The purpose of this post is not meant to brag, but to seriously get some feedback, insight and advice.

I’ve been working on a startup for a few years, have a co-founder, now a small team (8 employees). We bootstrapped to $250k in ARR and closed a round in 4Q24 that included a few VC funds and angels. We will likely grow to $1M or $2M in ARR over the next 12mo. So very early, still figuring things out, but for the most part I’m very grateful for things.

But if I’m being honest, I have no idea what I’m doing and I constantly feel a sense of falling behind. We never have enough capital, never enough people, product is always behind, something is always breaking, i always want more revenue, and I feel as if it’s an endless cycle of figuring things out or biting more than we can chew.

Meanwhile every day I see headlines and other founders at our stage acting as if they have it all figured out. As if each day is calculated, planned, and executed to perfection.

Does anyone else feel this way? Am I crazy? Is this just part of the “founder journey?”

An AI recruiter startup just raised $100m at a $2b valuation while the founders have not built and scaled something before and are 21-years old. Is this 2022?

Someone please help me understand this, this company is a little over 2 years old and 2 of the 3 founders have never built something before. The other founder has, but it never scaled or got acquired (what I can find). No pristine universities (one from Harvard but dropped out in first year?) and one followed 50% of the Thiel Fellowship.

I cannot find a single top voice ridiculing this raise so can someone help me understand why this makes sense.

I am aware of their 70m ARR but in a second year, is that really ARR? Also that is still an almost 28x revenue multiple, the median valuation multiple for public SaaS companies stands at 7.0x current run-rate annualized revenue.

My husband and I recently got our green cards. He’s passionate about AI, infrastructure, & automation stuff and wants to start a startup in that space. When I ask him how he plans to do it, he doesn’t give me a concrete answer. His plan is to quit his job in July, speak to investors, and figure things out from there. He says he’s currently restricted from pursuing it due to work policies, which I believe is true—but I also feel like having a solid plan ahead of time would be better.

I was on an H-4 visa while my husband was on an H-1B (SDE 3) on FAANG for about three years. I just received my employment authorization card, so I can now legally work, though I haven’t started yet. Over the past few years, I’ve been focused on fixing up our house after we bought a fixer-upper, so I don’t have much work experience beyond that. Financially, we have some savings and investments, but I plan to start working in May or June to secure health insurance and provide extra financial stability(although it's nowhere comparable to my husband's salary.)

My husband seems like a smart guy. his performance reviews are always top-tier—but I believe that being a good software engineer and running a business are two different things. I have no clue what to expect from this, and we don’t have anyone in our circle who has done this before.

For those of you who’ve been through the early stages of a startup, what were the biggest challenges you faced? What's the worst thing that we can ever face? What should I prepare for? My husband is super chill and thinks I’m overthinking, but I just want to be realistic because we'll only eat up our savings from this point on even when I'm working full time. It's quite stressful for me to step into unknown territory & fiancial troubles, but I support his decision and will stand by him no matter what. I just need to have my mind prepped ahead. Thanks in advance for your advice..!

Thank you, everyone, for providing so much advice..! I couldn't respond to everyone, but I really really appreciate all the comments..😭

To answer some of the questions in the comments:

• We do have a financial cushion for a 3-5 years. I’ve invested most of the money in stocks, and you never know how the stock market will perform in the future. (We live in HCOL area)

• My husband doesn’t care much about financial stability. He is definitely not motivated by money. I know this sounds ridiculous, and we do get into some conflicts about this, but he really doesn’t care much about money. The reason for his startup is that he believes in the product and says it will make people’s lives easier (at least for the product’s users). He says he’s been thinking about this idea for years.

So, he’ll 99.99% quit by July or even earlier. There won’t be enough time to finish and test his product by then; he’ll just go for it. Honestly, he would have quit a long time ago if it weren’t for his company sponsoring his H1B visa.

• His plan is for me to work full-time while he tries his startup until we have no money left (literally at the edge of foreclosure). He says he’ll go back to working in tech at that point.

Thanks again!

As the title suggests one of my cofounders took control of the company bank account and is refusing to pay anyone back. He has gone relatively radio silent but I have his location and he is still in SF. I understand there are a variety of legal options but I’m not fully sure how to get started / who to talk to. I’m based in SF, and would love some recommendations.

Eventually we need to pay back our investors the remaining sum after we pay out our salaries (minimum wage in SF) and finish expenses (I fronted new hires, AWS, office on my personal card until our $500k pre-seed hit). It’s been over a month now and I have yet to be reimbursed for anything and all my cards are maxed out, including borrowing money from my family as allegedly this should be paid back.

The money is absolutely there as we raised from an extremely reputable accelerator, but there were significant ethics concerns and we shut down. It’s been a few weeks since we agreed to give back the money and I’m deeply concerned and frustrated.

