After years of being gaslit by venture capitalists, I've finally built the tool the startup ecosystem desperately needs: a VC Translator.

The MVP only translates 20 phrases so far, but that's because VCs only know about 20 phrases total. We'll add more once they expand their vocabulary beyond "interesting approach" and "let's keep in touch."

Our go-to-market strategy is simple: we're going to burn $100M on billboard ads in Menlo Park and Sand Hill Road, then pivot to enterprise SaaS when that doesn't work.

Currently raising 1 trillion dollars to buy a domain.

Our current metrics are incredibly promising - we have 0 users, 0 revenue, and a 100% likelihood of being acquired by Microsoft for no apparent reason.

If you're a VC interested in investing, please know that we're oversubscribed but might make an exception for a strategic partner who brings value beyond capital.

This subreddit doesn't let me put links. Because they're afraid of competition. App is vc-translator dot vercel dot app (replace the dot with actual dot).

I will not promote.

No hate to folks with a PhD—mad respect if you’re actually pushing the boundaries of knowledge—but can we please stop pretending a PhD automatically makes you the smartest person in the room?

I’ve worked with PhDs who overthink every fucking thing. Want to ship a feature? “Let’s spend 3 weeks doing a literature review.” Need a quick PoC? “We should evaluate 10 theoretical frameworks first.” Meanwhile, someone with half-decent instincts and real product sense could’ve shipped a working version in 3 days.

And the worst part? Everyone just nods along because “oooh they have a PhD.” Like bro, I get it—you suffered for five years in academia. That doesn’t make your solution scalable, practical, or even usable in the real world.

In my case, we’ve got a PhD making 400K a year. No major deliverables. No groundbreaking research. Just never-ending theoretical opinions that get rubber-stamped because of the title. One of their big “contributions” was literally a weighted average—a task I’d expect from a mid-level analyst at best. As someone from a startup background, this is just insane to me.

I’m just over it. I want to work with doers, not people trying to build utopian systems that collapse the second they touch reality.

Anyone else seeing this in their workplace? Or know any subreddits where execution actually matters more than academic ego? Looking for some rants and advise.

After building three startups — two of which hit product-market fit, and one that scaled to $20M in the bank — I’ve noticed a pattern:

Most failed startups didn’t fail because of tech. Or funding. Or competition.

They failed because the founder chose the wrong problem to solve.

Too often we chase trends, pick surface-level problems, or build stuff we’d never use ourselves.

So I started using a 5-question filter before committing to any idea:

1. Do I genuinely care about this problem?
If not, I’ll quit the second it gets hard. And it will get hard.

2. Will this keep me excited and growing?
If there’s no flow, no learning curve, and no challenge, I lose momentum fast.

3. Will this destroy my health?
A high-stress business model with no leverage is a time bomb. I avoid it early.

4. Will this make real money?
Not just traffic or “users” — actual, sustainable revenue from a real customer.

5. Does this play to my unique edge?
I won’t win where I have no advantage. I focus on problems I’ve lived, or spaces I understand deeply.

This filter has saved me years of building the wrong thing.

It’s also helped me guide other founders — especially first-timers — toward ideas they can actually stick with, scale, and make profitable.

If you're about to commit to an idea, take 10 minutes and walk through these honestly.

Would love to hear if you’ve used a similar filter — or if there's a question you always ask before building.

P.S I will not promote

Since Covid, I've been working remotely, most of it through startups I've created. Never had an office, and no tracking apps for my employees. We only have Google Meet calls once a week for sprint planning. My team has changed over the years, but I've worked with people in over a dozen countries (US, Croatia, Ukraine, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, UK)

I want to share what I've learned and worked for us so far:

The most effective way for remote teams to work is to minimize meetings and get better with clear, concise communication, given the limits of a global team.

With the power of AI, our team has recently significantly improved how we communicate.

Here are some ways we're effectively communicating within our team and clients globally:

1. Single source of truth

In previous companies, documentation, task management, and resources were all in different places. My team now only uses one software to manage all of this, including client-facing touchpoints like project tracking and messaging. This avoids hunting for necessary information. It might be hard to consolidate and find the perfect software to do this. Still, if you do, it'll help a lot because search is quicker, the team is more in sync, and some even give a bird's eye view of the company, similar to your traditional project management software.

