sample.json

[
  {
    "postId": "1tds089",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Top 5 websites I regularly use as a developer at a startup - I will not promote",
    "author": "New-Vacation-6717",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tds089/top_5_websites_i_regularly_use_as_a_developer_at/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tds089/top_5_websites_i_regularly_use_as_a_developer_at/",
    "selftext": "As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.\n\nNot talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…\n\nI mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. \n\nHere are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:\n\n1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.\n2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.\n3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.\n4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.\n5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.\n\nAlso if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T10:15:47.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.744Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdrykj",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Top 5 websites I regularly use as a developer at a startup - I will not promote",
    "author": "New-Vacation-6717",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdrykj/top_5_websites_i_regularly_use_as_a_developer_at/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdrykj/top_5_websites_i_regularly_use_as_a_developer_at/",
    "selftext": "As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.\n\nNot talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…\n\nI mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. \n\nHere are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:\n\n1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.\n2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.\n3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.\n4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.\n5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.\n\nAlso if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T10:13:36.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.793Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdrkox",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "struggling putting my all into job search (i will not promote)",
    "author": "unstoppablefutureme",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdrkox/struggling_putting_my_all_into_job_search_i_will/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdrkox/struggling_putting_my_all_into_job_search_i_will/",
    "selftext": "I'm winding down my startup that didn't work out favorably. But I'm having trouble being decisive about the job search.\n\nI know I need income. But I'm having a hard time being decisive about roles, positions, and even following through with temporary part-time jobs available. When it comes time to put in the extra effort needed (like creating and tailoring a resume for those jobs), I'm struggling.\n\nI'm not complaining here - but maybe there is something there psychologically, since things are still fresh. I didn't want to stop, but finances say otherwise - and, I lost the passion of the original idea while on the journey as well after diving deep in it and seeing all its particulars.\n\nHas anyone else made this transition? Who do you reach out to for assistance in getting back on your feet here, that will help with the simple things?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 1,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T09:53:03.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.832Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdqqoz",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "For all founders in the ESG/Sustainability space (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Moist_Airline_4096",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdqqoz/for_all_founders_in_the_esgsustainability_space_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdqqoz/for_all_founders_in_the_esgsustainability_space_i/",
    "selftext": "I run a marketing systems & GTM company. My sister works in sustainability, and has just hit a very important milestone in her professional journey.\n\nIn celebration of that, and to honour her passion for making the world a better place, I’ve set aside 400 work hours with my team, over the next 4 weeks, to support any business working in the ESG and sustainability space with their marketing efforts. completely free of cost, no catches, no nothing. Real, actionable support.\n\nIf you're helping the world heal, I'd love to help you get there faster.\n\n  \nSome things we could help you with (not exhaustive, just recommendations):  \n\\- build your online presence for you as a foundational step towards your marketing goals  \n\\- build a workflow to solve a specific sales/marketing/revenue problem youve hit  \n\\- audit your current marketing channels and tell you whats working, what isnt, and what you can do in the next 3 months  \n\\- fix attribution and CRM mapping if you have good results but arent sure where they're from\n\n",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T09:05:21.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.870Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdqkjb",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "how should I validate the product idea ? I will not promote",
    "author": "ponziedd",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdqkjb/how_should_i_validate_the_product_idea_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdqkjb/how_should_i_validate_the_product_idea_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "Hey,\n\nSo for context, I operate in the newsletter field. I have a newsletter too, so it was natural for me to go into this niche, specifically the newsletter content repurposing bottleneck. I spent 14 days talking on Reddit and Substack with other newsletter creators, collected all discussion s into a csv file and they all told me that their repurposing workflow was total chaos and a real time drain, confirming what I was looking for. \n\nPeople were complaining, but the problem is that when I send a follow-up, they are not replying. So maybe they are not looking for solutions to solve this? I honestly don't know, because when it comes to complaining I have a bunch of folks talking like this is head on fire problem, but on follow-ups, no one is showing up.\n\nHow can I translate this? I started my validation 4 weeks ago, and these last few days I feel like I've made zero progress. Any advice?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T08:55:52.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.892Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdpo2r",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Looking for an experienced Mobile/PWA dev. (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Able-Ingenuity8885",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdpo2r/looking_for_an_experienced_mobilepwa_dev_i_will/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdpo2r/looking_for_an_experienced_mobilepwa_dev_i_will/",
    "selftext": "I’m building a fintech startup based in India with a validated problem-solution fit, and we already have potential early users lined up and waiting for our trial launch.\n\nUnfortunately, my technical cofounder had to step away mid-project due to personal reasons, which has left a critical gap on the development side.\n\nI’m now looking for a serious, execution-focused mobile app / PWA developer to join as a cofounder in exchange for 20% equity.\n\nWhat I need:\n\n\t•\tStrong experience in mobile app development / PWA\n\n\t•\tFintech product development\n\n\t•\tPayment gateway integrations\n\n\t•\tUPI intents / UPI flow implementation\n\n\t•\tSecure, scalable architecture\n\n\t•\tAbility to take ownership and build fast\n\nCurrent status:\n\n\t•\tIdea validated\n\n\t•\tMarket need confirmed\n\n\t•\tEarly users ready\n\n\t•\tProduct direction clear\n\n\t•\tImmediate execution needed\n\nWho this is for:\n\nSomeone who wants to build a real startup from the ground up, not just freelance for cash. If you’re entrepreneurial and want meaningful equity in a potentially scalable fintech product, this could be a solid fit.\n\nIf interested, DM me with your background, past projects, or portfolio.\n\nSerious builders only.",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T08:04:50.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.918Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdplwk",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Looking for an experienced Mobile/PWA Dev. [i will not promote]",
    "author": "Able-Ingenuity8885",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdplwk/looking_for_an_experienced_mobilepwa_dev_i_will/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdplwk/looking_for_an_experienced_mobilepwa_dev_i_will/",
    "selftext": "I’m building a fintech startup based in India with a validated problem-solution fit, and we already have potential early users lined up and waiting for our trial launch.\n\nUnfortunately, my technical cofounder had to step away mid-project due to personal reasons, which has left a critical gap on the development side.\n\nI’m now looking for a serious, execution-focused mobile app / PWA developer to join as a cofounder in exchange for 20% equity.\n\nWhat I need:\n\n\t•\tStrong experience in mobile app development / PWA\n\n\t•\tFintech product development\n\n\t•\tPayment gateway integrations\n\n\t•\tUPI intents / UPI flow implementation\n\n\t•\tSecure, scalable architecture\n\n\t•\tAbility to take ownership and build fast\n\nCurrent status:\n\n\t•\tIdea validated\n\n\t•\tMarket need confirmed\n\n\t•\tEarly users ready\n\n\t•\tProduct direction clear\n\n\t•\tImmediate execution needed\n\nWho this is for:\n\nSomeone who wants to build a real startup from the ground up, not just freelance for cash. If you’re entrepreneurial and want meaningful equity in a potentially scalable fintech product, this could be a solid fit.\n\nIf interested, DM me with your background, past projects, or portfolio.\n\nSerious builders only.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T08:01:35.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.947Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdot03",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Maybe some startup advice is too universal, especially “don’t build, just sell first” (i will not promote)",
    "author": "lankaus",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdot03/maybe_some_startup_advice_is_too_universal/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdot03/maybe_some_startup_advice_is_too_universal/",
    "selftext": "I’ve been thinking about a lot of common SaaS/startup advice lately.\n\nYou hear things like:\n\n“Don’t build. Go talk to customers.”  \n“Sell before you build.”  \n“Don’t build something that already exists.”  \n“Launch fast and validate.”\n\nI understand why this advice exists. A lot of founders hide in the product because selling is uncomfortable. They spend months building, launch, and then nobody cares.\n\nMaybe part of the reason we hear this advice so often is because different parts of the startup ecosystem optimise for different outcomes.\n\nVCs, accelerators, startup media, consultants, agencies, and growth experts all have their own incentives. That does not mean the advice is bad or dishonest. But it does mean the advice may be shaped by the game they are playing.\n\nFor example, venture capital works best when companies move fast, chase large markets, raise money, and aim for outsized exits. A self-funded founder building patiently, dogfooding deeply, reaching profitability, and keeping ownership may be building a great business, but it may not fit the VC model.\n\nSo when advice gets repeated everywhere, I think founders should ask:\n\n**Who benefits if I follow this advice, and what game does this advice optimise for?**\n\nSometimes the answer is: it benefits the founder by forcing them to face the market.\n\nOther times, it might push them toward a path that serves the funding ecosystem more than the actual business.\n\nBut I also think this advice can be taken too far.\n\nSome products need to exist at a certain level of completeness before customers can understand them, trust them, or see the value. A half-baked version might not validate the idea properly, it might just make a good idea look weak.\n\nThis seems especially true for SaaS products where the value comes from workflow, depth, reliability, integrations, or repeated use. You can’t always validate those things with a landing page or a few conversations.\n\nDogfooding is another part of this that I think gets underrated",
    "score": 14,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.89,
    "numComments": 10,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T07:16:07.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:53.984Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdm91l",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Feedback Friday",
    "author": "AutoModerator",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdm91l/feedback_friday/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdm91l/feedback_friday/",
    "selftext": "Welcome to this week’s Feedback Thread!\n\n# Please use this thread appropriately to gather feedback:\n\n* Feel free to request general feedback or specific feedback in a certain area like user experience, usability, design, landing page(s), or code review\n* You may share surveys\n* You may make an additional request for beta testers\n* Promo codes and affiliates links are ONLY allowed if they are for your product in an effort to incentivize people to give you feedback\n* Please refrain from just posting a link\n* Give OTHERS FEEDBACK and ASK THEM TO RETURN THE FAVOR if you are seeking feedback\n* **You must use the template below**\\--this context will improve the quality of feedback you receive\n\n​\n\n# \n\n# Template to Follow for Seeking Feedback:\n\n* Company Name:\n* URL:\n* Purpose of Startup and Product:\n* Technologies Used:\n* Feedback Requested:\n* Seeking Beta-Testers: \\[yes/no\\] (this is optional)\n* Additional Comments:\n\n​\n\n​\n\n​\n\n# This thread is NOT for:\n\n* General promotion--YOU MUST use the template and be seeking feedback\n* What all the other recurring threads are for\n* Being a jerk\n\n​\n\n​\n\n# Community Reminders\n\n* Be kind\n* Be constructive if you share feedback/criticism\n* Follow all of our rules\n* You can view all of our recurring themed threads by using our Menu at the top of the sub.\n\n#   Upvote This For Maximum Visibility!",
    "score": 4,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.84,
    "numComments": 5,
    "flair": null,
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T05:00:25.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.022Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdm2ny",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How do startups get their first pilot customers for a SaaS? I will not promote",
    "author": "RelevantTurnip3482",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdm2ny/how_do_startups_get_their_first_pilot_customers/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdm2ny/how_do_startups_get_their_first_pilot_customers/",
    "selftext": "How do early stage SaaS founders get their first pilot customers?\n\nI want to understand the path people take at that stage whether it’s cold outreach, networking, inbound channels or something else.\n\nWould be useful to hear what worked in practice and what didn’t.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 11,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T04:51:20.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.046Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdlqh7",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "International Founder on H1B [I will not promote]",
    "author": "Ok-Student5569",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdlqh7/international_founder_on_h1b_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdlqh7/international_founder_on_h1b_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I will be creating jobs for the US, so please be kind. I know there is a lot of H1B hate out there, for good reason ❤️\n\nHypothetical context:\n\n1. I have a full time job on H1B. I want to keep it. There is no conflict of interest.\n2. Startup: I built a business solution (software +hardware) in a niche industry, and secured interests from hardware manufacturers, and they want to proceed with a contract.\n\n>The problem is I have not incorporated my startup yet, and I need a H1B concurrent filing for said startup. **I can only legally work for the full-time employer at ths moment (The H1B sponsor).**\n\nDoes anyone know a clear path forward? I know the rules have changed and I can start companies and sponsor myself with a H1B now.\n\nI'll be talking to an **immigration attorney** regardless, but wanted to hear from anyone who's been in a similar spot before that conversation.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T04:34:13.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.497Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdjuna",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I will not promote Could vacancy gap rentals work as ultrabudget housing?",
    "author": "Massive_Rabbit2064",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdjuna/i_will_not_promote_could_vacancy_gap_rentals_work/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdjuna/i_will_not_promote_could_vacancy_gap_rentals_work/",
    "selftext": "I will not promote, just wanted opinions on something I’ve been thinking about lately.\n\nI noticed a lot of apartments stay empty between tenants for days or even weeks sometimes, while people looking for temporary stays still end up paying crazy hotel or Airbnb prices.\n\nSo I was wondering if there’s any realistic way vacancy-gap rentals could work.\n\nI’m not talking luxury stays or fancy setups. More like basic temporary housing for students, workers relocating, people visiting hospitals, exam travelers, backpackers etc. Just clean, safe and cheap.\n\nFrom the owner side too, earning at least something during vacancy sounds better than the property sitting completely unused.\n\nThe more I think about it though, the more it sounds like an operational headache lol. Cleaning, damages, trust, fake bookings, neighbors complaining, legal stuff, liability and all that.\n\nI’m also not thinking of this as some giant money-printing startup idea. If something like this ever existed, I’d honestly just want enough to keep the operations/infrastructure running while making short stays cheaper for people who actually need them.\n\nDoes this sound realistic at all or am I underestimating how painful this would be?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.66,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T03:05:14.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.550Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdhuoq",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Stay or go? [I will not promote]",
