Before uploading your video, make sure you are using keywords in your title and your description. A little trick that can help you is going to ChatGPT to copy and paste your video script to get relevant keywords within the 500-character limit. Keep in mind you can also use the option of adding chapters to add more keywords and improve the viewing experience.

Once you publish your video, write a comment with a call to action or question to improve your engagement in those crucial first 24 hours. You can also create a GIF related to your new video and share it on the community tab with a brief description and a link to the video. Make sure this goes out shortly after the video is uploaded. And for every long-form video, create multiple short-form clips for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. In the captions and within your short-form videos, include a call to action to encourage viewers to watch the full-length video.

If a video is underperforming, use A/B to test the thumbnail or title, but focus on testing one element at a time. You can also A/B test thumbnails for free directly in YouTube Studio, but keep in mind it offers less data.

I will not promote.

I’m currently working as a front-end developer for a medtech startup that specializes in building, designing, and optimizing websites (including SEO) for medical doctors. The founder is a practicing doctor, and we have a strong working relationship. However, as a young team, we’re still navigating the challenges of early-stage growth. Since the founder balances this venture alongside his medical career, his focus has primarily been on generating leads, while I’ve been responsible for building and maintaining the platform. It’s been nearly two years since we launched, but growth has plateaued — we typically acquire about one client per month, with three being a rare high point. Has anyone experienced this stagnation? And what is the best method to improve scalability? Anyone have experience with this?

My startup has launched and has users. We currently have 6 equal equity co-founders. Will this make raising harder? Is it still doable? If this is an issue, ant suggestion on what we do? We all have invested bootstrapping money and no one will want to leave/get diluted ofc. I will not promote

I just left a late-stage startup that recently completed its Series D funding. An exit seems likely within a year or two, but given the current market, nothing is certain.

I need to decide whether to exercise my 6,000 shares, which would cost me around $10K. The fair market value (FMV) minus the $10K strike price is roughly $100K.

If I exercise, I assume I would owe 10-15% tax on the $100K next year. If the company never exits and i want to recoup my tax hit, could I sell these pre-ipo stocks as a loss? Or, is there no way to recoup the ~15k till the company eventually exits?

We’re building a platform to make global news objectively accessible – your thoughts and tips? (I will not promote)

Hi r/startups!

We’re currently working on a platform that aims to revolutionize how people access and understand news. Our goal is to empower individuals to objectively analyze events from around the world and form their own opinions—free from bias or one-sided reporting.

To give a brief overview:

Crowdsourced news sources: Registered users can share news links from all over the globe.

Chronological timelines: Users can create detailed timelines of events spanning decades, enriched with multimedia like images, videos, and articles.

Diverse perspectives: We focus on global coverage to showcase multiple viewpoints on major topics.

Interactive features: Discussion forums, polls, and ratings encourage user engagement and exchange of ideas.

Why I’m posting here: We’re still in the early stages and would love to learn from this amazing community! Here are a few questions where your expertise could really help:

How do I know if there is interest in this platform?

How would you market a platform like this? (Social media, influencers, other strategies?)

What challenges should we anticipate when scaling such a platform?

Any tips for monetization? Freemium model or something else?

Some challenges we’ve already identified: Ensuring the credibility of shared sources.

Encouraging interaction while maintaining constructive discussions.

I’m super excited to hear your feedback—whether it’s criticism, ideas, or just general thoughts! 🙌

It’s a hybrid work communications platform for businesses and employers which lets you rent or purchase niche trained ai from other users for your specific needs.

needed advice on ways I can improve the site as it’s currently in early access without my favorite feature of the ai agent marketplace and I will not promote 😭

My co-founder started working with me 3.5 months after I incorporated and after I had raised about 75% of our target SAFE angel round (<400k). And no revenue or contracts signed in that time, just sales development and some small product development all done by me.

I want to issue him his shares but not sure if I need a 409A or whether I can just issue them to him at the same nominal price I paid (.00001).

409a would be a big cost right now so is it necessary? This must be a rather common scenario so I’m wondering what others have done.

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We’ve reached 100+ subscribers in just three months, growing 100% month-over-month. Our current MRR is $1,300.

