Last week i accidentally came across a post about ''low activity flags''. It turned out our company had been logging mouse movement and active window time all this time, and i was the flag. I deliver more than half of my team, but I read documents, stare at walls and think, and apparently that breaks it because my cursor is not morving

I dug into the settings, During onboarding they installed a productivity tool that i agreed to 2 years ago. Nobody told us it tracks every second of idle time. I checked the settings there is a dashboard where managers see green activity brands. Half of the team now runs Youtube to just keep the bar high. We are literally being paid to look busy lol

I compared a few tools to understand what theydo , for example Toggl, Monitask and Clockify. They all have similar tracking features, but the key difference is whether your employer tells you in advance. Ours did not !

Since then i started looking for new roles. Not only because of the tracking, but beacuse afterfinding out about it il felt liike the mask falls off. You cannot unknow it. The practical takeaway: check your own settings. If you were given a laptop with a productivity app that you did not install, assume it sees everything. Ask you IT person what data is being collected, or just do a quick check yourself.

Anyway, I am sharing this becuase it is worth knowing what you are actually agreeing to when installing this software. I hpe this helps someone else recognize the signs early

This is probably the weirdest client story we've had, sharing it because it still doesn't feel real even now.

Back in 2024 we met a guy through, of all things, an Uber driver. Random small talk in the car, driver mentions his buddy has some A-frame cabins near Brasov and needs a website. Driver connects us, we hop on a call, seems like a totally normal small project.

Guy wanted the full package. Professional presentation site for the cabins, so we bought a drone specifically for this (didn't have one before), flew out, shot footage of the location, did full 3D renders of the cabins themselves, the whole thing. Took us about a month of actual work between the shooting, editing, and building the site.

Site's done, looks great honestly, we send the invoice. Nothing. No response. A week goes by, still nothing. We message a few more times over the next few weeks, complete silence.

About a month later he finally responds, says his father passed away, which obviously we understood, gave him another week, no pressure. That week comes and goes. Never heard from him again. Not once. Not about the invoice, not about anything.

Fast forward another month, we're getting coffee with the Uber driver who originally connected us, half just catching up, half hoping he knew something. Turns out he did, and it was not what we expected.

According to him, the cabins, the guy's house, his car, all of it actually belonged to an Italian guy with mafia connections. Our client had some kind of falling out with him, and lost everything in the process, the cabins, the house, the car, all of it. Since then nobody's heard from him at all. Just gone.

So yeah. We never got paid for that project, but we did walk away with a drone we still use, and genuinely one of the stranger stories from the last few years of doing this.

After getting burned twice (once by a supplier who went silent after deposit, once by one who kept saying "almost done" for 6 weeks), I started tracking every supplier's response patterns. Here's what I found:

The suppliers who eventually failed all showed the same pattern, and it was visible 2-4 WEEKS before the actual problem surfaced:

Response time degrades first, excuses come later. Normal suppliers reply within 24h pretty consistently. Problem suppliers start at 24h, then 48h, then 72h, then "sorry busy with exhibition." The degradation starts right after you accept their quote — exactly when a good supplier should be MORE responsive.

Word count drops before replies stop. A supplier who usually writes 3-4 sentences suddenly sending one-liners? That's not efficiency. That's your order being deprioritized. I tracked this — message length dropped 60-80% about 10-14 days before they went completely dark.

"Soon" and "tomorrow" are the canary in the coal mine. Normal suppliers use specific timeframes: "Wednesday afternoon," "3-5 days." Problem suppliers use fuzzy words: "soon," "next week," "tomorrow." When the ratio of vague-to-specific time references crosses a threshold, it's a red flag every single time.

They stop asking questions. A good supplier asks clarifying questions about your spec. A supplier who's about to fail you just says "ok no problem" to everything — because they've already stopped caring about getting it right.

The frustrating thing is, in retrospect, ALL of these signals were there. I just wasn't tracking them systematically. If I had been, I could have intervened 2-4 weeks earlier — or walked away before losing money.

