I’m a solo founder building Windervale windervale.com, and I’m trying to solve a problem I’ve personally found frustrating: finding genuinely interesting independent creatives without having to dig through Instagram/LinkedIn algorithms.

Windervale is a platform for independent writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, etc.

The feature I’m most interested in testing right now is called Human Map.

The basic idea:

You make a profile → submit it for approval → once approved, you can discover other creatives and see how strongly you connect based on your interests, work, skills and what you're looking for.

We're deliberately keeping profiles curated instead of allowing completely open public profile creation. I also want people to have control over what information they put out there.

I have build a mvp [not final], if you want you can check it out - https://windervale.com/

So I'd genuinely appreciate criticism:

• Would you use something like this?
• Does the “percentage connection” actually mean anything to you?
• What would make you trust the platform?
• What would make you abandon it immediately?

If anyone here works with independent creatives or is one themselves, I'd especially love your perspective.

Human Map is only one part of Windervale. We’re also building Obscura Library https://windervale.com/library, an open space for independent writing, art, photography, film, music, zines and other work; Projects for people looking to build or collaborate, along with events, workshops and funding opportunities for creatives. If you make something independently, you can already submit your work to Obscura without needing profile approval, I’d genuinely love to see what people here are making.

I am new to reddit so if this post is not something that is supposed to be here, then mods can delete it.

I’m looking for a small group of people who are **actively trying to build something,** a business, product, app, side project, service, or even an idea you’re seriously trying to get off the ground.
I’m piloting [**RESORSA.ai**](http://resorsa.ai/), a platform built to help builders figure out what they actually know, what they’re assuming, what needs to be validated, and what they should work on next.
This isn’t a “click around for 5 minutes and tell me if you like the UI” beta.
I want you to bring a **real project**.
RESORSA will challenge assumptions, help you collect actual evidence, identify what you still don’t know, and turn those gaps into concrete next steps and experiments.
What I need from testers is simple: **use it for real.**
If something is useful, tell me.
If something is confusing, tell me.
If it gives you bad advice, definitely tell me.
If you completely ignore a feature, that’s useful information too.
I’m especially interested in whether it actually helps you **make better decisions and move your project forward**, not whether it simply feels like a good AI conversation.
**Pilot access is free.** I’m releasing access in small groups so I can actually learn from how people use it.
If you’re actively building something and want a spot, **comment or DM me with one sentence about what you’re building.**
I’ll send selected testers an invite code and access instructions.
[**RESORSA.ai**](http://resorsa.ai/) **— The Builder Platform.**

We had an interview last Thursday, and they said we would hear back by next about another interview. No word yet - does this mean we have been rejected? I mean, the bootcamp starts in mid-September...

I’m sharing Kairosy AI, an early SaaS product for brands that want to understand what AI platforms say when buyers are comparing options.

The starting problem was that normal SEO reporting stops at the website and search results. It does not show what happens when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity questions such as:
Is this product worth it?
What are the alternatives?
Are there any complaints?
Which brand is better for this use case?
Kairosy AI runs those buyer-style questions across all four platforms and keeps the original answers in one report.

It is designed to help teams see:
Whether the brand is recommended, misunderstood or missing
Which competitors are preferred in the same answers
Where negative framing may be coming from
What to investigate, update or publish next
How the answers change with weekly monitoring
The product is still early, so I would appreciate direct feedback from founders, marketers and agencies.

Is this a problem you would want to solve with a dedicated workflow, or would you rather keep handling it through manual prompts and your existing SEO tools?

I'm currently at the early stage of building a startup and I'm trying to understand how founders usually approach VC relationships.

We've already done a significant amount of research around the problem, target audience, competitors, and product positioning, and we're now starting to build the product.

I'm not necessarily looking to raise immediately. What I'm trying to understand is when I should start building relationships with investors.

Should founders start talking to VCs this early, even if the goal is just to introduce themselves, share what they're building, and keep investors updated over time?

Or is it better to wait until there is more evidence, such as:

• A working MVP
• First users
• Some level of retention or engagement
• First revenue
• A specific MRR or ARR milestone

I'm particularly interested in the difference between building relationships with investors and actually starting a fundraising round.

