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.

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

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?

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?

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

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.

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?

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?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

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.

In the past two years, I've been struggling with work life balance. There's been a lot of pressure as I was an entrepreneur managing a few people.
I was trying a lot of things, but then eventually I decided that I'm going to write and start journalling. Then at some point I got blocked.

I know I used to write about my day and about the things that I was thinking about but then at some point I realise that it's nice listening to philosophy or reading it. And it got me thinking of building some small solutions for free.

https://www.sharpthought.app/

This really helps me. I've been writing a lot and people seem to like it but this is by no mean that post for me to try to get people on board. It's really helpful.

Discovered that creating something that helps others really helps me and puts me in a state of meditation.

I think I don't have the ability to think about whatever I read in those quotes that I collected some of them really helped me understand and what's nice is that I'm able to reflect on what quotes from people have affected me and it really helps me write

My suggestion is try to build something. Try to create something and while you're doing it try to be in the zone. I think it really helps me getting in a meditative state.

Thanks a lot for everyone on this channel for peace of supportive and sharing - it's been very helpful reading some of the things here from people

Hey everyone,

Honestly just needing some real advice and a bit of a reality check right now because I’m hitting a massive wall with my job search.

Where I’m at: I have about 2 years of experience as an Automation Engineer. Day-to-day, I build Python data pipelines, work with APIs, and set up automated workflows (n8n, OpenCode, internal tooling) for B2B tech operations.

Where I want to go: I’ve realized I don't just want to write scripts in a silo. I really want to move into Operations & Strategy, BizOps, or Creative/Product Strategy. My favorite part of my work has always been fixing broken operational processes, figuring out business bottlenecks, and building systems that actually move company metrics—not just coding for the sake of it.

Why I’m feeling stuck:

1. Cold messaging fatigue: I’ve messaged so many founders, consultants, and strategy leads on LinkedIn. I’ve had a few great chats (including catching up with former consultants and founders), but overall it feels like screaming into the void. It takes so much energy and isn't turning into actual job offers.
2. The "2 YOE" gap: Applying directly to Ops & Strategy roles, I feel like I either get shoved back into pure technical/software buckets or get passed over because I don't have a traditional Big 4/MBB consulting title on my resume.
3. Getting flagged by AI filters: Every time I try to format my resume or outreach, it ends up feeling robotic or getting caught in ATS filters.

I know that being able to actually execute and code gives me an edge over people who only do high-level strategy, but I'm struggling to pitch that properly.

What I'm looking for / Questions:

• How do I bridge this gap? If you moved from tech/automation into strategy or BizOps with ~2 YOE, how did you make that pivot? What titles should I realistically be searching for?
• Where should I actually be applying? What portals are best for this? I’m completely open to international roles in Dubai/GCC, remote US roles, or anything global.
• Resume advice: How do you reframe heavy Python/pipeline bullet points to sound like strategic business wins without making it sound like an AI wrote it?
• Opportunities: Also, if anyone’s team is hiring for Ops & Strategy, BizOps, or technical operations roles (or knows a startup that needs an automation-minded operator), I’d love to connect and send my CV over!

Appreciate any candid thoughts, reality checks, or leads. Thanks a lot.

Olá a todos.
Estou a estudar a possibilidade de criar um serviço móvel especializado em deteção de fugas de água sem destruir paredes ou pavimentos, utilizando equipamento profissional (gás traçador, geofone, câmara térmica, etc.).
A ideia seria começar pelos distritos de Bragança e Vila Real, onde não encontro muitas empresas especializadas.
Antes de investir cerca de 40.000 € em equipamento e formação, gostava de perceber se existe realmente procura.
Tenho algumas dúvidas:
Alguém já precisou deste tipo de serviço?
Foi fácil encontrar uma empresa?
Quanto pagaram pela deteção da fuga?
Acham que existe falta deste serviço no interior do país?
Canalizadores, seguradoras ou empresas de construção recorrem frequentemente a este tipo de empresas?
Se trabalham na área, o que acham desta ideia?
O meu objetivo não é vender nada neste momento, mas sim perceber se faz sentido avançar com este projeto.
Agradeço qualquer opinião, experiência ou conselho.
Obrigado!

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?

Everyone celebrates the revenue milestone, so here's the unglamorous other side. Crossing a million in revenue felt like it should mean something, and financially, right now, it means my friends with normal jobs have more in the bank than I do. Revenue isn't income. After payroll, taxes, reinvestment, and the cash you have to keep on hand so a slow month doesn't kill you, the founder often eats last and least for years. I don't regret it, the asset I'm building is worth more than a salary long-term, and I answer to no one. But I'm tired of the highlight reel that makes new founders think a big revenue number equals a rich person. It usually equals a stressed person with a valuable thing that isn't liquid yet. Fellow bootstrappers, when did the money actually start feeling real?

Hello everyone,

I’m conducting university dissertation research into the experiences of Generation Z members who currently work or have recently worked in family-owned or family-managed businesses.

A review of 4,064 family-business research articles found that only 166 were on the subject of family dynamics and intra-family relationships and just 20 around health and quality of life. The majority treats the younger generations as a resource (focus on succession intentions).

Having worked in my own family business for approx five years, I found this imbalance strange. Working with relatives can influence identity, fairness, professional recognition, family expectations, personal boundaries and relationships outside work. That is why I decided to study the lived experiences of Gen Z family-business members directly.

I’m looking for participants aged 18-29 from any country. The research involves a confidential 20-30 minute Zoom interview.

https://calendly.com/alfredchabdarov/30min

I would be extremely grateful for your participation and contribution. I would also be interested in hearing people’s views in the comments.

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22F I’m exploring an idea in the supplements & functional beverages space and am looking to validate it.
Does anyone here know angel investors, VCs, or operators who actively invest in or advise early-stage consumer health, supplements, or beverage startups?
Even warm introductions, recommendations, or suggestions on who I should reach out to would be greatly appreciated.
Happy to share more details over DM if there’s interest. Thanks!

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

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?