    "author": "Sad-Artichoke-7625",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdhuoq/stay_or_go_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdhuoq/stay_or_go_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "Company isnt doing great, multiple rounds of layoffs, no revenue growth, have been told things can shut down by fall. Then a tiny blip of hope arrives so things seem like they could be steady for a little longer. The likelihood of us making it another year is slim.\n\nDo you stay and ride it out or do you jump ship for another job to grab some sense of security and a paycheck? (us based) \n\nOn one hand, its an easy gig and I have almost no stress, pay is fine but stagnant and i realllly dont want to start fresh somewhere. On the other hand, the market sucks and if we go under it can be awhile to land elsewhere. ",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T01:36:18.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.610Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdhuim",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "When to get a utility patent (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Immediate_1200",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdhuim/when_to_get_a_utility_patent_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdhuim/when_to_get_a_utility_patent_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I have an industry specific product idea that I am prototyping. For those of you who have gone through the process of getting a utility patent, when is the right stage to apply for one? I am bootstrapping this project, and I have talked to a few people in my industry, who agree that there is a need for what I am building. I have also done Real world research on the problem and I have observed current solutions. All of these solutions are manual, and non-standard. I am concerned about pre-selling without a patent, and I am curious to know everyone’s thoughts. For some info about , I have a tech startup in this same industry, but this is my first time with a physical product so I am in an uncharted territory  \n(I will not promote)",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 2,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-15T01:36:06.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.635Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tde38y",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "2017 Company (I Will Not Promote)",
    "author": "ApprehensiveTurn208",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tde38y/2017_company_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tde38y/2017_company_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "Is it even considered a startup if it’s almost 10 years old? I’m looking at applying to this company where they have about 100 employees. Wasn’t sure if the risk was worth it since these newer companies tend to be more disorganized and do more layoffs than others. Position says I’ll be wearing a lot of hats and it’s a fast paced environment.\n\nI currently work remotely for a consulting company and this is my first job out of college. Been at this job for years. Job is not a long term career goal of mine and raises aren’t much. This new position seems more challenging and what I’m looking for in career advancement. Pay increase would be about 15%.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T22:54:41.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.660Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tddz0r",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I don't think i'd be a good founder (i will not promote)",
    "author": "alparsalan5",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tddz0r/i_dont_think_id_be_a_good_founder_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tddz0r/i_dont_think_id_be_a_good_founder_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "I have an idea/vision that I'd like to bring to life but I just have this feeling that I'm not the best person to do it and that I'll be sabotaging its chance of success.\n\nI'm not particularly smart or talented in anything like execution/leadership, technicals, marketing/sales and being good with people. At my job, I'm like one of the lower performers.\n\nI don't have a problem with doing any particular thing. I'm happy to talk to customers and figure out product market fit, or design our website and landing page, or work on coding up our project. But I just have this self doubt on whether I'll be good at any of these things.\n\nThe two things I do have, based on actual feedback I've received: I come up with good ideas (one idea I had would save my company hundreds of thousands per year) and I'm genuinely open to feedback and willing to work on myself.\n\nFor context, I don't have any co-founders yet, just me working on my idea myself and I've been working at my job for about 5 years and Its not exactly relevant for what I'm trying to do.\n\n*  But I do have a lot of personal experience in the space I'm planning to do my startup. So I think I could be well suited to finding product market fit probably and would be good at understanding customers. ",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 12,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T22:49:44.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.685Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdc00s",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Where does one go/look for pre-seed investors (I will not promote)",
    "author": "ozeor",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdc00s/where_does_one_golook_for_preseed_investors_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdc00s/where_does_one_golook_for_preseed_investors_i/",
    "selftext": "Thought I would ask here.\n\nWhere do people typically go to, or have found success at for finding investors for the pre-seed round? This is for the games/entertainment industry.\n\nI've just started using Crunchbase and OpenVC, does anyone have any recommendations or places that they would share? We don't have much further to go on our goal and want to get this done before September.\n\nI see a lot of websites and services that want to charge hundreds if not thousands for services, but don't really explain what they offer or success rates. I'm not about to throw money down a hole. \n\nCheers!",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.81,
    "numComments": 6,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T21:32:16.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.733Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdburp",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Where does one go/look for pre-seed investors (I will not promote)",
    "author": "ozeor",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdburp/where_does_one_golook_for_preseed_investors_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdburp/where_does_one_golook_for_preseed_investors_i/",
    "selftext": "Thought I would ask here. \n\nWhere do people typically go to, or have found success at for finding investors for the pre-seed round? This is for the games/entertainment industry. \n\nI've just started using Crunchbase and OpenVC, does anyone have any recommendations or places that they would share? We don't have much further to go on our goal and want to get this done before September. \n\nCheers!\n\n",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 1,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T21:26:33.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.773Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdb07h",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Embeddings as a better way to browse reddit. I will not promote",
    "author": "Sumerysumer",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdb07h/embeddings_as_a_better_way_to_browse_reddit_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdb07h/embeddings_as_a_better_way_to_browse_reddit_i/",
    "selftext": "Some context...\n\nI'm a mod of r/ trauma and I built a tool to support users who get no replies on our subreddit. I built a reddit bot that treats a post as a query against a vector database of mental-health-related subreddit posts, and comments links to past posts, so they could feel less alone/get advice from past threads.\n\nIt's worked pretty well, and I'm interested in expanding it into more communities. How do you guys search / browse on reddit? Has anyone tried looking for a cofounder on reddit?\n\nImagine each post you click into and read, you get recommended similar posts. Similar to how pinterest works. Under the hood, each post has been embedded, and each post you click is a query against the vdb, which returns similar posts.\n\nCurious whether you guys can see yourself using this tool to browse startup related reddit threads, or use it to find other people building similar things.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.4,
    "numComments": 0,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T20:55:23.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.797Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tdarrw",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How much did SOC 2 cost your startup (audit + tooling)? I will not promote",
    "author": "MyInvisibleInk",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdarrw/how_much_did_soc_2_cost_your_startup_audit/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tdarrw/how_much_did_soc_2_cost_your_startup_audit/",
    "selftext": "Hi!\n\nLooking to know what others have paid for SOC 2 audits. Wanted to know if it changes based on size of startup, etc. \n\nI have been looking into getting a soc 2 audit done. My startup is in running for a multi-million dollar contract and I believe I will be asked for the report (or at least something showing I can attain it) soon. I have done all of the policies and research gathering myself, but I’m getting prices that range from slightly under $10k (even more of a discount if I had the automation software like Vanta, etc) to very high (all 100% US firms to avoid a Delve situation).\n\nWanted to know what’s a reasonable price for a 2 person startup. I started the evidence gathering and policy writing process by myself on day 1, so I have significant amounts of screenshots, policy files/documents, etc. I also built my own GRC platform for my company’s purpose to keep everything together/automate stuff.\n\nI have been told with the information I have, my report can probably be completed within 4 weeks at the soonest.\n\nThank you everyone for sharing your experiences!",
    "score": 10,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 11,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T20:46:38.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.859Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1td4cr0",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How did I make a SaaS at age 15 as a highschool student [i will not promote]",
    "author": "Sarthak_Shaurya999",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td4cr0/how_did_i_make_a_saas_at_age_15_as_a_highschool/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td4cr0/how_did_i_make_a_saas_at_age_15_as_a_highschool/",
    "selftext": "So I am a 15-year-old currently in high school. I have been learning random skills it's a long time. I learned video editing(I made the demo for it myself btw), game designing along with a little coding but after vibecoding became useful i used vibecoding tools to code for me while verifying the things it made.\n\nMy father has a transferrable job and I haven't got much friends so i was able to dedicate a lot of time in making my SaaS but as a student I had to manage studies too but still I skipped school on somedays. The thing that worked the best for me was utilizing my time at night. I slept a little late and dedicated building the software.\n\nActually my SaaS was for making studies easier and i didn't face any issues with managing studies and the SaaS because I stayed ahead of the speed in which the school teacher is taught , that was my unfair advantage for managing time.\n\nI made it for an issue that I generally face, which is the teacher teaching at a slower pace than mine so I made this AI personalizable so that it learns according to your study patterns and adjusts the pace and all of the teaching.\n\nAnd now finally I have completed the software and will be **launching tomorrow**. I have bought a plan for Higgsfield AI and am planning to use that for UGC content, it generates very realistic videos and I feel like if I **run like 5 TikTok and Instagram accounts** each then slowly I'll start getting users.\n\nI don't have any issues with spending on ads too. **Where should I go and run ads** if necessary?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.38,
    "numComments": 14,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T17:02:59.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.884Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1td2umi",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "[I will not promote] I watched a startup spend a year building a great feature nobody asked for and end up with layoffs",
    "author": "Popular-Penalty6719",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td2umi/i_will_not_promote_i_watched_a_startup_spend_a/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td2umi/i_will_not_promote_i_watched_a_startup_spend_a/",
    "selftext": "My first week at a recently-funded SaaS company, the CTO walked me through a roadmap that had \"AI Analytics Suite\" on it. I asked which customers had requested it, and he just said \"none yet, but data is the future\". The product had solid traction with active users, and the founders had raised enough to triple the team. But instead of talking to customers, the leadership team started running \"vision workshops\" to decide what the product should become. They brought in a squad of engineers and designers to build a dashboard analytics suite because the CEO convinced himself that was the best thing to do. Not a single paying customer had asked for it.\n\nA year later, the analytics feature went live and very few customers used it. The company had burned through most of its runway and started laying people off. The money had acted like a sedative, and nobody felt the urgency to validate costs and customer demand. Because they assumed they could afford to be wrong, they stopped checking if they were right, and definitely the CEO was too arrogant and stupid to think he knew better than his customers just because he managed to convince investors to inject more money. The funding turned out to subsidize a detachment from the reality of what customers actually wanted instead of accelerating their growth.\n\nI keep wondering if the real danger of raising money is the quiet permission it gives you to ignore what the market is actually asking you to do, rather than the dilution or the pressure everyone warns you about. \n\nHas anyone else seen a company get too proud and overconfident because they had enough VC money to burn?",
    "score": 14,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.94,
    "numComments": 13,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T16:11:01.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.909Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1td25rx",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "The most important skill for succeeding in business, in my opinion (I will not promote)",
    "author": "AlarmedEquipment2029",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td25rx/the_most_important_skill_for_succeeding_in/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td25rx/the_most_important_skill_for_succeeding_in/",
    "selftext": "Pattern recognition is probably the most important skill in the AI era.\n\nFor example, pattern recognition is simply the ability to identify, among a group of videos you watch on social media, the ones that keep showing up over and over again.\n\nExample: TikTok videos that perform well are emotional, relatable, and extremely dynamic (sound, editing, writing).\n\n3 patterns that appear constantly.\n\nAnother example: you look at successful SaaS products and instantly notice what works and how they do it.\n\nRecurring patterns: simple onboarding, clear offer, compelling freemium model.\n\nAnd it’s even more important in the AI era where everything moves insanely fast.\n\nBeing able to recognize a strong signal among the massive amount of content AI generates allows you to amplify it → to create 10 videos from the winning pattern.\n\nAI amplifies winning patterns, but it also amplifies bad ones. So you have to be careful when generating content:  you can spend hours generating something that simply doesn’t work.\n\nPattern recognition can be trained, but I also think we all naturally have some level of it. Some people do it instinctively, others don’t.\n\nRecognizing patterns also allows you to quickly update what you’re building and rapidly understand why you’re failing compared to others.\n\nExecution + pattern recognition = success\n\nWhat do you think?\n\n",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 2,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T15:47:04.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.952Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1td1yfp",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Intimidated of the wave of low quality competitors thanks to vibe coding (i will not promote)",
    "author": "h2onation",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td1yfp/intimidated_of_the_wave_of_low_quality/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td1yfp/intimidated_of_the_wave_of_low_quality/",
    "selftext": "[](/r/startups/?f=flair_name%3A%22I%20will%20not%20promote%22)I have strong conviction in my path, but there is an overwhelming sense that I am competing with an endless number of competitors bc of vibe coding. This intimidation is feels like its handicapping my confidence.\n\nI know my product is much higher quality, but differentiation has become challenging and cannot shake the feeling I am going to be steamrolled by someone out of left field because of the speed of development.\n\nIs this feeling shared by other? How do you keep your blinders on and say focused! thanks for the guidance.",
    "score": 13,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.84,
    "numComments": 22,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T15:40:03.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:54.976Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1td0od5",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "how does one learn everything related to deployment/infra?(i will not promote)",
    "author": "EcstaticSummer3377",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td0od5/how_does_one_learn_everything_related_to/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1td0od5/how_does_one_learn_everything_related_to/",
    "selftext": "Hello!  \nI’m a 3rd year compsci student. We’ve started building an iOS  health superapp in september 2025 and now we’re coming close to actually being ready to go into beta testing, as almost every feature we wanted is now implemented. \n\nWe relied really heavily on Claude Code and Codex for development, and for architectural design decisions we’ve had long conversations both with them and two of our more experienced friends.\n\nAs I’ve been in the field for some time, i have an understanding of how everything should work in a large scale system like ours, but i have a lot of concerns about how to actually verify the approach Claude suggested for deploying. I see that it covers a lot of stuff, even things i didn’t think about myself, but i want to be extra cautious and somehow verify that we don’t have any gaps. \n\nI don’t have any work experience, only academic and project-related practical knowledge. \n\nIs there a relatively fast way to somehow verify that everything needed has been done? If so, would i have to learn everything from the scratch?\n\nSorry, if something isn’t grammatically correct, English isn’t my first language",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 2,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T14:56:28.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.006Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcxdoz",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Y Combinator just released their \"Requests for Startups\" - what problems and startups they want to fund. i will not promote.",
