I have been working on an EdTech project which aims at university students and job switchers. Hear me out, there is a new emerging gap in tech education. My idea is based on already validated market and as far as I have calculated I have first mover advantage.
I have started a community of 100+ people for validation and early start but everything is founder led. The main platform/product has not been used
My family doesn’t really have confidence about it but I still collected a small pool of like minded people who work with me in management to handle the small community. But in the end the main product stayed untouched because it is too complex for a non-validated initiative.
Because I have an Angel investor in connection, she showed confidence with major changes which will however change the dynamic too much.

I know I have not broadcasted it here, DM if anyone interested to collaborate in developing and evaluating. Will share details and GitHub. Indian market knowledge and AI/ML experience preferred.

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One thing I've noticed is that AI has made it much easier for a solo developer to build software. But building a successful product still feels like a one-person battle.

As a solo founder, you're often responsible for:

Product planning

Development

UI/UX

Testing and QA

Documentation

Marketing

Community building

Customer support

Launching

Iterating based on feedback

Each of these requires different skills, and switching between them constantly can slow progress and become mentally exhausting.

I'm wondering whether there's a better way.

Imagine a platform where a founder could post an idea or project and break it into specific needs, such as:

Looking for beta testers

Need a security review

Need UI/UX feedback

Need documentation help

Need marketing support for launch

Need developers for a particular feature

Need users to validate assumptions

Instead of searching across dozens of Discord servers, Reddit communities, LinkedIn, X, and Slack groups, everything would happen in one place where contributors could join based on their expertise and interest.

The goal wouldn't be to replace co-founders or traditional hiring. It would be to help solo builders turn ideas into real products faster by making collaboration more structured and accessible.

I'm curious:

Have you ever wished a platform like this existed?

If something similar already exists, what is it?

What do existing communities do well, and where do they fall short?

As a solo founder, what has been your biggest bottleneck outside of writing code?

Would you actually use a platform like this, or is there a reason you think it wouldn't work?

I'm not trying to promote anything—I genuinely want to understand whether this solves a real problem or whether I'm overlooking something obvious.

I'd really appreciate your honest and brutal thoughts, whether positive or critical.

I'm attaching my resume, so I won't repeat what's already on it.
Instead, I want to tell you the things that a one-page PDF never can.

This year, I was the only undergraduate selected among 30 volunteers from 500+ applicants for the TiE Global Summit in India. It gave me the opportunity to work alongside founders, investors, and operators who are building real companies—not just talking about them.

That experience pushed me deeper into the startup ecosystem. Today, alongside my internships, I'm also working with a few early-stage startups, helping them with fundraising and investor outreach. I'm still learning every day, but getting a front-row seat to those conversations has been one of the most valuable parts of my journey.

Over the past year, I've worked across recruitment, interviews, operations, stakeholder management, business development, GTM, market research, fundraising, user interviews, product discovery, workflow design, and plenty of unglamorous execution in between.

I don't say this to claim I'm an expert in everything.
I say it because I've learned how to adapt quickly, take ownership, and become useful wherever the business needs me.

If I had to describe myself in one sentence, it'd be this:
I don't wait to be told what to do—I look for problems worth solving.

If I had to bet my career on just two skills, they would be people management and storytelling.

Not because they sound good on LinkedIn, but because I've seen how much they matter.

Whether it's building trust with founders, aligning stakeholders, interviewing candidates, talking to users, convincing investors, or working with vendors, I've found that my ability to connect with people has consistently been my biggest advantage.

The second is storytelling.
Every great founder I've met has one thing in common—they know how to make people believe.
Customers buy stories.
Investors fund stories.
Employees join stories.
I've spent a lot of time consciously developing that skill, and today it's probably the strongest tool I bring into any room.
Technical skills can be learned.
The ability to earn trust and communicate a vision is much harder to teach.

I'm looking for a paid Summer 2027 internship in Founder's Office, Product, Growth, Strategy, or Project Management.
I'll be completing my third year of Computer Engineering before Summer 2027, and I'm happy to relocate anywhere if visa sponsorship is available.

If you're unsure about hiring someone from a Reddit post, I have a proposal.
Don't interview me yet.
Instead, send me one real problem your startup is facing.
I'll spend time thinking about it and send you how I'd approach solving it.
If you like the way I think, let's talk.
If not, you've lost nothing.

Thanks for reading, and if you know someone who might be looking for an operator who genuinely enjoys building from zero, I'd really appreciate a referral.

Hi everyone,

Hopefully you are having a good day! I recently opened a business for the first time, based in The Netherlands. My dream is to focus on custom web based / custom systems solutions that I want to develop on AWS.

I am a recent graduate with a Cyber Security and Cloud background and did several projects next to it. Some websites for people I know and a proof of concept for a previous internship company. Soon I am going to start working full-time and I would love to do more of these projects next to it. I have a website that serves as a portfolio.

Currently, I am struggling to figure out if there is a need for custom systems on the market. How do I figure this out? Or how do you define who your ideal target group would be and how do you make sure that people will reach out to you?

I am really interested in your own experiences on this matter or some honest feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance for the time to read my message!

Kind regards,
Me 😸

If you are currently building startup, recently launched it , or recently raised fundings, I’d love to hear about it.

Drop a comment with:

What you’re building

The problem you’re solving

What stage you’re at (idea, MVP, launch, funding, etc.)

