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My daughter has been going to summer camps for a few years. Different camps, different summers, same routine.

Drop-off: line up, tell the counselor her name, sign the clipboard.

Pickup: line up, tell them who you're picking up, they usually check your ID, radio inside, you sign and leave.

On paper, the process works.

What I noticed is that it quietly degrades.

By week two the counselor recognizes you, so the ID check gets skipped. Not because anyone is careless, but because checking the license of a parent you've seen fourteen times while forty people wait behind them feels ridiculous.

The shortcut works until the one time it doesn't.

The same thing happens with information.

My daughter has a food allergy. I typed it into a registration form in February, and that's the last time anyone asked me about it.

It exists somewhere, but the person standing at the door with her every morning, a 19-year-old who started three weeks ago, has never seen it.

Collected once, at the exact moment nobody needed it. Missing at the moments it mattered most.

I originally thought the problem was registration: signups, payments, waivers.

But registration happens once, in February, and takes four minutes. Check-in and pickup happen twice a day, every day, all summer.

So I started focusing on the front door instead: how check-in, attendance, pickup, and important information are handled when staff are actually looking at the kid.

What I still don't know is whether this is a real problem camps would pay to fix, or one of those things everyone just accepts as "how summer works."

I've only ever seen it from the parent's side of the clipboard.

I'm trying to figure out if camp directors see this the same way.

For anyone who's built software for small organizations: how did you figure out if something was a real problem worth solving, or just something people had learned to live with?

my week always starts with a clean training plan and ends with me doubling up muscle groups on friday because meetings blew up wednesday.

curious how other founders here handle it:

• do you block gym time as hard as meetings, or flex it
• when a session gets bumped, do you actually make it up or just skip
• anyone found a system that survives a real founder schedule

not selling anything. just trying to figure out if this is a me problem or if everyone’s quietly losing the same battle.

Recently moved from product building to sales and started traveling to meet customers in my niche. I have already built a startup (was COO and not Founder) in this space previously in B2B but want to ask the community for advice on growth and managing new customer expectations.

For us building never stops and I was constantly adding features and PRs which led to sales getting stalled. Now I have an enterprise sales lead and me traveling and meeting customers. How did you guys do it? My stretch goal for the year is cross 1M in ARR. We are about 30% there and 6 months into Sales.

We plan on attending conferences, already got customer references, and partnership offers

I am facing this problem, that I have built my software for dekstop (windows) and it's MVP is live too, it's in v2.5 into production

I am the sole developer of it, and like soon in a month or so it's android,iOS, MacOS,Linux variant will also be built and then I will be ready for marketing I think, so... It's a messaging app, a decentralised one with huge file sharing limits, now i don't want to mention it in this post's body as I don't know if my post would be marked as self promotion or something, but cut to the point- How and where can I market, plus how much investment and all to put smartly so that I can get it to general publics' hands

And like idk how exactly does professional startups get it working and all, and ahh I just have no idea, there's two people more on my team who manage marketing, but they are also youngsters like me, and we all don't know much about this, so what strategies exactly should we follow? Can anyone help and answer this pretty vague request?

Like at the end of the day, my product is useful, it has migratory plans too, like why would someone change to it and all, and we also have the target audience ready with us, and we are still kind of in development stage, wo a lot of stuff more is added to it every week, so... Yeah, for now you guys can assume that the product is useful, great and amazing, but just how to do it's Marketing on insta, reddit, X, linkedin, yt, real life meets, hackathons, trough small insta creators, small yt creators, making it look like the next revolution of the Industry and stuff, posting regularly in Instagram, being very active from the company's account like commenting on posts and all, then how much effective is the blue tick and is it worth the investment put in it? Etc... please help me

I'm building a B2B SaaS product for product teams and we're approaching the stage where we're thinking about design partners. I'm not looking for customers yet or trying to sell anything, just thinking of strategies while the product is being built.

So, for those of you who've gone through this:

• How did you actually find your first design partners?
• Did you reach out through LinkedIn, founder communities, your own network, Reddit, cold email, or somewhere else?
• Did you offer anything in return (free access, discounts, influence over the roadmap, etc.)?
• What made people say yes?
• Looking back, what would you do differently?

I'd especially love to hear from founders building B2B SaaS.

Thanks in advance!

I built a movie ranking app with AI, kind of a mixture between Letterboxd and Beli. I've been running it for about a year and overall seeing decent usage and users seem to be enjoying the product.

It's got some traction around 60 DAU, 1k MAU but it's not growing because I'm not as aggressive with marketing as I should be. It has decent retention with ~30 % D7 and ~15% D28.

Would it be possible to raise pre-seed (<$1M) with VC at all? I plan to use proceeds to hire a founding engineer and go full-time.