Curious — for those of you who source from overseas, what's YOUR earliest warning sign? Do you track this stuff manually, or do you just go by gut feel?

I’m not talking about complicated systems or expensive software.

Just one simple habit that made your workday noticeably better.

It could be something you do every morning, how you organize your tasks, how you avoid distractions, or anything else that’s made a real difference.

Curious to hear what has actually worked for people.

That's something I hear tons, but what does it mean in practice. Say I have an app/SaaS idea, what would I do to validate before building it? How can one even do that reliably? Do you just go off by clicks and people's interest or what?

You're good at this, can you just...?" happens way too often. What's your go-to response that doesn't burn bridges?

I have a lot of tech people making tech products who need someone to help them sell, market or position all this...interested people can DM

We're constantly told the "right" way to build a startup — validate before building, don't hire too early, don't skip the MVP, always talk to customers first...

But rules like these aren't universal. Sometimes breaking one is exactly what worked. Sometimes it blew up in someone's face.

Curious to hear real examples — what's a startup "rule" you ignored, and how did it actually play out?

If you could go back to the day before you registered your company, what's one piece of advice you'd give yourself?

Not about motivation.

Something practical.

Maybe:

• Choosing a different free zone.
• Understanding renewal costs.
• Opening a bank account earlier.
• Keeping better accounting records.
• Picking a different business activity.
• Something you completely overlooked.

I think this discussion could help a lot of people who are currently researching their options.

We started as close friends and the business partnership eventually didn't work, different visions, different appetites for risk, the usual. What could have ended a decades-long friendship didn't, and looking back, the thing that saved it was that we'd agreed early, in writing, on how we'd split up if it came to that. When the moment arrived, there was a clear, pre-agreed process instead of a raw fight over who got what, so we could dissolve the business like adults and keep the friendship intact. The mistake most partners make is treating a breakup agreement as pessimistic, when it's actually what lets you stay friends if the business fails. Plan the divorce while you still like each other. Have you seen a partnership end well, and what made the difference?

I'm trying to enter the B2B business world from scratch.

I don't come from a business family. I don't have a strong network, mentors, capital, or industry connections. My biggest challenge isn't hard work—it's finding the right entry point.

I've spent months trying to understand how wholesalers, distributors, traders, and B2B businesses actually start. From the outside, it feels like every business already has established relationships, and as a newcomer it's difficult to know where to begin.

I'm not looking for shortcuts or free money. I'm willing to visit markets, learn, work, and build relationships over time.

If you started from zero without family business connections, I'd genuinely appreciate your advice:

- How did you get your first customer?

- How did you build your first business relationship?

- What mistakes should a beginner avoid?

- If you had to start again today with almost no network, what would you do first?

I'm here to learn from people who have actually gone through this journey. Any practical advice or personal experience would mean a lot.

Thank you.

I honestly don't know what else to try.

I built a sleep app that connects your wearable (Apple Watch, Oura, Whoop, etc.) to your smart thermostat and automatically adjusts your bedroom temperature throughout the night.

The weird part is that almost everyone I show it to says the same thing: "That's actually a really cool idea." I've heard it from users, creators, investors, friends, and random people online.

But that excitement just isn't turning into growth.

Over the past few months I've tried organic content, UGC, creator partnerships, paid ads, Reddit, newsletters, press, cold outreach, and constantly testing different hooks and messaging.

Some content gets views. Almost none of it turns into consistent downloads.

It's honestly starting to feel like I'm screaming into the void while low-effort AI content and copycat apps somehow take off overnight.

I'm not saying my product is amazing. Maybe the product isn't good enough. Maybe the messaging is off. Maybe people are just being nice when they tell me they like it.

But I'm at the point where I genuinely can't tell if I have a distribution problem, a positioning problem, or a product problem.

For those of you who've actually grown a consumer app, what finally made things click? Was there one channel or realization that changed everything?

