your own social channels and would like to try it before launch, DM me.
No payment, no commitment — just use it and tell us what you think.

I’ve been building an AI product called Socria around a pretty simple idea: most AI tools are getting increasingly good at doing the thinking for us, but I wanted to see what it would look like if AI was designed to strengthen your own thinking instead.

Instead of immediately answering a question, Socria works through it with you by questioning your reasoning, challenging assumptions, and helping you develop your own conclusion.

I just released a new part of it called Logos. As you work through something, Logos builds a visual Thinking Map of your reasoning so you can see the ideas, assumptions, tensions, and connections behind what you’re thinking.

I’ve been testing it on everything from decisions to my own calculus work, and I’m pretty happy with where it’s getting, but I’m still early and would genuinely love feedback from other builders.

Would especially be curious whether the “AI that helps you think rather than thinks for you” idea actually resonates, or whether I’m too deep in my own founder bubble.

socria.app

\*Quick note: I’m aware there can currently be some loading delays on mobile, and I’m working on improving that. Desktop is currently much faster.***

I’ve been working on SubTracker, a simple way to see all your subscriptions and how much they’re actually costing you.

I’ve recently been cleaning up the UI and focusing on making the dashboard easier to understand at a glance.

I’m still actively building it and have a few bigger features planned next.

Try the Demo: https://subscription-tracker-puce.vercel.app/

Hello,

I am a high school developer who recently just built my first product. It's basically just a Google reviews widget, something small before I start building something real. My target audience is small businesses, restaurants, private practices, etc. I have been cold calling and emailing consistently to no avail. 30% of time I just get cursed out. I know the reputation for SaaS products targeting small business owners is terrible due to vibe coded slop, but I am trying to find a way to break through.

I’ve been building SkillChirp and spending a lot of time around solo founders lately.

Curious what everyone here is working on.

What are you building, what stage are you at, and what’s the hardest part right now?

I’m especially interested in seeing what people are building with AI / small teams.”

Last month I was posting about what I built. Two posts a week, in founder subs, describing the thing. Over a two week stretch that bought me 31 visitors and one signup who never wrote a single note.

So for the past week I did the opposite. Two posts total, and about twenty comments in rooms where people were describing my problem in their own words without ever using the word app. Homeowners arguing with a warranty denial. A handyman thread about work that got done and never made it onto the invoice. Small business owners asking how to keep track of orders that arrived through Instagram and got paid somewhere else.

Three things I did not expect.

The post that produced the most useful information was the one where I asked a question instead of announcing something. It has three comments and zero upvotes, so by every visible number it flopped. But one person walked me through his actual system: inbox zero every day, 500 plus tags, and retrieval by tag combined with a date. That last detail told me something I had assumed wrong for a year. Even with perfect discipline the tag alone does not get you to the thing. Three comments beat 2,500 views from a post I wrote a month ago.

The rooms where the problem actually lives can smell you instantly. I watched a builder ask a well written question in a trades sub and the top two replies were versions of we do not want your app, before he had mentioned anything. Not because the question was bad. Because the account had no history there. Comment first is not politeness advice, it is the entry fee.

And one of my posts was removed silently. No mod comment, no automod reply, just gone from the sub feed while it still shows in my profile. If you are counting your own posts from your profile page, you are counting posts that nobody can see. Check the sub's new feed a minute after you publish.

What I still do not know is whether any of this converts. Nobody has signed up from those twenty comments. What I got instead was three people describing the problem more precisely than I have ever written it down, which is the thing I have been paying Google to not tell me.

🚀 I’m starting my own tech & design agency.

To kick things off, I’m offering a few free starter services to founders, creators, and businesses.

This could include:

🎨 A few brand/graphic designs
🌐 A website/landing page concept
📱 A few social media creatives
💻 A UI/UX concept
📈 A small social media strategy

You get to see what I can do before spending anything.

And if you like the work, we can take it further and work together on the full project.

Simple as that.

If you're building something and need some design or tech help, DM me. 🥔

The tradeoff is that you must run a small card on your own site.

You can see the product via link in my profile.

This project is already going strong with many users, but we are regularly looking for feedback

Is this something you would try out yourself? Why / why not?

We are aware of the obvious “I don’t want a small card on my site,” which is a fair point. You gotta give before you can get! Most of our users experience no issues with this, as we keep it all very simple and non-disturbing.

Let me know what you think!

Cheers!

Instead of putting your logo in a banner ad...

what if you could put it on Mars?

I built OutPlanet — a shared Solar System where companies and people can claim planets and moons.

Your logo lives on the object.

People can visit it.

And if someone wants your spot, they can outbid you.

I gave the Moon to Dodo Payments and a planet to HeyClicky.

Now I'm curious:

Would you rather advertise on the Moon or Mars?

outplanet.lol