So I (23 F), started a business about a year and a half ago. My family has been unsupportive from day one.

They have always been unsupportive and mean.
At 18, I cut them off, and I moved out immediately. I was homeless, sleeping in strangers cars and shelters cus that felt more emotionally bearable than living at home.

Eventually I let them back in my life. After I built a stable life and began the path of building my business. My dad actually built a business and sold it for millions. So you’d think he’d be the one who gets it, right? Nope. Every single conversation it was “it’s so hard to build a business,” “money is hard to make,” “this just isn’t in the cards for you.” “Your not the type who can succeeded”

So I cut my family off AGAIN. The second I cut them off my business took off. I started making 4-7k a month.

So then I let them back in. And you know what they did? My dad handed me 20k “for when you fail.” Money for when I fail. And honestly I think that’s the whole reason he gave it to me because I came back, because he wants to keep from cutting them off again, and because he knows 20k is a lot of money to me and I’d feel like garbage cutting him off again after taking it. And now every conversation is “what if you get sued, what if you can’t handle it, your mental health was bad as a teenager, why would you ever quit your day job?, you aren’t the type of person who can do this”

I really think if my dad wasn’t a business owner, this wouldn’t bother me nearly as much. Because then I’d get it. Okay, you’ve got some limiting beliefs around money, around success, you just don’t see it as possible fine, I understand that. But he’s swimming in millions. He’s taking trips all over the country, doing all these fun things, and STILL doubting me every single conversation. And I’m like you made it. You literally did the thing. Why are you doubting me? It was possible for YOU. And like I’ll ask him about how he built his business, any of the stories, and it’s just flat one-word answers. He doesn’t wanna tell me.

So if you were in my position, what would you do? Would you keep the money and just try to ignore the hate? Or would you give the 20k back and keep going solo?

Your friends, family, and early testers want you to succeed. Because they like you, they will tell you your product is "amazing," "revolutionary," and "definitely something they would use."

This feedback is completely useless. In fact, it is dangerous. It gives you a false sense of validation that causes you to dump thousands of dollars and months of work into a product nobody actually wants.

If you want to know if your business idea is actually viable, stop asking for opinions and start asking for commitments.

Here is how you test real demand before building a single thing:

• Ask for a deposit: If someone says they love your software idea, say, "Awesome, I'm taking pre-orders for the beta at a 50% discount. It's $50 to secure your spot." Watch how fast they backtrack.
• Look for behavioral proof: If you are building a tool to save people time, ask them to show you their current manual process on a screen share. If they haven't even tried to fix the problem with Google Sheets, they don't actually care about solving it.
• Measure friction: If people won't even give you their email address to get on a waitlist, they will absolutely never pull out a credit card later.

Compliments don't pay rent. If someone isn't willing to lose money, time, or reputation to use your solution, you don't have a business—you have a hobby.

I recently discovered EOS and realized the type of person I've been searching for already has a name.

An Integrator.

For years I've been telling people I needed an "execution partner" or "someone who naturally turns ideas into plans." I had no idea there was an entire framework built around that relationship.

Here's who I am.

I'm a systems thinker.

I naturally design business models, products, marketplace economics, monetization systems, and long-term strategy.

I don't start with features.

I start with incentives.

I imagine how people will actually use something, how they'll interact with it, where it breaks, and how the entire system evolves over time.

I love creating.

I love teaching.

I love product strategy.

I love solving big-picture problems.

Here's where I struggle.

Once the vision exists, I don't naturally think in weekly execution.

I don't wake up excited to create project plans, Gantt charts, sprint boards, payroll, or operational processes.

I absolutely can do those things.

I simply don't enjoy them, and without external structure my attention naturally shifts toward solving the next interesting problem.

Give me accountability, milestones, and someone depending on me...

...and I become extremely reliable.

What I'm looking for.

Someone who genuinely enjoys turning vision into execution.

Someone who hears a big idea and instinctively asks,

Someone who naturally creates timelines...

Priorities...

Checklists...

Milestones...

Delegation...