    "author": "IntenselySwedish",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcxdoz/y_combinator_just_released_their_requests_for/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcxdoz/y_combinator_just_released_their_requests_for/",
    "selftext": "Every cycle or so, YC releases a RFS stating which kinds of problems and/or tech startups they're actively looking for. I find it interesting to glance over the headers of what's considered \"attractive\" tech verticals for the world's biggest VC.\n\nAI is a given ofc, but this time around they're focusing a bit more on the stuff which makes AI work, as well as stuff around agriculture, space production/mining, hardware/software production, and SaaS Challengers.\n\nThis is the Summer 2026 batch. Here are the breakdowns from their site:\n\nAI SOFTWARE\n\nSaaS Challengers - AI has collapsed the cost of building software, which means the moat legacy SaaS relied on is basically gone. Good time to go after the ones that have felt untouchable: ERPs, chip design tools, industrial control systems.\n\nAI-Native Service Companies - Instead of selling software that helps people do a job, just do the job. Accounting, compliance, insurance brokerage, healthcare admin. The services market is much larger than SaaS.\n\nDynamic Software Interfaces - Coding agents are good enough now that users can reshape software for their own needs. Companies ship the core, users modify the rest.\n\nSoftware for Agents - AI agents are doing real work but through interfaces built for humans. They need APIs, MCPs, CLIs. Every software category needs a version built with agents in mind first.\n\n\n\nAI INFRASTRUCTURE\n\nCompany Brain - Critical knowledge is scattered across emails, Slack, tickets, and people's heads. Build a system that pulls it together and makes it usable by AI agents so they can do consistent work without a human filling in the gaps.\n\nThe AI Operating System for Companies - Make everything a company produces queryable by an AI layer. Meetings, tickets, customer calls, all of it. The goal is a closed loop where the system flags problems and adjusts rather than waiting for someone to notice weeks later.\n\nInference Chips for Agent Workflows - GPUs hit around 30-40% utilization on agentic workloads because",
    "score": 102,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.87,
    "numComments": 39,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T12:56:31.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.042Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcx5r9",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Building a startup in 2026 is waste of time, money and energy (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Neither-Plankton-772",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcx5r9/building_a_startup_in_2026_is_waste_of_time_money/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcx5r9/building_a_startup_in_2026_is_waste_of_time_money/",
    "selftext": "I don’t like the idea when everyone encourages to build a digital product. \n\nIt’s like a virus spread everywhere.\n\nA smart entrepreneur finds untapped spaces where there’s less competition and big rewards.\n\nExample \n\nThe world needs a huge electricity source now. An average electrcian in US may earn 5x more than a successful Micro SaaS founder. \n\nAs an entrepreneur, you could develop a company that supports servers, data centers etc….",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.33,
    "numComments": 13,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T12:47:39.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.071Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcwslc",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Where to launch pilots of a SaaS to get the early adopters in? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "Mosjava",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcwslc/where_to_launch_pilots_of_a_saas_to_get_the_early/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcwslc/where_to_launch_pilots_of_a_saas_to_get_the_early/",
    "selftext": "Our call to action is booking a demo as we need to talk with our prospects. To learn them more as we shape the product. Moreover, our solution is early stage, not everything is fully automated and we have things that need to be done manually for the onboarding of a client.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 5,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T12:32:29.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.105Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcwa22",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "tackling the \"legacy saas\" unbundling: vertical niche vs. horizontal frameworks? i will not promote.",
    "author": "Vedantagarwal120",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcwa22/tackling_the_legacy_saas_unbundling_vertical/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcwa22/tackling_the_legacy_saas_unbundling_vertical/",
    "selftext": "yc put out that \"saas challengers\" rfs for summer 2026, basically calling for the death of bloated software like sap, salesforce, etc.\n\ni love the premise, but the execution feels like a trap for early-stage founders.\n\nif you want to replace a legacy saas, you need agents that can actually do the work (updating CRMs, parsing local databases, handling compliance). the problem is, the horizontal infrastructure for this is already terrifyingly good.\n\nyou have open-source players like langchain, you got FDEs from big established agencies who practically do what you build but even more precisely and then you have massive enterprise frameworks like lyzr and some other open source options that are basically offering \"agents-as-a-service\" with full compliance and local data privacy built-in for the enterprise level.\n\nif these heavyweight infrastructure tools exist, where does a seed-stage startup find its wedge?\n\n* do we just become implementation agencies wrapping these frameworks for specific industries? not a startup anymore in that case tho.\n* do we try to compete on UI/UX? sounds so pathetic to me.\n\nwould love to hear from anyone building in the b2b ai space. how are you defending your product against the massive horizontal agent frameworks that are eating the market? any comments on \"saas has as much opportunity as dropshipping in 2026\"?",
    "score": 4,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.83,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T12:10:53.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.130Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcvps5",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Social media platforms don’t care about AI, so use it a lot for your marketing (I will not promote)",
    "author": "AlarmedEquipment2029",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvps5/social_media_platforms_dont_care_about_ai_so_use/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvps5/social_media_platforms_dont_care_about_ai_so_use/",
    "selftext": "At the beginning of the AI wave, I had two questions:\n\n* Would AI be allowed by the platforms? (Because users could get tired of it, and because it removes a form of humanity)\n* Would AI-generated content actually work?\n\nI think both questions have now been answered.\n\nNot only are platforms allowing AI content, but AI-generated marketing videos are driving massive sales. I’ve lost count of how many apps blew up thanks to AI videos: fitness apps with AI influencers, golf apps, and many more.\n\nSo this is going to become mandatory.\n\nThe real thing that will make the difference, as always, is the signal: a deep understanding of human psychology, marketing, and what makes people buy. The way the video is structured, how strongly people feel connected to it, how relatable it feels, etc.\n\nIn the end, what will make the difference is exactly what made the difference before, back when marketing was only written, or when people had to film videos manually.\n\nBut now the doubt is gone: AI in marketing is no longer optional. It’s encouraged both by the platforms and by the audience. And it's necessary because volume is one of the key to growth in 2026",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:46:50.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.153Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcvmhu",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "HR got offended and left the call because I asked about revenue? I will not promote",
    "author": "Lone_Lunatic",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvmhu/hr_got_offended_and_left_the_call_because_i_asked/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvmhu/hr_got_offended_and_left_the_call_because_i_asked/",
    "selftext": "Had a 10-min interview for an AI/ML drone startup today. Terms were 2 months unpaid, then maybe a stipend later if I'm \"adequate.\" I only did it for the practice.\n\nAt the end, I asked what their revenue model is. The HR guy got super defensive, asked \"Are you a partner? How can you ask that?\" and just left the meeting. The manager stayed and just said \"Sorry, we can’t share that.\"\n\nIs asking about revenue taboo for interns? The aerospace/drone niche is cool, so I just wanted to see if they were actually stable or had potential before I even considered working for free. I think I dodged a red flag lol.",
    "score": 296,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.97,
    "numComments": 209,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:42:43.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.175Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcvhqd",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Agency marketers: are you actually tracking competitors across every client account consistently? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Technical_Anywhere40",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvhqd/agency_marketers_are_you_actually_tracking/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvhqd/agency_marketers_are_you_actually_tracking/",
    "selftext": "I manage accounts at an agency and this hit me during a recent quarterly review.\nFor some clients, I knew the competitive landscape cold. I could tell you who was changing messaging, who was increasing ad volume, who had launched new offers. For others, if I’m being honest, I hadn’t looked closely in months.\nNot because we didn’t care. Just because six clients means six different markets, dozens of competitors, multiple channels, and only so many hours in a week.\nWhat made it worse was discovering one client’s main competitor had changed pricing and refreshed their homepage nearly five weeks earlier. Nobody on our side caught it.\nThat was the moment I realized manual competitor tracking across a client roster doesn’t really scale. How are other agencies handling this consistently?",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 5,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:36:40.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.206Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcvh57",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I will not promote",
    "author": "TripNo8730",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvh57/i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcvh57/i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "Validating an idea with issues around waiting times in clinics. You would be notified when its your turn to be seen while you do your thing nearby, eat, shop etc. you will receive a text message when you are next in line to be seen by the doctor. Is this something that would help you? ",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.4,
    "numComments": 2,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:35:55.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.279Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcv7yw",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How does one find problems to solve? I will not promote",
    "author": "Competitive_Film_100",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcv7yw/how_does_one_find_problems_to_solve_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcv7yw/how_does_one_find_problems_to_solve_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "How does one find problems? I will not promote.\n\nAlmost everything has already been invented. We have smartphones, social media, delivery apps, online learning platforms, and advanced technology in almost every field. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing new left to build. If that is true, then how does one actually find problems to solve?\n\ni often wonder how people come up with meaningful ideas. How does someone notice opportunities when the world already seems full of solutions? It is easy to assume that all the big problems have been addressed, but clearly that is not the case. Many industries still have inefficiencies, gaps, and frustrations yet the challenge is understanding how to identify them\n\nHow does one train their mind to recognize real problems instead of random ideas? Is it about paying attention to everyday experiences, studying specific industries deeply, or talking to people and understanding their struggles? ",
    "score": 13,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 25,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:24:23.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.301Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcuy00",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Honest question: how are lean marketing teams doing competitor analysis without it becoming a full-time job? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "diony_sus_",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcuy00/honest_question_how_are_lean_marketing_teams/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcuy00/honest_question_how_are_lean_marketing_teams/",
    "selftext": "I run marketing at a 15-person startup and genuinely want to know how other teams handle this. \n\nWe all agree competitor awareness matters. But in practice, it becomes everyone’s responsibility and nobody’s priority.\n\nOur current setup is a shared Notion doc that gets updated when someone remembers, a Slack channel where random competitor links get dropped, and a quarterly review that always feels rushed and incomplete.\n\nWe’re not looking for theory on why competitive intelligence matters. We know it matters.\n\nI’m asking what a sustainable system actually looks like for a lean team that already has too much going on. What are people doing that works?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T11:11:25.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.360Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcump5",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Need your opinion about ai health app (I will not promote)",
    "author": "First_Ad_7186",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcump5/need_your_opinion_about_ai_health_app_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcump5/need_your_opinion_about_ai_health_app_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "Hello! I am a 20 year old from Norway, and I am trying to build a health app and want to get som brutal feedbacks about the idea.\n\nI was thinking quite a lot about most of the doctor visits are short, often 12 minutes and don’t get a lot of it of that time. Often times the doctors don’t talk with eachother. Which is important when it comes to the supplements you take or eventually the new one you get and make sure that if you mix them, doesn’t affect you in a bad way. Often times you are confused what you have talked about with the doctors and end up googling, which is not a good idea.\n\nThe part I think makes it more than a ChatGPT wrapper: it remembers. Months later, when you mention you’re tired, it remembers your iron was low-normal last quarter. That memory compounds over time.\n\nWhen it comes to how much you can save, it quite a bit. You can eventually pay to get second opinions, which can vary from 200$ - 2000$. So people pay a lot for getting second opinions from other specialist because the regular doctor didn’t have time to answer it.\n\nSo the idea is to do a version of that for 39$ a month. It of course doesn’t replace your doctor, but it makes you to come to your doctor more prepared and walk out understanding what happened and so on. Instead to paying for a second appointment and get a second opinion from a specialist.\n\nSo what I’m building is an AI that actually knows your whole health picture and helps you make sense of it.\n\nWhen you sign up, it asks the stuff a good doctor would actually want to know: your age, conditions, allergies, what medications and supplements you take, a bit about your lifestyle and family history. And then it’s just there for you. You can ask it anything. What does this lab result actually mean. Is this safe to take with my other meds. Should I be worried about this symptom. Help me get ready for my appointment on Friday.\n\nThe thing I think makes it different from just opening ChatGPT is that it remembers. Every conversation, ev",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.25,
    "numComments": 2,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T10:56:31.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.384Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcuanc",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Lost (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Front_Inflation_6521",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcuanc/lost_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcuanc/lost_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I am the co-founder of a 6 years old company that is just having the first year with positive EBITDA. My salary is good and the enployees I am repsonsible for are competent. I have developed different power converter devices prior to the founding of the company that got refined during these 6 years. Overall, development took about 12 years, which is what it takes for a complex embedded safety-critical product.  \nThis year though, I am feeling completely lost. I have tried to develop an Agile type of planning. Although not perfect, it is a starting point. I try to impose proceses and formalities as well as documentation.  \nMy partners though, they keep bypassing me, asking technical questions directly to my employees, they keep asking new tasks to the R&D department, depending on what is hot coming from clients or whatever they get motivated with, putting long term deliveries at stake. They keep questioning me about the decisions and priorities I take for the technical products and services.  \nI wake up sone days thinking that maybe its me who is wrong and of course, you just have one side of the story here. I think, as companies grow, they have less and less R&D. I think the pace and detail needed for R&D makes it incompatible to be in the same structure as the rest of departments. Personally, I do not think I can last much longer this way, it takes too much energy to keep everything at bay and be the buffer between development and the rest of the company. What are your thoughts/experiences? Thanks in advance!",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 13,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T10:39:14.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.412Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tctj7k",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "First 90 days post-launch : how did you focus when every \nchannel feels valid ? [i will not promote]",
    "author": "International_Lack45",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tctj7k/first_90_days_postlaunch_how_did_you_focus_when/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tctj7k/first_90_days_postlaunch_how_did_you_focus_when/",
