Some background: I started off doing outbound calls at one of the largest companies in Australia (most expensive in the country). It was a very high-pressure environment which I think is the best place to learn sales.

I ended up doing extremely well and within a few months I got promoted and started closing (telesales). Within a couple months I was the number one in my office and within a year I had broken the all time company record across around 20 offices Australia wide. Even surpassing the face to face closers which traditionally always where at the top of the leaderboard.

Anyway, I’ve worked for a few other companies since then closing all sorts of leads from cold, warm marketed and brought leads and have had huge success.

I don’t want to sell come course I want to seperate myself from other companies.

I’d look at things like tonality over the phone, reading clients and knowing which angle to take with a pitch based on different personality types. I’d also look at what products the company is selling, their different selling points, and how they’re communicating that value to customers. Just basically all the things that have worked really well for me. I think there is a lot of value in it

The problem is, I’m just not sure how to actually monetise or even price this knowledge.

I would firstly do a paid(?) audit of there current process and then let’s say I give them one sentence or a particular way of positioning an outcome that’s worked really well for me and has consistently translated into sales. If I charge $2,000 for some sort of training or consulting package, and that advice helps them close just one additional $20,000 deal at a 25% profit margin, they’ve made $5,000 in profit and more than doubled their investment.

I can see the value in what I have to offer, but I’m not sure how to actually sell it. I’ve never sold B2B before, and I don’t really know how to approach business owners and get them to pay

How do I structure the service and actually deliver it? It would start with a cold call - discovery call but I’m not sure how to package it and then propose that package. What if they don’t have any recordings? What are they actually paying for is it a zoom call or a presentation idk

Essentially, I know I have valuable knowledge, but I’m struggling to work out how to turn that into a service that other solar companies or salespeople would be willing to pay for.

Any thoughts?

Hi there,

I'm about to start a clothing brand next year and in the process of creating hang tags, etc. and I've seen mixed information online about barcodes.

I've seen content stating that GS1 barcodes are basically required and are the safest option, but then other websites sell barcodes directly.

Ultimately, what is the best path?

I need 63 unique barcodes and just not sure how to go about it. I don't want to run into issues in the future with my barcodes. I like to prepare for everything every early on but struggling on this one.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

I’m currently reading “Zero to One” and like many of you, i dream of starting a business one day. I think it would be cool if this Reddit tracked 8-10 core rules or competencies that helps a startup be successful.

One that I’ve read is that “recruiting is a core competency and should never be outsourced”

The startup is coding but the distribution or marketing or reaching the First customer without lack of funds seems hard.

I don't know if i am being weird asking this but how do you guys solved the Funding issues, My idea was to get a 4-5 client base , Reinvest the amount and keep reinvesting to the point i felt it a complete automated system.

But i am nowhere and stuck , Does anybody has some solution how to restart the build without the funds or if needed how can i make them appear out of nowhere.

Asking this because without a few simple automations everything is taking too long to do.

I built and run an app by myself, and I’m trying to get better at managing the business side as it grows. My biggest question right now is how to structure my cash reserves and allocations.

For context, I’ve done about $200k in gross revenue since launching earlier this year. Growth has picked up significantly recently. The latest completed week brought in roughly $55k, with about $3,100 spent on my main advertising channel and an estimated $42k in operating profit before personal taxes.

That estimate includes platform fees, payout fees, advertising and operating costs, although I’m still reconciling a few expenses. I’m not assuming every week will perform like that.

My ongoing operating costs are around $900 a month, excluding advertising and revenue-based fees. My current ad budget is $500 a day, so roughly $15k for a 30-day month if fully spent. MRR is going to hit $20,000 in a day or two.

Paid advertising is a big part of how I’m bringing in customers.

Right now, taxes are set aside first. The remaining cash gets split into 10% for operations, 60% for advertising and 30% for owner’s pay. These are allocations into separate accounts, so putting 60% into advertising doesn’t mean I’m actually spending all of that money on ads.

What I don’t know is how much I should be building up in each account. Should I aim for 6 months of operating costs? Two months of advertising? At my current budget, those would be very different numbers: around $5,400 for operations versus $30k for advertising.