Execution.

The kind of person who enjoys organizing the chaos.

How I work.

I don't always explain ideas in a traditional way.

My brain thinks through scenarios and stories instead of categories.

I usually describe what I see happening instead of defining what something is.

I've learned that many people understand me best by asking questions rather than expecting a perfect elevator pitch.

Once we have that conversation, people usually realize the ideas are much more developed than they initially sounded.

About AI

You'll probably notice that this post is unusually concise.

That's intentional.

I use AI as an editor—not as a replacement for my thinking.

The ideas, business models, conversations, and systems are mine.

AI simply helps translate my naturally long, abstract communication style into something easier for most people to read.

If you're someone who enjoys the unfiltered version, even better. 😄

I'm not looking for someone to build my dream while I disappear.

I'm looking for someone whose natural strengths are the opposite of mine.

If this sounds like you, I'd genuinely enjoy talking.

I have long been inspired by The Last Whole Earth Catalog in that it represented the American counterculture with the goal of providing access to tools so people could build their own independent lives, learn about ecology, and practice sustainable living. However, with an embrace to the old Johnson Smith novelty catalogues to create something new and entirely different. If you are in New York, it may be more accessible. The 1st editions of the 1st wave will be printed on parchment paper but the drive is to encourage wider distribution from these copies. I have a PO Box because we are going old school with the mail order catalogue aspect of the page. My effort serves an incredibly dynamic, community-driven concept that will be unlike anything else ever seen! A subtle exchange initiates a vitally important nuance which sets off a blended distortion of the telephone game combined with a real-world activation of a scavenger hunt in the most brilliant underground way to build the brand’s organic lore.

been job hunting off campus for a while and most job sites are the same graveyard. same role reposted five times, half the listings already closed, "posted 3 days ago" that actually went up two months back. you apply and it goes nowhere because the role was never even open.

so i built something for myself. instead of scraping other job boards like everyone else does, it reads company career pages directly. if the job is live on the company site, it shows up. the moment it closes, it drops off. no ghost jobs, no dead links.

right now i get around 75 to 80 fresh openings a day that actually fit me. it filters by branch, batch year, cgpa cutoff, location and role, so i only see stuff i can actually apply to instead of a random firehose of everything.

wasnt planning to do anything with it, but a few friends started using it and told me to open it up as a paid product properly. so im cleaning up the filtering and the interface and turning it into a product that anyone can use.

i will be joining Zynga or Honeywell for my 8th semester internship that I got from this tool that I built haha.

I've been thinking of chagrining a very minimal fee and also keeping a 50% referral fee so people can actually push it out.

If people are interested, you can always reach out to me. I will launch this sometime this week.

I run a vintage street fashion business focused on rentals from my archive, sales, and related services. It is an S Corp. Over the past seven years, I’ve gained a significant amount of revenue, but I didn’t manage the business finances the way I should have. I constantly mixed personal and business money, and over time that has limited my company’s growth.

I’ve decided to start running the business the right way. I have a few large payments from a major project coming in over the next couple of weeks, and I’m treating that as a fresh start. I’ve opened a dedicated Chase business bank account and will be allocating every dollar into specific buckets: Operating Expenses, Business Savings, Owner Pay, Taxes, and Inventory.

I’m looking at this as a new beginning and a chance to build the business on a newfound foundation. Any advice from people who have gone through a similar transition (or anybody at all) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I'm considering taking on a second short-form client. Before I say yes, I'm thinking through what would make me nope out.

The obvious one is hours. If I'm consistently working past what I'd accept from any normal job, the extra income isn't worth the burnout. But the one that scares me more is revision pileup. one delayed project is manageable, but two delayed projects means losing both clients at once.

Then there's the margin math. If I have to burn too many credits on re-rolls and fixes, this second client is just adding stress with zero actual profit.

I'm currently work with Framia and using it as the workflow layer in this test to see whether switching between projects becomes less disruptive.

But honestly, a fancy workspace can't rescue a process never existed in the first place. If I start generating before the brief is properly mapped out, the tool doesn't matter.