Additionally, some apps allow you to create siloed information systems to which you can expose your clients to.

1. Async updates

Our team has now embedded the use of video recording communications for both internal and external communications. Suppose you have completed a task requiring communication with a client or team member. In that case, we always attach a video and screen recording going over the update, just like how you'd do when presenting to a client or bringing a team member up to date by going over their desk and talking about it.

This removes scheduling meetings for every update, eliminating guesswork or the need to determine things from the comms sent. This method drastically reduced impromptu meetings.

1. Effective meetings

We now only meet once a week to sprint plan and brainstorm. Outside of that, everything else is async. We also use AI notetakers for internal and external meetings, which helps a ton when extracting tasks and priorities.

My personal workflow is:

- Meeting + AI note taker
- Download the meeting transcript and feed it to an AI chat.
- Ask it to extract tasks identified during the call, priorities, sometimes... even product requirements documents (invaluable when talking to clients)

I know there's a lot of discussion of returning to the office vs. working remotely, but I thought I'd share how my remote team is making it work.

If you have a remote team, these systems will be beneficial. For us, they allowed us to deliver more for our clients because we spent less time on meetings, calls, etc., and even with that, our team and clients walked away with the information they needed without further assistance.

Hopefully, this helps further the desire for remote teams.

(I will not promote)

I will not promote

You’ve got to stop spending money on Google Ads if you have under 10,000 users. All it does in your early stages is suck your money like a vacuum.

Screw Google Ads.

Screw Meta Ads.

Screw TikTok Ads.

Screw Reddit Ads (maybe they’re okay).

To get those 10,000 users, go for contextual advertising, to the places where your ideal customers hang out, NOT where they MIGHT be. You’ve got to go straight for it like a sniper.

Where do you find your ideal customers?

If you have a marketing startup, you need to hit up blogs/websites giving marketing tips.

Or target newsletters talking about marketing.

Or go for micro-service tools in your niche.

Because if those pages have 10,000 visits, those 10,000 visits are yours. They come knowing what they want to see, making it 10 times easier to convert.

Set up a solid mention/banner on that site, and you’ll convert like crazy.

The ROI is way higher with contextual advertising.

Literally, with $50 bucks, you can sponsor a blog with over 20,000 monthly visits.

Hi, I’m curious how many people actually have become IPO millionaires and how it has changed your life.

I did become an US IPO millionaire when a startup I worked for went public right before COVID. I was probably not even a first 1000th employee so I was completely surprised that my net worth grew exponentially overnight. I left after about two years at the company and exercised the options right after I left. IPO happened 2.5 years later.

This was a job I had when I was 24-26 and became a millionaire before age of 30. I made enough to restructure my whole life and pursue what I want, but not enough to completely retire. However, if I continue to manage the proceeds well, I'll have more money than I could imagine from regular salary over time with compounding interest doing most of the work.

Haven’t been able to really talk to anyone about this experience IRL. Most of my friends who left the company pre-IPO did not exercise options because they couldn’t afford to or didn’t want to deal with AMT taxes.

Would love to hear your story and any thoughts on how common this is. Seems to be a true 1% story to make $1m+?

*edited for additional personal context

I joined this company only a few months back. The company wasn't generating great revenue, and 6-7 people didn't get a salary for three to four months. Today I got a mail from the CEO that he is stepping down and transitioning out of the company. Also mentioned they raised funding, and the board wanted someone with scaling experience to take over. I think I am in a tough spot, or am I ? I have heard stories of layoffs in big companies but how things are gonna affect here ? Its a biomedical engineering company

I WILL NOT PROMOTE

TLDR: I learned the hard way that elephant hunting for your first enterprise customer is more often than not a waste of time. Start small and slow to eventually grow big fast.

Full story:

I launched a SaaS. A very large company (billions in revenue) was interested and it would have been a massive first customer. They were 3 hours north of me so I drove up weekly to have meetings. (This was in 2015 before Zoom was a regular accepted thing.)

The prospect kept humming and hawing asking for more presentations and features. The internal “champion” enjoyed the power dynamics a little too much.

