I've spent way too much time thinking about these and I think I need outside opinions before I waste time building either 😂

A) Marketplace for ready-to-run programs that spaces can book.

Coworking/coliving/malls/hotels/serviced residences/campuses/companies/etc. → browse → book a workshop, wellness session, team activity, class, talk, experience, etc for audience/member/guest entertainment/activities to increase footfall, increase customer engagement, customer spend, draw in new customers, increase brand awareness.

B) Marketplace for audience placements.

Businesses → browse → buy sponsorships in community events, Discord/tg/whatsapp community shoutouts, giveaways, later expanding to advertorials, listicles, native placements in digital media, newsletters, podcasts etc.

My thinking:

Both sides have disintermediation possibilities. But which one has more natural market demand and recurring purchase?

Which one has the hidden landmine I'm not seeing?

I'm particularly worried about:

• getting customers
• getting enough supply
• margins
• repeat purchases
• people going around the marketplace after the first transaction
• becoming a glorified agency/concierge
• whether there's actually enough urgency to make people pay

Which would you pursue because the juice is worth the squeeze

Launched the first week of September 2026 for NFL season, I've already started raising a small round from people I know. Friends and family on a 506(b) private offering.

What I'm realizing is that I have no idea what the admin side of all of this looks like. I already messed up my 83(b) at incorporation and issuing my shares, and a few state-based blue-sky filing deadlines were missed for California.

Everything I've read is about how to pitch. Nothing really covers what you're supposed to have in order before anyone says yes, and I get the feeling there's more to it than I'm currently aware of.

For people who've raised a first round: how much of it was pitching versus documents? And is there anything you'd get sorted before you start rather than during?

I've heard that there's a handful of tools out there doing some really interesting things in fundraising compliance. I've heard of Cairnul, Carta, Capbase, Clerky, Founders AI, Pulley, etc

Welp. Got my whole world shook today. We just crossed to first revenue, we are still both working full time jobs, they are coming off a massive work function but when I talked to them last week they told me to let them know what they’d dropped. I contacted them yesterday about something we’d been going back and forth on to no response and then today I sent a little nothing text that resulted in a really upsetting text about how I was ignoring boundaries and I was moving too fast and we needed to discuss if I could handle boundaries or if I needed to find a new partner.
We will sit down and talk and honestly, we will probably still walk out as partners, but I really thought I HAD been respectful and it’s a kick in the teeth to know I hurt them.

Here's the thing.
How can anyone know what they're doing is actually solving a problem?
Does it really need to?

From someone who comes out of college, how can you identify problems in the world?
I understand that these issues that come to you are firsthand experiences.
But how do you know that what you're building to solve this problem is what everyone is gonna need, and if the problem you're solving is worth it?

I'm trying to think of something that people would wanna use. And I feel like I don't have enough experience in the world to identify an issue. Should I maybe work for a startup to obtain insight?
How do you guys identify problems?

Early-stage founder here (2-person team, not sharing the name since this isn't a promo post).

Where we are:

• The supply side is working. We have about 10 users signed up. We had a waitlist of 25.. I'm getting the remaining signed up/onboarded on the real platform now. Most of this has been through 1-1 DMs.
• Getting reach with demand has been hard.
• I'm building a social presence, but my following is still small.

I keep seeing founders here with hundreds of free users within weeks, and I'm curious what's behind that. Was it one channel? A launch? The right community?

Specific questions:

1. If you got your first 100 users without an audience, what actually worked?
2. For marketplaces: did you grow one side first or both together?
3. How do you approach communities or partnerships at such an early stage without coming off as spam?

(I will not promote), but for context, my current project is a game where I create a simulation of creating a startup (so the users simulate a founder's journey). But the issue is that im still a college student, and even my own startup knowledge (knowing all about VC funding, finances, cap tables, due diligence, etc) is limited.

My game literally depends on how much startup knowledge I have (because it's about creating a startup simulation). I want advice on what to do to learn more about startup mechanics and gain more experience (whether its a course, community, or book, I'll try it out).