    "selftext": "Solo founder here, recently launched my first SaaS after years of unfinished side projects.\n\nI have a working product and a small waitlist. What I don't have is a clear direction on where to focus for user acquisition.\n\nHonestly, I feel completely paralyzed by the sheer number of options. I catch myself changing strategy almost every week : Monday I'm convinced SEO is the answer, by friday I'm planning a Tiktok content calendar, and the next week I'm reading about cold outreach instead.\n\nThe problem isn't a lack of options. It's the OVERLOAD of options that every founder swears by :\n\n→ SEO (long-term but slow to compound)   \n→ Instagram / TikTok (visual content, daily posting)   \n→ YouTube (high effort, high reward)   \n→ Build in public (Twitter/X, LinkedIn)   \n→ Reddit and niche communities   \n→ Cold outreach (email, DMs)   \n→ Personal brand   \n→ Paid ads (Google, Meta)   \n→ Partnerships and collaborations   \n→ Affiliate or referral programs\n\nEvery founder I read claims theirs is \"the one that worked\". And they're all probably right in their own context. But I can't realistically execute on all of them solo without burning out or doing all of them poorly. And constantly switching strategies is making me move forward on nothing.\n\nSo my question to those of you who've been through the \"first 100 users\" phase :\n\nHow did you actually CHOOSE your first channel ?   \nDid you go deep on one channel, or spread thin across two or three at once ?   \nLooking back, what would you do differently in your first 90 days post-launch ?   \nWere there channels you tried that turned out to be a complete waste of time given your stage ?\n\nI'm not looking for a magic answer. I'm looking for honest patterns from people who've actually shipped and grown something.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 9,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T09:59:20.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.447Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcrfvj",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Growing, from the perspective of a non-technical person (I will not promote)",
    "author": "RyGuyMcDaddy",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcrfvj/growing_from_the_perspective_of_a_nontechnical/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcrfvj/growing_from_the_perspective_of_a_nontechnical/",
    "selftext": "I thought I'd share my perspective as a non-technical person, since there's a lot of technical people here.\n\nOne of the biggest challenges technical founders have is that they're great builders, but they're not great communicators. Namely, in the context of communicating the value their product brings to the end users.\n\nAnd that's okay. That's why we have technical and non-technical co-founders. One needs the other. And it's extremely difficult to do both.\n\nThat said, not everyone can find a co-founder in their network. So you have to wear every hat in the business until you've got something interesting enough for someone to want to join.\n\nMy specialty is revops, which is sales+marketing, and systemizing those. Here's my advice to pre-revenue technical founders:\n\n1-you're going to be dealing with a small number of users. Unless they're your friends or family, this will be a transactional relationship. So, talk with them, get honest feedback, and give them value in return (free stuff). You're in the learning-not-earning stage.\n\n2-people buy outcomes, not features. When you build something, it's natural to get really invested in it. The same is not said for your users. They're there for something that will add value to their life. That value is the outcome of your product, not the features that get there. Think about this when you answer with \"My product does...\"\n\n3-before you have traction, you don't have a strong offer. Until then, do not run ads, do not hire a marketing agency, do not worry about SEO, do not buy cold outreach automation tools, do not try to shortcut client acquisition.\n\n4-reach out to people, and do it a lot. And do it by hand in the beginning. Write emails and dm's by hand. Cold call. The first 300 manual outreaches will teach you more about sales, communication, and psychology than 4 years of university will.\n\nMaybe cold email will start working. Or maybe content. Do both until it becomes obvious that you have something that's getting people to s",
    "score": 6,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T08:02:32.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.485Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcr1yj",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Does a quiet waitlist actually tell you anything, or is it just noise until launch? （I will not promote)",
    "author": "Ecstatic_Law3753",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcr1yj/does_a_quiet_waitlist_actually_tell_you_anything/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcr1yj/does_a_quiet_waitlist_actually_tell_you_anything/",
    "selftext": "I'm staring at a waitlist that's basically silent, and I can't tell if that means the idea is weak or if I'm reading way too much into it.\n\n\n\nOpen rates are low, nobody is replying, and referrals are basically nonexistent. On paper that feels like a bad sign. But part of me wonders if a waitlist is just a pretty passive thing until there's an actual launch moment to react to. Right now it feels a little awkward, because I keep checking it like it's going to suddenly become more meaningful if I refresh enough.\n\n\n\nI'm not trying to turn this into a marketing complaint. I'm genuinely unsure how much signal a quiet waitlist gives you before people have something real to click, try, or share.\n\n\n\nMy short version is: I can't tell if I should treat this as feedback on the idea itself, or just as proof that I haven't activated the audience yet. Has a dead-silent waitlist ever actually told you something useful, or is it mostly noise until launch?",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 6,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T07:40:42.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.520Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcqev7",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Booked meeting with major potential enterprise clients need advice ( I will not promote)",
    "author": "Dazzling_Hand6170",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcqev7/booked_meeting_with_major_potential_enterprise/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcqev7/booked_meeting_with_major_potential_enterprise/",
    "selftext": "Well it happened pretty much. I don't know how to feel about it tbh. \n\nI've been on disability/ SSI for years and there was a lot of tension in the house from my older brother about it. When my uncle found out about the whole kicking me out thing they got into a fight and my uncle said. She helps with rent and is the reason there's fucking groceries in this house why can't she stay here? ....\n\nBrother pretty much started to threaten me with karma and poetic Justice  that's when my uncle told me to pack everything and leave with him. He said at this point it's probably not the best idea for me to stay here since he didn't like the tone in my brother's voice.  I started to apply for jobs again while looking for a job/ living with my uncle. We just switched my disability check and food stamps to me. Finally.\n\nOne of my mentors suggested to me that I change the positioning of my startup and see if I can land bigger clients. He kept saying that the people I'm trying to work with aren't right so I took his advice and it's working. I booked three meetings with major enterprise clients. in short one check  could change my life but I'm really nervous and stressed. I'm in a really bad situation and in a way this could be my key out of my current life. So these meetings are high stakes for me and I feel like I'm just going to make myself look desperate because of where I am in my current life. I just need some advice... Anything would be good \n\nLooking for founders who we can relate to my situation\n\n I'm just so nervous I can't think anything ",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T07:04:50.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.544Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcnx1q",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Need some advise [i will not promote]",
    "author": "ye0rem",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcnx1q/need_some_advise_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcnx1q/need_some_advise_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I have an idea (not very new), and I know people need it in their house. It's a hardware project, but it'll be affordable.\n\nI don't need assistance to build 1 prototype. But I'm not sure how to advertise it, I don't have any team. And because of this, I haven't started anything yet. \n\nI'm really confused about how to proceed..\n\n(PS: I'm a uni student, pre final year) ",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T04:53:31.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.566Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcmwmh",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Deep tech founders, what is your real blocker right now? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "AngelsImperius_",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmwmh/deep_tech_founders_what_is_your_real_blocker/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmwmh/deep_tech_founders_what_is_your_real_blocker/",
    "selftext": "I am starting soon at an ecosystem builder and VC focused on deep tech. Before I form opinions from the inside, I want to hear from founders building in this space about where things are genuinely hard, especially if you are in Agrifood, Sustainability, Advanced Manufacturing, Health & Biotech, and Quantum.\n\nA few specific areas I am trying to understand:\n\nWhat is actually slowing you down right now? I am interested in the unglamorous stuff like procurement delays, hiring bottlenecks, lab time, regulatory ambiguity, anything that does not show up in founder podcasts or even marketing?\n\nFor those who have raised or tried to, what was the hardest part? Translating deep technical risk to VCs, finding funds with real domain depth, milestone-based tranching, valuation expectations in long-horizon plays?\n\nHow did you land on the right problem to solve? Did you start from a technology capability looking for a market, or a market need that demanded new technology? What do you wish someone had told you earlier in that process?\n\nHow are you balancing technical superiority with commercial viability? Where have you been pushed to compromise on one for the sake of the other, and how did that play out?\n\nExcited for the opportunity to connect and have honest conversations with founders.",
    "score": 6,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 53,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T04:03:17.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.579Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcmnm4",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Joining a deep tech fund soon. Want to hear what founders actually need. (I will not promote)",
    "author": "DayZero-",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmnm4/joining_a_deep_tech_fund_soon_want_to_hear_what/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmnm4/joining_a_deep_tech_fund_soon_want_to_hear_what/",
    "selftext": "I am starting soon at an ecosystem builder and VC focused on deep tech. Before I form opinions from the inside, I want to hear from founders building in this space about where things are genuinely hard, especially if you are in Agrifood, Sustainability, Advanced Manufacturing, Health & Biotech, and Quantum.\n\nA few specific areas I am trying to understand:\n\nWhat is actually slowing you down right now? I am interested in the unglamorous stuff like procurement delays, hiring bottlenecks, lab time, regulatory ambiguity, anything that does not show up in founder podcasts.\n\nFor those who have raised or tried to, what was the hardest part? Translating deep technical risk to VCs, finding funds with real domain depth, milestone-based tranching, valuation expectations in long-horizon plays?\n\nHow did you land on the right problem to solve? Did you start from a technology capability looking for a market, or a market need that demanded new technology? What do you wish someone had told you earlier in that process?\n\nHow are you balancing technical superiority with commercial viability? Where have you been pushed to compromise on one for the sake of the other, and how did that play out?\n\nExcited for the opportunity to connect.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T03:51:30.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.603Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcmi4m",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Being a first time founder is a red flag - i will not promote",
    "author": "UnknownGenius222",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmi4m/being_a_first_time_founder_is_a_red_flag_i_will/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmi4m/being_a_first_time_founder_is_a_red_flag_i_will/",
    "selftext": "I've been in the ring for 2 years and have 2 failed startups. Had a couple months of searching after the first one to find another. I made mistakes in both of them, and the key lessons I've learned to be successful are this:   \n  \n1) solve a painful problem\n\n2) in a big enough market\n\n3) with the right team\n\n4) at the right time and place\n\nGet any of these wrong and you are at high risk of death. 99.9% of startups fail and it's usually due to one of these reasons. Both of my startups failed for one of these reasons or another. I have battle scars to show.\n\nWhat I see with first time founders is they make at least one of these cardinal sins. I know 2 young founders in canada starting to build in construction tech because one of their families have been in the industry for 30 years. Great, but can either code? Nope. Have either worked in the construction industry? Nope. They are in their early 20s.\n\nTheir dev team is 7 junior devs and one senior dev (20yoe). Extremely bloated and no technical cofounder. Just by knowing these basic details I know they are going to learn the hard way. I've seen it in my own experience or with other founders. These are classic first time founder mistakes - they have the wrong team to execute on this.\n\nCurious if others can relate from their experience?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.36,
    "numComments": 16,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T03:44:23.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.646Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcmcuv",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How to sell B2B without connections (i will not promote)",
    "author": "Worried-Nobody-2965",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmcuv/how_to_sell_b2b_without_connections_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcmcuv/how_to_sell_b2b_without_connections_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "I'm a founder of a SaaS I recently launched, but I'm running into a critical problem and not sure how to implement. I'm currently struggling to get sales in a B2B market and I'm divided between doing direct outreach (cold calls, DMs) or social media type outreach (reddit, X)\n\n**Addressed Problem:**\n\n\\* Agentic AI has one critical problem; no one can trust their outputs. Just recently Grok made a payment of 175k to a crypto wallet because a user's prompt injection. Put simply, agentic AI cannot be fully autonomous without significant tethers on the range of what AI agents are allowed to do, what they need is reliability infrastructure.\n\n**Solution:**\n\n\\* One of the last few months I've been building mechanisms to control AI and data structures, so the output of these automations is reliable and don't break your business. My original motivation came from building some simple AI automations myself and i noticed that AI agents and automations are not very trustworthy at and scale, and in some instances, they actually end up producing more work than it solved.\n\n\\* In order to solve this problem i had to build some critical infrastructure, making a system that identifies what is expected versus what was received in terms of data. Over time I was able to build deterministic systems that enforce types, filter nulls, do some structural adjustments, and prevent schema drift by filtering out required downstream values versus received upstream values. Nevertheless, this infrastructure once built makes it surprisingly easy to introduce business logic filtering and contract cross checking.\n\n**Feedback Request:**\n\nRight now, I'm currently in the marketing phase. I just built my MVP and currently doing LinkedIn outreach but currently struggling to get traction because most enterprise customers won't buy from some random startup without connections. Reddit and other B2C outreach platforms don't seem to understand the problem, or they don't feel the problem. I know the problem exists",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T03:37:26.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.683Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcjndu",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Is it worth it to hire outside your country to save money? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Trynalivethelife",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcjndu/is_it_worth_it_to_hire_outside_your_country_to/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcjndu/is_it_worth_it_to_hire_outside_your_country_to/",
    "selftext": "Ok, so a lot of startups sometimes bleed money in the beginning, especially in marketing. Thing is, they do need help. My question is: is it worth the potential savings to hire outside your country? I don't see this being talked about enough in these spaces. If you've hired outside your country, I would like to hear from you ",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
    "numComments": 15,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T01:37:57.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.706Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcjhpc",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Seed funding I will not promote",
    "author": "alwaysbelearning123",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcjhpc/seed_funding_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcjhpc/seed_funding_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I don’t necessarily think I need unicorn status. However I want seed funding for an idea I have.\n\nIt’s validated in the market, and can generate returns for investors who help float personal and business expenses as I’m working on this thing.\n\nHow can I go about getting this type of seed funding?\n\nTo clarify I don’t need a crazy amount of funding but some funding would help rather than purely bootstrap.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.6,
    "numComments": 11,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T01:30:52.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.728Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcieg6",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Discovering ultra high quality leads and manual engaging sincerely, is this possible? i will not promote",
    "author": "fatboyor",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcieg6/discovering_ultra_high_quality_leads_and_manual/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcieg6/discovering_ultra_high_quality_leads_and_manual/",