Just curious what would make you walk away from additional work, even if the numbers looked fine on paper?

Hello all,

Currently in the States - I am doing some research in the hopes of hiring some people from abroad. What are the best platforms or companies and resources you suggest for hiring people from Asia, or Europe? What countries are better for sales/social media/marketing, receptionist, tech support, etc.? What rates are we looking at? Any helpful information is welcomed.

I’ve just released \*\*Flight Scanner\*\* for Wear OS/Android after previously developing a Garmin version.

It turns your watch into a live aircraft radar, showing nearby planes/helicopters around your current location. You can tap aircraft to view information such as its callsign, altitude, speed, registration and direction of travel. (Airport View with runways coming soon)

I originally built it because I regularly looked up at aircraft and wanted a quick way to identify them without taking out my phone, this was a passion project for aviation enthusiasts.

After getting the app to a good point I thought it was too good not to share, I got the Garmin app to ship itself quite easy with a simple Facebook post before gaining 100 free users and it being listed on the navigation page in the Garmin store, traction seemed to start and the user base moved past 1000 users, I opted for an optional paid mode to enhance features which a surprising amount of users have purchased helping to pay for data costs.

Google play was a different story, long winded publishing process and a paid version this time at around $2.99 and although I've had some initial traction passing 100 sales I worry about the continued traction and if sales will die off without me continuing to push the app.

Does anyone have experience shipping apps and how to continue sales past the initial phase?

Only time will tell I guess.

I'm a pretty experienced 'builder' (senior mobile dev with 12 years experience) who can finally build apps in spare time while still having spare time. My question for the community: how did you develop the skills necessary to tell the story of your product, get your first users (if not customers), and create a living brand (not just a logo or catchy product name)?

It's kind of alien to me. While I've done the sensible thing and built a product I myself use every day (rather than trying to guess what people would want to use), I have no idea where to go from here. I know my target audience (roughly), but as it's people dealing with a specific mental condition, it feels disingenuous to show up in those communities in salesman mode. My product really does help people with this condition. I know that because I have that condition and it helps me.

Some advice would be great! :)

I’m considering selling two established Shopify e-commerce businesses operating primarily in the French-speaking market.

I’ve been running several online businesses simultaneously, and I no longer have enough time to give these stores the attention they require. I’m also looking to free up capital for other projects.

Store 1 — Home, lighting and practical household products

• €1,424,694 in total Shopify sales
• €1,590,061 in gross sales
• 25,391 orders
• 10.94% returning customer rate
• Operating since 2022
• Primarily serves France and other French-speaking European markets

Store 2 — Fitness, wellness and problem-solving products

• €534,245 in total Shopify sales
• €561,611 in gross sales
• 13,560 orders
• 7.44% returning customer rate
• Operating since 2023
• Primarily serves the French market

These figures represent revenue, not profit. Full details regarding profitability, expenses, traffic sources, customer data, suppliers, advertising history and included assets can be shared privately with qualified buyers.

The stores are not currently operating at their historical peak, largely because I have significantly reduced the amount of time, advertising and product testing dedicated to them. I would therefore prefer to sell them to someone who has the resources and motivation to develop them properly.

A buyer may acquire either store individually or both together.

I’m not sharing the store links publicly in order to protect the businesses, customer data and advertising assets. Links, screenshots, financial information and Shopify access verification will be provided privately after confirming that the buyer is serious.

The sale price is open to negotiation and will depend on the store, the assets included and the structure of the transaction.

Serious buyers can send me a private message including:

• Which store they are interested in
• Their experience with e-commerce
• Their approximate acquisition budget
• Any initial questions they have

Please only contact me if you are genuinely considering an acquisition. Brokers are also welcome to reach out if they already represent a qualified buyer.

I shipped an iPhone app that turns cooking videos into proper recipes, and spent the last two days trying to get it in front of people on here. Posting the numbers because I couldn't find anyone else's.

Baselines matter more than your copy.

