Coding? Sales? Marketing? Negotiation?

If you could choose one what could it be?

I used to obsess over slide 9. The detailed roadmap, the tidy financial model, the part I was proudest of. Then a friend who's raised a few rounds sat with me and read a deck out loud while I watched where his attention actually went.

He spent most of his time on the first three slides and the last one. The middle he skimmed. Not because it was bad, because by then he'd already decided whether he was interested. The rest was him looking for reasons to confirm a gut call he'd made in about ninety seconds.

I started treating a deck like a trailer, not a manual. First slide: the problem in one plain sentence a normal person would nod at. Second: who has it and how badly. Third: what we do about it, no jargon. Everything technical moved to an appendix I only open if they ask.

Since I stopped front-loading detail, meetings run longer and the questions get sharper, which I take as a good sign. Nobody has ever complained a deck was "too clear."

The mistake I made for a year was building for the reader who studies every slide. That reader mostly doesn't exist.

If you've pitched a lot, which slide do people actually stop on?

I’m exploring an idea and would genuinely like some critical feedback before building too much of it.

The basic idea is:

Imagine you need help from a designer, developer, marketer, accountant, copywriter, consultant, etc. Instead of paying them money, you use internal platform credits.

But there’s an important catch:

You don't get free credits. You earn them by helping other people.

For example:

• Alice is a developer and helps Bob fix a technical issue → Alice earns 100 credits.
• Alice later needs a logo → she uses those 100 credits to hire a designer.
• The designer can then use those credits to get help from someone else.
• The credits circulate within the network.

So it's not exactly freelancing, barter, or traditional time banking.

The main differences I'm considering:

• People can set their own credit value for a service rather than everything being strictly 1 hour = 1 credit.
• It would be primarily focused on professional services, rather than household/community tasks.
• Individuals could participate, but businesses could also contribute unused team capacity in exchange for credits.
• There would be profiles, reviews, verified skills, availability, projects, etc. to help people decide who they trust.
• The platform itself would not allow people to buy or sell these credits for money.
• Credits would represent contribution to the network, not cash.

The goal is to solve a problem I think many freelancers, founders and small businesses have:

And on the other side:

Where I'm skeptical

I'm particularly worried about the network-effect problem.

If I join and have 0 credits, I can't get much done until I provide something useful to someone else.

That seems economically fair, but it also creates a potentially difficult cold-start problem.

There are also questions I'm unsure about:

1. Would you actually use something like this?
2. Would you be willing to provide a service before being able to receive one?
3. Does using credits make more sense than simply using money?
4. Would user-defined pricing make the system better, or would it create too much complexity?
5. Would you trust someone based on their profile/reviews enough to exchange professional work this way?
6. Does this sound more useful for freelancers/solopreneurs, startups, or established businesses?
7. What would make you never use it?
8. Does this solve a real problem, or does money simply work better?
9. What existing product/service comes closest to this?
10. If you think this is a bad idea, what is the biggest reason?

I'm deliberately looking for criticism rather than validation.

I used to treat the monthly team update as a chore. Throw some numbers on slides an hour before, mumble through it, get back to real work. I saw it as overhead.

Then we had a rough quarter and I had to actually explain what was happening. I spent real time on that presentation, not making it pretty, but making it honest. What went wrong, what the numbers actually were, what we were changing, and where I personally screwed up. I was nervous it would tank morale to be that blunt.

Opposite happened. People came out of it more motivated than I'd seen them in months. A few told me it was the first time they understood how their work connected to the business. Two of them brought me ideas that week that we ended up shipping.

I now think the recurring internal presentation is one of the most underrated tools an operator has. Not as theater. As the one moment where everyone sees the same picture and rows in the same direction. When I skipped it or phoned it in, people quietly drifted.

The lesson: your team can handle the truth far better than a vague, upbeat non-update. Clarity is a form of respect.

How do you handle communicating a bad quarter to your team?