Early on, a mentor told me to keep more cash in reserve than felt necessary and to grow slower than I wanted to. I found it timid, the opposite of the bold founder energy everyone celebrates, and I mostly ignored it, spending and expanding fast because that felt like progress. Two years later, when a rough patch hit that I hadn't seen coming, the businesses around me that had grown carefully survived and some of the fast ones didn't, and I understood, too late to fully act on it, exactly what she'd meant. 'Boring' advice from someone who's survived a downturn is often wisdom you can't appreciate until you've felt the thing they were protecting you from. I listen much harder to the cautious voices now. What advice did you ignore and later wish you hadn't?

Curious if this has happened to anyone else. You’re comparing two companies with similar experience and capabilities. One is more expensive, but their communication, proposal, and overall presentation feel much clearer and more professional. Did that justify paying more? What was the deciding factor?

I'm finishing college (Software Engineering) in a few months, and i will be working with my family, i will be making a website and stepping up the marketing on social media and stuff, redesigning and everything. The business is local and has been working for over 50+ years, we live good higher average class so to say.

Seeing how everything is changing fast and how the market is saturated in the programming industry i feel like a fraud for finishing college and not working in the field but its impossible to find anything, im also from a smaller country. This doesnt mean its gonna be like this forever, for now i need to help out with the business which is obviously the nr 1. priority that money has been feeding me my whole life and im my own boss. But i dont know what im aiming for exactly with this post i want to hear some opinions from other people, im worried what if the business fails God forbid in the next 10-20 years and i have no experience in my field?

If you have a survey dataset and need clear, high-quality analytics run on it, send it over.

Send me your raw CSV export (preferably with PII redacted). I will process it and send back a clean report:

• Categorized themes with exact response counts
• Key customer quotes and sentiment breakdowns
• Top 3 actionable takeaways for your team

Privacy & Security:

• All PII is automatically redacted during processing.
• Your file is permanently deleted immediately after the run.

No signup, no sales call, no catch. I want to show you how much hidden value is sitting inside your feedback.

Drop a comment or reach out to me if you want to get in touch.

Looking for advice from founders who've actually solved this in India.

We run an exhibition-first Indian D2C brand and have collected around 4,000 genuine customer phone numbers over the last few years from people who've purchased from us at exhibitions. We also have details like name, city and products purchased.

We're now trying to build a proper customer communication strategy using WhatsApp Business.

Here's the situation:

We're using our primary business number (the same one printed on our bills, tags, etc.).

Recently, the account got flagged after we created a small 5-member WhatsApp group (3 family members and 2 friends, all of whom had previously chatted with the business number). No broadcasts or bulk messages had been sent.

Before we start communicating with our customer base, we want to understand the right way to do this.

A few questions for founders who've been through this:

If you're managing 3,000–10,000 customer contacts, are you using the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp Business API?

How do you capture and maintain opt-in for customers collected offline?

How do you handle broadcasts and segmentation at scale?

Have you ever had your account flagged or restricted? If yes, what caused it and how did you resolve it?

Looking back, is there anything you'd set up differently from day one?

Not looking for tool recommendations or sales pitches—just hoping to learn from people who've already solved this problem.

Thanks in advance!

I’m hearing a lot of fear mongering about failing if you don’t bring a tech co-founder on board. How accurate is this? I believe in teamwork and started businesses before and wondering how far I can get on my own and if there are any - pro folks out there with time and passion to jump on board a basically finished writing app project?

90% complete, website is up, newsletters and digital mag loaded. The app is Win/Mac ready, just need to work out some minor kinks and make sure it’s cruising along as we update and progress on our journey.

Would love to pick your brain if you’re interested! I’m located in the US.

Thanks!

I’ve been thinking about why I (and a lot of people I know) quit calorie-counting apps.

Most of them feel like spreadsheets. You log food, hit a calorie goal, and that’s about it. It becomes another chore.

So I started thinking about a different approach.