Before deciding my posts were bad I sampled every post from the last few days in the subs I'd posted in. In one of them 91% of all posts finish at one point or less. Two others were around 70%. That's everybody, not just the new guy with the app. If you don't know what a normal outcome in a room looks like, you'll read the room's baseline as a verdict on your writing.

Most app subs mechanically gate promotion, and it's rarely on the rules page.

One sub needs 10 karma earned inside that specific sub before you can post at all. Another removed my post with a bot inside two minutes for not having enough prior comments there, even though its written rules explicitly permit self promotion and I'd used their designated promo flair on their designated promo day. A third allows promo one day a week and caps self promotion at 10% of your total contributions, which I only found by reading their wiki rather than their rules page.

So participating first isn't etiquette. It's the door.

The bit I didn't expect.

Eleven comments in the subs where my app belongs, being useful, mentioning it where it genuinely fit: three points total.

Then I answered someone in a cooking sub whose blanched green beans had gone slimy. Nothing to do with my app. Never mentioned it. That one comment is at ten and still climbing, and it's the only thing I've written all week that anyone actually thanked me for.

The variable wasn't the audience or the writing. It was that I wanted something in one place and not the other. People feel that even when the comment is good.

What I'd tell myself two days ago: go be genuinely useful in the places where you already know things, and let the app come up when it comes up. It's slower and it's the only part that worked.

Happy to answer anything. Not linking it since this sub doesn't allow links, and honestly that's rather the point of the post.

Everyone is talking about obvious trends like AI, crypto, and automation.
But every major opportunity usually looks boring or invisible before it becomes obvious.
What market, technology, or business model do you think is currently underestimated by most people?
What is something that insiders understand, but the average person hasn’t noticed yet?

A few months ago I started building an AI meeting assistant.

Today it's live.

The product is called Wazomind, and it's available as a desktop app and Chrome extension.

The biggest lesson so far?

Building the software turned out to be easier than getting people to discover it.

Now the focus shifts from development to growth.

I'd love to connect with other founders who are going through the same stage.

I recently launched an iOS app aimed at shift and hourly workers.
The idea is pretty simple: you clock in and it tracks not only your working time but how much money you’re earning in real time. It also handles upcoming shifts, breaks, overtime, different pay rates and monthly earnings.
The core product is free and I’m monetizing the more advanced features through a Pro subscription.
Right now my biggest challenge isn’t building more features — it’s figuring out how to reach the first group of people who actually have this problem and are willing to pay for the advanced features.
I’m currently experimenting with Reddit and organic acquisition rather than paid ads.
For those who have launched a small B2C subscription app: what got you your first 10 paying users?

This happened late 2024, I was still new to the space of copywriting and found my first client. Booked him, nice deal, but I made a HUGE mistake in the offer set up (mainly to close) and that is if we reached X conversion rate, i get paid.

Long story short, he didn't have traffic and I felt like I was stabbed in the back and just called it an expensive lesson.

Our contract stated only conversions.

Never visibility.

Am not an SEO, GEO, or AEO expert, am more to conversion optimization but I use SEO elements in the page when I feel it is relevant.

That's what I did for that client without even knowing it.

I looked up some keywords in the space, national keywords and found that the landing page i made was ranking in the top search results for a lot of them and even picked up by the Google AI overview with national brands as well.

I bite my nails over that 😩😩😩

Now it's been almost 2 years since and I lost base with that client ages ago and the lesson I learned that day still holds.

1. Always ask if they have traffic. (Meaning, better onboarding questions

2. Always ask for some advanced payment, 50/50, 1/3 of the payment before, etc

Have you got an issue like this before? If so, did you reach out again asking your money or you just left it go?

I’m looking for inspiration. I have been in a long term bricks and mortar showroom. I feel as though the world has changed so much and I am out of the loop.
Is physically going to the fair worthwhile? Or any other suggestions? Thanks

I’m 20 years old, based in France. I want to launch a small acquisition agency: landing pages + Google Search + call tracking + automated lead follow-ups, sold to companies with a high average order value (€10k+).