One day driving back I hit a slick patch on the highway. The car spun 360 degrees into oncoming traffic. My only choice was to drive straight into the ditch and hit a wire fence. Totaled my truck. My cofounder hit his head and lost his hearing in that ear for a day or so.

That was the last straw. I said “F these guys. Let’s get to the point where they need us more than we need them.”

Long story short I focused on smaller clients and accepted slower revenue growth. We never worked with them. But eventually I landed Fortune 500 users and after working with one of the most famous celebrities, we sold the company. It also allowed me to sell to the same level in my next companies.

I see so many founders waste all their time trying to land that one big client out of the gate. That’s not to say it can’t happen and more power to you. But it’s a lesson I’ll never forget and I really loved that truck!

Win the quick revenue battles and you’ll win the war.

(I will not promote)

I will not promote Hey everyone, I’m a 20-year-old student from a humble background. I don’t have a strong network, financial support, or any special talents. But I do have the will to work hard, learn fast, and do something meaningful—especially for my family. They’ve sacrificed a lot, and I want to give them a better life.

I’m deeply interested in starting something of my own—maybe a tech startup, maybe something small to begin with—but I’m still figuring it out. I read, I watch, I try to learn... but I still feel lost about how to actually start. What skills should I focus on? What mindset should I build? What are the small steps that eventually lead to something big?

If any of you were once like me—normal, unsure, but driven—how did you take your first steps? Any guidance, personal experience, or resources would really mean a lot.

Thanks in advance.

Story time: I’m working with a founder to raise a series A. The VC asked to talk to customers. The founder lined up 2 fortune 100 companies that agreed to $100 million contracts ($10 million first payment). They got on the phone with the VC.

VCs response after the meeting: “We think they’re your paid advisors.”

When the founder told me this I was dumbfounded. Not to mention this founder has had 6 exits including to unicorns. I was like, “Have the VCs heard of LinkedIn? Why would a major brand fake a reference like that?”

The founder and I then made a plan to personally deliver the press release of his future exit to that VC firm in the future.

Look, I get it. Investors are people too. And so are founders. I’ve sat in both sides of the table and try to empathize with everyone.

I tell investors all the time that their process is their product. It’s not just the money. And that includes how they speak to founders and treat them.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve worked with great investors and VC in my day. But I’ve also worked with individuals that I believe a special place in hell. And yes, that sounds harsh, but I have the receipts of what they’ve done to me and founders that illicit such a strong reaction.

Great VCs don’t make you jump through useless hoops and string you along. They move quick and have personal calls to get to know you. And if it’s a pass, they tell you with dignity and don’t add a power dynamic that slams the door, burns the bridge, and puts their reputation at risk.

And yes, it’s a two way street. Founders can get a bad reputation as well. But come on.

YC always says, “believe the no, but not the why.” Therefore, I take what VC and any investor says with a big heaping pile of salt.

But sometimes, what they do say is important feedback, even if their motivations aren’t above board. I try not to let my disdain prevent me from a learning opportunity.

I’m sure a lot of you have heard incredulous things from investors. At the same time, what have you learned?

Let’s commiserate and I will not promote!

I founded a SaaS startup, I will not promote and I learned quickly that launching lean beats scaling prematurely every single time.

Initially, we didn't hire a full time CTO. Instead, fractional experts and freelancers helped us quickly build an MVP, validate our hypotheses and gain early traction. We didn’t over engineer or obsess over building "perfectly scalable" infrastructure. Just quick hacks and genuine customer feedback.

Some key lessons learned firsthand:

First, startups don't always need permanent CTOs early on, fractional CTOs or freelancers can save both money and headaches.

Second, rapid validation is crucial. A quick and dirty prototype is better than months spent building the "ideal" product nobody asked for.

Third, hiring developers through your network vastly outperforms job listings. Personal recommendations made all the difference.

Fourth, co-founders should complement each other - ideally one tech-minded and one focused on business management. Solo founders can easily burn out.

Staying lean and pragmatic early on helped us reach product market fit faster. Now we’re growing steadily, without investors breathing down our necks and genuinely enjoy building the product.