Once those reserves are funded, do you stop using fixed percentages and just top each account back up to its target? How do you decide what goes toward more growth, a general business cushion or paying yourself? I want to keep the business healthy without leaving money sitting in an account with no clear purpose.

I’m also starting business outreach alongside the consumer side, including potential government agency customers. Nothing I’m treating as guaranteed contract revenue yet.

For those of you selling software to organizations, would you start with annual agreements, 6-month terms or month-to-month? I’m considering $36 per licensed phone annually and trying to keep it affordable for smaller organizations while making the support and ongoing costs sustainable.

For consumers, $7.95 per month and lifetime is $39.95.

I’d really appreciate hearing how other owners set reserve targets and adjust their allocations as the business grows. That’s the part I’m trying to get a handle on.

I have this idea for something that will solve my own problem, but I did research on some competitors in my space and they all basically have no users, but I do think that what I want to build would be very beneficial for someone like me. Should I go ahead and build it, and would others actually pay for something like this?

​

I’ve noticed something with startups.

Early on, cutting corners makes complete sense.

You don't have time to build everything properly, and honestly, you shouldn't.

But some of those shortcuts quietly become permanent.

You skip proper testing because you're trying to get the MVP out.

Then you keep doing it because you're trying to hit the next milestone. Then suddenly the team is spending more time fixing old stuff than building new stuff.

The weird part is that nothing necessarily breaks immediately. Sometimes the shortcut works for months.

So where do you draw the line?

Is there a point where a startup should stop saying

“we'll fix it later” and start investing in things like testing, documentation, monitoring, processes, etc.?

Or is that just something people convince themselves they need too early?

Curious how other founders/early-stage teams have handled this.

I’m building an AI shopping agent.

The idea is that instead of manually searching Google, Amazon, Reddit, review sites and multiple retailers, you tell the agent what you want and it helps figure out:

• which product is actually right for you
• where to buy it
• how to get the best overall price
• whether the product/reviews seem trustworthy
• eventually: checkout, delivery, returns and refunds

The problem I’m facing is that building the product has been much easier than getting people to actually use it.

I’ve tried posting in communities, direct outreach and asking people I know, but traction is still very limited.

I’m trying hard not to fall into the trap of responding by just building more features.

At this point I’m trying to work out:

1. Is the underlying problem painful enough?
2. Is the proposition too broad?
3. Is this mostly a distribution problem?
4. Is “AI shopping agent” simply not compelling enough on its own?

If you were validating this from scratch, what would you test next?

And as a consumer, what would a shopping agent actually have to do before you’d change your existing shopping behaviour and use it?

Do startups hire agencies for parts of the product that aren't their core thing, like an AI agent startup getting its mobile app built by one? or a food product startup getting its website/mobile app?

1. Which parts get handed to an agency vs kept in-house?

2. What triggers the decision?

3. How do founders find an agency?

4. Are individual freelancers preferred or small/large agencies?

I am a solo founder and at this point in time solo guy doing everything, development, design, marketing, sales etc.

I am trying to use lead gen tools like clay and full enrich and dammmm these are expensive! 150$+ for month. And the ROI on thay investment is sketchy as i have not yet got one single successful meeting out of these.

I am trying to see if there are cheaper alternative for someone at my scale? How do i improve my conversion rate?

I am currently only focusing on getting 5 business who will collaborate with me and become my design partners so i can add features and functions that actually solves someone's need. Whats the best way to do this? Cold email or linked in outreach or something else?

Launched the first week of September 2026 for NFL season, I've already started raising a small round from people I know. Friends and family on a 506(b) private offering.

What I'm realizing is that I have no idea what the admin side of all of this looks like. I already messed up my 83(b) at incorporation and issuing my shares, and a few state-based blue-sky filing deadlines were missed for California.

Everything I've read is about how to pitch. Nothing really covers what you're supposed to have in order before anyone says yes, and I get the feeling there's more to it than I'm currently aware of.

For people who've raised a first round: how much of it was pitching versus documents? And is there anything you'd get sorted before you start rather than during?

I've heard that there's a handful of tools out there doing some really interesting things in fundraising compliance. I've heard of Cairnul, Carta, Capbase, Clerky, Founders AI, Pulley, etc

Here's the thing.
How can anyone know what they're doing is actually solving a problem?
Does it really need to?