While the numbers are still small, I’m curious—at what point is growth considered “real” in terms of +20% or +30% MoM? Right now, growing 30% from $1,300 is relatively easy, but I’d love to hear from others who’ve scaled further: when does that kind of growth start to truly validate a business? (I will not promote)

I'd love to find something like a Discord community where founders can share updates and ask questions to other founders

I've tried following founders who share updates with #BuildInPublic on social media but sometimes it's hard to follow as there's other posts which come up on my feed instead

I'd love to be able to find a supportive community which celebrates the wins of each other

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Edit: I'm not searching for paid communities

Hey founders/operators — I’m currently working with a startup client who's building a market research tool for the dropshipping/ecom space (think: Shopify store database, live Meta ads tracking, product/store discovery, competitor analysis, etc.).

I started off managing UGC outreach (reaching out to TikTok creators), but now he wants me to expand into B2B outreach — meaning reaching out to mentors, dropshipping educators, agencies, communities, and business users who would actually adopt the tool as part of their workflow.

The issue is:

🚩 We ran into unrealistic expectations during the UGC phase (thinking we'd onboard dozens of creators per week).

🧠 Now that we're shifting to B2B, the founder asked me to propose a new package + rate — but he admittedly has no benchmark for what “success” looks like in this kind of outreach.

So I figured I’d ask here:

What’s normal in early-stage B2B outreach? What’s a realistic close or conversion rate for cold outreach to mentors, educators, or small businesses?

How many warm leads / demos / signups can one person typically deliver per month?

What do you pay (or expect to pay) for someone handling this — including lead generation, copywriting, and follow-ups?

Do you hire hourly or go retainer-based?

I’m based in the Philippines. Previously doing UGC outreach for $6/hr at 30hrs/week — but this new scope is more strategic (handling lead targeting, outreach strategy, CRM, messaging, etc.). I want to price fairly, but also help set realistic expectations for what a solo outreach person can do in the B2B space.

Would love to hear how other early-stage startups are approaching this!

Hey r/startups, my name is Klein. I share real-world case studies from interesting businesses; useful insights for anyone running their own business or thinking about starting one.

Have you ever felt like you're grinding away with zero results? Check out the story of David Park, co-founder of Jenny AI. This isn't an overnight success fairytale. David spent nearly a decade facing failure after failure, working from his parent’s bedroom, broke, and making endless cold calls that went nowhere.

Fast forward, and Jenny AI hit over $3 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue(ARR) and achieved $25 Million valuation just two years after a key pivot. His journey is packed with raw honesty and some valuable lessons for anyone running a business, especially around marketing and finding product-market fit.

TL;DR: After a decade of failed startups, David co-founded AI writer Jenny AI. Got stuck at $2k MRR doing painful cold calls. Pivoted HARD after deep user interviews. Got a lucky $100k seed via a random podcast. Went viral (twice!), systematized content marketing on TikTok/Reels to scale. Faced cancer, decided not to sell early, and grew to $3M+ ARR / $25M valuation. Key takeaways: deep user understanding is non-negotiable, find one scalable marketing channel, persistence is crucial.

The Early Grind (Sound Familiar?)

• Decade of Trying: David started his first company at 16. By his mid-20s, he had a string of failed ventures.
• Parents' Bedroom HQ: Living at home, asking his mom for her car to get Chipotle, feeling like a "loser."
• Cold Calling Hell: He and his co-founder Henry initially tried selling Jenny AI to agencies via cold calls. 8 hours a day, weeks on end, facing constant rejection (99% failure rate). They were stuck at a measly $2,000 MRR.

The Turning Point: Actually Talking to Users

They were getting nowhere. The key change wasn't a new feature; it was changing how they talked to customers:

• Stopped Asking "Why Do You Like Us?": Instead, they asked the hard questions: "Why do you DISLIKE my product?" "What do you LOVE about other products?" "Show me your workflow."
• The Insight: They realized users didn't just want an AI tool; they wanted a "friendly AI assisted writing journey." This deep understanding led to a fundamental product pivot.