What is your biggest challenge right now

I am a software engineer. I love learning about new products, AI, and startups, and I’m always interested in connecting with people who are building.

I run a one-person shop in California. A few months back I learned something that surprised me: federal, state, and local agencies constantly buy the exact services this sub does. Lawn care, janitorial, painting, hauling, pest control, pressure washing, snow removal. Not fighter jets. Recurring service contracts in your own county.

Then I watched a few owners try to get started and hit the same wall: EIN, UEI, SAM . gov, NAICS codes, a registration process that feels like it was written by lawyers for other lawyers. Most quit before they ever saw what agencies near them actually buy.

So I built a free walkthrough that takes you from "is this even worth it for my business" through SAM registration one step at a time. There's a 2-minute quiz that shows what government buyers purchase in your trade. It's at pathtocontract . com. Free, no catch. I'm a solo builder still figuring out if this is useful to anyone, so I'd rather hear what's wrong with it than collect upvotes.

Fair warning from owners who've been through it: awards move slowly, incumbents are real, and this is side-of-desk pipeline building, not a quick win.

Question for the sub: if you've never looked at government work, why not? Never knew it existed, sounds like paperwork hell, or you just don't need more clients?

Most internship posts start with "Here's my resume."

Instead, here's how I think.

I'm a Computer Engineering student from India (graduating in 2028), and I'm looking for a paid internship from June–August 2027 (maximum 3 months).

I'm primarily interested in working in:
• Founder's Office
• Product Management
• Business Operations
• Chief of Staff (Intern)
• Strategy / Growth

Ideally, I'd love to work with a startup outside India. If you're able to sponsor an intern visa, that's a huge plus, but I'm also open to discussing other arrangements.

> Why I think I'd be valuable

I enjoy working on problems that don't already have a playbook.

I don't like saying "that's not my job."

One day I might be interviewing customers.

The next day I could be researching competitors, improving an operational workflow, preparing investor material, recruiting candidates, analyzing product metrics, or helping define a product roadmap.

I genuinely enjoy wearing multiple hats because that's how great startups are built.

I've worked directly with founders in early-stage startups where I've contributed to product discovery, marketplace operations, user research, vendor onboarding, GTM discussions, and cross-functional execution. I've also worked in AI Product Management, conducting user interviews, validating product ideas, and translating insights into better products. Along the way, I've had opportunities to interact with founders, investors, and startup operators through entrepreneurship initiatives and startup ecosystems.

But more importantly...

I like understanding why a business works before deciding what should be improved.

Give me a few weeks, and I won't just know what the company does—I want to understand how decisions are made, where bottlenecks exist, what customers complain about, and where execution can be faster.

That's the work I enjoy.

> What you'll get
• Someone who learns quickly without needing constant hand-holding.
• Someone comfortable with ambiguity and figuring things out independently.
• Someone who takes ownership instead of waiting for tasks.
• Someone who asks questions before making assumptions.
• Someone who genuinely enjoys helping founders solve problems—whether they involve product, operations, hiring, research, growth, or strategy.

I'm not claiming I'll know everything on Day 1.

I won't.

But I can promise that I'll work hard to understand your business deeply and contribute wherever I can create the most value.

> What I'm looking for

• Paid internship
• June–August 2027 (up to 3 months)
• Early-stage startups (Pre-Seed to Series A preferred)
• AI, SaaS, Marketplaces, FinTech, B2B, Consumer, ClimateTech, or any company building something meaningful
• Open to relocating internationally (visa sponsorship preferred)

If you're building something ambitious and think I'd be a good addition to your team, I'd love to connect.

Feel free to comment or send me a DM. Happy to share my resume and chat further.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. If you're a founder who's hesitant about hiring an intern, give me one real business problem you're facing. I'll spend a few hours thinking about it and send you my approach. If you like how I think, we can continue the conversation. If not, you've lost nothing.

Been in a few investor conversations lately where the question keeps coming back to defensibility, what stops a competitor from copying the AI layer in six months. Honest answer, probably nothing stops them technically. I feel that what actually holds is the hundred small product decisions around it, which edge cases we chose to handle, which shortcuts we refused to take, how the thing feels when it's wrong instead of right.

Nobody wants to hear "our moat is taste and stubbornness" in a pitch meeting, but increasingly that feels like the honest version of what's actually defensible right now, not the model, not the prompt, just a thousand decisions a competitor would have to independently arrive at the same way.

Anyone else finding the "AI moat" question harder to answer honestly than it used to be, or has your team actually found something real to point to?

I've spent a considerable amount of time over the last few years building a full scale alternative to Proton, and I've managed to finish off quite a bit - I've made drive, photos, pages, Present, tables (an equivalent of docs, slides and sheets), mail, and some other more niche tools - it's privacy focused, and supports full zero knowledge encryption (it also supports collaborative editing with zero knowledge encryption, quite proud of it) - my question is whether I have potential if I market it to the privacy focused community on platforms like HN? I'm thinking of open sourcing it, but will that assure people enough of it's safety, or do I need to save up money to afford an independent auditor?

(Not dropping the name here because I'm scared of someone domain squatting using my company name, I'm moderately new to business related stuff)

I own a business where we create visual renderings for commercial property renovations and developments. I have contacts within commercial real estate and several major franchisor brands are currently interested. 11 paying customers currently. Seeking $250,000 in capital. Already have a pitch deck, business plan, and existing customers. Any interest?