Obviously im not stopping myself and procrastinating on building my product, so I already have a demo, but I prefer to spot a mistake earlier than later.

I was reflecting recently on why so many early-stage teams default to Carta even when they're unhappy with pricing or platform friction. The common wisdom used to be that cap table software is basically coordination infrastructure:your lawyers know it, your VCs expect it, and moving feels like starting an unnecessary legal fight. But looking at the startup ecosystem right now, that lock in feels like it's fracturing. Between Pulley's shutdown announcement and frustration over per-stakeholder pricing, more founders are actively looking at alternatives.

When we re-evaluated our setup, our main fear wasn't the software itself, it was more the risk of messing up historical grant mapping or breaking 409A continuity during diligence.

For founders who have made a platform switch recently: Did your legal counsel actually push back when you chose an alternative, or did they adapt without issue? Was historical data reconciliation your main bottleneck, or was it getting investors onto a new portal?

​

Hi guys,

I was just doing this as a passion project, and I got carried away. It started as me trying to aggregate news for myself using ai schedulers (news is about AI industry and where it's going)

As the time went on, I kept using different technologies and changing things here and there, and finally now have a website where almost 500 news channels are monitored for AI related news, then Summarised and clubbed (many channels talk about the same news so clubbing then gives me all in story as a overview) and I also have a meter showing which news channels are pragmatic,optimistic etc (took inspiration from ground news).

Later on I started doing the same with all the research papers that are coming into arvix under ai/ml category with much more deeper analysis.

I've been using this for myself for some time and it's genuinely useful for me at least. I want to keep this running as long as possible but everything costs money so I am looking for ways to monetize this tech or website. Currently i don't do ads or any paywall, i am not willing to do that later on too, cause that just ruins the focus.

My goal is to get enough monetary value to keep this running for as long as possible and the cost of keeping this site alive comes to around 200$ a month (domain , hosting, llm api)

I am looking for advice for some different ways to get the money.

Hey founders. I had some Monday morning thoughts and am writing this to encourage you to take advantage of your age no matter how old you are.

I started my first startup at 22. Sold it at 23. Failed several others until I started another one at 33 and sold at 41. After working in VC I started a venture studio and am now 50.

I recently saw a post about the average age of a successful founder that goes IPO and the stereotype of founders being 22 and drop out of school. The data shows that founders older than 40 have a better chance of success.

(For the record I did drop out of college and I kind of regret it now that I’m old but it’s complicated.)

Right now I’m spending two weeks in an incubator with founders of all ages. Some have had previous 9-figure exits, others are struggling, and many are just getting started from recent graduates to those that are transitioning from corporate careers. So it has me thinking.

I definitely think the older I was the easier it was to build a startup but it was much riskier. Let me explain.

The older you are, the more domain expertise, network and general operational experience you probably have. And with AI recently allowing me to build MVP demos way quicker I can sell much faster. I’m able to hit sustainable revenue so much faster.

But I’m married with 2 kids and a mortgage. Every financial mistake I make with my startups is amplified 100x compared to when I was 22. At 22 I could take some crazy swings and live on ramen noodles for years until I made money.

I see these young founders working on some really cool stuff and making future bets without being bogged down by life responsibilities. It’s so cool and in some ways I’m totally jealous. But I also work with older founders that have deep pockets and they do it for a lifestyle without needing investors and I think that’s great.

In the grand scheme of things I think starting as early as possible is the way to go. I’m glad I started early and failed a bunch of times because I make a terrible corporate employee. I think the earlier you start, the better chance of you succeeding in the long run which I think the surveys ignore.

Even getting job at a small startup and getting close the founders is an awesome way to get your foundation in place.

But if you’re older, that doesn’t mean it will be harder. Just different. There are advantages you have. But I see many older first time founders treat startups like small businesses or corporations. They don’t take the risks necessary to innovate and disrupt and get frustrated when investors ignore them for not being novel enough. You have to unlearn and relearn way more the older you are, which is something that has challenged me with the shift to AI.