    "selftext": "my feeling as early stage founder, i need a few highly engagable leads/founding customer(whatever you want to call it ), to keep validating development, and potentially convert'em into first batch of customers.\n\nI find it extremely hard, i tried\n\n1. buying ads - count number of people hitting your landing page does show the idea has traction, but it can't say whether your product is good or bad, also people not willing to sign-up if you don't have full product ( this is like a chicken-egg problem )\n\n2. DM people ( reddit/linkedin etc) - in theory, interaction should be prompt, I tried two ways   \n1) tried some reddit leads discovery tool/crawler, leads quality is trash, basic keyword matching search. works like sending generic cold email that no one wants to open. ( they claim to handle engagement for me BUT then i realize i don't like the cool thing i build being spammed by bots, and treated as rubbish)     \n2) i tried to engage with people manually, but problem is i can't find people who's having the problem at the moment at scale, to give me statitiscally significant feedback\n\n3. Personal Connection - this works quite well, but it exhaust quite quickly unfortunately.\n\n4. cold emailing - very in-effiective for validation, early-stage prototype, and i feel i lost control, i don't know why people like or don't like the product. \n\nI feel at early stage, engaging with 10 ULTRA-HIGH quality leads with sincere conversations from owner is far better than automating with 10000 low quality leads with AI \"Personalized\" message. But it's quite hard.\n\nAnybody else feel the same way or am i being too old school? Who do you talk mid development cycle for validation? where do you get first batch of customers?\n\n",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 21,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-14T00:44:19.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.753Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tcagl4",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Is meta ads reliable? I will not promote.",
    "author": "potatotomato211",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcagl4/is_meta_ads_reliable_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tcagl4/is_meta_ads_reliable_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "I'm working on a B2C web app and recently ran a test with Meta ads. I spent almost $100 and didn't get a single signup, despite the ad video performing well. \n\nWhen I selected \"landing page views\" as my goal, my CTR was over 2%, but the vast majority of those visitors left the site within one second. I track activity with a separate analytics tool and know one second isn't enough time to judge the landing page content.\n\n​I then switched my goal to 'Reach.' I reached 4x more people for a cheaper price, but got zero clicks. This seems suspicious to me because when I showed the same ad to 200 IG followers, I got 10+ users and 2 signups. Why did I get zero results after reaching 5,000+ people through Meta ads? Is this bot traffic, or is there something I'm doing wrong?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T19:40:17.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.779Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tc94u3",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "i've got certain amount of money and want to go all-in into shipping ios apps. what services besides claude should i pay attention to? I will not promote",
    "author": "syncyourvibe",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc94u3/ive_got_certain_amount_of_money_and_want_to_go/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc94u3/ive_got_certain_amount_of_money_and_want_to_go/",
    "selftext": "For the past year i shipped one app and worked at app studio but i noticed that im getting super constrained by the claude limits. \n\nSaw a video of one guy who shipped nice looking non ai slop app in one hour by generating images via gpt and videos with seedance via higgsfield. \n\nCurious what paid tools/services other indie iOS founders consider worth paying for today.\n\nEspecially interested in:  \n\\-coding/dev workflow  \n\\-UI/design  \n\\-video generation  \n\\-ASO",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T18:54:44.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.810Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tc5ey5",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "[I will not promote] 9 months of content marketing for my SaaS and here's what nobody tells you",
    "author": "AdvisorPlus8451",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc5ey5/i_will_not_promote_9_months_of_content_marketing/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc5ey5/i_will_not_promote_9_months_of_content_marketing/",
    "selftext": "Everyone says content compounds. Ok yes well. Write consistently, SEO kicks in, leads start coming in passively. Nobody tells you it takes so much longer than you think, and that most of what you write will do basically nothing.\n\nI spent the first 4 months convinced I was building something. Published regularly, optimized for keywords, shared everything on LinkedIn. Traffic was flat. Not declining, just completely indifferent to my existence.\n\nHere's what I actually learned along the way.\n\n**Writing for search volume is almost always the wrong starting point.** I was targeting keywords with 2,000 monthly searches. The articles ranked eventually and brought in people who bounced immediately. The articles that actually converted came from typing the exact phrase a frustrated customer had used in a support ticket into Google and writing the piece nobody had bothered to write yet.\n\n**Distribution is the part everyone skips.** I assumed good content would find its audience. It doesn't. The articles that drove real traffic were the ones I put in front of the right communities manually : specific subreddits, Slack groups, niche newsletters. Wrote 3 posts a week for a month and seeded each one personally. More impact than 6 months of publishing and waiting.\n\n**AI content works until it doesn't.** Used it heavily early on to scale output. Google indexed everything, ranked nothing. Spent two months rewriting articles I should have written properly the first time. The pieces that rank now are the ones with a specific opinion or a data point nobody else had. That part can't be automated.\n\n**Your best content ideas are already in your inbox.** Every question a customer asked me over email, every objection in a sales call, every confused support ticket, all of it was a search query someone else was typing. Started keeping a running doc of those phrases with Notion. That became my editorial calendar.\n\nThe turning point was stopping to think about content as a volume game and start",
    "score": 7,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.82,
    "numComments": 17,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T16:49:26.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.844Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tc4r5h",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I'm a hardworking person after 9 - 5,  NEED ADVICE, I will not promote",
    "author": "Professional_Monk534",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc4r5h/im_a_hardworking_person_after_9_5_need_advice_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc4r5h/im_a_hardworking_person_after_9_5_need_advice_i/",
    "selftext": "I’ve been thinking a lot after a previous discussion here, and honestly a lot of the replies changed how I see startups.\n\nI’m a senior software engineer and solutions architect. I worked across multiple industries over the years, including large sectors like real estate and data center infrastructure. But the reality is: I mostly operated on the technical side, not deeply inside business operations or day-to-day workflows where painful problems become obvious.\n\nAnd now I feel stuck between two worlds.\n\nOn one side:  \nI don’t want to build another shallow AI wrapper, cheap SaaS, or bulk-generated product just to “ship fast.” The market already feels flooded with low-quality tools that disappear after a few months, and I care a lot about building solid systems with real value.\n\nOn the other side:  \nEvery serious problem I discover seems to require either:\n\n* huge capital,\n* industry connections,\n* domain expertise,\n* regulatory knowledge,\n* or a very large team.\n\nWhat makes this harder is the current startup environment.\n\nIt feels almost impossible in 2026 to raise funding without traction, pilots, or customers first. Which means you need an MVP before funding.\n\nBut building real MVPs for meaningful systems takes time, especially while working full-time.\n\nMy realistic availability looks something like:\n\n* 2 to 3 focused hours after work on good days,\n* around 15 to 20 hours total during weekends.\n\nSo even if I move fast, a proper MVP still takes me maybe 2 months or more.\n\nWhich creates this cycle:\n\n1. I need validation before building.\n2. I need an MVP to validate properly.\n3. I need time to build the MVP.\n4. I don’t want to ship low-quality work just to test an idea.\n\nSo my questions are:\n\n* How do technical founders without deep niche expertise actually discover good startup opportunities?\n* How do you validate ideas before spending months building?\n* What kind of validation is considered “real” today?\n* How do solo engineers compete without becoming another AI clo",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 12,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T16:26:44.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.872Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tc0gsq",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "[I will not promote] The issue is not offshore talent. It is weak structure.",
    "author": "brownsapodilla",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc0gsq/i_will_not_promote_the_issue_is_not_offshore/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tc0gsq/i_will_not_promote_the_issue_is_not_offshore/",
    "selftext": "After spending 20+ years in the Philippine outsourcing industry, l think a lot of companies misunderstand why offshore setups fail.\n\nMost of the time it is not because the talent is bad. \n\nIt's because the structure around the team is weak.\n\nThings usually look fine when there are only a few people offshore. But once the offshore team becomes important to operations, problems start showing up fast. \n\nYou start seeing:\n\nUnclear accountability  \nDependency on specific people  \nMessy contractor setups  \nRetention issues  \nLack of continuity and processes  \nWeak management cadence  \nSlow decision speed\n\nA lot of founders think they have a hiring issue when really they have an operational structure issue.\n\nThe Philippines has amazing talent. I have seen it firsthand for decades.\n\nBut good talent without proper structure eventually becomes fragile at scale. ",
    "score": 4,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.7,
    "numComments": 9,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T13:58:05.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.899Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tby24c",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Brand activation for startups, is it worth the investment or too expensive? i will not promote",
    "author": "sinry77",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tby24c/brand_activation_for_startups_is_it_worth_the/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tby24c/brand_activation_for_startups_is_it_worth_the/",
    "selftext": "Most of us are bootstrapping or running on tight budgets, so we usually stick to digital ads, content, and growth hacks. I’ve been seeing a lot of brand activation work for startups and emerging brands done by BRC and it’s making me rethink things. They’ve been creating some really impressive immersive experiences, turning spaces into living brand homes, building attractions that become destinations, and designing moments that feel more like culture than marketing. I’ve seen them do this for everything from spirits brands scaling up to innovative education and consumer projects that started smaller.\n\nIt seems like a strong activation can cut through the noise, create real emotional loyalty, and get organic word-of-mouth that paid ads just can’t match. The architecture + immersive design combo they use looks like a potential unfair advantage in crowded markets.\n\nHas anyone here as a founder tried proper brand activation?\n\nDid it actually help with awareness, customer acquisition, or even fundraising? Or is it still mostly for bigger companies with deeper pockets?",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.9,
    "numComments": 17,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T12:23:30.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.913Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbxrbc",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I turned Paul Graham's 230 essays and 52500 tweets into 7 podcast episodes on finding and evaluating startup ideas (I will not promote)",
    "author": "CaloyBine",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbxrbc/i_turned_paul_grahams_230_essays_and_52500_tweets/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbxrbc/i_turned_paul_grahams_230_essays_and_52500_tweets/",
    "selftext": "Got rejected by YC 6 times. A friend who just got in this batch told me I was stuck in a failure loop, and the only way out was to actually read everything PG has written.\n\nSo I did. 230 essays, dozens of talks, 10+ interviews, and 52,500 tweets, and turned it into a 7-episode podcast on finding and evaluating startup ideas. It keeps his actual thinking and mental models, not just the takeaways.\n\nPG has had a big influence on me so I hope this gets more people into his ideas without the months of reading.\n\nIf you don't have time to listen, sharing it would help someone else stuck in the same loop. Let me know if there's something I can do to make the post more useful.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.2,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T12:10:37.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:55.952Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbxg9f",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Legitimate online channels to find investors and founders sharing the same vision and mission, in this “I will not promote” era",
    "author": "reddithurc",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbxg9f/legitimate_online_channels_to_find_investors_and/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbxg9f/legitimate_online_channels_to_find_investors_and/",
    "selftext": "I understand that many subs suffer from spams and ai generated content, and i understand the need of “i will not promote” being implemented. But it seems all the launch platforms will hardly make your voice heard without serious paid marketing. So if you have a working product, an active user base, and proven traction, and you are a true believer in monetization at the later stages….how would you discover investors who share the same vision and would like to invest in the project?",
    "score": 6,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 23,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T11:57:35.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.014Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbwz6t",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "how do you cope with uncertainty when your startup starts falling apart? [i will not promote]",
    "author": "Disastrous-Monk1957",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbwz6t/how_do_you_cope_with_uncertainty_when_your/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbwz6t/how_do_you_cope_with_uncertainty_when_your/",
    "selftext": "i left my full time job to start a company because i deeply cared about the problem i am solving.\n\nit’s been around a year now. before building, i tried to validate the problem with few enterprises and they were actually eager to buy the solution if i built it. I did unpaid pilot with 3 enterprises. i put my own money and free credits to train the model and make the whole thing work.\n\nnow the strange thing is, the product is working but it doesn’t seem like a problem for them anymore. people are not replying, or they are saying it’s not priority right now. I have almost no runway left. my family is pressuring me to take a job, and i understand them also. but i still want to do startup and build something.\n\ni am not writing this for sympathy. i know i made mistakes, maybe unpaid pilots were a mistake, maybe i took verbal interest too seriously. For people who have gone through this, how do you know when to keep going and when to accept that it’s not working?\n\nhow do you cope mentally when something you spent one year on might fail? should i take a job and continue on side, or should i still try to push for some more time?",
    "score": 66,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.97,
    "numComments": 98,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T11:35:51.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.046Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbr75z",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I was about to publish my app but saw someone did it before me<i will not promote>",
    "author": "Physical-Abroad5929",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbr75z/i_was_about_to_publish_my_app_but_saw_someone_did/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbr75z/i_was_about_to_publish_my_app_but_saw_someone_did/",
    "selftext": "so i made a social media app. I saw the need for it and was confident about the scope. But as i was about to publish i saw an ad on instagram. the app was similar to mine with 80 percent of the same idea. it had launched 1.5 years ago and is in 3 cities and has recieved significant funding. I was very excitied to lauch my app but now i am not sure. should i move forward? ",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 32,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T06:19:00.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.063Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbp0o4",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "[I will not promote]. What do people usually do with fully developed e-commerce websites after a project/business doesn’t move forward? (Drastically failed)",
    "author": "Enough-Use4280",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbp0o4/i_will_not_promote_what_do_people_usually_do_with/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbp0o4/i_will_not_promote_what_do_people_usually_do_with/",
    "selftext": "I am a web developer and I tried my best to start a e-commerce and built a fully custom coded ecommerce website for my own brand, but the business failed quickly due to poor marketing and due to increase in import prices because of war. Now I am wondering if there is a market for selling production-ready custom ecommerce websites. The project itself is mostly complete, including the frontend, backend structure, responsive design, and core store functionality.\n\nIt is not built on shopify or wix  it is a custom setup.\n\nNow I am trying to figure out what developers or founders usually do in this situation:\n\n\\--->repurpose the codebase\n\n\\--->sell the project privately,\n\n\\--->convert it into a saas idea,\n\nor just reuse parts of it in future projects?\n\nWould genuinely like to hear how others handle unused but production-ready projects after a business plan changes or fails.",
    "score": 6,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.87,
    "numComments": 17,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T04:25:02.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.121Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbn9cs",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Raising for a technically hard and risky startup (I will not promote)",