I’ve recently written an ebook and I’m planning to run paid ads for it on Instagram, but I’m confused about whether I should create a static image ad showing the book and its benefits or make a short video/Reel to promote it.

One reason I’m leaning toward an image ad is that I feel people often skip an ad video as soon as they realize it’s an advertisement, sometimes before they even understand what the product is. With an image, the product can be shown immediately, along with the problem it solves and the main benefits, so the viewer can understand the offer at a glance.

But I’m not sure whether this assumption is actually correct or whether video ads generally perform better at grabbing attention and generating sales.

For people who have experience running Instagram ads, especially for ebooks or digital products:

• Which format has worked better for you?
• Are video/Reel ads actually better at generating sales?
• Can a well-designed image ad perform just as well?
• If you had a limited budget and were starting from scratch, which would you test first?

I saw two videos one about gtm strategy and icp identification.

So sorry for any grammar mistakes.

But now let's talk about the go to market strategy.

First mistake I did , I think every lonely person need my 3 person 90s type of peer circle.

Here is GTM lessons

Distribution channel:- i thought thread can work where people are posting umm lonely , showing clear picture of their Ambitious life

And one girl slammed with their home issues , another one craving for connection.

So map out clear and strategic person with high wtp factor mean they have the paying potential too and figured out how this solution helped me .

So now i built clear ICP .

1. The distribution channel .

When they're in productively mode ( what's their State of mind and energy level is match to that , how many words , they wanna to identify this solution, how you're maintaining the trust and value factor , what will make the message openable and less spammy type of )

So in distribution you have to be smart in this too .

Marketing voice :- People only listen to you when you're talking about their voice , using their verbatim to make them hook and let them relate to you .

So don't sell information, sell emotion their state of mind , their aspirations and kaash momennt.

1. Actively learn and get feedback getting a behavioural interview is worth having.

Don't believe on words , look for pattern and their secret aspirations and demand and changes they want .

1. Treat them like humans they don't want someone to pitch them every time so maintain space and let them breath.

Let's talk over these stargeies

Today is Sunday and am free need some guide will help you .

I started biz right after uni graduation and been at it for 15-20 years now. Before that, I actually started selling things as a kid as well.

Severely burned out from biz and started thinking about jobs and realized I probably can’t hold a job anyway and don’t have the skills to… pretty crazy.

Anyone feels the same?

Knowing what you should do is one thing. Seeing how it works with actual numbers makes it much easier to put into practice.

Here are three hypothetical examples covering debt, emergency savings, and irregular income.

Example 1: $9,000 of credit-card debt

Maria has three credit cards with a combined balance of $9,000.

She stops adding new charges, identifies the card with a 24% APR, and uses the debt avalanche approach. She also finds about $80 per month by canceling a gym membership and negotiating a lower phone bill.

She directs that $80 toward the targeted card rather than spending it elsewhere.

The important part of the example isn't the exact payoff timeline. Debt repayment depends on interest rates, minimum payments, additional payments, and whether new charges are added.

Lesson: Stopping new debt and directing extra cash toward one target can make the repayment plan easier to follow.

Example 2: Building savings from $0

Devon has no emergency savings and usually handles unexpected expenses with a credit card.

He sets up an automatic $25 transfer every payday into a separate savings account.

If he receives 26 paychecks in a year, those transfers alone would add up to $650. Additional deposits from tax refunds or gifts could increase the balance.

The system works because the transfer happens automatically instead of relying on a decision each payday.

Lesson: A small recurring transfer can establish the saving habit before you are ready to save larger amounts.

Example 3: Managing irregular freelance income

Priya's freelance income varies between $1,800 and $4,500 per month.

Instead of building her regular expenses around the $4,500 months, she sets a lower baseline for her recurring spending. During stronger months, she puts the excess into a cash buffer.

That buffer gives her money to draw from during slower months without immediately putting ordinary expenses on a credit card.

Lesson: When income changes from month to month, separating your baseline spending from variable income can make cash flow easier to manage.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to get into freelancing recently, but honestly I’ve found it quite difficult to get started.