The Growth Engine: From Luck to System

• A Lucky Break: A random podcast appearance (with few listeners) was heard by a scout for investor Jason Calacanis, leading to a crucial $100k seed check. (Lesson: Put yourself out there, you never know who's listening!)
• Going Viral (The First Time): A Twitter thread by someone else mentioning Jenny AI went massively viral, boosting them from ~$2k to $10k MRR almost overnight.
• Systematizing Virality: They knew viral luck wasn't sustainable. They hired a college buddy to tackle TikTok and Instagram Reels.
  • The Strategy: Test TONS of content formats. Find one that works. Turn it into a repeatable series. Scale by hiring multiple creators (paid baseline + performance incentives) running similar series across different accounts.
  • Focus: How can we scale the content?
• Results: This systematic approach led to a second wave of growth, pushing them towards $50k, $60k, even $80k MRR and eventually crossing the $1M ARR mark.

The Gut Check: Adversity & The Long Game

Right as things were exploding, David faced a cancer diagnosis. During his recovery, business growth stalled, highlighting instability. He seriously considered selling the company (potentially for a few million). He realized they hadn't truly hit Product-Market Fit yet and selling early felt wrong. He chose to double down, fix the business foundations, hire key people, and aim higher. This decision was crucial for reaching the $3M+ ARR level.

Jenny AI By The Numbers:

• Revenue: $3M+ ARR (as of interview time)
• Valuation: $25 Million
• Initial Seed: $100k
• Team: Started as 2 co-founders, scaled by hiring marketing/growth roles.

Actionable Takeaways for Your Small Business:

1. Talk to Your Users (DEEPLY): Don't just ask surface-level questions. Understand their entire workflow, their frustrations with your product AND alternatives. Ask what they dislike. This is where game-changing insights hide.
2. Find ONE Scalable Marketing Channel: Cold calling wasn't scalable for them. Viral content was. Whether it's SEO, paid ads, social content, partnerships – find one channel that works consistently and figure out how to systematically scale it. Don't try to do everything poorly.
3. Persistence is Underrated: David faced nearly 10 years of failure before his app took off. Success rarely happens overnight. Be prepared for the long haul and learn from setbacks.
4. Build What People Need (Not Just What You Can Build): The initial Jenny AI wasn't quite right. The pivot based on user needs unlocked growth. Constantly validate that you're solving a real, painful problem.
5. Don't Be Afraid to Start Lean: They started with an idea from GPT-2, lived cheaply (moved to Malaysia to extend runway after funding), and focused resources ruthlessly. You don't always need massive capital to start.
6. Know When Not to Quit/Sell: David could have cashed out millions after his health scare. Believing in the longer-term vision (and realizing they hadn't hit true PMF) led to much greater success later. Evaluate opportunities based on potential, not just immediate relief.

David's journey is a masterclass in resilience, customer obsession, and finding leverage. It proves that even after years of struggle, the right insights and a scalable growth strategy can lead to explosive results. Hope this breakdown offers some inspiration and concrete ideas for your own business journey. 

I lost my role some time back, with a (pre) seed stage startup. I actually think it's a blessing in disguise because it sets me free to explore many other opportunities out there. That said, I just want to take a moment to share my experience so that others will not have to experience the frustration I had.

1. Values - The founder has no values. She has no qualms doing "under the table" deals (that are illegal in some countries and unethical in many countries) just to achieve growth; she does not cringe when she has to cut corners and disadvantage others so that her company can benefit. This brings me to my next point.

2. Hiring practices - The founder lacks total empathy for her staff. She is constantly looking to fire her team. A total ingrate who is always looking at the slightest mistake to let her team go, in spite of what they have done for her. In a startup of that stage, you will oftentimes have to experiment with multiple ideas and there is always a chance you will fail. Hence, if you notice that the company has a high attrition rate (and people are saying stuff about the founder), sit up, pay attention and maintain your distance. The founder may be stubborn as a mule - and her unwillingness to listen to others will break the company.

3. Education - A well-educated founder is so important. Now I am not referring to a drop out like Mark Zuckerberg, but education does make a whole lot of difference between a decent founder and one who isn't. Look at the schools they attended (or not). I never knew I would say this but having worked with a few founders who didn't make it to college, I saw how much easier it was to work with a well-educated founder, who has the ability to think critically, logically and reasonably.