    "author": "chemiss715",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbn9cs/raising_for_a_technically_hard_and_risky_startup/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbn9cs/raising_for_a_technically_hard_and_risky_startup/",
    "selftext": "My startup is building deep tech hardware in defense/ocean tech, but we are having a hard time getting through to pre-seed investors. The ones I've had conversations with so far either don't lead, or the ones who do say we are \"too early\", which I take to mean we are too technically risky still. I guess they can just be saying a nice \"no\", but some even tell me they love what we are doing, but to come back later.\n\nNot really sure how to fix this since we have already proved the core tech works and have backing from the DOE. I tell investors this and show them a demo of our core tech working. It's just not feasible to build an MVP from this without investment.\n\nI wasn't really expecting this reaction either because we have won over a dozen pitches/competitions and get great feedback on our business. We also get solicited by our target customers pretty frequently too. Of course they want more proof before making commitments, but they are willing to pilot with us when we get to that point.\n\nAnyway, I'm not really sure what to do to break through to investors. I guess I thought with all the pitch competition wins that my messaging was good, but perhaps something isn't translating to actual investor outreach. I'm not giving a rehearsed pitch during these calls either, I'm having conversations with them. About half of our 60 investor emails so far have been warm intros too.\n\nAre there any parts of this I might be overlooking that I can be improving? Or is getting pre-seed investment for deep tech hardware actual just this hard?",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.91,
    "numComments": 31,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T03:02:14.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.143Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tblyg5",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I used to celebrate fast growth. Now I pay more attention to how much chaos came with it (i will not promote)",
    "author": "Southern_Device4454",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblyg5/i_used_to_celebrate_fast_growth_now_i_pay_more/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblyg5/i_used_to_celebrate_fast_growth_now_i_pay_more/",
    "selftext": "Early on, every spike in orders felt exciting. More sales, more messages, more momentum. I thought that automatically meant things were working.\n\nWhat I didn’t expect was how fast small problems multiplied too. Supplier replies started getting missed. Tiny customer issues piled up in the inbox. One delayed shipment somehow turned into three separate conversations across email and WhatsApp.\n\nNothing was technically “broken,” but it stopped feeling clean really fast. I think I used to associate growth with stability. Lately it’s felt more like growth just reveals how messy your operations already are.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.8,
    "numComments": 5,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T02:03:42.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.166Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tblnm1",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I made something for a company however they did not end up paying. I want to approach competitor companies but im not too sure how to go about it. Advice is much appreciated. i will not promote.",
    "author": "Senior-Welder2611",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblnm1/i_made_something_for_a_company_however_they_did/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblnm1/i_made_something_for_a_company_however_they_did/",
    "selftext": "Like the title says, I made a tool that i do now believe is revolutionising for that industry cause its so tailored to that niche in the market. Now, the company that i was building this for wanted the complete app to themselves, with me not being in the loop or even mentioned in the making of it which i just wasn't happy with of course. So the deal fell through. now im thinking i can approach the many competitors literally right next to these guys but they are all pretty big companies and im not sure who im supposed to even pitch it to. if i call the main number who do i ask for? where do i get pointed to? if its a medium sized company i doubt they have any team specifically for future advancement calls haha. Any advice on how i can approach the competitors? ",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.4,
    "numComments": 22,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T01:50:50.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.176Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tblhqy",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I made something for a company however they did not end up paying. I want to approach competitor companies but im not too sure how to go about it. Advice is much appreciated. i will not promote.",
    "author": "Senior-Welder2611",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblhqy/i_made_something_for_a_company_however_they_did/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tblhqy/i_made_something_for_a_company_however_they_did/",
    "selftext": "Like the title says, I made a tool that i do now believe is revolutionising for that industry cause its so tailored to that niche in the market. Now, the company that i was building this for wanted the complete app to themselves, with me not being in the loop or even mentioned in the making of it which i just wasn't happy with of course. So the deal fell through. now im thinking i can approach the many competitors literally right next to these guys but they are all pretty big companies and im not sure who im supposed to even pitch it to. if i call the main number who do i ask for? where do i get pointed to? if its a medium sized company i doubt they have any team specifically for future advancement calls haha. Any advice on how i can approach the competitors? ",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T01:43:57.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.195Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbl0ta",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Startup friendly virtual card issuing companies (i will not promote)",
    "author": "nikhillala7",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbl0ta/startup_friendly_virtual_card_issuing_companies_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbl0ta/startup_friendly_virtual_card_issuing_companies_i/",
    "selftext": "Does anyone know a US-friendly reloadable virtual Visa/Mastercard API with real transaction webhooks?\n\nNeed:  \n\\- create/assign reloadable virtual cards  \n\\- fund/reload from platform balance  \n\\- Apple Pay / Google Pay if possible  \n\\- transaction-level webhooks for auths, declines, settlements, refunds, reversals  \n\\- secure card detail display/API  \n\\- beta/startup friendly pricing\n\nMost providers I’ve found are either enterprise-only, rewards/payout-only, or don’t expose real card spend webhooks. Any leads?",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.75,
    "numComments": 1,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T01:23:07.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.225Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbl0on",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Idea (I will not promote)",
    "author": "ObjectiveFarm3611",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbl0on/idea_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbl0on/idea_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "The Problem  \nLongevity clinics, concierge practices, and functional medicine providers are flying blind between patient visits. They order labs, patients come in, get results, and then nothing until the next appointment 6–12 months later. There’s no continuous visibility into how a patient’s biomarkers are trending between visits.\n\nThe Idea  \nA B2B platform that gives clinics a remote monitoring layer for patient biomarkers. Patients test at home, results flow into a provider dashboard, AI flags trends and outliers, and the clinic can intervene proactively instead of reactively.  \nThink of it as the operating system for a longevity clinic’s patient monitoring workflow.\n\nThe Market  \n\\-Concierge/longevity medicine is a $20B market growing \\~10% annually  \n\\-Function Health just raised $298M at a $2.5B valuation on the DTC side\n\nWhat are we missing?",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T01:22:58.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.288Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbkcdv",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Do founders who succeeded while working a full-time or part-time job exist? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "ReporterCalm6238",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbkcdv/do_founders_who_succeeded_while_working_a/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbkcdv/do_founders_who_succeeded_while_working_a/",
    "selftext": "I’m an advocate for founders working full-time on their startup. That’s mainly because I’ve never met a founder who managed to build a successful startup generating at least six figures in revenue while working another job.\n\nI’m ready to change my mind: are you a founder who built a successful startup while working another job? Was it full-time or part-time? At what point did you leave your job to focus full-time on the startup? Do you recommend other founders to do the same, assuming they are in the same financial situation you were back then?\n\nIf you’re not one yourself but know someone who did this, feel free to share.",
    "score": 44,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.96,
    "numComments": 53,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:53:01.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.328Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbk4t3",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Hot Take: 100% Of A Grape Is Better Than 10% Of A Watermelon (I will not promote)",
    "author": "BetApprehensive836",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbk4t3/hot_take_100_of_a_grape_is_better_than_10_of_a/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbk4t3/hot_take_100_of_a_grape_is_better_than_10_of_a/",
    "selftext": "In the business / entrepreneurial world, there is a popular saying\n\n\"10% of a watermelon is better than 100% of a grape\"\n\nThis is usually said to people who are scared of giving up equity in their business.\n\n\"if someone can 10x your profits, it's worth it to lose some equity\" is the message.\n\nWhile this saying is good in spirit, it doesn't take into account 2 very important things.\n\n1) When you lose majority share, you can literally be kicked out of your own company. At that point your equity amount is mostly irrelevant. Especially if you have some sort of passion.\n\n2) In order to have a meaningful amount of profit, you have to have a decent amount of equty.\n\nLet's say (for example), you have a 100M dollar exit, which is very good. The top percentile of businesses.\n\n20% means your take home is 20M (pre tax)\n\n0.5% means your take home is 500K (pre tax).\n\nWhich is decent income, but not nearly as appealing. And keep in mind that this is for a huge amount of a 100M dollar exit.\n\nI could go on and on with more bullet points, but let me know your thoughts",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.17,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:43:36.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.352Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbjo0s",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How much is typically raised for pre-seed to get to seed (consumer)? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "unstoppablefutureme",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjo0s/how_much_is_typically_raised_for_preseed_to_get/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjo0s/how_much_is_typically_raised_for_preseed_to_get/",
    "selftext": "We're looking at funding now, and considering what the target is. We want to be able to get to the point where it's a sustainable business, but of course being a consumer Internet platform, that may take some time. How should we think about pre-seed and seed funding targets?\n\nIf you've experienced this, I'd love to here your experience. Thank you.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 6,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:23:21.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.365Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbjnqv",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I will not promote: Why doesn’t renting have a reputation system yet?",
    "author": "We-can-do-great",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjnqv/i_will_not_promote_why_doesnt_renting_have_a/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjnqv/i_will_not_promote_why_doesnt_renting_have_a/",
    "selftext": "I’ve always thought it was strange that renting is one of the biggest financial decisions people make, yet both sides usually go in blind.\n\n\n\nTenants don’t really know:\n\n\\- if landlords actually fix things\n\n\\- if management is responsive\n\n\\- if the property has a bad history\n\n\n\nLandlords also don’t know:\n\n\\- if tenants paid on time\n\n\\- respected the property\n\n\\- communicated well\n\n\n\nIt feels like every other platform has some kind of reputation/history system except renting.\n\n\n\nCurious what people think:\n\nWould a transparent reputation system for rentals actually help people or just create more problems?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.3,
    "numComments": 10,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:23:00.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.379Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbjkeh",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I will not promote: Why doesn’t renting have a reputation system yet?",
    "author": "We-can-do-great",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjkeh/i_will_not_promote_why_doesnt_renting_have_a/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbjkeh/i_will_not_promote_why_doesnt_renting_have_a/",
    "selftext": "I’ve always thought it was strange that renting is one of the biggest financial decisions people make, yet both sides usually go in blind.\n\n\n\nTenants don’t really know:\n\n\\- if landlords actually fix things\n\n\\- if management is responsive\n\n\\- if the property has a bad history\n\n\n\nLandlords also don’t know:\n\n\\- if tenants paid on time\n\n\\- respected the property\n\n\\- communicated well\n\n\n\nIt feels like every other platform has some kind of reputation/history system except renting.\n\n\n\nCurious what people think:\n\nWould a transparent reputation system for rentals actually help people or just create more problems?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.25,
    "numComments": 8,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:18:53.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.405Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbja35",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I can build anything but I cannot market. Any advice? I will not promote",
    "author": "One-Excuse-4054",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbja35/i_can_build_anything_but_i_cannot_market_any/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbja35/i_can_build_anything_but_i_cannot_market_any/",
    "selftext": "I have built quite a few apps as a solo dev to varying degrees of success, but have always struggled getting over the hump of a few hundred to a few thousand users.\n\nI just completed a project that I think could have real legs, but don’t want to get stuck in the same loop. How should I approach this.",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.9,
    "numComments": 31,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-13T00:06:18.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.428Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbgyak",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "How do I raise a pre-seed round when there is little traction and we need to pivot? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "unstoppablefutureme",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbgyak/how_do_i_raise_a_preseed_round_when_there_is/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbgyak/how_do_i_raise_a_preseed_round_when_there_is/",
    "selftext": "Title.\n\n  \nWe've been running off of savings and iterating, but the savings have simply ran out and we haven't gotten to product market fit yet. Most likely, the business that ends up working may not be in the same market. But we have all the tech, infrastructure, etc. still setup and working.\n\nHow do we do this? How do we pitch this. I appreciate any help, especially from someone who's been here before.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.64,
    "numComments": 20,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T22:29:58.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.438Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbgwzb",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Can an EIR/venture-studio model for underprivileged youth actually work?? I will not promote",
    "author": "Interesting-Bat4097",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbgwzb/can_an_eirventurestudio_model_for_underprivileged/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbgwzb/can_an_eirventurestudio_model_for_underprivileged/",
    "selftext": "I’ve been thinking about this for a while and want brutally honest feedback before I romanticize the idea too much.\n\nI come from a background where I’ve seen a lot of genuinely smart, ambitious kids never get the right environment, exposure, guidance, or opportunities.\n\nI’m talking about students/kids around 15–22 who are extremely underprivileged. A lot of them are literally roaming around directionless, disconnected from quality education, networks, or even basic career awareness despite having insane hunger, resilience, street-smartness, and potential.\n\nNot polished “LinkedIn talent.”\n\nRaw talent.\n\nAnd from my experience, identifying these people is honestly not the hard part. I already have ideas around how selection/filtering/cohorts could work.\n\nWhat I’m trying to figure out is whether the overall model itself can sustainably work long term.\n\nThe idea is something between:\n\n\\- an EIR model\n\n\\- a venture studio\n\n\\- and a social mobility initiative\n\nInstead of scholarships, the goal would be to create a small founder/operator ecosystem.\n\nThe program would:\n\n\\- take a very small cohort initially\n\n\\- provide stipends/living support\n\n\\- train them in startups, sales, finance, communication, execution, etc.\n\n\\- connect them with founders/operators/mentors\n\n\\- focus heavily on real-world execution instead of academic-style learning\n\nShort term:\n\n\\- build startups internally where systems, execution support, and scaling are managed centrally\n\n\\- focus on building valuable businesses and hitting meaningful revenue numbers\n\nLong term:\n\n\\- help the strongest people eventually become independent founders themselves\n\n\\- something similar to an EIR pathway, but for people who would otherwise never enter startup ecosystems\n\nOver time this could evolve into:\n\n\\- incubation\n\n\\- seed funding\n\n\\- venture-studio structure\n\n\\- equity-based sustainability\n\nBut I keep wondering what breaks first.\n\nSome concerns:\n\n\\- incentive misalignment\n\n\\- burnout/psychological pressure\n\n\\- scala",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 1,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T22:28:30.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.456Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbei4r",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I used to believe execution mattered more than ideas. Now I’m not sure. I will not promote",