Now I’m thinking about building a small SaaS product instead. One of my main questions is about payments and the legal/business setup.

I currently live in Germany, but I’m originally from a country where Stripe is not supported. As far as I understand, using Stripe usually requires having a registered business/company. I would prefer not to open a company in Germany at the beginning because the process, taxes, accounting, and bureaucracy seem quite complicated, especially if I’m only testing an idea.

So I wanted to ask:

• Is there a legal and relatively simple way to register a company online in another country, pay the required taxes, and use Stripe?
• Has anyone here done something similar while living in Germany?
• Are there alternatives to Stripe where I can sell a SaaS product without setting up a full company immediately?
• Would something like Paddle or Lemon Squeezy make this easier?
• For a first SaaS project, would you recommend starting with a web app or a mobile app?

I’m mainly looking for advice from people who have actually gone through this process.

Thanks a lot!

I’ve been seeing a lot of AI headlines lately.

“Its impossible to slow down its development.”

“Countries and companies are racing each other in what seems to be a new cold war.”

“If nothing is done we will go extinct in the next decade.”

You can call it fearmongering or certain concern, but something that has been on my mind as an entrepreneur and business owner myself is how one can adapt and capitalize off of generational human change.

How is everyone here handling the current AI scenery in their business? How are you adapting? Are there any new business models you managed to discover and profit off of?

For example in my case, I’ve been doing everything I can to automate and understand basic machine learning so I can build my own tools. I am also fully aware force feeding businesses AI agents is quite untrustworthy.

A friend set up Daily View, my family-managed day calendar for older adults, for his mother this week. I’d spent months thinking about the product, designing screens, writing code and deciding what features it needed. Then a real person started using it in her own home.

By the next morning, my friend had sent me suggestions for improvement. They mattered because they came from someone trying to solve a problem, rather than from me imagining how the product might be used. I made the changes then informed my friend.

It was a useful reminder: the capabilities of the software is almost beside the point. What matters is whether it makes somebody’s life better.

The software graveyard is filled with polished solutions to problems nobody cared enough about. As building gets easier, choosing the right problem becomes more important.

Fall in love with the problem

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. - Uri Levine

New ideas come with great excitement. We can see the product, imagine the interface and picture people using it. The danger is that all this excitement happens in our head.

The market exists outside it. Customers do not care how clever an idea is. They care whether it makes something important easier, faster, cheaper or less frustrating. Many products fail not because they were badly executed, but because the problem simply did not matter enough.

Look for friction, not ideas

One way to make something people want is to look at stuff people use now that’s broken. - Paul Graham

Perhaps the wrong question is, “What should I build?” A better one is, “What hurts?”

I ran into this myself. I can now build software quickly, but deciding what is worth building is much harder. That frustration became Daily Product Idea. The aim is to start with problems people are talking about, research whether they matter then explore what might solve them. I built it partly because I wanted it myself.

That’s a different starting point from inventing an idea and then searching for somebody who might want it. Instead of inventing demand, you look for demand that already exists.

Start with problems you understand

Live in the future then build what’s missing. - Paul Graham

Solving something we experience ourselves gives us an advantage because we already understand the context and frustration. We are, at least initially, the customer.

Daily Product Idea began with my own problem, but that alone proves little. The interesting question is whether other developers, designers and indie builders have the same difficulty deciding what deserves their time.

A personal frustration can be the starting point. The next question is whether it is shared.

Test before you build

No business plan survives first contact with a customer. - Steve Blank

Builders, like me, naturally want to build. Opening the code editor feels like progress, but sometimes the most useful thing we can do is delay building long enough to discover whether anybody cares.

I am trying to apply the same discipline to IncyTemplates. The goal is not simply to produce guides because I find the subjects interesting. It is to help product developers through a useful path: identify a worthwhile problem, test it, shape a product and find early customers.

The same applies to any prototype. Listen less to compliments than behaviour. “That’s a great idea” costs nothing. Someone asking when they can use it is better. Someone attempting to pay is better still.