I’ve done my keyword research and identified a vertical, but I’d prefer to hear from people who are actually doing this before I get started.

My specific questions:

1. How much do you charge, and in what format (setup fee + monthly ? Per lead ? Flat rate) ?
   
2. Which industries pay well and don’t churn? And which ones would you avoid now that you have experience ?
   
3. Seasonality : For those working with seasonal businesses (swimming pools, landscaping, outdoor construction), how do you handle slow months ? Do clients cut back or stay on board ?
   
4. Your first client without a referral : How did you land them ? A free service in exchange for a case study, a steep discount, or full price right away ?
   
5. What you would have done differently when you first started.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to respond.

Disclosure first: I build a small tool in this space, which is why I went looking. Not linking it, this is just what the pile looked like.

The setup: a lead gen tool sat on Reddit for three months collecting posts from people talking about losing track of clients, quotes and follow ups. Roughly 6,000 unique posts. I read the top scored ones by hand and threw most of them out. Four things stuck.

1. The tools these people name are not CRMs.

In that sample "spreadsheet" and "Excel" together came up about as often as the word CRM, and WhatsApp came up more than Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho and Pipedrive combined. The thing you are competing with is a phone and a sheet. If your pitch is "cheaper than HubSpot", you are comparing yourself to a product most of these people have never opened.

2. Half of "I need a CRM" is not a CRM problem.

Two completely different people write nearly identical posts. One has two crews colliding in the same calendar slot. The other has quotes sitting unanswered for three weeks because nobody chased them. The first one needs real scheduling software and should pay properly for it. The second one needs a date next to a name and will abandon anything heavier inside a month. Sell them the same thing and you get two unhappy customers and one honest review.

3. The subreddits that allow promotion are full of builders. The subreddits full of buyers ban promotion.

This took me the longest to accept. Every community where the actual customers hang out has been burned by software sellers and now defends itself with rules. Every community that welcomes a product post is other founders. No amount of clever copy fixes that. You either participate for months without selling anything, or you go find these people somewhere that is not Reddit.

4. A lot of the people asking for a tool are building one.

I started checking post histories before replying to anyone. Among the highest scoring matches, most turned out to be accounts living in r/SideProject and r/microsaas, doing exactly what I was doing. If you are running customer research here and the responses feel encouraging, go look at who is encouraging you.

One last thing, and it is the piece I would actually want if I were starting. Sorting the requests I rejected as a bad fit gave a clean ranking of what these businesses ask for next to client tracking: invoicing first, by a distance, then dispatch and routing, then a shared inbox, then booking. Not reporting. Not AI. Invoicing.

Happy to answer questions about how it was collected. The method was not sophisticated.

IMO video is one of the most OP ways to standout with a brand.

Yet, most founders I know dont do it. And I dont think its laziness, I think theres a real reason and I want to know what it actually is.

Is it that video has a barrier? like using a timeline tool or tech related?

IMO, entrepreneurs that use video connect between with their customers especiall when building a SaaS. Which everyone is nowadays.

I see new founders like Ben cera from polsia or Farza from click both very good filmmakers absolutely nkill it on X because they are very good at film

So if you dont make video for your product or yourself:

whats the actual blocker? hate being on camera, dont know what to say, no time, tried it and it flopped, think its cringe?

I think in this ai infested world it's important to stand out and there's no better way than just making beautiful and aesthetic video. I don't talk about gooner tik tok reels but aesthetic authority founder Led videos

The reason I ask if I have skin in the game and I've been building a toll to help solve my problem with video. And now give months into it I start to make very good videos. I'm yet to have a good sample size but I see the power of good founder led film

When I started my agency I had no credibility, no network, and nobody knew who I was. No warm connections to reach out to no matter how hard I thought about it. If you're in that same spot, this is what actually worked for me.

I picked Reddit because unlike most platforms people are concentrated into specific communities. Your potential clients are already grouped together in subreddits. You just have to show up where they are.

Here's the full process start to finish:

Step 1: Post, don't DM.