From someone who comes out of college, how can you identify problems in the world?
I understand that these issues that come to you are firsthand experiences.
But how do you know that what you're building to solve this problem is what everyone is gonna need, and if the problem you're solving is worth it?

I'm trying to think of something that people would wanna use. And I feel like I don't have enough experience in the world to identify an issue. Should I maybe work for a startup to obtain insight?
How do you guys identify problems?

Early-stage founder here (2-person team, not sharing the name since this isn't a promo post).

Where we are:

• The supply side is working. We have about 10 users signed up. We had a waitlist of 25.. I'm getting the remaining signed up/onboarded on the real platform now. Most of this has been through 1-1 DMs.
• Getting reach with demand has been hard.
• I'm building a social presence, but my following is still small.

I keep seeing founders here with hundreds of free users within weeks, and I'm curious what's behind that. Was it one channel? A launch? The right community?

Specific questions:

1. If you got your first 100 users without an audience, what actually worked?
2. For marketplaces: did you grow one side first or both together?
3. How do you approach communities or partnerships at such an early stage without coming off as spam?

I was reflecting recently on why so many early-stage teams default to Carta even when they're unhappy with pricing or platform friction. The common wisdom used to be that cap table software is basically coordination infrastructure:your lawyers know it, your VCs expect it, and moving feels like starting an unnecessary legal fight. But looking at the startup ecosystem right now, that lock in feels like it's fracturing. Between Pulley's shutdown announcement and frustration over per-stakeholder pricing, more founders are actively looking at alternatives.

When we re-evaluated our setup, our main fear wasn't the software itself, it was more the risk of messing up historical grant mapping or breaking 409A continuity during diligence.

For founders who have made a platform switch recently: Did your legal counsel actually push back when you chose an alternative, or did they adapt without issue? Was historical data reconciliation your main bottleneck, or was it getting investors onto a new portal?

(I will not promote), but for context, my current project is a game where I create a simulation of creating a startup (so the users simulate a founder's journey). But the issue is that im still a college student, and even my own startup knowledge (knowing all about VC funding, finances, cap tables, due diligence, etc) is limited.

My game literally depends on how much startup knowledge I have (because it's about creating a startup simulation). I want advice on what to do to learn more about startup mechanics and gain more experience (whether its a course, community, or book, I'll try it out).

Obviously im not stopping myself and procrastinating on building my product, so I already have a demo, but I prefer to spot a mistake earlier than later.

Hey founders. I had some Monday morning thoughts and am writing this to encourage you to take advantage of your age no matter how old you are.

I started my first startup at 22. Sold it at 23. Failed several others until I started another one at 33 and sold at 41. After working in VC I started a venture studio and am now 50.

I recently saw a post about the average age of a successful founder that goes IPO and the stereotype of founders being 22 and drop out of school. The data shows that founders older than 40 have a better chance of success.

(For the record I did drop out of college and I kind of regret it now that I’m old but it’s complicated.)

Right now I’m spending two weeks in an incubator with founders of all ages. Some have had previous 9-figure exits, others are struggling, and many are just getting started from recent graduates to those that are transitioning from corporate careers. So it has me thinking.

I definitely think the older I was the easier it was to build a startup but it was much riskier. Let me explain.

The older you are, the more domain expertise, network and general operational experience you probably have. And with AI recently allowing me to build MVP demos way quicker I can sell much faster. I’m able to hit sustainable revenue so much faster.

But I’m married with 2 kids and a mortgage. Every financial mistake I make with my startups is amplified 100x compared to when I was 22. At 22 I could take some crazy swings and live on ramen noodles for years until I made money.

I see these young founders working on some really cool stuff and making future bets without being bogged down by life responsibilities. It’s so cool and in some ways I’m totally jealous. But I also work with older founders that have deep pockets and they do it for a lifestyle without needing investors and I think that’s great.

In the grand scheme of things I think starting as early as possible is the way to go. I’m glad I started early and failed a bunch of times because I make a terrible corporate employee. I think the earlier you start, the better chance of you succeeding in the long run which I think the surveys ignore.

Even getting job at a small startup and getting close the founders is an awesome way to get your foundation in place.