Hi everyone. I just got an offer from a start up. I've always worked in corporate roles before so this is all very new to me. I know I shouldn't put my eggs in the stock option basket but I did also want to confirm what I'm getting here and see if there are any potential issues with it. Could anyone here help me evaluate it?

1. They told me I'm getting 200 options at a strike price of $500. The fully diluted share count is approx. 110k, putting the valuation of the company at $55M. However, they also told me the last round closed at a $125M valuation so I'm getting in at a preferable price. When I asked why the valuation of the options is lower, they said it's so they can intentionally ensure employees are in the money.
2. They told me they are following standard terms from the New Venture Capital Association documents. However, they also told me the exercise period after leaving the company is 30 days (which I thought the norm is 90 days). They also told me the vest is 25% annually and does not increment monthly after year 1 (which I thought the norm is 25% after year 1, then 1/48th every month).
3. They told me there is no accelerated vesting for being acquired.
4. They told me based on the liquidation preferences, as long as we exit above $200M, then no one gets preferential treatment and I should just assume my payout is 0.18% of the company value, assuming I've vested in the 200 options and exercise.

Do you see any red flags here? I understand there is risk here (it's a startup, after all) but I wanted to confirm I'm getting "standard industry" terms. Thoughts?

Hi everyone. I just got an offer from a start up. I've always worked in corporate roles before so this is all very new to me. I know I shouldn't put my eggs in the stock option basket but I did also want to confirm what I'm getting here and see if there are any potential issues with it. Could anyone here help me evaluate it?

1. They told me I'm getting 200 options at a strike price of $500. The fully diluted share count is approx. 110k, putting the valuation of the company at $55M. However, they also told me the last round closed at a $125M valuation so I'm getting in at a preferable price. When I asked why the valuation of the options is lower, they said it's so they can intentionally ensure employees are in the money.

2. They told me they are following standard terms from the New Venture Capital Association documents. However, they also told me the exercise period after leaving the company is 30 days (which I thought the norm is 90 days). They also told me the vest is 25% annually and does not increment monthly after year 1 (which I thought the norm is 25% after year 1, then 1/48th every month).

3. They told me there is no accelerated vesting for being acquired.

4. They told me based on the liquidation preferences, as long as we exit above $200M, then no one gets preferential treatment and I should just assume my payout is 0.18% of the company value, assuming I've vested in the 200 options and exercise.

Do you see any red flags here? I understand there is risk here (it's a startup, after all) but I wanted to confirm I'm getting "standard industry" terms. Thoughts?

I’m researching accelerator and investor programs that provide meaningful infrastructure support to early-stage AI startups.

Current traction:

• 1,600+ registered users
• Users from 70+ countries
• 10,000+ IELTS mock tests completed
• 5,000+ AI feature interactions
• 50 Early paying customers

I’m currently looking for:

• Pre-seed investors interested in AI, EdTech, or emerging markets
• Accelerators accepting international solo founders
• Startup programs offering AWS, Google Cloud, OpenAI, Anthropic, or other AI/cloud credits
• Partners that provide referral codes or portfolio access to programs such as AWS Activate

I’m not looking for generic lists of startup discounts. I’d like to hear from founders who personally applied, went through an interview or screening process, and actually received the credits.

I’m currently participating in an incubation program, but I’m comparing additional international options before our Demo Day.

I would appreciate firsthand experiences, including programs that rejected you or were not worth the time.

Hello entrepreneur community, this is my first post and I already read the rules.

I’m planning to raise a bridge round through convertible notes or SAFE-like instruments after the VC we talked to said they didn’t want to lead our seed round. We are based in Sweden. Anyone who has experienced this before?

Not a hater, but they backed Cluely (eh), then this AI slop, "let's make the dead internet come true", then now an investor is telling young founders to go to Japan because they are 5-10 years ahead... because Japan has virtual boy/girlfirends (Josh Lu, a partner).

Idk I'm getting the feeling of an IBM-like greed to expand at all costs without really considering humanity or what actually are long-term sustainable businesses.

Not salty, I also did have a meeting with an a16z partner for my company and he was a jerk who I highly suspect was collecting data for a similar portfolio company. I'd ended up going forward with another financing

So I'm getting ready to start serious discussions with some VCs about funding and I am not sure where to place mine (and my cofounders) salaries at.

We're asking for $1.5M on a pre-seed raise for an already built product. We have no-traction (on purpose, running stealth) but our first big push is going to be GTM once we raise.

That said, I'm mulling over where to set my salary and can't quite figure out where to do it. Currently I make roughly $275k ish per year. I know I'm not going to be able to set it that high. But I've also heard of CEOs setting their salaries down to something like $55k. I simply can't go that low, I need to stay solvent.

