1. https://hustlefund.vc \n2. https://indie.vc\n3. http://afore.vc/\n4. https://backstagecapital.com/\n5. https://precursorvc.com/\n6. https://645ventures.com/\n7. https://shrug.vc/\n8. https://earnestcapital.com/\n9. https://weekend.fund/"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Alternate VCs?"}},"_tags":["story","author_sidyapa","story_21549123","ask_hn"],"author":"sidyapa","children":[21553046],"created_at":"2019-11-15T21:47:58Z","created_at_i":1573854478,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"21549123","points":3,"story_id":21549123,"story_text":"I see lots of small, founder friendly, super-early funds coming up on twitter almost everyday, can we together create a super-list in the comments for new founders with links and short description?\nMy list until now -
1. https://hustlefund.vc \n2. https://indie.vc\n3. http://afore.vc/\n4. https://backstagecapital.com/\n5. https://precursorvc.com/\n6. https://645ventures.com/\n7. https://shrug.vc/\n8. https://earnestcapital.com/\n9. https://weekend.fund/","title":"Ask HN: Alternate VCs?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:10:01Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"sidyapa"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"I see lots of small, founder friendly, super-early funds coming up on twitter almost everyday, can we together create a super-list in the comments for new founders with links and short description?
My list until now -
1. https://hustlefund.vc\n2. https://indie.vc\n3. http://afore.vc/\n4. https://backstagecapital.com/\n5. https://precursorvc.com/\n6. https://645ventures.com/\n7. https://shrug.vc/\n8. https://earnestcapital.com/\n9. https://weekend.fund/"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"Ask HN: Who Is Funding?"}},"_tags":["story","author_sidyapa","story_21547947","ask_hn"],"author":"sidyapa","children":[21553106],"created_at":"2019-11-15T19:30:01Z","created_at_i":1573846201,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"21547947","points":3,"story_id":21547947,"story_text":"I see lots of small, founder friendly, super-early funds coming up on twitter almost everyday, can we together create a super-list in the comments for new founders with links and short description?
My list until now -
1. https://hustlefund.vc\n2. https://indie.vc\n3. http://afore.vc/\n4. https://backstagecapital.com/\n5. https://precursorvc.com/\n6. https://645ventures.com/\n7. https://shrug.vc/\n8. https://earnestcapital.com/\n9. https://weekend.fund/","title":"Ask HN: Who Is Funding?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:09:50Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"mickhagen"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"They rap for funding (startup hustle)"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://undrip.com/rap/"}},"_tags":["story","author_mickhagen","story_3244616"],"author":"mickhagen","children":[3244652,3244661,3244698,3244901,3244950,3244968,3244973,3244988,3245072,3245268,3245477,3245497,3245751,3246012,3246283],"created_at":"2011-11-16T19:23:04Z","created_at_i":1321471384,"num_comments":22,"objectID":"3244616","points":28,"story_id":3244616,"story_text":"","title":"They rap for funding (startup hustle)","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:05:50Z","url":"http://undrip.com/rap/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"flail"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Fundamental Flaw of Hustle Culture"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"https://brodzinski.com/2025/08/ai-hustle-culture.html"}},"_tags":["story","author_flail","story_44904665"],"author":"flail","children":[44905312,44905315,44905348,44905356,44905374,44905458,44905490,44905506,44905531,44905577,44919893],"created_at":"2025-08-14T19:36:53Z","created_at_i":1755200213,"num_comments":33,"objectID":"44904665","points":61,"story_id":44904665,"title":"Fundamental Flaw of Hustle Culture","updated_at":"2026-03-05T22:28:12Z","url":"https://brodzinski.com/2025/08/ai-hustle-culture.html"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"bitsen"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"The \u201cother\u201d list for those here that need a day job to fund their side hustle as a burgeoning entrepreneur.
Please specify city, province, country, name of company, website, link to job description or brief description and range of years of experience required.
If it sucks, don\u2019t post it."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Non-Growth Companies with Good Benefits Hiring? (Mar 2021)"}},"_tags":["story","author_bitsen","story_26310152","ask_hn"],"author":"bitsen","created_at":"2021-03-01T23:53:09Z","created_at_i":1614642789,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"26310152","points":2,"story_id":26310152,"story_text":"The \u201cother\u201d list for those here that need a day job to fund their side hustle as a burgeoning entrepreneur.