Curious to hear from other founders how are you navigating tech decisions at your startups?

I’ve helped a few non-technical SaaS founders go from idea → MVP → pre-seed.

Here’s what surprised them (and honestly, what surprises a lot of first-time founders):

Investors don’t fund clean UI. Or clever tech.
They fund momentum, proof, and clarity.

One of my close friend, has a decent amount raised just for his idea and he gives credit to the clarity he had about going 0-1 with the startup. [industry - shopify extension for e-com stores]

Here’s what we focused on in the MVP that helped raise:

1. Sharp outcome, not shiny features
We built one clear user outcome into the MVP.
Not a dashboard. Not onboarding flows. Just:

“A user comes in with X pain and leaves with Y result.”

It was ugly—but it worked. And it showed investors the problem → solution instantly.
Make a list of KPI's and achieve them, if product works well, think what will retain the users and build that.

2. Learning + usage data baked in
We tracked just 3 things:

• % of users who reached the “aha” moment
• How fast they got there
• What they said afterward ( pls talk to your users)

One quote in the deck hit harder than any demo.

3. Compliance-minded from day 1
No full SOC2 or anything wild.
But we flagged how we’d handle data, privacy, and scale.
This mattered a lot to VCs with B2B or regulated space experience.

4. Founder story that made sense
We helped the founder clearly explain:

• What v1 taught
• What they’d do next
• Why they were the one to do it

Because again: they’re funding motion, not features.

PS: If you’re building something and plan to raise soon, happy to share what we’ve learned or riff on your scope. DMs open

I will not promote

Hey fellow founders!Just finished my latest investor meeting and thought I'd share the due diligence checklist they dropped on me.Having been through this dance before, I know how overwhelming these requests can feel.

Don't panic when you see the length—I'll drop some tips on efficient ways to tackle this in the comments. Here's what investors are looking for these days:

Complete Due Diligence Checklist

I. Industry Analysis

1. Regulatory landscape: agencies, frameworks, key legislation and policies
2. Comprehensive industry overview
3. Key market drivers and challenges
4. Technology landscape, business models, and industry cyclicality/seasonality
5. Competitive analysis: market structure, concentration, key players
6. Your market position and competitive advantages
7. Supply chain and ecosystem relationships
8. Barriers to entry and core competency requirements
9. Industry outlook and future trends

II. Strategic Planning

• Detailed future development strategy and roadmap

III. Business Operations & Product

1. Company profile and background
2. Core business processes
3. Business model breakdown
4. Key customer and supplier relationships
5. Project implementation timelines vs. industry benchmarks
6. Average deal size vs. industry benchmarks
7. Post-launch operational support systems
8. Payment terms and collection cycles
9. R&D investments and outcomes
10. Organizational structure, management profiles, and team composition
11. Core IP assets, patent portfolio, and key technical personnel
12. Sales infrastructure and distribution channels
13. Strategic partnerships and agreements
14. Sales methodology and performance metrics
15. Cost structure analysis
16. Top 5 contracts by product line (past 3 years)
17. Top 5 contracts by customer segment (past 3 years)
18. Customer reference checks
19. Unit economics by business line
20. Additional customer interviews as needed

IV. Financial Overview

1. Audited financial statements (2022-2024)
2. Working capital and cash flow analysis
3. Accounting policies and consistency
4. Operating expense breakdown

V. Valuation & Funding

1. Current round details and future financing roadmap
2. Capital expenditure plans (current year + 2 years)
3. Financial projections and pipeline analysis
4. Comparable company analysis
5. Preferred valuation methodologies
6. Vision statement and competitive positioning
7. Previous financing documentation
8. Historical valuation progression

Anyone else navigating these waters right now? What's your experience been like?

I will not promote.

Hi there! I worked at a startup as a 1099 worker and they stopped responding to me while we were discussing collecting payment. 1) How do I go about this? 2) any law firms you can recommend me to sue the company? I have about ~$40k in unpaid wages for my work. Thanks!

I will not promote

I was trying to find a good subreddit to post this. Ironically, this is the place that seemed to fit best as I will not promote.

Fellow startup founders, what are your best marketing channels to promote your product?