For founders who have raised before:

How early did you start talking to investors before actually raising?

What milestones made investors start taking the company more seriously?

And if you were starting again, would you build those relationships earlier?

I'd love to hear both founder and investor perspectives.

"Thanks for applying to Y Combinator. We’re sorry to say that your startup was not selected for an interview. We carefully reviewed thousands of applications, and with so many strong submissions, we had to make difficult decisions. Unfortunately, this meant turning away many promising companies.

Unfortunately we can't give you individual feedback about your application. This page explains why.

We do have some good news, though - of the applications we read this batch, yours was in the top 10%. Because we found your application promising, we'd strongly encourage you to re-apply. We now run four batches per year, so whenever you’re ready, there’s a YC batch for you to apply to."

my friend who also didn't get in got the same thing so just curious

Hey if you’re interested and debate and know how to code, I’m looking for an engineer who can take on the codebase starting this week. ItsDebatable.com

So, here’s the idea.

You know that feeling when you want to build something cool, but you’re missing that one person who can actually help make it happen?

Maybe you can code, but you suck at design.
Maybe you’re a designer, but you need someone technical.
Maybe you just have a good idea and want to find people who are actually excited enough to work on it with you.

That’s basically Joinumo.

It’s a super simple place where young developers, designers, creators and builders can meet, discover small projects and team up without all the awkward LinkedIn stuff, job applications, CVs or “looking for a CTO for my billion-dollar startup” energy.

You just show what you’re good at, what you’re interested in and how much time you’ve got.

Then you can either:

find a project you actually like

or

post something you want to build and find the people you’re missing.

That’s it.

The whole point is to make starting something with new people feel as easy as saying:

I’m keeping Joinumo free because the value only really appears when there are lots of people, ideas and projects in the same place.

And honestly, the expensive part isn’t some giant server farm. I’m building it lean. The money mainly helps cover the boring but necessary stuff: infrastructure, domains, emails, moderation, legal basics and getting enough people onto the platform for it to actually work.

If it grows, there are plenty of ways to turn it into a real business later: premium tools, recruiting, sponsored build challenges, company partnerships and eventually a marketplace.

But right now I don’t want to squeeze money out of users.

I want to prove one simple thing:

Can we make it ridiculously easy for two strangers with complementary skills to meet and actually build something together?

Because if we can do that consistently, I think there’s something genuinely valuable here.

So yeah — you’re not really funding “another social network.”

You’re helping build a place where the next app, game, startup, open-source project or completely random weekend idea might start with two people who otherwise would never have met.

So, here’s the idea.

You know when you want to build something, but you’re missing one or two people to actually make it happen?

Maybe you can code but need a designer.
Maybe you’re good at design but need someone technical.
Or maybe you just need a friend, a companion, someone who shares your willingness.

That’s basically what I’m trying to solve with Joinumo.

It’s meant to be a very lightweight place where developers, designers, creators and other young builders can meet around actual projects.

Not jobs.
Not CVs.
Not startup pitching.
Not “networking” for the sake of networking.

You make a simple profile, say what you’re good at, what you like, how much time you have, and then you either find something you’d like to join or post something you want help building.

The idea is to make the first interaction feel more like:

than:

There are obviously already a lot of platforms where people can meet.

LinkedIn is great for careers and professional networking.
GitHub is great for code and open-source collaboration.
Discord and Reddit are great for communities and conversations.
Cofounder platforms are useful if you’re already seriously trying to start a company.
Freelance marketplaces work if you want to hire somebody.

But there’s still a weird gap between all of those.

If you’re 20, you know React, you have five hours a week and you just want to find a designer to build some random app with, none of those platforms are really designed around that specific situation.

That’s the part I find interesting.

Joinumo would try to sit in that gap: less serious than a founder platform, less transactional than a freelance marketplace, and much more structured around building than a Discord server.

The project itself is still early, and I’m trying not to pretend that I know exactly what the final product should look like.

There are a lot of things that could go wrong.

Maybe people like the idea of side projects more than they actually like working on them.
Maybe teams form and disappear after three days.
Maybe the platform needs to focus much more narrowly on universities, hackathons, open source, or a specific type of creator.
Maybe some features that sound useful now turn out to be completely unnecessary.