Please specify city, province, country, name of company, website, link to job description or brief description and range of years of experience required.
If it sucks, don\u2019t post it.","title":"Ask HN: Non-Growth Companies with Good Benefits Hiring? (Mar 2021)","updated_at":"2024-09-20T07:59:55Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"marwann"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Seed funding: Cry a bit, Hustle a lot"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"https://medium.com/@qhoang09/gathering-350k-a-journey-through-our-seed-funding-af5bf5a5cd3"}},"_tags":["story","author_marwann","story_10289363"],"author":"marwann","created_at":"2015-09-28T08:09:59Z","created_at_i":1443427799,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"10289363","points":5,"story_id":10289363,"title":"Seed funding: Cry a bit, Hustle a lot","updated_at":"2024-09-19T22:24:38Z","url":"https://medium.com/@qhoang09/gathering-350k-a-journey-through-our-seed-funding-af5bf5a5cd3"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"wstringer"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Hi everyone. I've done some rethinking on the terms of my investment product to fund idea stage and side-hustle business using an income share agreement
If you could take a second to fill out this form, it would be helpful for me...plus there is a random award drawing for $25 worth of BTC
https://forms.gle/yWDpu6SudbVqr7Wc6"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Looking for idea validation through market research ($25 BTC drawing)"}},"_tags":["story","author_wstringer","story_22539059","ask_hn"],"author":"wstringer","created_at":"2020-03-10T20:02:34Z","created_at_i":1583870554,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"22539059","points":1,"story_id":22539059,"story_text":"Hi everyone. I've done some rethinking on the terms of my investment product to fund idea stage and side-hustle business using an income share agreement
If you could take a second to fill out this form, it would be helpful for me...plus there is a random award drawing for $25 worth of BTC
https://forms.gle/yWDpu6SudbVqr7Wc6","title":"Looking for idea validation through market research ($25 BTC drawing)","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:50:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"PodCurator"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Being in early stage tech in my 20s is making me anxious. Everywhere I look people "seem" to be killing it - or at least selling that what they're doing is the greatest thing ever or the most right thing for them. Lots of hype building, VC marketing, thought leadership, etc. But also legitimate fundraising milestones, amazing product launches, great hustle.
I "intellectually" understand I shouldn't care, but I do. I always feel anxious that I'm not doing enough/successful enough/busy enough.
How did you deal with this?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: How do you deal with tech industry anxiety/FOMO?"}},"_tags":["story","author_PodCurator","story_24047885","ask_hn"],"author":"PodCurator","created_at":"2020-08-04T08:33:46Z","created_at_i":1596530026,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"24047885","points":3,"story_id":24047885,"story_text":"Being in early stage tech in my 20s is making me anxious. Everywhere I look people "seem" to be killing it - or at least selling that what they're doing is the greatest thing ever or the most right thing for them. Lots of hype building, VC marketing, thought leadership, etc. But also legitimate fundraising milestones, amazing product launches, great hustle.
I "intellectually" understand I shouldn't care, but I do. I always feel anxious that I'm not doing enough/successful enough/busy enough.
How did you deal with this?","title":"Ask HN: How do you deal with tech industry anxiety/FOMO?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T06:44:33Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"legalizemoney"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"* What major challenges did you encounter?
* What revenue model can you use?
* Generally who are your customers: eg small hedge funds, big banks, other data vendors?
I'm curious why this doesn't seem to appear in the usual side hustle threads, I must be failing to consider some things.
I\u2019m sure a truly novel source of alpha is unlikely to occur to little old me, but as far as side projects go, this seems relatively well-defined in comparison to designing an app and finding product-market fit."},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"Ask HN: Can you sell alternative data to financial firms as a side hustle?"}},"_tags":["story","author_legalizemoney","story_27319395","ask_hn"],"author":"legalizemoney","children":[27319574,27320193,27320890,27321132],"created_at":"2021-05-28T19:18:09Z","created_at_i":1622229489,"num_comments":10,"objectID":"27319395","points":19,"story_id":27319395,"story_text":"* What major challenges did you encounter?