I’ve gone through the common launch sites: - Hackernews - Betalist - Product hunt - TinyLaunch

Then posted to Subreddits that allow self promotion: - SideProject - Webdev on Saturdays - Macapps

And then - Threads - X - Bluesky

What worked for me (highest to lowest number of converted users)?

By far the most: Threads, r/macapps r/SideProject

Then some from Betalist

What worked for you? Any critical ones I’ve missed?

I built a SaaS that’s now doing $1k MRR and growing well. It started as a fun side project to try a new tech stack, no commercial intent. But now it’s become real, and I genuinely believe it can hit $5–10k MRR within a year. Users love it, LTV/CAC is solid, and my small distribution efforts are working.

The problem? I don’t care about the niche, and I’m not enjoying the work anymore. I’m a tech guy, I want to build deep, technical stuff. Instead, I’m spending my days emailing influencers and doing marketing. Every day feels like I’m slowly selling my soul.

Tried listing it for sale (Flippa, acquisition, etc.), but it got rejected for NSFW content. Not sure what to do — suck it up and scale it to $10k MRR, or go all-in trying to sell it now?

Anyone else been in this weird spot where the business is working, but your heart just isn’t in it?

(I will not promote)

I will not promote. Basically the title.

I quit my job last year from big tech to go full time on the startup. No salary since last 1 year.

We have built our product, and are now planning to sell it. Based on multiple discussions, and realizations, we concluded that the market we are selling to is not really huge. So there is limited potential in what we are building and selling.

I am thinking to come back to the job (possibly at big tech) and continue the startup on the side (trying to sell). I am basically frustrated with my routine and 0 salary. Also, this does not seem something which I want to bet my life or next 10 years on.

At the same time, there is some potential business (think around 1-2M ARR) based on what we are building and have built till now. I am planning to apply to jobs, get back to something full time and continue selling this on the side.

Did anyone do this before? Does it work?

I’m genuinely curious. “I will not promote”.

I’m not trying to pull in a woman cofounder for the sake of opening up more avenues for a startup and also that’s not the right way to find a cofounder as well.

This question came to my mind randomly.

If there is one male founder and one female cofounder, does it make the team eligible for women funded startups, events, etc.?

Everyone has one. Once i demoed with a drunk CEO for our biggest client and he couldnt log in to the product and started yelling at me in the meeting. Once a dev died mid delivery and he was working on equity and the founders only paid for his daughters college. Didnt give his wife his shares. Even when it sold.

All downhill from there. (I will not promote.)

I’m a founder in SF. Like most of us, I’m not from here, and I don’t particularly like being here. Not for political reasons, I’m just not one for city life.

My only justification for staying here is that it’s the best place to be as a founder. I’ve heard this from other founders as well.

I’ve also heard of people who are building from small towns, 2nd/3rd tier cities, and even from a boat. If this is you, what are you working on?

I will not promote!

I have a SaaS that's doing $1k MRR and additional sold two licenses for commercial use of the open source codebase for $5k. The product was a B2C freemium and had elements of NSFW and attracted weirdos and I had to do so much moderation and it was just soul crushing.

So eventually I couldn't take it anymore and quickly started talks with buyers for 2-3x ARR, but literally just a few days after starting talks with buyers, Stripe banned my account so now I am completely fucked.

I'm on an email chain begging stripe to reverse the ban, asking what I can do from a moderation point of view and reaching out to everyone I know to try and reverse it, but I don't even know anymore.

I feel like calling it quits and just moving on. This whole experience has been just extremely painful and quite traumatic tbh. I don't know how much more I can take of this

(i will not promote)

I will not promote. I’ve been obsessing over early-stage validation lately—especially how much time solo founders (myself included) can waste building before realizing no one actually wants the product.

In my case, I’m trying to systematize the validation process. Instead of going full MVP or shipping a full product, I’ve been playing with workflows like:

• Writing down 5+ variations of the same idea to stress-test the core
• Creating quick landing pages + simple survey funnels
• Running ultra-targeted Reddit/Twitter/Google Ads with $25–50
• Measuring CTR + actual form fills as early traction signals

It’s helping me dodge the trap of building beautiful things for ghosts, but I still feel like I’m winging parts of it.