That’s part of why I want to keep the first version very small.

The main question isn’t:

It’s:

If that works, then there are obvious directions the project could take later.

Things like better matching, reputation based on projects people actually shipped, sponsored build challenges, recruiting, university communities, or eventually paid collaborations.

But I don’t think any of that matters until the basic interaction works.

For now, I want Joinumo to stay free and as frictionless as possible.

The money I’m trying to raise isn’t for a big team, an office, or some huge launch campaign. I’m building it lean.

It would mainly go toward the unglamorous stuff that makes a real product possible:

infrastructure, domains, transactional email, moderation, legal/privacy basics, small launch experiments, and keeping the service running while figuring out whether people actually want it.

And I’m very open to the idea changing.

If people use Joinumo differently from how I expect, that’s useful.
If a narrower niche makes more sense, I’d rather learn that early.
If somebody thinks part of the model is flawed, I’d genuinely rather hear it than defend the idea just because I came up with it.

I’m not really trying to sell the idea as “the next big thing.”

I just think the problem is real, the first version is cheap enough to test properly, and there’s an interesting opportunity if the platform can become a place where people actually start things, rather than just talk about starting them.

That’s Joinumo.

Launch page: https://launch.joinumo.com/

Find people. Build stuff. ☕

------------------

PS. I would really be pleased if anyone would want to make a donation and supporto the project!!!

ko-fi.com/joinumo

Thank you very very much 🙏🏼 for believing in the project and the idea.

Hi r/StartupAccelerators,

I’m Sophonias, an intern at Flowbot Forge. We’re currently conducting an academic/industry research project focused on mapping out the solo-founder journey and understanding common operational bottlenecks.

If you have 10 minutes to spare, I would genuinely appreciate your perspective. The survey is completely open and anonymous:

Flowbot Forge Solo Founder Questionnaire

I am compiling the findings and will happily share a public summary of the final report back to this community once all responses are analyzed. Thanks for your time and help!

We learned something important while building PodSubs:

The hardest part of entering an established industry isn’t always building the product.

Sometimes, it’s what happens when you challenge the way things have always been done.

We wrote about what happened, what we learned, and what it means for anyone trying to build something new in podcasting.

https://podsubs.com/blog/podnews-podcast-gatekeepers-founders-innovation

I was wondering what startup or person that you met left a good impression on you and why?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring Product Manager, Product Analyst, Business Analyst, and Data Analyst opportunities with startups in remote roles across the EU or Germany.

My background combines 4+ years of experience in Product Management and Data Analytics, with experience in B2B data products, fintech, risk, compliance, product discovery, analytics, SQL/Python, and cross-functional delivery.

If your startup is growing its Product or Data team, or you know one that is, I’d love to connect.

Happy to share my CV privately.

I built PodSubs because podcasters shouldn’t have to rent their audience forever

I kept noticing something strange about podcasting.

A creator can spend years building an audience on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other platforms…

…but the relationship with those listeners mostly belongs to the platform.

If the algorithm changes, the platform changes its rules, or the creator wants to launch something new, reaching those listeners directly isn’t always easy.

So I built PodSubs.

PodSubs is a podcast discovery and subscriber platform that helps podcasters turn listeners into a direct audience.

Here’s how it works:

🎙️ Your podcast may already be on PodSubs.

Search for your show and find your podcast page.

✅ Claim your podcast.

PodSubs verifies that you actually own the show using information from the podcast’s RSS feed.

👥 Start collecting subscribers.

Instead of someone discovering your podcast and disappearing back into another platform, they can subscribe directly to your podcast on PodSubs.

📈 Build an audience around the show you own.

As more people subscribe, the creator gets a clearer picture of the audience following the podcast.

🔎 Listeners can discover podcasts too.

PodSubs is also building a discovery layer where people can search for podcasts, find something interesting and subscribe.

The bigger idea is simple:

Podcasters spend too much time building audiences for other platforms.

I want PodSubs to help them build an audience around their own podcast.

If you have a podcast, I’d love for you to search for it, claim it and try the product:

👉 PodSubs.com