* What revenue model can you use?
* Generally who are your customers: eg small hedge funds, big banks, other data vendors?
I'm curious why this doesn't seem to appear in the usual side hustle threads, I must be failing to consider some things.
I\u2019m sure a truly novel source of alpha is unlikely to occur to little old me, but as far as side projects go, this seems relatively well-defined in comparison to designing an app and finding product-market fit.","title":"Ask HN: Can you sell alternative data to financial firms as a side hustle?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:40:27Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"AdityaSanthosh"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"I have little over 2 Years of Experience. I had joined the Industry in 2021 when developers are making a lot money here in India thanks to Startup VC Funding. I had job-hopped a bit and got to a decent salary at my current role but the market has changed dramatically. I have been applying to several companies passively and actively since couple of months resulting in vain. Now, I am very much passionate about software but I am also flexible. I do get some decent ideas in IT sometimes. Should I just keep upskilling myself in promotion to mid-level engineer/ grinding leetcode or do a side hustle completely unrelated(or related) to software? I am flexible with anything. My Long term goals are Financial Independence and stimulating work"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"Ask HN: Should I climb the software engineering Ladder or build a side hustle?"}},"_tags":["story","author_AdityaSanthosh","story_37853780","ask_hn"],"author":"AdityaSanthosh","children":[37853856,37854821,37854891,37855272,37855423,37855717,37855822,37857074,37867638,37871304],"created_at":"2023-10-12T05:38:00Z","created_at_i":1697089080,"num_comments":13,"objectID":"37853780","points":14,"story_id":37853780,"story_text":"I have little over 2 Years of Experience. I had joined the Industry in 2021 when developers are making a lot money here in India thanks to Startup VC Funding. I had job-hopped a bit and got to a decent salary at my current role but the market has changed dramatically. I have been applying to several companies passively and actively since couple of months resulting in vain. Now, I am very much passionate about software but I am also flexible. I do get some decent ideas in IT sometimes. Should I just keep upskilling myself in promotion to mid-level engineer/ grinding leetcode or do a side hustle completely unrelated(or related) to software? I am flexible with anything. My Long term goals are Financial Independence and stimulating work","title":"Ask HN: Should I climb the software engineering Ladder or build a side hustle?","updated_at":"2025-08-14T23:03:18Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"covgjai"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Please share some of your hustles/tactics that worked for you to close a deal/get major press for your startup/get funding/get the attention of very busy people/get a cofounder"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"Ask HN: Please share your hustles that worked"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_covgjai","story_6432545","ask_hn"],"author":"covgjai","created_at":"2013-09-23T17:25:08Z","created_at_i":1379957108,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"6432545","points":1,"story_id":6432545,"story_text":"Please share some of your hustles/tactics that worked for you to close a deal/get major press for your startup/get funding/get the attention of very busy people/get a cofounder","title":"Ask HN: Please share your hustles that worked","updated_at":"2024-09-19T19:59:37Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jocko66"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"We often hear about how immigrant entrepreneurs constitute such a big part of the US economy.
And yet the path from the most common working visa (H1B) to become an independent creator is only really viable for those that have VC funding and can apply for an E2 or O1.
Are there no Indie Hackers or Bootstrappers on an H1B?"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"Ask HN: Has anyone on an H1B monetized their side hustle?"}},"_tags":["story","author_jocko66","story_29663479","ask_hn"],"author":"jocko66","created_at":"2021-12-23T16:34:38Z","created_at_i":1640277278,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"29663479","points":1,"story_id":29663479,"story_text":"We often hear about how immigrant entrepreneurs constitute such a big part of the US economy.
And yet the path from the most common working visa (H1B) to become an independent creator is only really viable for those that have VC funding and can apply for an E2 or O1.