So I’m curious:

How do YOU validate an idea before committing to build?
Do you talk to people first? Fake-door test? Do you treat pre-traffic like a dealbreaker?

Bonus question: If you’re not technical, how do you get something live fast without relying on a dev cofounder?

Would love to hear what systems or red flags you've developed over time. If enough people are interested, maybe we can put together a Notion doc of everyone’s idea validation stack/process. I’ll start.

I’m building something out of sheer frustration. Not trying to pitch, just want to sanity check if anyone else has hit this wall.

Every time I look for a dev contract, I get hit up by 20–30 recruiters in the space of a month. Some are sound. Most are chaos.

I’ve had:

• Recruiters pitch me the same job under three different agency names
• Ones that ghost after multiple interviews
• Others who act like I’ve never spoken to them before
• And my favourite: “You’re a brilliant fit” then silence forever

At some point I thought, right, I’ll keep a log.
Started tracking who I’d spoken to, what job it was for, if they followed up, and whether they ghosted me.

What began as a petty spreadsheet turned into something that’s… actually useful?
Like a little job search CRM just for recruiters.

Now I’m wondering if I’m solving a niche problem only I care about, or if this kind of thing hits for others too.

Would love to hear:

• Have you ever tracked recruiter convos?
• Would something like this have saved you a headache?
• Or am I just over-organising my pain?

Not linking anything (I will not promote), just curious if this is a thing or a one-man spreadsheet rebellion.

I’m a cofounder at a venture-backed startup. We’ve raised some capital, built a real product, and have a small team in place. But I feel stuck right now and unsure what the right next move is for the company or for myself.

We have less than a year of runway. Sales haven’t picked up the way we need them to. We’re planning to hire a senior sales person, but it’s a big expense and a high-risk hire. We don’t have much room for error.

The bigger problem is that our CEO isn’t stepping up. She’s not working hard enough, and when she does, it’s often not on the right things. I’ve tried to redirect and collaborate. At this point, I’m running nearly every part of the business on my own. product, finance, operations, hiring, investor updates, support, etc. I don’t think she’s the right person to lead the company, and I’m starting to feel like we won’t make it if something doesn’t change.

The issue is that I don’t want to be CEO either. I could do it for a while if I had to, but it’s not my long-term path. It’s not my skillset, and it’s not what I’m passionate about. My wife is also pregnant and I’m trying to plan for some kind of real parental leave at the end of this year, which makes stepping in even harder. I’m trying to do right by our investors, the team, and the company we’ve spent years building, but I don’t know how to solve this.

Do I push for a CEO change when we don’t have a clear successor? Do I temporarily step in and risk burning out before the baby arrives? Do I focus on sales and hope we can survive long enough to reset later? Is there another option I’m not seeing?

Would love to hear from anyone who’s been through a messy cofounder situation or had to figure this out with limited time and resources. This has been keeping me up at night.

i will not promote

I watched a video this weekend about how if you want to be rich, like FU-money rich, you have to be obsessed with money. It got me thinking.

I know founders who became FU-levels of rich from startups. They all had that one thing in common. They were obsessed with their startups. Not obsessed with money, but obsessed with solving the problem and eventually scaling. Most of them never thought about an exit. They just sacrificed almost everything: family, friends, physical and mental health, and social life. They also had several "all-in" moments where they put it all on the line and risked catastrophic disaster.

I used to be obsessed with building a unicorn. I can't afford to anymore because I fully admit that my family and physical and mental health come first. Physically, I now have conditions after years of neglect that I can't ignore for the sake of my family. I've exited, only to risk it all again on the next venture that tanked.

Thankfully I'm "comfortable" now, not because of startups, but because of investments and a very boring business portfolio. I've written some pretty dumb angel checks and haven't made a dime, but I'm good with it. I have no complaints about my lifestyle and consider myself very fortunate.

I think "obsession" is the price you pay for "success." The level of obsession and what is successful is up to you and is highly subjective. And I think sacrifice is okay, up to a certain point.

I'm happy to hear any examples of anybody who achieved success without obsession or sacrifice. I don't know of any.

How obsessed are you and what are you willing or not willing to sacrifice?

I will not promote!