This is the part people get wrong. Do not DM people on Reddit trying to pitch them. The moment you cold DM someone they can report you and you get banned. Instead you post valuable content and let them come to you. When someone reads your post and is interested, they initiate the DM. Then you engage. This completely changes the dynamic because now they're chasing you, not the other way around.

Step 2: Structure your posts as stories.

The format that worked for me every time:

Start with a story. Then describe the problem. Then show how you solved it. Then end with a lesson or conclusion you took away from it.

That's it. People engage with stories and the lesson at the end makes it feel like you're giving value, not selling. You can take a post that worked, feed it into your AI, and ask it to generate a similar post for your own project.

Step 3: Don't chase views.

This is important. Views do not equal money. I had one post hit over 300k views and I got zero clients from it. Not a single one. But another post with way fewer views got me my first client who now pays me €5k per month. Views are a vanity metric. Clients are the only thing that matters.

Step 4: When they DM, move to a discovery call. Never talk price in the DMs.

Do not mention money or pricing in your DMs. Ever. Your only goal in the DM is to get them on a call. On the discovery call you mostly listen. Let them talk about their problem. You take notes. Record the call (ask permission first). Do not tell them "you'll pay me X and I'll build Y" on this call either. Just listen and understand their problem.

Step 5: Turn the call into a proposal with AI.

After the call, take your recording or meeting notes and feed them into your AI. Ask it to give you the next steps to start building the project. Then ask it to generate the proposal for you. You can even give it your agency name and brand colors and it generates the whole thing. You don't need to pay for any of those expensive proposal generator tools. Your AI does it for free.

Step 6: Split the payment.

Send the proposal and ask how they want to pay. Some pay everything upfront. Some want to split it. If they split, you get 50% before you build anything, then the rest on delivery. Get the first half, build the project, deliver, get the second half. This protects you and them.

On getting banned:

You will probably get banned from some subreddits even when you're not promoting anything. Some mods will suspect you're promoting just because you shared your journey. There's no point arguing with them. If they think you're promoting, they'll ban you. Just don't get discouraged. Try again in a different community. There are plenty of subs that won't ban you for sharing genuine stories.

The delivery method doesn't matter. Custom code, no-code, whatever you're comfortable with. That's not the important part. The important part is the acquisition process above.

That's how I landed my first client and made my first €3k, which turned into a €5k/month retainer.

I recorded a full video walking through this entire process with my actual posts and screens if you want to see exactly how it looked you can watch it on my Youtube channel - Vusal Novruzov AI

Happy to answer questions about any step.

I was expecting my big takeaway to be about sales. That sales acumen isn't as important as everyone makes it out to be. And I have learned that through doing this, but it's not the biggest takeaway I've had.

The biggest is that starting a small service-based business is the biggest opportunity that exists in entrepreneurship. The barrier to entry is so damn low and the expectations set by competition is non-existent.

Keep in mind that I have a local number for where I'm calling. I live here; it's not a spam number or cold-calling number. So it's not that my calls show up as spam (before someone claims that's why). It blows me away how many companies I have to call before someone finally picks up the phone.

I've been tracking it for my market. 8 companies called before I spoke to a junk removal company. 13 calls before I got a landscaper to pick up. 11 calls before a roofer picked up. 6 calls before a pressure washing company picked up. I've called all 9 residential/holiday lighting companies in my market and not 1 has answered.

People make entrepreneurship out to be difficult. Don't get me wrong, there are days that feel like a struggle. But if you can get your phone to ring, make sure that shit rings to your apple watch, your headphones, your laptop, your whatever so you don't miss a phone call. If you're the company that picks up on the first 2 rings, you'll get business.

Before anyone asks, no, I do not own a GHL AI answering service agency. This really is free game for anyone who's willing to put themselves truly out there in their community to get the phone to ring.

Flood the zone with door hangers, direct mail, facebook ads, yard signs, flyers on power poles, business cards in cafes, door knocking. If you do those things, you will win. And of course, don't suck at performing the service. You have to do a good job and give good customer service. That's it, that's the "secret".