Are there no Indie Hackers or Bootstrappers on an H1B?","title":"Ask HN: Has anyone on an H1B monetized their side hustle?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T10:04:17Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"starlord"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Since I got out of college, I have been trying to hustle through for growth and am finally running a funded startup now as founder/CTO. But last 6-7 years have just gone by damn fast. Always loved learning new stuff, but don't have enough time to really be immersive in anything. Now when I see an interesting problem in math/physics I can hardly give it an actual shot and it makes me very very sad deep down. Developing a strong desire to go back to college if this unhappiness continues, but has that really worked for anyone here?
> PS: I tried the philosophy as per http://www.paulgraham.com/todo.html:
[x] "Don't ignore your dreams" => Doing it. Makes some part of a day to feel good... |
[?] "Don't work too much" => difficult to achieve in combo with above :( |
[?] "Say what you think" => Not easy as an introvert INTP, but learning |
[?] "Cultivate friendships" => Damn difficult to meet genuine folks after college (Would love any suggestions on where to find them... Definitely not facebook :/ ) |
[ ] "Be happy" => Nope. This is just not working..."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?"}},"_tags":["story","author_starlord","story_16138969","ask_hn"],"author":"starlord","children":[16139058,16139072,16139089,16139093,16139100,16139103,16139106,16139112,16139116,16139124,16139129,16139151,16139153,16139170,16139196,16139220,16139231,16139237,16139241,16139253,16139274,16139277,16139291,16139314,16139358,16139397,16139434,16139469,16139472,16139500,16139533,16139550,16139617,16139640,16139645,16139652,16139665,16139686,16139690,16139704,16139767,16139901,16139973,16140167,16140207,16140344,16140425,16141203,16142000,16142429,16144111,16147980,16149140,16187188,16189380,16197486],"created_at":"2018-01-13T09:58:12Z","created_at_i":1515837492,"num_comments":104,"objectID":"16138969","points":138,"story_id":16138969,"story_text":"Since I got out of college, I have been trying to hustle through for growth and am finally running a funded startup now as founder/CTO. But last 6-7 years have just gone by damn fast. Always loved learning new stuff, but don't have enough time to really be immersive in anything. Now when I see an interesting problem in math/physics I can hardly give it an actual shot and it makes me very very sad deep down. Developing a strong desire to go back to college if this unhappiness continues, but has that really worked for anyone here?
> PS: I tried the philosophy as per http://www.paulgraham.com/todo.html:
[x] "Don't ignore your dreams" => Doing it. Makes some part of a day to feel good... |
[?] "Don't work too much" => difficult to achieve in combo with above :( |
[?] "Say what you think" => Not easy as an introvert INTP, but learning |
[?] "Cultivate friendships" => Damn difficult to meet genuine folks after college (Would love any suggestions on where to find them... Definitely not facebook :/ ) |
[ ] "Be happy" => Nope. This is just not working...","title":"Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T01:52:26Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"adennis4"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"I have a website that needs help getting to the next level. The site has been producing revenue since July 2010, although it is not yet profitable. I need a Technical Co-Founder to help with this push.
We are an online marketplace for spas and salons to list their slower appointment times, typically at a discount. We partner with spas, and when a client books through our site, we take a cut of the transaction. Currently, we work with spas in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, and Seattle.
The site is built in Django. Once an appointment is booked an email is automatically sent and we utilize Twilio for automated phone calls to the spas. There are between 5 - 10 transactions per week, but this needs to be pushed to the next level.
One of the biggest challenges is just getting eyeballs to the site. Currently we get 50 - 100 daily visitors, 1/3 of which is from paid traffic. We are looking to increase organic traffic. Ideas on this front will likely be the biggest driver of site success.
Why I'm a good cofounder for you:\nI'm a business guy. I need a tech guy. But I'm not just a bum business guy. I've gone through Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way and Python Osmosis. I'm still not any good, but I really want to get to the point where I can contribute code as well. I will work hard to deliver as a business cofounder, while also learning the tech side.
I hustle. Hard. I went out and talked to hundreds of spas to get partnerships with them, I know the industry problems inside and out, and I have good connections with the businesses we work with. Further, I have managed contractors to build the site, to do some PR and marketing work, and to reach the spas. I raised money to finance the building of the site. I have a letter of intent for further investment once we hit higher revenue targets...access to more money.