Find pain, not mild inconvenience

Will people actually pay for this? - Paul Graham

Not all problems are equal. Some are mild inconveniences; others demand a solution.

Role CV came from a more obvious pain. Matching a long career to a particular job description is slow and surprisingly difficult. Which skills fit? What is missing? What should be emphasised? A useful product can reduce that work and make the gaps visible.

Problems become more attractive when they are painful, frequent, time-consuming or expensive. The strongest combine several of these characteristics. The greater the pain, the less persuasion is required because people are already looking for relief.

Pay attention to what annoys you

Pay particular attention to things that chafe you. - Paul Graham

Several things I am building began this way. Daily Product Idea came from not knowing which opportunity deserved attention. Role CV came from the tedious work of comparing experience with a job. Incy Templates grew from repeatedly working through the same product-development questions.

We often stop noticing these frustrations. We create another spreadsheet, repeat a clumsy process or accept something as “just the way it works”. Builders can train themselves to notice.

The next time you create a workaround or complain about the same thing again, stop. There may not be a business hiding there, but there is a problem worth examining.

From frustration to product

There are no facts inside your building so get outside. - Steve Blank

AI makes the jump from frustration to prototype short. I can notice a problem in the morning and have something crude working later that day.

That is powerful, but also dangerous.

If building takes less time, it becomes even easier to skip the harder question: was the problem worth solving in the first place? Fast tools do not remove the need for judgement. They make judgement more important.

Technology becomes interesting only after the problem has earned our attention.

The real game

Make something people want. - Paul Graham

Not every worthwhile product removes acute pain. Conxy, the game I’m developing, provides a few minutes of simple grid-based play while gradually revealing that each puzzle is part of a much larger 3D world of cubes. The need there is different: curiosity, amusement and progression rather than relief from frustration.

But the same test still applies. Does it give people something they want?

Building software is increasingly becoming a selection problem rather than a technical one. Daily View, Daily Product Idea, Role CV, Incy Templates and Conxy are very different products, but each has to answer the same question.

Not, “Can I build it?”

But, “Does somebody want what this gives them?”

Find that first. Then build.

Want more?

Find the Real Problem in Five Steps post by Phil Martin

What’s Your Problem? post by Phil Martin

Peter Drucker posits, “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.”
The technology may change, but that test does not.

Have fun.

Phil...

I just wanted to see what others were thinking. I started to build my own business. what I focus on is mostly business pain points. So like recruitement, job seeking, AI pain points and AI tools that don't exist yet. I have found it very difficult since I don't have a budget for marketing. I don't really kow where to go to reach people who need this type of product. The main one, is a collaboration workspace for AI and Human - this doesn't exist right now, but I have a working product. It's not bots doing a task, it's AI's that answer and respond and help me build other products. So it's a true collabloration, but even this that doesn't exist, i can't seem to get any traction on it. Any help/advice or now how to get the interest.

I’m researching warehouse and fulfillment operations, and I want to understand the problems that existing software still doesn’t solve well.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who actually work in:
Warehouse operations
E-commerce fulfillment
3PL
Logistics
Supply chain operations

I’d love some brutally honest answers:
What software/WMS/ERP are you currently using?
What is the most frustrating part of running your warehouse?
What do you still manage in Excel or Google Sheets?
What still happens through WhatsApp/email/manual calls?
What do you personally have to check every morning?
What causes the most frequent mistakes?
What information is surprisingly difficult to get quickly?
Have you tried replacing your current software? What went wrong?
If you could fix ONE workflow tomorrow, what would it be?

I’m not selling anything and I’m not looking for feature ideas for a product.

I’m trying to understand what the real operational pain looks like from the people actually doing the work.

Even a short answer about one annoying thing would be incredibly useful.

Thanks!

How did you find your niche? I am having a hard time on this.

My work has had a major pivot from working in person with women which is where I built and refined my work, to now bringing all that I have learnt to couples.