I will not promote

Wanted to share a little success story on our end. We raised a $1.5m pre-seed. Happy to answer any questions, even if I'm far from being an expert. Perhaps my experience is useful to you!

Area: crypto/fintech Stage: pre-seed Current company size: 5 people (hiring) Location: EU, remote

I haven't been able to build a successful startup in less than 7 years. My current one is going on 13.

I hear a lot of "I'm giving it a year or so" and I'm thinking "OK well then you're pretty much guaranteeing failure because it takes way longer than that to possibly be successful."

I'm curious what folks expectations here are on how long they expect to keep working on their startup before they decide whether or not it's working?

Really interested to hear where those timeline expectations are coming from.

I see a lot of places. Even YCombinator promoting the idea that an MVP has to be some shitty thing. NO.. This is wrong.

The key idea of a MVP forming a feedback loop. You DO NOT have a feedback loop unless people continuously use it, and people will not continually use it, if it sucks.

How good does it have to be then? It has to be better than whatever people are currently using, for the given "thing". If its not, then they have no reason to use it. If they have no reason to use it, then you have no feedback loop, if you have no feedback loop, then you don't have a MVP.

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We have some pre-seed investors. They are giving decent valuations (as a cohort with a lead investor and others joining in with them). They are asking for 10% equity at a valuation of US$ 3.5 Million.

For context, the B2B app has a strong team of industry experts (in the F&B + Health industry), but it has no significant users and is not making any money yet.

Although we are very early in the discussions, we were surprised by this strange request that we have to stay pre-revenue for the next 3 years. They have given us user-based targets and traction (DAU/MAU) targets, but they are strict about staying pre-revenue.

Why do the investors want us to stay pre-revenue for the next 3 years? Why do they want us to burn their money?

These are some of the leading investors in India, and they have invested in some well-known health-tech startups in India. They mentioned this in a face-to-face meeting, so I know it is serious.

I am not comfortable with this. Please help.

Hey everyone!

I just needed to share this small win with people who might understand. After 6 months of working nights and weekends, I just got my first paying customer for my SaaS, and I'm literally shaking with excitement!

Some context: I'm an AI Engineer at a tech company in Europe. During lunch with some colleagues from South America, I noticed they all shared the same struggle - landing tech jobs in Europe was a nightmare for them. LinkedIn was too noisy, and the language barrier made everything harder. Instead of just nodding along, I decided to try to help.

Started super simple: just a landing page with an email form and some Google Ads to see if others had the same problem. Got 200+ signups, which gave me the motivation to build something real.

The funny part? I only knew Python from my job. Had to learn everything else from scratch - frontend, AWS, Stripe integration. It was honestly overwhelming at times, but I kept pushing through, building the most stripped-down version that could still help people.

Today, I finally opened it up to my waiting list. Within 6 minutes (still can't believe this), someone actually paid for it! It's not much money, but man, knowing that someone values something I built enough to pay for it... that feeling is indescribable.

I know it's a tiny achievement compared to what many of you have accomplished, but for me, it's huge. It's my first time building something from scratch and having someone actually pay for it.

The biggest lesson? Something we all know but I had to learn the hard way: talk to your users first, really listen to their problems, and build the simplest thing that helps them. The tech stack doesn't matter nearly as much as understanding the problem.

Thanks for letting me share this moment. Back to work now - got to make sure this first customer gets amazing value!

Basically the title.

We raised during covid, sold the unprofitable platform for pennies and are now in heated discussion with our VC because they squeezed us into the corner saying we need to have a traction for our new product in three months, otherwise they'll shut down the company and take the money from it. And I'm actually paralyzed because of this. I can't do shit except applying to jobs because I might need new cash flow very soon.

I must say I'm so SICK of investors, really. They've been unhelpful (aside from funding) and are expecting unrealistic things. I've been so cautious of my spending for the past year so I can concentrate on pivot/new product this year and what I got from investor was a slap in the face.

For the past 2 years I'm seriously thinking of never going after VC money again. My next venture will be bootstrapped. And in the meantime.... I'll probably just do a reset and get a job.

Eeeehh.. tell me your story :) give me some optimism guys. Need it so badly.

I feel so stuck, I have had an idea for well over a year now, and part of me wants to just drop it, but something in me will not allow me to do so.

I found a huge gap in a certain service space that I am very confident will get traction. It would be web/app based. I have no idea where to start, I have a family and bills like everyone else and lack of extra money to hire people etc.

The problem is I know for a fact as soon as it comes to to life there will be clones shortly after, I also know there is a huge hole that can be capitalized with the world completely lacking it.

I will not promote

Edit: I can see the downvotes pouring in. That is absolutely okay, I have gotten a boat load of information, and it has very much helped me map some of my next steps.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed actual information and along with advice/motivation instead of slandering. The reality is that we all need to start somewhere, and this is one of the places I started and do not regret it one bit.