What I'm looking for:
- Django and Python fluent
- SEO background
- Execute online marketing and email campaigns
- Grow our consumer side
- Location: Chicago preferred, but we can work it out with other locations
I'm not looking for a code monkey. I'm looking for a partner. I have a strong bias towards a local Chicago developer. Location, ultimately, isn't important because I will move to your city for the first couple of months to really get this thing going in the right direction. Working in the same room is very important to me.
Also, to be clear: I am NOT looking for someone who has a full-time job / freelance gigs, and wants to spend 10 hours a week on this with me as a cofounder. I'm fully committed to this and I want someone who is able to fully commit to it as well.
Why is this a great opportunity?:\n- I am offering 1/3 equity in the company (terms to be discussed)\n- The site is built, operational, and producing revenue\n- A chance to take a project and help mold it into a success\n- Proven to obtain funding and if necessary will secure more funding
Interested in talking more?? Contact me at andrew.dennis@spaciety.com and let's get the dialogue started."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Looking for a Technical CoFounder"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_adennis4","story_2332349","ask_hn"],"author":"adennis4","children":[2332367,2332376,2332407,2332454,2332486,2332495,2332502,2332503,2332561,2332673,2332727,2332973,2333084,2333117,2333190,2333501,2335093,2340631,2340639,2341048,2342558],"created_at":"2011-03-16T15:17:23Z","created_at_i":1300288643,"num_comments":30,"objectID":"2332349","points":111,"story_id":2332349,"story_text":"I have a website that needs help getting to the next level. The site has been producing revenue since July 2010, although it is not yet profitable. I need a Technical Co-Founder to help with this push.
We are an online marketplace for spas and salons to list their slower appointment times, typically at a discount. We partner with spas, and when a client books through our site, we take a cut of the transaction. Currently, we work with spas in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, and Seattle.
The site is built in Django. Once an appointment is booked an email is automatically sent and we utilize Twilio for automated phone calls to the spas. There are between 5 - 10 transactions per week, but this needs to be pushed to the next level.
One of the biggest challenges is just getting eyeballs to the site. Currently we get 50 - 100 daily visitors, 1/3 of which is from paid traffic. We are looking to increase organic traffic. Ideas on this front will likely be the biggest driver of site success.
Why I'm a good cofounder for you:\nI'm a business guy. I need a tech guy. But I'm not just a bum business guy. I've gone through Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way and Python Osmosis. I'm still not any good, but I really want to get to the point where I can contribute code as well. I will work hard to deliver as a business cofounder, while also learning the tech side.
I hustle. Hard. I went out and talked to hundreds of spas to get partnerships with them, I know the industry problems inside and out, and I have good connections with the businesses we work with. Further, I have managed contractors to build the site, to do some PR and marketing work, and to reach the spas. I raised money to finance the building of the site. I have a letter of intent for further investment once we hit higher revenue targets...access to more money.
What I'm looking for:
- Django and Python fluent
- SEO background
- Execute online marketing and email campaigns
- Grow our consumer side
- Location: Chicago preferred, but we can work it out with other locations
I'm not looking for a code monkey. I'm looking for a partner. I have a strong bias towards a local Chicago developer. Location, ultimately, isn't important because I will move to your city for the first couple of months to really get this thing going in the right direction. Working in the same room is very important to me.
Also, to be clear: I am NOT looking for someone who has a full-time job / freelance gigs, and wants to spend 10 hours a week on this with me as a cofounder. I'm fully committed to this and I want someone who is able to fully commit to it as well.
Why is this a great opportunity?:\n- I am offering 1/3 equity in the company (terms to be discussed)\n- The site is built, operational, and producing revenue\n- A chance to take a project and help mold it into a success\n- Proven to obtain funding and if necessary will secure more funding
Interested in talking more?? Contact me at andrew.dennis@spaciety.com and let's get the dialogue started.","title":"Looking for a Technical CoFounder","updated_at":"2024-09-19T17:32:53Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"highwayman47"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"For about 7 years I had this idea - it was my baby, something that always brought me reassurance that everything would work out for me.
The problem is, it is in biotech, and there is no way around needing at least $1-$2M to start it.