    "author": "Professional_Monk534",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbei4r/i_used_to_believe_execution_mattered_more_than/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbei4r/i_used_to_believe_execution_mattered_more_than/",
    "selftext": "Hello, I'm a senior software engineer and solutions architect, and I've been trying to build at least an MVP for an idea for around two years now. I'm working on it after work all the time, and I even invested in a developer team for my latest idea, only to discover later that the idea actually wasn't valid in the market because I lacked the experience in discovering, checking, and validating ideas properly.\n\nHowever, now that I've gained some experience, it feels like there are no valid ideas out there anymore. Every time I come up with an idea and do some research, I find out either:\n\n\\- it's impossible to implement with my limited resources,  \n\\- there's an unbelievable competitor that could build it in one day,\n\nWhat can I do? Am I right or wrong about this?\n\nBecause before all of that, I used to tell myself that it's not about the idea, it's about the implementation, how you execute it, and the person behind it. Like, we invest in people, not ideas.\n\nBut now I'm starting to feel a bit upset and discouraged about it.\n\nWhat do you guys think?",
    "score": 19,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.95,
    "numComments": 34,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T20:56:50.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.476Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbeck6",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Why does every startup idea feel either impossible or already taken? I will not promote",
    "author": "Professional_Monk534",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbeck6/why_does_every_startup_idea_feel_either/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbeck6/why_does_every_startup_idea_feel_either/",
    "selftext": "Hello, I'm a principal software engineer and solutions architect, and I've been trying to build at least an MVP for an idea for around two years now. I'm working on that after my 9 - 5 all the time, and I even invested in a developers team for my latest idea, only to discover later that the idea actually wasn't valid in the market because I lacked the experience in discovering, checking, and validating ideas properly.\n\nHowever, now that I've gained some experience, it feels like there are no valid ideas out there anymore. Every time I come up with an idea and do some research, I find out either:\n\n\\- it's impossible to implement with my limited resources,  \n\\- there's an unbelievable competitor that could build it in one day,\n\nWhat can I do? Am I right or wrong about this?\n\nBecause before all of that, I used to tell myself that it's not about the idea, it's about the implementation, how you execute it, and the person behind it. Like, we invest in people, not ideas.\n\nBut now I'm starting to feel a bit upset and discouraged about it (I’m scared of losing the energy/passion).\n\nWhat do you guys think?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.22,
    "numComments": 25,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T20:51:08.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.498Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbb2nt",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Founders from Chile? I will not promote",
    "author": "The_Foxx95",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbb2nt/founders_from_chile_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbb2nt/founders_from_chile_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "Wanted to see how in here is from Chile and what kind of projects you are working on? How are you doing it and why? \n\nCurious to see, since there is a saying \"siempre hay un chileno\" or \"there's always a chilean somewhere\" \n\nMe gustaría invitarlos a un grupo dedicado a emprendedores en Chile! ",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 1,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T18:56:26.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.553Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tbarem",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Where do founders actually build real relationships in 2026? i will not promote",
    "author": "SubjectChoice1748",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbarem/where_do_founders_actually_build_real/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tbarem/where_do_founders_actually_build_real/",
    "selftext": "Over the last year, while building products and spending time around founders, developers, AI builders, creators, and operators, I noticed something:\n\n\n\nA lot of startup people have access to content, tools, podcasts, Twitter threads, LinkedIn posts, Reddit communities… but still struggle to build real relationships with people they can actually collaborate with.\n\n\n\nNot followers. Not audiences. Not newsletter subscribers.\n\n\n\nReal people:\n\n\n\n\\* future cofounders\n\n\\* early operators\n\n\\* engineers\n\n\\* marketers\n\n\\* early users\n\n\\* investors\n\n\\* advisors\n\n\n\nI started experimenting with smaller founder circles outside public feeds, and honestly the quality of conversations feels very different.\n\n\n\nCurious how others here are solving this.\n\n\n\nWhere have you found your best startup relationships lately?\n\n\n\n\\* Reddit?\n\n\\* X?\n\n\\* LinkedIn?\n\n\\* Discord?\n\n\\* Slack?\n\n\\* Real-life events?\n\n\\* Private circles?\n\n\n\nWhat’s actually working for you in 2026?",
    "score": 15,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.94,
    "numComments": 22,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T18:45:22.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.595Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb8poo",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Need some advice on co-founder commitment mismatch - Am I overreacting? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Outside-Athlete-4537",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb8poo/need_some_advice_on_cofounder_commitment_mismatch/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb8poo/need_some_advice_on_cofounder_commitment_mismatch/",
    "selftext": "Hey, I need some founder advice. This is a bit of a rant, but I genuinely need some help. My co-founder and I are building a (hardware + software) startup. I came up with the idea after researching in the domain for 1.5 years, and then brought him 2 months later. Since the idea was not well-structured, and no work had started, I agreed on a 51-49 split (it sounded fair to me).\n\nSome context:\n\n* The first 3 months were hardware-heavy, so he couldn’t contribute much on the software. So, I gave him the benefit of the doubt - he couldn’t do much.\n* For the past 1.5 months, he’s been actively working on software, but I don’t see urgency or ownership. The work feels like it could be replicated easily with some AI help.\n* Because I’m on H1B, I can’t be the public face of contracts or legal work. I asked him to handle that side since he’s a US citizen (a structural necessity, not a preference). He said it would be “double the work” and suggested I shift into software instead. To be clear: I built the hardware, and he wanted me to own the software too. He’s the CTO.\n* We both work full-time jobs. He’s currently job hunting for something “chill” so he can focus on the startup more. His stance: he’ll go full-time once we get funding. But getting to funding is the hard work. That answer felt like he needed someone else to de-risk it for him first.\n* I found some good accelerator programs outside the US. He immediately shut it down. Anything outside the country is a hard NO for him. For me, it’s less about geography and more about whether we’re willing to go all-in when something real appears. Any risk outside his comfort zone gets hesitation.\n\nIn words, he says he’s committed. The energy doesn’t match. I feel hesitation every time something is slightly outside his comfort zone or convenience. The difficult part: I genuinely think he likes the idea and wants it to succeed. He’s not malicious or lazy. I feel I’m operating with founder-level urgency while he’s in “convenience mode",
    "score": 11,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.87,
    "numComments": 24,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T17:35:57.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.639Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb5ptg",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Profitable EdTech, 6-month-old spinoff, have to pick one. How did you actually decide? i will not promote",
    "author": "devneeddev",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb5ptg/profitable_edtech_6monthold_spinoff_have_to_pick/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb5ptg/profitable_edtech_6monthold_spinoff_have_to_pick/",
    "selftext": "9 years, bootstrapped, mid 7-figure ARR in live-tutor language learning. Profitable. Growth flat for 18 months, AI reshaping the category.\n\nWhile running it, I kept rebuilding the same internal gamification backend. Streaks, XP, badges, paths. Three times in five years. Eventually pulled it out as a standalone B2B API product. Solo on the new one.\n\nNow I'm running both and I have to pick.\n\nThe EdTech has revenue and a co-founder who can carry it without me. The new product has my conviction and no revenue yet. If I half-commit to the solo one, it dies from neglect, not from being a bad idea.\n\nFor anyone who's done a version of this: how did you actually break the tie?\n\n(Happy to share more details in the comments or over DM.)",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.6,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T15:53:01.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.664Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb1vnm",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Payment processor that won't flag a singles events company as a dating service? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "___-____-___",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1vnm/payment_processor_that_wont_flag_a_singles_events/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1vnm/payment_processor_that_wont_flag_a_singles_events/",
    "selftext": "Hey everyone,\n\nI run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service. Our goal is to get people OFF their phones and meet IRL instead.\n\n**How we actually work:**\n\n* Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)\n* They signup by verifying their CAD phone number\n* We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event\n* Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (\\~$20)\n* They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl\n* No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events\n* Pay per event, no subscriptions\n\n**Our track record:**\n\n* 3 successful events so far\n* Zero chargebacks, zero disputes\n* 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing\n* Currently expanding to new cities\n\n**The problem:** We keep getting flagged as a \"dating service\" by mainstream processors despite not fully operating like one at all. I understand theres some elements to our business, but not entirely. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.\n\n**What I'm looking for:**\n\n* Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly\n* Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)\n* Supports Canadian businesses\n* Reasonable fees\n* API access for custom integration\n\nHas anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.22,
    "numComments": 13,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T13:36:20.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.674Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb1t45",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Payment processor that won't flag a niche singles events company as a dating service? I will not promote",
    "author": "___-____-___",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1t45/payment_processor_that_wont_flag_a_niche_singles/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1t45/payment_processor_that_wont_flag_a_niche_singles/",
    "selftext": "Hey everyone,\n\nI run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service.\n\n**How we actually work:**\n\n* Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)\n* They signup by verifying their CAD phone number\n* We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event\n* Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (\\~$20)\n* They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl\n* No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events\n* Pay per event, no subscriptions\n\n**Our track record:**\n\n* 3 successful events so far\n* Zero chargebacks, zero disputes\n* 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing\n* Currently expanding to new cities\n\n**The problem:** We keep getting flagged as a \"dating service\" by mainstream processors despite not operating like one at all. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.\n\n**What I'm looking for:**\n\n* Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly\n* Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)\n* Supports Canadian businesses\n* Reasonable fees\n* API access for custom integration\n\nHas anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.39,
    "numComments": 14,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T13:33:37.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.717Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb1kom",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Final year student built AI outreach systems autonomous workflows and distributed backend infra( I will not promote)",
    "author": "bellator_boy",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1kom/final_year_student_built_ai_outreach_systems/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb1kom/final_year_student_built_ai_outreach_systems/",
    "selftext": "I’m a final year B.Tech student from NIT graduating in 2026 and honestly most of my last year went into building backend and AI systems instead of doing tutorial projects or just grinding DSA all day.\n\nRecently I built:\n\n• A multi-tenant AI outreach system deployed on AWS that scrapes jobs, finds relevant company alumni/HRs, and generates personalized outreach using LLM pipelines\n\n• A Reddit automation tool for a client\n\n• An autonomous shipment validation pipeline where invoices/BOL docs are parsed and validated automatically and the system either:  \n  \\- sends acceptance emails  \n  \\- drafts amendment emails  \n  \\- or routes it for human approval before execution\n\n• Fixed a live cross-tenant data leak caused by shared SQLAlchemy session state\n\n• Reduced silent AWS EC2 IP bans from \\~30% to almost 0% after debugging browser fingerprinting issues in Playwright\n\n• Built async FastAPI services using Redis, PostgreSQL, OAuth2/JWT auth, Docker, and LangGraph-based approval workflows\n\n• Designed RAG pipelines with auditability and source traceability because hallucinated responses with fake confidence were driving me insane\n\n• Built event-driven workflows that automatically react to incoming emails/documents without manual intervention\n\nTech stack:  \nPython, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS, Docker, Next.js, React, LangChain, LangGraph, Playwright, OAuth2, JWT, PyTorch, Flask, Node.js, WebSockets, and RAG-based LLM systems\n\nCurrently looking for:  \n• Backend Engineering Internships  \n• AI Engineering Internships  \n• Backend/AI Full-Time roles  \n• Startups building cool stuff around automation, infra, LLM systems, or developer tooling\n\nI genuinely enjoy building systems that can survive messy real-world edge cases instead of just looking good in demo videos.\n\nIf your team is hiring or you know someone building interesting products I’d genuinely love to connect.",
    "score": 7,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.77,
    "numComments": 14,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T13:24:38.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.730Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tb13wx",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Seeking direct airline/car rental APIs for full after-booking automation (aggregators force call centers) (I will not promote)",
    "author": "fatracoon_com",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb13wx/seeking_direct_airlinecar_rental_apis_for_full/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tb13wx/seeking_direct_airlinecar_rental_apis_for_full/",
    "selftext": "I’m building this fully automated chat‑based travel booking thing with a friend. We work on it after our day jobs, so half the time I’m writing code half‑asleep. No AI wrappers, no affiliate junk, no “someone will call you back”. Just actual logic that searches, books, cancels, whatever.  \nWe’ve dealt with Sabre/Amadeus/NDC before on client stuff, so all the PNR/fare‑rule/Edifact chaos isn’t new to us. But this project is just the two of us messing with it after work. No agency behind us, no VC, nobody covering the bills except our own wallets.  \n  \nWhat’s working right now:   \n– chat interface (Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram)   \n– hotels with private rates + instant confirmation   \n– modify/cancel flows through APIs, no humans touching anything   \n– everything deterministic, no LLM hallucinating bookings\n\nFlights are where everything goes sideways. Search works, whatever, but once you start booking multi‑segment trips, things just break. You lock in a few segments, then the next one pretends it’s confirmed (stale data, of course), and when you try to ticket it, it fails. Now you’re stuck with this Frankenstein itinerary and no proper rollback unless the provider actually supports cancel/modify. Most don’t. It’s honestly exhausting.\n\nWe tried going directly to airlines and car rental companies. Mostly silence. Sometimes “$5k setup fee just to get a dev account”. Sometimes “Do you have IATA?”. Sometimes a whole list of deposits and monthly fees that make zero sense for two people building something at night.  \nWe don’t care if the API is SOAP, XML, Edifact, whatever. We just need access + proper after‑booking operations without enterprise gatekeeping.\n\nAnd yeah, one thing that’s been kinda driving us nuts: some aggregators still charge you for a booking even if the user cancels it right away. Not “every transaction”, just the booking event itself. You make it, then something changes, you try to undo it, and somehow you still owe them a few percent of the whole thing. ",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 12,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T13:07:01.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.752Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tauw1n",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Hardware (ex)founders, am I fucked? - I will not promote",