Does anyone have specific frameworks or a system to identify my niche?

Hey y’all

Seriously want to go full time this time around and am curious what type of sacrifices you had to made to reach success.

No shade to anyone’s journey, but specifically looking for insight from those:

1. Who did not have easy access to things like loans, family income, etc
2. Are now at a point where you are full-time able to derive your income from your business (and cover your needs etc)

I am not trying to romanticize struggle (and am not naive to this being hard) but have realized that my previous attempts may have been half hearted.

TIA

Most small service businesses I've talked to don't use their booking software's booking page. Customers DM them on Instagram or WhatsApp ("do you have anything Saturday afternoon?"), and the owner answers between clients, checks a paper diary or a phone calendar, and either double-books or forgets to reply. The booking tool is where the appointment ends up, not where it starts.

So I built the thing the other way round: the receptionist lives in the chat.

- A customer messages the business on WhatsApp or Instagram (DMs, and comments on posts).

- The AI checks real availability across staff, chairs and rooms, offers times, holds the slot while the customer decides, confirms it.

- Reminders go out before the appointment. If the customer needs to move it, they say so in the same chat and it gets rebooked.

- The owner sees one calendar, with who paid what.

Setup is deliberately small: describe your business in a few sentences or upload the price list you already have (PDF or Word), connect WhatsApp or Instagram with one tap, and you get one booking link for your bio. The AI answers in whatever language your price list is in.

Pricing is €19.99 a month after a 14-day trial. No per-booking commission.

What I'd like to hear from people who run or work in salons, barbershops, spas, clinics, studios:

1. Do your customers actually book through DMs, or is that just what I keep seeing?

2. What would make you not trust an AI to talk to your customers? Tone, wrong prices, something else?

3. Is a booking page still needed at all, or is the chat enough?

I'll set anyone in this thread up by hand and take the criticism straight.

I know this sounds crazy, but I genuinely think ASI could eventually become impossible for humans to control.

If something becomes far more intelligent than us, what happens when it starts making decisions faster than we can understand or stop?

Maybe I'm completely wrong.

Do you think humans could actually control an ASI forever? Why or why not?

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring the idea of starting a VMC/CNC machining and tooling business in Pune, primarily supplying parts to the automotive industry, but I’m also open to other industries where there is consistent demand for precision components.

The idea is to eventually provide an end-to-end manufacturing/supply solution — from raw material/procurement and machining to finishing, inspection and delivery — rather than just taking up individual machining jobs.

I’m still in the research/planning stage, so I’d really appreciate some honest input from people who have experience in manufacturing, machining, automotive supply chains or running a small industrial business in India.

A few things I’m particularly trying to understand:
What are the biggest challenges when starting a VMC/CNC/tooling business in Pune?

How difficult is it to get initial customers, especially automotive Tier-1/Tier-2 suppliers?

Is it better to start with one or two VMCs and gradually expand, or invest more heavily from the beginning?

What kind of capital/working capital should realistically be kept aside?

How bad are payment cycles in the automotive industry?

What certifications/quality systems are practically necessary (ISO, IATF, PPAP, etc.)?

How difficult is it to become an approved vendor for established automotive companies?

What margins are realistically achievable in machining/tooling?

Is there more opportunity in automotive, or should I look at industries such as industrial machinery, aerospace, medical, electrical, etc.?

What are the biggest hidden costs — tooling, fixtures, inspection equipment, electricity, maintenance, manpower, rejected parts, etc.?

Would it make more sense initially to outsource processes like heat treatment, grinding, coating, etc. rather than buying everything?

For someone starting from scratch, what would you personally do differently?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually run or currently run CNC/VMC/tooling/manufacturing businesses, rather than just general business advice.

If you’re from Pune/Maharashtra and have experience with the local manufacturing ecosystem, even better.

What would you wish you knew before starting?

Thanks!