I just had a meeting with the other 3 people in my company. I'm the only tech guy. I built the entire product and all the infrastructure to build, deploy and run it. The value of the work I've put in over 2 months has been externally valued at 350-550k and should have taken a year(!). They've paid me perhaps 1% of the value added. I tried to have a grown-up conversation with them today about equity reflecting value and got basically stonewalled on that and also a flat refusal to increase my rate to something I might be able to survive on. I'm feeling so undervalued right now :(

I have always been a “technical” or “tech-savvy” person but I’ve never considered myself a programmer or engineer. With good reason, I don’t know how to actually write code.

Like everyone else though, I’ve leveraged NLMs extensively for the past 12 months and I have created a full stack MERN web app. Hosted the front end on vercel and the back end on render. Mongo and Azure blob for storage.

I have extensively QA’d the application for months and everything works. Deployed to production environments and all. I know and have documented client on-boarding processes (it’s multi-tenant), data migration and all of that.

I’m going to market soon, have some initial seed funding.

Am I crazy to think I don’t actually need a traditional CTO? I can build and fix bugs as I have been, and I know how to deploy the infrastructure. What am I missing here?

I don’t know what hurts more, the heartbreak I went through or the fact that I built something to fix it… and no one seems to care.

A few months back, I was stuck in a loop of regret. I had two major moments in my life where I had feelings for someone but never said a word. Fear of rejection? Awkwardness? Losing a friendship? Whatever the reason, I stayed silent. And both times, I lost my chance.

Then one day, I found out that one of them… liked me back. She had feelings for me too. But just like me, she stayed silent. And now she’s married.

I kept thinking, how many people go through this? How many love stories die before they even start?

So, I built something. A way to confess without the awkwardness. A way to know if there’s even a chance before making a fool of yourself.

At first, people seemed excited. Then I realized,

No one was using it.

I tried everything, word of mouth, fb ads, subtle sharing, even got a few hundred signups. But it’s just… sitting there.

Now I’m wondering—

👉 Did I completely misjudge the need for this?
👉 Is this just one of those ‘sounds cool but no one actually wants it’ ideas?
👉 Or am I just missing something?

I’m honestly at a crossroads. I don’t want to force a dead idea. But at the same time, I feel like this concept deserves a shot. Maybe I’m just coping. Maybe I should move on.

What do you guys think?

Hello all! Sales professional here - not technical. I’m a big believer in sticking to your wheelhouse, and outsourcing when needed to increase efficiency. I’m in the early days of my startup, having a goal to stay as lean as possible creating the MVP; but I’m at the point where I’m wasting my time.

Long story short, I’ve tried all the no code MVP developer apps; and I fucking suck at it.

I have a very specific vision, with a bunch of automations, specific workflows, etc.

What is the best way to go about this? Hire a CTO and provide equity? Hire a random to get the job done and move from there? As of right now Im completely bootstrapping it, so hiring an expensive agency isn’t in the cards for me.

I have customers waiting to test the MVP and I would love to get moving asap. Thank you for your input!!

(I will not promote)

What are some good YC alternatives to check out in the meantime in case you get rejected by YC? I’m based in Melbourne, Aus and our startup is in Fintech/Ai.

I searched some to name a few: - 500 Startup - Antler - Startmate - Angelpad - Soma

Anyone who has experience going through any? Would love some ideas or any path for getting into the startup world. Even networking with the right community would be great to start learning Level 0 of startup > scale.

Just like any business or field it’s much much easier and executable to learn directly from the people who’ve done it. Otherwise you’re just in a never ending loop of Level -2.

I’m creating an AI startup; a reinforcement learning model designed to do a certain thing in a big field.

I’ve basically developed code for a prototype (I hope to start training in two weeks)

I do believe YC advice for taking a cofounder, but risk of getting a bad one is too high. In my life I also haven't met people with my grit, at least from my countries, so I'll have to "date down", I guess. At least in technical sense.

So, has not having a business cofounder actually screwed anyone up badly?

(Looking at people who are doing ventures with $20m+ potential/real ARR,)

I had a reality check conversations with some founders about the realities of pre-seed funding yesterday and I have this conversation weekly.

Founders that hear about “pre-seed,” especially before 2021, believe that you can get funded based on your idea and MVP.

It’s becoming more rare as development becomes easier. Yes, in pre-seed, there will always be that friendly angel that believes in you somewhere and writes that early check. But if you’re banking on raising money before getting a customer, it’s been a rude awakening.

More pre-seed investors are saying, “Go and get at least one customer and tell me what you’re learning.” They don’t want to see another MVP or demo alone (GPT wrappers anyone?)

I saw a stat that last year, just under half of pre-seed funds needed to see revenue. Some wanted up to a million dollars.

Is it fair? I know a lot of founders complain. It’s just the market right now. You’re also competing with so many other places the investor could put their money.