    "author": "xrshxa",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tauw1n/hardware_exfounders_am_i_fucked_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tauw1n/hardware_exfounders_am_i_fucked_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "Hey. I'm working on a physical consumer hardware product ($350) in the pet space and talked to pet owners (not all are ICP, a lot were average pet owners). We've had our website up and been public since February and I feel like we're not doing great. \n\nSince then we've gotten 48 waitlist signups organically (at that price point) and since starting taking paid deposits ($50) 2 weeks ago, we've gotten 8 ppl give us money. None of these people have seen or used the product in person (based off renders of images and a video). \n\nSome of these people include a pet influencer with 10M+ followers and 2 VC investors - had a cold outreach from a VC firm, got on a call with them, then one of the investors put a deposit down immediately after the call and another waitlist from someone from a VC firm who hasn't paid a deposit yet, but personally told me she joined the waitlist (back then we hadnt started taking deposits). \n\nThese 8 ppl will be our beta testers, but we're looking to find more in our own city since these are scattered across Canada/US and sending test units to ppl far away wouldn't be best. \n\nAre we fucked? Is this low traction? We've talked to 40+ pet owners (half weren't ICP) in 20m+ interviews, talked to probably 50+ for a 1-2 mins chat in passing at dog establishments where I cold approached them so probably not the best first impression, and then posted online on reddit / fb for ~650 views, where some waitlists came from back then, but these again also the average pet owners, not our ICP.\n\nI want to be able to reach more pet owners that are our ICP but can't seem to find a way to do other than ads. I tried tiktok but many dont see messages for calls. Are we fucked? Should I give up on this?\n\n",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 16,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T08:02:49.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.762Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tar0yb",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I will not promote. what are you using to track finances? investor is asking things I don't know",
    "author": "Green_Celery_1980",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tar0yb/i_will_not_promote_what_are_you_using_to_track/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tar0yb/i_will_not_promote_what_are_you_using_to_track/",
    "selftext": "I don't know a lot of the things an investor asked me. I said I'll get back after I talk to my accountant. I don't have an accountant. We have a lady who does our bookkeeping but she had no idea how to calculate the things the investor asked about.\n\n  \nWhat's the quickest way for me to get up to speed with my finances are prepare all the numbers he's asking for? Need it by Friday. ",
    "score": 20,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.84,
    "numComments": 41,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T04:36:00.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.792Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1taqhdk",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Roast my startup idea: Spend control layer for AI agents (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Happy-kratos-0902",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1taqhdk/roast_my_startup_idea_spend_control_layer_for_ai/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1taqhdk/roast_my_startup_idea_spend_control_layer_for_ai/",
    "selftext": "Looking for honest critique.\n\nWe’re exploring a **Spend control for AI agents**: a control layer before agents take billable/risky actions like paid API calls, tool use, SaaS actions, data access, or payments.\n\nQuestion: is this real today, or too early?\n\nMost teams we’ve spoken to are still mostly using LLMs/coding agents, not production agents doing paid tool calls.\n\nWould this be a separate product, or just part of agent infra?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.4,
    "numComments": 17,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T04:09:27.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.805Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tapbw0",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Okay.. how do I get data on my idea? I will not promote",
    "author": "NoStrategy8706",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tapbw0/okay_how_do_i_get_data_on_my_idea_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tapbw0/okay_how_do_i_get_data_on_my_idea_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "I have my idea planned & set up, but now I'm onto the stage of trying to get survey responses (looking specifically for responses from industry professionals in law, finance, and construction. ) What is the best way to get responses because man. I don't know where to start. Most of the subreddits don't allow surveys. ",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T03:14:58.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.840Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1talw5k",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Can I work on/incorporate my startup while employed? I will not promote",
    "author": "Lower_Ad_1146",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1talw5k/can_i_work_onincorporate_my_startup_while/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1talw5k/can_i_work_onincorporate_my_startup_while/",
    "selftext": "My employment contract requires written consent from my employer for any side business or self-employment. For those who have started a startup while employed, did you actually disclose and get consent, or just operate quietly and deal with it if it ever came up? And did you incorporate while at your W2?\n\nThere is a separate IP clause in the contract that does say they are only entitled to inventions I make during work hours on work devices. And the startup is in an unrelated industry to my current work.",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.73,
    "numComments": 13,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T00:42:48.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.867Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1takmva",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Is going public/IPO actually that bad? I will not promote",
    "author": "Syllabub_Defiant",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1takmva/is_going_publicipo_actually_that_bad_i_will_not/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1takmva/is_going_publicipo_actually_that_bad_i_will_not/",
    "selftext": "From what I've read, going public sounds terrible. Brian Chesky of AirBnB said it was one of the saddest days of his life lmao.\n\n  \nHere is what I specifically hear is bad:\n\n\\-Loss of founder control and potential to be ousted\n\n\\-Massive dilution\n\n\\-You gotta follow the VC treadmill of constantly raising to get there\n\n\\-Forced focus on short-term instead of long-term goals to meet quarterly earning expectations.\n\n  \nTo what extent are these things true and are there any ways to prevent them? If you don't wanna sell your company but are raising a round, would you also rule out IPOs as a liquidity event because of the downsides, potentially cutting out investment opportunities?",
    "score": 49,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.94,
    "numComments": 43,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T23:48:40.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.892Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1taid4t",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "I have a documented paper + working demo but no arXiv endorsement and no idea where to publish. What did you do? (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Tight_Cow_5438",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1taid4t/i_have_a_documented_paper_working_demo_but_no/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1taid4t/i_have_a_documented_paper_working_demo_but_no/",
    "selftext": "Hi, I am almost done with my MVP. I have a working demo and a full paper documenting the architecture, but I'm stuck on where to actually put it out there.\n\narXiv requires an endorsement I don't have. I ended up submitting to optimization-online org but I honestly don't know if that's the right move or just noise. No academic affiliation, no network in this space.\n\nFor people who've gone through this: how did you get your technical work in front of the right people before you had any credibility built up?   \nDid publishing even matter, or did the demo do all the work?   \nThanks!!",
    "score": 9,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.91,
    "numComments": 23,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T22:15:51.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.903Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tahks9",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "anyone got a template for pitch deck for pre-seed? (i will not promote)",
    "author": "unstoppablefutureme",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tahks9/anyone_got_a_template_for_pitch_deck_for_preseed/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tahks9/anyone_got_a_template_for_pitch_deck_for_preseed/",
    "selftext": "all the investor pitch forms ask for a pitch deck at the end. anyone have a template they've used successfully?\n\nor anything else that was helpful when raising pre-seed to iterate to pmf? (do ppl do this irl, or do ppl just ask family/friends or bootstrap until getting traction?)",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 15,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T21:45:30.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.915Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tagh51",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "is there a service for creating pitch decks (i will not promote)",
    "author": "unstoppablefutureme",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagh51/is_there_a_service_for_creating_pitch_decks_i/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagh51/is_there_a_service_for_creating_pitch_decks_i/",
    "selftext": "all the investment forms ask to upload a pitch deck and i don't have one. anyone got a template or something they've used that works? for consumer app?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nasfasfsadfsdfalsdfj;lasjkfd;lasjkf;lajkdsf;lkajslf;kjas;lkfjas;lkfjas;lfkjsa;lfkdsja;lfdkjasadlsfkjasl;dkjf;",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T21:04:54.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.938Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tagcvv",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "i will not promote (help needed as a junior)",
    "author": "InstructionReal1409",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagcvv/i_will_not_promote_help_needed_as_a_junior/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagcvv/i_will_not_promote_help_needed_as_a_junior/",
    "selftext": "I’m in 1st year BTech CSE and lately I’ve been trying to understand different business models that actually have a future and aren’t just trends that die after a year.\n\nI keep seeing things like SaaS, AI automation agencies, creator businesses, freelancing, niche ecom brands, etc. everywhere and honestly it gets confusing because everyone online says their model is “the future”.\n\nRight now AI automation agencies look interesting to me because they seem possible to start solo and don’t need huge investment, but I still don’t know how realistic it actually is long term.\n\nSo I wanted to ask people who are already working/building in this space:\n\nWhat business models do you genuinely think are worth learning in 2026 and beyond?\n\nAlso:\n\n* what skills are actually valuable now?\n* what’s oversaturated already?\n* what would you start if you were in college today?\n* is it smarter to start with freelancing/services first before trying SaaS or startups?\n\nWould appreciate real opinions and experiences.",
    "score": 2,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T21:00:40.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.960Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tagaic",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "i will not promote (asking for a help)",
    "author": "InstructionReal1409",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagaic/i_will_not_promote_asking_for_a_help/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tagaic/i_will_not_promote_asking_for_a_help/",
    "selftext": "I’m in 1st year BTech CSE and lately I’ve been trying to understand different business models that actually have a future and aren’t just trends that die after a year.\n\nI keep seeing things like SaaS, AI automation agencies, creator businesses, freelancing, niche ecom brands, etc. everywhere and honestly it gets confusing because everyone online says their model is “the future”.\n\nRight now AI automation agencies look interesting to me because they seem possible to start solo and don’t need huge investment, but I still don’t know how realistic it actually is long term.\n\nSo I wanted to ask people who are already working/building in this space:\n\nWhat business models do you genuinely think are worth learning in 2026 and beyond?\n\nAlso:\n\n* what skills are actually valuable now?\n* what’s oversaturated already?\n* what would you start if you were in college today?\n* is it smarter to start with freelancing/services first before trying SaaS or startups?\n\nWould appreciate real opinions and experiences.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.81,
    "numComments": 3,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T20:58:27.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:56.989Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tacgx3",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "What actually works for getting your first cybersecurity clients? I WILL NOT PROMOTE",
    "author": "c0d3xxxx",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tacgx3/what_actually_works_for_getting_your_first/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tacgx3/what_actually_works_for_getting_your_first/",
    "selftext": "For people running small cybersecurity businesses or freelancing in security, what channel brought your first real clients?\n\nI keep hearing different advice:\n\n\t•\tLinkedIn outreach\n\n\t•\treferrals\n\n\t•\tcontent\n\n\t•\tUpwork\n\n\t•\tfounder communities\n\n\t•\tnetworking\n\n\t•\topen source/security research\n\nBut I’m more interested in what worked in practice.\n\nWhat type of service were you offering, and what made companies trust you enough to pay early on?\n\nAlso curious what completely did NOT work for you.",
    "score": 1,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.67,
    "numComments": 4,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T18:46:14.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:57.004Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tacfpc",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "What actually works for getting your first cybersecurity clients? I WILL NOT PROMOTE",
    "author": "c0d3xxxx",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tacfpc/what_actually_works_for_getting_your_first/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tacfpc/what_actually_works_for_getting_your_first/",
    "selftext": "For people running small cybersecurity businesses or freelancing in security, what channel brought your first real clients?\n\nI keep hearing different advice:\n\n\t•\tLinkedIn outreach\n\n\t•\treferrals\n\n\t•\tcontent\n\n\t•\tUpwork\n\n\t•\tfounder communities\n\n\t•\tnetworking\n\n\t•\topen source/security research\n\nBut I’m more interested in what worked in practice.\n\nWhat type of service were you offering, and what made companies trust you enough to pay early on?\n\nAlso curious what completely did NOT work for you.",
    "score": 8,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.8,
    "numComments": 19,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T18:45:08.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:57.028Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1tabh1x",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Handling equity conversation. (I will not promote.)",
    "author": "lazymoon69",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tabh1x/handling_equity_conversation_i_will_not_promote/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1tabh1x/handling_equity_conversation_i_will_not_promote/",
    "selftext": "What documents do you guys have to solidify  proper equity split among initial people at the startup?\n\nIf I have founded the company and registered it in my name and now I have to offer equity to another founding employee (head of operations), what are the documents needed to make sure everything is solid and voting rights are retained with me?\n\nAny general guidelines will do.",
    "score": 3,
    "upvoteRatio": 1,
    "numComments": 7,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T18:12:21.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:57.063Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1t9yrjd",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "We built the wrong first version, and beta users told us immediately (I will not promote)",
    "author": "Ecstatic_Law3753",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1t9yrjd/we_built_the_wrong_first_version_and_beta_users/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1t9yrjd/we_built_the_wrong_first_version_and_beta_users/",
    "selftext": "We thought users wanted a more powerful workflow, so that's what we built first. It was the kind of feature set that looked good in our heads and in internal demos, which is always a little dangerous in hindsight.\n\n\n\nThen beta users started trying it, and the pattern was painfully obvious. They kept asking for a simpler path. Not more options. Not more control. Just a way to get to the actual job faster without having to think about the workflow we were so proud of.\n\n\n\nThat was frustrating, honestly. We had spent time optimizing the wrong pain point. The feature wasn't useless, but it was too much for what people were actually trying to do.\n\n\n\nWe ended up cutting the original version down and rebuilding around the simpler path people kept requesting. My short version is that we were solving for the wrong thing. Has anyone else had beta users basically tell you your first version was the wrong shape?",
    "score": 10,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.8,
    "numComments": 30,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T10:02:19.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:57.083Z"
  },
  {
    "postId": "1t9y1cy",
    "subreddit": "startups",
    "title": "Would you pay monthly if your website could be managed entirely through WhatsApp?(I will not promote)",
    "author": "designisart",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1t9y1cy/would_you_pay_monthly_if_your_website_could_be/",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1t9y1cy/would_you_pay_monthly_if_your_website_could_be/",
    "selftext": "I think hosting companies are solving the wrong problem.\n\nMost small business owners do not care about:\n\n* cPanels\n* dashboards\n* plugin updates\n* cache settings\n* backups\n\nThey just want their website to work.\n\nWhat if you could manage your website entirely through WhatsApp?\n\nExamples:  \n“Publish this blog tomorrow.”  \n“Why is my website slow?”  \n“Update the homepage text.”  \n“Show me today’s traffic.”  \n“My contact form is broken.”\n\nInstead of opening tickets or logging into WordPress, you simply send a message.\n\nWould this actually be useful or am I overthinking it?",
    "score": 0,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.22,
    "numComments": 16,
    "flair": "I will not promote",
    "isVideo": false,
    "over18": false,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-11T09:21:52.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-15T10:53:57.108Z"
  }
]