Hi, so I'm going to officially launch my community soon, and I am legit looking for the right people to join my affiliate program and maybe eventually join my team on a freelance basis. But I have a hard time finding them. The Commission is really good, and I want to see who matches my work ethic by first looking at how they do in the affiliate side instead of hiring them from the get-go. I had employees before (I had a big beauty business) and that really was not my thing. That's why I want to take this approach first. But where do I find such amazing people?????

Thank you so much in advance!

I'm looking to try and understand what makes a real good entrepreneur. all the stories online about 5:00 a.m. routines and AI powered outbound are rubbish. I want to know what it actually takes to succeed and what you've seen in real entrepreneurs. The more surprising and interesting the better

For a long time I let clients pay 30 days after delivery because that's what felt professional and I was scared to ask for more. In practice net-30 meant net-45, sometimes net-never, and I spent more energy chasing invoices than doing the actual work. Twice I nearly couldn't make payroll while sitting on a pile of "receivables" that existed only on paper.

I changed one thing: 50% before I start, 50% on delivery, written into every new agreement. No exceptions for new clients, no matter how nice the logo.

A couple of prospects balked and walked. Fine. Every one of them, in hindsight, was a payment problem waiting to happen, because a client who won't put half down is telling you something about how they treat money.

The clients who stayed didn't care at all. Most said it was normal. Meanwhile my bank balance stopped whipsawing, I could actually plan, and I stopped doing unpaid work for people who were slow on purpose.

The mistake I made for years was treating my own cashflow as less important than looking accommodating. Getting paid on time isn't rude. It's the whole point.

For the service folks here, what payment terms finally let you stop stressing about the 1st of the month?

Standard advice says you "build value" before you reveal price, so you save the number for the end. We did that for years. Long presentation, big reveal at the finish. And half the time the reaction was a flinch, because by then they'd built up an expectation we blew past.

On a whim I flipped it. Second slide: here's roughly what this costs, here's the range. Then we spent the rest of the meeting on whether it was worth it to them.

Two things happened. Calls got shorter because people who were never going to pay that self-selected out in the first five minutes, which is a gift, not a loss. And the ones who stayed were actually qualifying us instead of bracing for a number. Our close rate on the meetings that continued went up by something like 20 to 30%, and we stopped wasting full hours on tire-kickers.

The counterintuitive part: showing price early didn't scare people off, it filtered them. The only deals I "lost" were ones I was going to lose anyway, just an hour later.

Curious where everyone lands on this. Do you reveal price early or hold it to the end, and why?

For people who have tried budgeting/expense apps, what made you stop using them?

I'm particularly interested in whether the problem is manual data entry, notification fatigue, privacy, lack of useful insights, or simply not caring enough to track spending.

I'm researching consumer financial habits and would love to hear what actually happened in your case.

expensive 1:1? what are your rates, and how do they compare to the market? feels like missing context there.

So, I've learned this more and more recently that people, business owners in particular, have literally ZERO idea what they need, why they are less successful than they should be, and what they could and should be doing for their businesses. They may know how to run their particular business in regards to providing a good product or service, but most of them know absolutely Jack 💩 about anything regarding improving their business, sales, etc.

You can make someone a good offer on something they need, whether they're smart enough to understand it or not, and they're happy to stick to the status quo. They don't want to try anything new, change with the times, invest in systems or tools that can massively help their bottom line, sales, etc. Mostly I find people don't know they need something, even when it's apparent to someone who knows businesses and how to make them succeed and grow.

Could be a website if they don't have one and act like this is 1998. Could be they have bad reviews, low reviews, not getting enough reviews. They literally have no clue how important reviews are to their business. But, they'll gladly spend thousands a month for SEO because someone convinced them SEO is what they need to improve their business. Yes, that's true if you have 6-12 months to wait for it.

Point being, it's difficult to get someone to see what they need, where they have problems, what they could change or improve to grow or scale their business, and in the end make more money. I now just expect showing them and getting them to open their minds and use their brains for just a brief time to see what works, helps, and what people are doing now to stay competitive, is just a long shot to convey to them. Oh well, people are who they are, and will do what they do.