A founder told me that they are in a chicken and egg scenario. They needed money to get customers or but investors won’t invest until they get customers.

Founders say “Ed, it’s like they want us to produce an egg without a chicken or vice versa.”

The answer is, “yes.” And that’s the reality. Founders need to sell from day one. If you need funding to build, sell the idea at least. If your problem is painful enough, your solution novel enough, and your team credible enough, you can still sell something. What you sell is where you become the founder investors want to see.

Or, build something that costs less if you don’t have the funds to start. I’m sure many here have done it and can tell you stories if you ask the right questions.

Even better, build a business that cash flows first and needs investors second. It’s possible. I’m sure many here have done this too.

We received a $25k for 2.5% on a convertible note offer from a US based investor. The note matures in 18 months with an interest rate of 5%, but the investor said they can extend it further.

It’s an AI SaaS in graphic design. We have been bootstrapping till now, and we feel that this money could help us hire better engineers and marketeers, we want to grow it to a good revenue, but don't see it becoming a billion dollar startup as such. Our initial plans were to build it like an indie-hacker, grow it a decent revenue and sell it to someone who can take better care of it. We built it as a side project with full time jobs.

We already have decent traction with 10k+ signups and $600+ in revenue per month with <100 dollars spent on marketing. But our AI model costs are high, 0.2 USD per user that we onboard and provide free credits.

But we as founders are more interested in another idea that we have been thinking about and see a bigger potential + founder market fit in. The current product is good, and we can foresee that with better hiring and marketing, we can grow our revenue to about 10-20k a month, like a regular online business. What should we do?

We don't want to simply let go of the product because it's not that it doesn't work, it's just that we as founders are better fit for something else. We can't sell it yet as the revenue isn't too high and we haven't even incorporated. Is it okay if we think of growing it to 10-20k+ a month and then intend to sell it to someone who can take better care of it? Should we take the investment in such a case, given this investment is definitely gonna help us grow? Process of incorporation will also help us in selling this business later I think?

Not sure where to start. I’ve been at it for 18 months, 4 months ago I went through a pretty nasty cofounder breakup after spending most of our time and money developing a product no one wanted, and the few who did were people I just did not want to build a product for. So I laid off all but one engineer to reduce burn rate while we figure something else out.

At the beginning of the year we pivoted to something I think people will use, but I took two weeks off for my wedding, and now that I’m coming back to it I have zero motivation to work on it. Just thinking about it drains me.

All this rambling to ask the titular question: how do I pull myself out of the pit of despair?

Just a sick feeling right now. A coder thats been working on my mvp for the last month just stops giving updates. No access to the code (found on upwork, good reviews, good history). Now I’m having to probably start all over again.

Waitlist of 200+ people built up in 2 weeks. Many conversations with potential partnerships. I paid for the mvp and now, ghosted near the end.

When I saw work stalling due to his other job, I mentioned that after the mvp is done, I would need to bring on someone full time to work. I feel like that was a big mistake as since then, work is now a drag.

I always see people talking about people having a great idea and wanting a CTO to come on board and work for free. This wasn’t like that. No equity discussed and im paying for the mvp.

Just very disheartening and just wanted to rant. Not sure where to go from here. Looks like I’ll be starting all over again, pushing back all discussions I’ve had with those interested in funding.

I will not promote.

Hey everyone, came on here because I was looking to deploy an mobile application with an AI backend. It's a prediction model that predicts future data points based on previous. Using LightGBM (makeshift, let me know if you guys have a more accurate model suggestion)

I have a technical background, and I know everything I need to build the product. I wanted to hear your guys' experience with deploying the AI backend.

What are the best options to deploy my AI algorithm? A low cost method, as this is an MVP. What have you guys done in the past?

First-time founder here, trying to navigate early stage funding.

I've watched and read tons of content on raising early money with SAFEs, including many by YC itself, and they are all like "Yeah, it's super easy. Just sign the document, take the check, and then get back to building your thing." But none of them have said, "oh and don't forget to file Form D within 15 days". Why?

Also after digging into it more, it looks like you can actually raise from up to 35 non-accredited investors. Yet the blanket advice in the startup world seems to be "only raise from accredited investors". Are the additional requirements for those non-accredited investors just too cumbersome?

Anyone else holding down a full time job while trying to start or run or grow their startup during or after work hours?

Anyone else guilty of a conflict of interest at the same time?

I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote. I will not promote.

I'm curious to hear from successful startups who have NOT gone down the route of equity investors—those who take shares in exchange for funding.

• What's your story?
• how did you do it?
• how old were you when you started?
• what drove you to do it?
• how many businesses did you start before finding the right one?
• anything else worth sharing

I mostly hear about companies securing investor funding where they give up shares, and I’m really interested to learn how many businesses managed to avoid that route and how they did it.