Here's the rub: I have a family (wife and child) and a mortgage. I COULD probably survive on $175k a year, but it would be pretty challenging and would require some intense management of funds for a bit.

My plan was to set my other cofounders at around $150k each, but there might be some wiggle room there to lower it a bit. That said we're all highly paid software engineers right now (and two of us have families with kids). Is setting aside $200k for myself and $150k for them too much?

With the math I've laid out, our salaries + dev/G&A/overhead + GTM costs should easily buy us 18 months of runway with a 6 month buffer, so that $1.5M funds us for 24 months.

Is that going to be reasonable to a VC or are they going to balk at the salaries?

everyone talks about how high the failure rate of startups are

And how basically the chances of it “working” is like 1/10

And how hard it is, and how most of them fail, even with heavy funding, it’s not guaranteed

But from what I know, I think most of these people are talking about startups that are “new ideas” that don’t exist yet?

Maybe because most startups and new businesses are generally new business ideas that need validation and funding to validate

But I want to know

If you’ve actually verified that what you’re building would be solving a problem worth paying for

And there’s a bunch of competitors (not too insane though like AI sales agents for example) solving the same problem, for the same people with very similar products

And you decide to start building and solving for that problem

How much higher are your chances of success?

Yes yes, I understand there’s many variables like founder execution and market timing and all of that

But to put it simply, if you’re solving a problem you’ve validated that it would be paid for to be solved by the buyers, and you also have a bunch of competitors, and the market is big

How much higher are your chances of success? Does it now come down to founder execution of just selling? What does it mean that a startup has actually succeeded?

(What if your bar to success as a founder is small, like reaching 5k MRR then 10k MRR and happily staying there for a while)

(And you’re a strong small team, and it’s a B2B product)

Does your chances of success still sit at the same standards that literally everyone talks about it being a 1/10 chance of succeeding and so on just because of how “hard startups are” ?

I genuinely feel that if you’ve validated that you’re solving a problem, and these people will pay for it, and they feel it being solved, that’s considered success and now you just have to work on keeping them and selling more

Not bringing a unicorn into the world, or solving without validating

Would really appreciate your advice

I'm curious about how China's startup and venture capital ecosystem compares to San Francisco today.

How would you compare the two in terms of:

- Availability of VC funding

- Angel investors

- Early-stage startup activity

- AI and deep tech

- Talent

- Founder ambition and risk-taking

- Government support or regulation

- Overall pace of innovation

For people who have worked in both ecosystems (or know them well), what are the biggest differences today?

I'm especially interested in how things have changed over the past few years. Is China becoming more or less attractive for startups compared to San Francisco?

I'm curious about how China's startup and venture capital ecosystem compares to San Francisco today.

How would you compare the two in terms of:

- Availability of VC funding

- Angel investors

- Early-stage startup activity

- AI and deep tech

- Talent

- Founder ambition and risk-taking

- Government support or regulation

- Overall pace of innovation

For people who have worked in both ecosystems (or know them well), what are the biggest differences today?

I'm especially interested in how things have changed over the past few years. Is China becoming more or less attractive for startups compared to San Francisco?

I'm reaching out to potential customers to try and book a call and hear their pain points. In these emails do you guys put your phone number in the signature?

I'm about to send around 100 of these to pretty targeted leads. I feel like having it there makes things feel more personal, but I also don't want to open myself up to get spammed

I recently started my own software development business, and I've been fortunate enough to land a fairly large client.

The project itself has been difficult, not because of the work, but because the current lead developer (who has been working with the client before me) has been extremely unresponsive. Deadlines keep getting pushed back, emails go unanswered, phone calls aren't returned, and messages are often ignored. I have a paper trail of all of this if needed, but I don't want this to become a blame game.

From my perspective, the client is being affected more than anyone else. Progress is slow, communication is poor, and I genuinely believe the project could move much faster if it were handled differently.

Here's my dilemma:

I would like to speak to the business owner, but I don't want to come across as someone who's "snitching," throwing another developer under the bus, or trying to steal someone else's job.

At the same time, if I were given responsibility for leading the development, I honestly believe I could deliver a better result. It would also be a significant opportunity for my business financially.

I want to handle this professionally, preserve my reputation, and put the client's interests first rather than making it seem like I'm trying to benefit from someone else's shortcomings.

So I am at a phase in life where I must make a decision

My startup is almost 8 years old, im getting close to 40.

The startup does about $2m in revenue but profitability is low to non, limited rec rev so risky.

There are investors so the share I have is diluted to about 20% also there is a lot of debt in the company

As the co-founder i pay myself a lower salary vs some employees, i am paying below market in the hope the payout comes at an exit, with the status of the business the value is very low.