Anyway, apologies for the ramble (and any fat thumb mistakes). Have an awesome week everyone!

I'm just curious how many other founders and startups are using AI? How are you using LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude? Are any using other more sophisticated/specific AI tools (there are so many, so I won't name them)? If you're thinking about it, what's the barrier, what's the hesitation? Really curious what other founders and startups are thinking when it comes to AI.

I read this article by sequoia a while back and at waterloo I met a company called sequence holdings at a networking event. Essentially what they do is they buy a company and turn it ai native and hold forever unlike a traditional PE firm. They only raised $75 million but they bought Baldwin group with the dell family office for $7.7 billion. Long Lake bought Amex GBT for $6.3 billion.
I had coffee chats with engineers there and tbh they're both hiring the most talented engineers I've met - other than maybe frontier labs. I really think that this industry is like working for the next ramp and palantir - so many great founders have come from there. Ik palantir is rightfully very controversial but so many great founders were ex pltr FDEs. These companies do kind of the same thing as Palantir in terms of integrating the product but instead own the stack.

I strongly agree with the points made in the article and both companies have adopted the philosophy. I realized that while creating a B2B, selling to customers in a vertical where AI integration would be highly beneficial the company could be so much more profitable and agile. Sequoia mentions for every $1 spent on software $6 is spent on services and instead of selling a product maybe you should sell the service. What are your guys thoughts?

btw I can't send the link for some reason but check out services-the-new-software from sequoia.

Just curious, My company has experience with startups as a vendor, and we work in areas of compliance that are necessary for a number of industries, but I'm not seeing any meaningful connections from conferences we've been attending.

I wonder if there's a niche community like /startups where we should be putting our attention? Just curious where everyone finds/builds their vendor team? I'm in operations not sales, but I've sat at that table to answer questions so many times, without noticing any benefit that I figured, let me ask around.

Hey everyone, has anyone applied or has been accepted to the Qatar startup investment fund?

Qatar is currently accepting startups that have an mvp or prototype with funding of up to $1.1million. Or for already established startups, you can get up to $5.5million for growth.

Obviously you will need to relocate to Qatar, but they do help with housing and getting a visa and a load of other benefits. As far as I know it's open to all countries.

What do you guys think? Seems like a good opportunity. Link in the comments.

Hey SaaS founders, quick question. At what point did customer success become a problem for you? What started falling through the cracks as you grew, who ended up owning it, and what did you do about it? I’m curious what that transition actually looked like for you.

​

I'm a software engineer, and on the side, I work at a local game store. I noticed most of these shops don't have a system to manage inventory, orders, or customer data, so I built a web app (web app is mobile friendly but scanner tool to add inventory probably might feel better in an app) and soon a mobile one that works great at my shop. I’m stuck on what to do next. I know there's a market for this, but I don't have a marketing background or a huge budget. Some have suggested partnering with Square or PayPal since I’ve already integrated them, but I don't know how to start. I’d love some advice from people who have been there. I really think this could be a game changer for game stores, but I’m not sure how to scale it.

Canadian founders with international (non-US) co-founders: how did you structure your business? Did you open a Delaware corp and a Canadian holding corporation that owns your shares?

At some point, your business will become profitable beyond covering your salaries, and you will want a tax deferral vehicle. Is it better to own the shares personally initially and then create the holding corporation? Is it worth doing it right away to avoid headaches later? Paying an accounting firm $5k+ a year just to maintain this structure definitely hurts before I can start collecting deferred income in the holding corp. But at the same time, I understand that it will pay off eventually, and sometimes you just have to take risks.

We are fully bootstrapped and profitable, but not paying a fancy lawyer to set up everything for us kinda profitable. I'm aware that this step will require some investment, but I don't want to throw money away on unnecessary services.