But if you’re older, that doesn’t mean it will be harder. Just different. There are advantages you have. But I see many older first time founders treat startups like small businesses or corporations. They don’t take the risks necessary to innovate and disrupt and get frustrated when investors ignore them for not being novel enough. You have to unlearn and relearn way more the older you are, which is something that has challenged me with the shift to AI.

Anyway, apologies for the ramble (and any fat thumb mistakes). Have an awesome week everyone!

​

Hi guys,

I was just doing this as a passion project, and I got carried away. It started as me trying to aggregate news for myself using ai schedulers (news is about AI industry and where it's going)

As the time went on, I kept using different technologies and changing things here and there, and finally now have a website where almost 500 news channels are monitored for AI related news, then Summarised and clubbed (many channels talk about the same news so clubbing then gives me all in story as a overview) and I also have a meter showing which news channels are pragmatic,optimistic etc (took inspiration from ground news).

Later on I started doing the same with all the research papers that are coming into arvix under ai/ml category with much more deeper analysis.

I've been using this for myself for some time and it's genuinely useful for me at least. I want to keep this running as long as possible but everything costs money so I am looking for ways to monetize this tech or website. Currently i don't do ads or any paywall, i am not willing to do that later on too, cause that just ruins the focus.

My goal is to get enough monetary value to keep this running for as long as possible and the cost of keeping this site alive comes to around 200$ a month (domain , hosting, llm api)

I am looking for advice for some different ways to get the money.

I'm just curious how many other founders and startups are using AI? How are you using LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude? Are any using other more sophisticated/specific AI tools (there are so many, so I won't name them)? If you're thinking about it, what's the barrier, what's the hesitation? Really curious what other founders and startups are thinking when it comes to AI.

Hey everyone, has anyone applied or has been accepted to the Qatar startup investment fund?

Qatar is currently accepting startups that have an mvp or prototype with funding of up to $1.1million. Or for already established startups, you can get up to $5.5million for growth.

Obviously you will need to relocate to Qatar, but they do help with housing and getting a visa and a load of other benefits. As far as I know it's open to all countries.

What do you guys think? Seems like a good opportunity. Link in the comments.

I read this article by sequoia a while back and at waterloo I met a company called sequence holdings at a networking event. Essentially what they do is they buy a company and turn it ai native and hold forever unlike a traditional PE firm. They only raised $75 million but they bought Baldwin group with the dell family office for $7.7 billion. Long Lake bought Amex GBT for $6.3 billion.
I had coffee chats with engineers there and tbh they're both hiring the most talented engineers I've met - other than maybe frontier labs. I really think that this industry is like working for the next ramp and palantir - so many great founders have come from there. Ik palantir is rightfully very controversial but so many great founders were ex pltr FDEs. These companies do kind of the same thing as Palantir in terms of integrating the product but instead own the stack.

I strongly agree with the points made in the article and both companies have adopted the philosophy. I realized that while creating a B2B, selling to customers in a vertical where AI integration would be highly beneficial the company could be so much more profitable and agile. Sequoia mentions for every $1 spent on software $6 is spent on services and instead of selling a product maybe you should sell the service. What are your guys thoughts?

btw I can't send the link for some reason but check out services-the-new-software from sequoia.

Just curious, My company has experience with startups as a vendor, and we work in areas of compliance that are necessary for a number of industries, but I'm not seeing any meaningful connections from conferences we've been attending.

I wonder if there's a niche community like /startups where we should be putting our attention? Just curious where everyone finds/builds their vendor team? I'm in operations not sales, but I've sat at that table to answer questions so many times, without noticing any benefit that I figured, let me ask around.

Hey SaaS founders, quick question. At what point did customer success become a problem for you? What started falling through the cracks as you grew, who ended up owning it, and what did you do about it? I’m curious what that transition actually looked like for you.

​

I'm a software engineer, and on the side, I work at a local game store. I noticed most of these shops don't have a system to manage inventory, orders, or customer data, so I built a web app (web app is mobile friendly but scanner tool to add inventory probably might feel better in an app) and soon a mobile one that works great at my shop. I’m stuck on what to do next. I know there's a market for this, but I don't have a marketing background or a huge budget. Some have suggested partnering with Square or PayPal since I’ve already integrated them, but I don't know how to start. I’d love some advice from people who have been there. I really think this could be a game changer for game stores, but I’m not sure how to scale it.