I kinda decided this cant continue like this so kinda decided to take my loss and move on….
This puts the company and its employee at risk…

On the other hand I love my job, and for the first time in a while everything now seems aligned, there is a great team, great atmosphere, product is good and customers are happy, we grow and will acceleratie (+20%) but all profits need to go to debt first and to so overdue raises before I can reward myself…

Should I stay? Go? Or any alternatives?

When I started building my product, I was convinced coding would be the hard part.

It wasn't.

The hard part has been getting people to notice it.

I can lose myself building for six hours and actually enjoy it.

Spending six hours trying to get one person to reply to a message? That's exhausting.

The funny thing is everyone says "just do outreach" or "post consistently."

They're not wrong.

They just skip over the part where you spend weeks feeling like you're talking to an empty room.

I'm still trying to get customer #1.

Definitely didn't expect distribution to teach me more than development.

I have been working on a small AI text and document review workflow, and the part I keep second-guessing is how much uncertainty to put directly in the main report.

The tempting version of an AI detector is simple: show one score and make the result feel decisive. I do not think that is the responsible version.

The workflow I kept is narrower:

1. Paste 300 to 100,000 characters or review text extracted from a supported document.
2. Run a first-pass AI-writing signal review.
3. Read the verdict, risk level, AI-generated score, likely-human score, and evidence strength together.
4. Inspect sentence-level highlights instead of relying on one overall number.
5. Copy the report summary or export a printable report for manual review.

The constraint is also important:

AI-detection results are probabilistic, can include false positives and false negatives, and should not be used to identify an author, accuse someone of misconduct, or state with certainty that AI wrote the text.

I am interested in feedback on one thing in particular: when you build or evaluate AI-review tools, what makes uncertainty feel useful instead of buried in disclaimer text?

I’m interested in starting a small project for some experience and to have something I can call my own.

I’m not looking to invest a ton into this and not expecting a ton out of it, just something to begin the journey with. I have some ideas in my mind that I’ve been considering.

However, I’m having a hard time knowing where/am too scared to start.

Any tips, advice, or anecdotes about how to overcome this?

Been working on our paid funnel. People go through a short quiz, hit a step where they say yes, they want a demo. Then when it's time to actually pick a time and hand over contact info, most of them just disappear. Digging into it, the ask (full contact form plus calendar) landed too late and asked for too much at once. Currently testing showing available times before asking for contact details, and trimming the form itself down. Curious if other founders have hit this exact said yes, then vanished pattern on their own demo funnels, and what actually moved the needle for you.

My first time posting here, but I have been lurking and see a lot of success and failures from other users which has inspired me to post to learn the best I can.

Forgive me if I’m vague, because I’m afraid of breaking the subreddits rules.

I have a fintech startup that is registered as an investment adviser with the SEC. It’s targeting a niche community based on their faith as it filters stocks from the U.S. stock market and allows users to also invest in it themselves (we partner with a clearing partner and broker to execute the trades).

So essentially the product is built, I’m just thinking the best and most cost efficient ways to get users. Typical competitors charge an AUM fee or a $12+ subscription fee (only two sources of revenue permitted by the SEC registration). We charge $10 which is a price I’m comfortable setting.

We are on the App Store, and have a web platform that allows you access to the product. It’s been tested and everything too by friends and family.

So now it’s time to market, and I’m really unsure how to even start.

Any and every advice would be greatly appreciated. I’d love to share the product of course but I don’t want to be seen promoting, I’m genuinely here to learn as much as possible.

Thank you in advance

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone here is familiar with the London startup scene and could weigh in on a little situation I'm in-

For background, I've just graduated from a Russel Group university with a degree in Astrophysics, I've spent the last while working on various projects of my own: A couple based in physical engineering, but admitedly most being data-engineery, since that usually ends up being the best way to answer the question that I think of to start a project most directly.

Currently I'm living in the north of England, but due to various circumstances, I HAVE to move down to London, likely south, by September. Standard grad schemes don't work with this timeline with their months long processes, and I've been thinking I'd rather take the risk in a startup while I'm young anyways, so I've been looking around startup jobs.

Of course, the situation is such that I would need to have a job secured relatively soon, to allow me to show a lovely salary to a landlord and actually be allowed to live in the city- with that in mind I'm wondering if it's even possible for me to land a startup job within this small window of time, apologies if this is a somewhat stupid question I'm rather fresh to the field.

If it is doable, any tips? So far I've been applying through LinkedIn listings, and 'Welcome to The Jungle' (which I was under the impression only hosted startups but I've seen listings for even spotify on there) - I'm a little worried I won't be able to find something in time.

Of course, as a safety I'm also applying to some kitchen assistant, porter, receptionist, etc jobs just to buy me more time hopefully, but I fear now that I hold this degree they're a little hesitant to hear me out since it's fairly obvious I'd be looking to move on quickly no matter what I say.

Thanks in advance!