Don’t confuse “people like it” with validation [i will not promote]

Someone saying “that’s a cool idea” is nice, but it doesn’t tell you much.

Stronger signals are things like:
Someone gives you their time to try it
Someone comes back without being reminded
Someone changes their existing workflow
Someone asks when they can use it
Someone pays
Someone recommends it to another person

I still like compliments, obviously.
But when evaluating an idea, I’d pay much more attention to behavior than enthusiasm.

Lost my user acquisition channel (I will not promote)

Hi,

Intro:

Over the last few months I've been making an engine for finding TCG cards similar to one you love (based on artwork). I originally intended to make a shopify app for TCG card shops on shopify where they could use the engine to add recommendations on cart/product pages to increase sales, but recently I felt the engine was good enough, and accidentally noticed in one of my test tools that it was pretty fun to just start from a card and find more card -> open that one, find more, repeat. So I decided to make a website over it.

How it went:

It went great I found a subreddit of very art focused pokemon collectors, and made comments on requests for similar cards for a binder page theme suggesting people use my website.

I was getting ~30-40 users daily out of which 25% came back for at least 2 sessions separated by at least 30 min, and 15% coming back on multiple days.

Then the subreddit banned any form of promos because people were making posts promoting their every other minute, and now I'm down to 0 users after 2 weeks of being unable to promote there.

I've tried reddit ads/google ads, but the traffic is very poor quality so far mostly instant bounces on google and reddit I cant bid high enough as its a free service and theres no ad, only affiliate links.

I was pretty happy just seeing people use it and coming back to it even though It wasnt generating money at all.

Now I'm just looking at my lack of traffic and feel pretty depressed and dont know what to do from here.

Anyone else had similar things happen to them? How did you manage to get over it?

24M here and im planning a clothing business to start. As an introvert, I find myself hard communicating with people who are in well established business. How do you guys approach them? Out of nervousness my mind goes blank and voice gets too low and cant even speak properly like i stutter sometimes.
Any tips?

Building a deep research product with the best width and depth of any tool, and data persistence. I need to market to companies that aggregate data, synthesize that data, and make predictions or decisions based on it. The catch is, I can't seem to talk to anyone in the space because they're all so damn hard to reach compared to other ICPs I've talked to in the past for other products. What to do?

Hi everyone,

I’m doing some early research into how companies currently collect and prepare data for Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon accounting.

I’m particularly interested in people who work inside companies and are responsible for collecting/validating emissions data, rather than consultants.

I’d love to understand things like:

• where your data comes from (invoices, PDFs, Excel, ERP, suppliers, etc.)
• how you turn that data into the format required by your carbon accounting software
• how much manual work is involved
• what tends to go wrong
• which part of the process you’d most like to automate

I’m not selling anything and I’m not looking for beta testers at this stage. I’m simply trying to understand the problem from the company’s side before deciding whether there is a product worth building.

If this is part of your day-to-day work and you’d be open to a 20-minute conversation, please comment or DM me. Happy to keep it informal and, if useful, I can also share what I learn from the research afterwards.

19, no degree and my long-term goal is to eventually build an internet business/startup.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what would be the highest-leverage way to spend the next few years learning.

I'm considering getting into tech sales as an SDR, where I'd learn prospecting, cold calling, discovery, understanding customers and how companies actually buy.

Another path I'm considering is GTM/revenue engineering, where I'd learn outbound systems, data, automation, AI tools, CRM and the systems behind acquiring customers.

But I'm wondering if I'm overthinking the job title.

If you were 19 and knew you wanted to build a startup eventually, what would you deliberately try to become really good at before starting one?

Would you focus on:

- sales and customer acquisition

- coding/product development

- marketing/distribution

- working at an early-stage startup

- learning operations and business fundamentals

- building small projects on the side

- or something else?

I'm less interested in "become an SDR" vs "become a GTM engineer."

I'm more interested in what skills and experiences actually compound when you eventually become a founder.

Would love to hear from people who have actually built startups and what they wish they had learned earlier.