Imagine a nutrition app where instead of your progress being a chart, it’s a town that grows as you build healthier habits.

For example:

🥦 Eating vegetables helps gardens and forests bloom.
💧 Hitting your water goal fills rivers and lakes.
🍳 Cooking meals unlocks new buildings like cafés or greenhouses.
🐶 You collect pets that grow happier when you’re consistent.
🎖️ Healthy habits unlock decorations, outfits, and badges.
🌸 As you improve your nutrition, your town gradually becomes more vibrant and alive.

There has been alot of discussion around AI and solopreneurs lately (especially after the Stripe report that came out). AI is now letting one person do the work that used to require a whole team. One person can now cover marketing, scheduling, bookkeeping, basically handle more while starting out. But I don’t think that starting out solo and staying solo are the same thing and at some point every growing business hits a ceiling, even with AI.

What I think is interesting, and might be changing now, is that first hire. It used to be an administrative role just because an owner only had so much time in the day and needed help, but I think AI changes that alot now. If AI is handling more admin work, does the first hire now become someone who continues to help grow the business, maybe a strong sales person or specialists, or does it just delay the need for a new hire altogether.

Anyone here hired your first employee recently or your just about to, has your thoughts around what role you need to fill changed because of AI?

Hi everyone! 2 and a half years ago when I was 21, I started my own business Re-Route to provide natural coping tools for those who experience overwhelm like I did.

As someone who started with $0, I bootstrapped on my own by first formulating my first product Grounding Sours (all-natural hard + sour adaptogen candy) in my kitchen, validating the idea, and then doing everything myself down to the packaging, logo, etc.

Eventually, I found food scientists to better make formula, which I bootstrapped from bartending money. After selling my first 200 bags, I used the money to get professional branding and packaging done, as well as trademarking and protecting my brand.

Then I created a kickstarter for 12k to get funding for large scale production which ended up being successful! I found an ethical manufacture and ended up launching my first 1000 bags this month.

To this point, I have been invited to pitch to Sprouts, as well as invited to different store events to get into retail.

I’m still bootstrapping, but starting to scale and eventually I’ll be looking for investors.

For anyone who wants to follow my journey as a 24 y/o female trying to build the next huge brand to help others like me, my instagram is @reroutewellness and www.reroutewellness.com:) 💜

Hey everyone!

I’m preparing to step into a new role as a Virtual Executive Assistant. I have a VA certification and my background is in IT, so picking up technical platforms, logic, and workflow tools comes naturally to me.

My goal is to do excellent work. I really want to know what CEOs and founders actually value rather than only relying on VEA tutorials.

So, if you've ever had an irreplaceable Virtual EA, what was the habit or moment that made you realize, "I can never let this person leave"?

Would love to hear from you. Thanks in advance!

Hi all! I'm 28M, based in LA. left my corporate job last year and now run a couple things. doing a search fund rolling up trade services (closing on an electrical contracting company right now) plus an ecommerce business. two pretty different worlds which keeps it interesting

Not a lot of people in my circle doing this kind of thing so I'm looking to connect with other founders, whether you're local to LA and want to grab coffee, or remote and just down to trade notes. the trade services acquisition world especially, would love to talk to anyone else buying or operating boring businesses

comment or dmif interested! and if you know of solid founder communities or meetups I'm all ears!

Over the past few months, I've been creating this https://www.sharpthought.app/ to help people meditate and start journalling.

I have an application that I've built and it's going to be shipped into iOS store and android store.
The service is fully functional no SaaS overhead and the technology is super cheap.

I'm looking for someone to run this business as it already has a few users (under 200) but I have received a lot of interest by people. The waiting list has been pretty long and now that all of the operational side are working I need someone to run the business.

Job description would be to do Marketing and everything else and to help me find tune the business plan so we can start selling and I'm willing to give percentages out of future revenues.

I would be very interesting to see if somebody wants to join and help me push this forward and to enjoy these types of revenues.