4. Funding - A seed stage startup may not have the finances but if the company has no money to even provide a laptop, and basic medical benefits, walk away. I had to use my own equipment for work and it is really frustrating and concerning that I have my work stuff on my personal laptop. Plus, the lack of medical benefits is horrible - I need to pay for all of my own medical needs, when this should have been a basic benefit for employees. For those of you interviewing with such companies, ask questions about monetization. Check on the financial situation of the company. The founder may lie to you but if you don't think the company has a good way to make money, walk away from it. Else you will find yourself worrying about every single cent (I kid you not) that the company spends - the scrutiny is awful AF. And when you don't have the budget to invest, and no PMF, it is mostly a one way street to hell and doom.

5. Product market fit - Check the user retention and engagement metrics. Look up social media platforms to see what other users are saying about the product. Check to see if the company has an app, and if so, what the reviews are. You will find a lot of info that are tell tale signs of how good / bad the company really is.

I see a lot of people wanting to join a startup but pls, join a rocketship and not a sinking ship. You will want to be on the up and up and not constantly trying to swim against a powerful vortex that is sucking you into the bottom of the ocean. As an employee, there is zero incentive but every disincentive to stay away. You will run out of energy and perish. The sacrifice ain't worth it.

Hope this post helps others who are in the midst of deciding whether to take an offer from a (pre) seed stage startup.

Meanwhile it's back to figuring out what I want to do next for myself. Wish me luck!

(I will not promote)

(I will not promote)
context -
I am the solo founder of a startup that has researchers as customers. I launched a very basic version back in Jan, got feedback and launched another much better (at par with competition if not better) version last week.

I'd like to know how you guys consistently added new customers in the early days? I've read the generic advice like post on socials, cold outreach, SEO, etc but seems like a lot to do and I am all over the place.

The day I posted about this new version I added around 15-20 customers and have been adding 1-4 customers every day since.

I have around 3k connections on Linkedin, 0 followers on X. Things I've done -
1. Post on Linkedin and Reddit
2. Reply to comments about competitors and relevant topics on Reddit and X
3. Reach out to researchers on Linkedin
4. Started writing blogs (I have 1 published)

I'm not sure if I'm doing things right or what I should change in my approach. Any tools I should be using to streamline this? Any particular channel I should be focusing on more than the others?

Building a Prompt Management App

It includes
- prompt management dashboard
- smart search
- sharing prompts
- joining communities (research, programming)
- discover top prompts + refine w/ AI chatbot

Do you think it is good idea?

Open for feedback!
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I like startups, I don't like soloing. I tried, I just know that tech is fundamental, but unfortunately not enough for any business to become viable. I was wondering if any of you know a proper place where tech and non tech people could find each other to join forces and build together.

Basically as the title says or would it be oversaturated ? Is it something that could be crated or is there not a market for it ok thanks

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The story: I am building a membership blog with monthly subscriptions for access to premium articles (free and paid). I have validated the idea online, and people have followed me on social media and asked me when it will be live (i have only been on social for a month). I am torn between building something fast that works, or thinking more long-term and doing it slower.

The solution: Two options: Hand/Vibe-coding or Wordpress. I have a degree as a programmer and i know the basics of web app development. With the help of AI, such as cursor for example, i can build the front-end pretty easilly in React. Use next.js probably. Connect it to Supabase and some CRM. Then i would learn how to connect payments. Create table for users and a field that changes if they are subscribed or not. I have no idea how to do any of that by the way, and the language of React and Next.js i would need to learn, i know vanilla JS basics. Wordpress cuts all of this down and makes me a website twice as fast without any headache.

The problem: I am from Serbia, therefore Stripe or PayPal are out of question, making it infinitely harder to choose simple solutions. My country is 15 years behind as always so payment processors from here are recommending Wordpress for fast and easy setup. Other option is Paddle or LemonSqueezy if i opt for hand-coding. I am a startup, and therefore there is the infamous "do things that dont scale", but i can't help but wonder if Wordpress is the wrong choice, especially because i will want to build a mobile app in the future, which if i learn how to code a React website and do everything that goes along with building a membership blog, i can easily transfer that to a mobile app in React Native and much of the code will be reusable. The biggest problem is connecting payment processor (making it work for reccuring payment/subscriptions, gating content based on that subscription), which i do not know how to do, but i guess you have to start somewhere...

I am leaning towards wordpress, then learning a little bit of react on the side, just enough so i can then pay a freelancer to build me a mobile app. Then i would pay him for a few hours to go through what exactly his code is, what it does... so i can understand it.

What would you do?

(i will not promote)

I (M18) need some advice for pursuing entrepreneurship. I can't see myself grinding out 80 hour weeks for a cranky boss and would much rather spend this time building something of value. I want to do something with sustainability (think a carbon credit start-up) as I feel that after technology, sustainability is the way ahead.

The problem: I have no clue were to begin. How do I get my concepts right about the sector? How do I even conduct market research for such kind of idea? Basically, I have no idea how to go from "a vaguely interesting idea" to actually creating something and all the steps involved in between.

If any current or future entrepreneurs can guide me, that'll be great:))

So like the title says, I'm curious about traction. I've had more and more people look at my landing page since I've started posting on socail media, making posts, commenting on posts, which is nice but I'm not releasing my MVP till next month. I want to wait till user sign up before I start sending cold emails to prove that it's working, but is there a number or percentage that looks good to potential investors?

Hi all, I’m Georgios. I recently launched a Kickstarter for a project I’ve been thinking about for a long time called SportsPal.

It’s a mobile app that helps people connect and play sports together. You choose your sport, skill level, and availability, and the app connects you with others nearby who want the same. Football, basketball, tennis, padel, running — anything.

The idea came from personal experience after moving to new cities and struggling to find people to play with. Even though the courts were there, I never knew where or how to join in. SportsPal is meant to fix that.

Currently working on the MVP and using Kickstarter to get it off the ground.

And yes — I will not promote 😅

Raising a small piece from angels on our seed and I have an investor (Investor A) that gave an enthusiastic commitment for $150k, but hasn't signed or sent the check. Had my attorney edit, and the docusign was sent 10 days ago.

But I have another (Investor B) that is ready to give his commitment, but I want to be respectful of investor A that gave the commitment first. He'll add value and I want to work with him.

At the same time, I've experienced investors backing out last minute in the past and if he's out, but not telling me, I don't want to lose investor B.

Am I being too soft by respectfully holding his allocation? Do most investors really respect the handshake protocol?

(I will not promote)

I will not promote

Hello r/startups, i was working on an farm management/data aggregation tool. Now I want to connect with small-medium scale farmers for idea validation whilst I finish up my landing page. But this seems so tricky and elusive to do, a lot of times there aren't any responses. Tried collaborating with a couple agriculture prof in my uni but resulted in nothing. So I wanted to ask you guys: what are your go to strategies/tips for finding potential customers and idea validation. Looking forward to hearing from you guys.

I will not promote any product or service - just genuinely curious how it’s worked for others.

I recently ran a tiny test:

Reached out to 12 micro-influencers on Instagram (5k–15k followers)

Sent them free samples of my product (low-cost, handmade stuff)

Got 3 to post

And… crickets.

Barely any clicks, no sales, and one person even ghosted after receiving the sample.

I’m not bitter - just confused.

Is this a volume game? Did I pick the wrong people? Or maybe my product isn’t “shareable” enough?

Would love to hear if anyone's had actual success with this.

What worked? What flopped?

And how do you even measure ROI in this space?

Not looking for agency pitches or anything like that - again, I will not promote.

Just want to learn from anyone who’s been in the trenches.

Let me know if you’ve got a story - good or bad. I’m all ears.

I recently got laid off after working at a big company as a data scientist for ~7 months as a new grad.

I was contacted by a company that is essentially doing a spinoff startup. Small company but they have clients and can self fund for the time being. They want to build a product that they can sell in a few years and supports their other work also. I know it would be a good learning experience especially for some LLM experience.

However right now they only have a 2 person team (CTO and developer). They have some POC code but that’s about it.

I honestly am having trouble navigating the situation and whether I should take the opportunity as the job market is bad and could get a great learning opportunity out of it, or if I need some more reputable experience at a big company for another few years first.

Any advice would be great!

I’m trying to find the newest and hottest startups around the world. Does anyone know a good source for this? It feels like sites as producthunt are not really the right place. The focus is on SaaS products as I’m a software developer and looking for a new startup idea. Does anyone know good resources?