I looked into some MVP's, but couldn't self fund and didn't want to do something that would give away the main idea.
I then lost thousands of dollars options trading to try to raise the money.
I then tried other smaller and unrelated side hustles, none of which worked out.
Finally I approached some investors, I spoke to 3 different groups and they all passed.
Coincidentally, about 8 months later, the idea I've had for 7 years, that no one else thought of before, is now a company.
I'm not accusing anyone of "stealing" the idea and there's nothing I can do about it.
But mentally, this was always the thing in the back of my head that gave me hope, like I would "make it someday" off this idea.
Now that it's gone - I'm incredibly discouraged and in financial ruin trying to realize it.
I need hope that I'll become rich some other way. Also, money aside, my ego would've enjoyed the praise that came with this as it's a net good for humanity.
To those who are saying just compete with them - it's even less likely I get the money I need to do so now. Maybe if I had $3M in the bank I would, but I don't."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: What to do when someone else starts your dream business?"}},"_tags":["story","author_highwayman47","story_34423111","ask_hn"],"author":"highwayman47","children":[34423162,34423271,34423283,34423299,34423495,34423527,34423605,34424136,34424933,34425343,34426729,34428936],"created_at":"2023-01-18T03:29:21Z","created_at_i":1674012561,"num_comments":21,"objectID":"34423111","points":23,"story_id":34423111,"story_text":"For about 7 years I had this idea - it was my baby, something that always brought me reassurance that everything would work out for me.
The problem is, it is in biotech, and there is no way around needing at least $1-$2M to start it.
I looked into some MVP's, but couldn't self fund and didn't want to do something that would give away the main idea.
I then lost thousands of dollars options trading to try to raise the money.
I then tried other smaller and unrelated side hustles, none of which worked out.
Finally I approached some investors, I spoke to 3 different groups and they all passed.
Coincidentally, about 8 months later, the idea I've had for 7 years, that no one else thought of before, is now a company.
I'm not accusing anyone of "stealing" the idea and there's nothing I can do about it.
But mentally, this was always the thing in the back of my head that gave me hope, like I would "make it someday" off this idea.
Now that it's gone - I'm incredibly discouraged and in financial ruin trying to realize it.
I need hope that I'll become rich some other way. Also, money aside, my ego would've enjoyed the praise that came with this as it's a net good for humanity.
To those who are saying just compete with them - it's even less likely I get the money I need to do so now. Maybe if I had $3M in the bank I would, but I don't.","title":"Ask HN: What to do when someone else starts your dream business?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T13:00:40Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ezl"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Non-technical people frequently approach me to build them an MVP. \"Why should\nI work with you?\", I ask. \"Because I'm a great hustler\", they respond.
A lot of these people claim to have access to capital, connections,\ntons of domain expertise, or whatever. Basically, there are a lot of great\nhustlers in the making, but they don't have a track record and can't prove\nthat they are good hustlers.
I'd like to invert the typical \"incubator\" process. Applicants pay money,\nbuy into a company, get an MVP, and hustle.
First time hustlers, this is where I tell you to put your money where your\nmouth is. Stop saying \"if only i had product, i'd be an awesome hustler\"
For $5,000, you get half of the company (an MVP), and operate as the CEO for\n3 months. We will agree upon guidelines for success/failure metrics and if\nyou are the hustler you claim to be, you'll win big.
If you fail, you'll be forced to either recognize that you're not the hustler\nyou thought you were or explain how/why you failed.
New hustlers wildly underestimate the amount of effort it takes to get\ntraction, how much unglamorous grunt work there is, and don't have a good\nidea of how to methodically test approaches to traction. Many new hustlers\nare also often attracted to the glamour of startups but are pretty lazy when\nit's not just sitting around and talking ideas.
The hustler's job is to take a mutually agreed upon idea (probably an MVP of my\nchoosing), and get traction.
The hustler pays $5k, gets a functioning MVP (that he/she agrees to work on),\noptions for 50% of the company, then hustles:
* write blog posts\n * seo that sucker\n * create landing pages\n * cold call\n * pass out flyers\n * do logistics for our new food delivery service\n * do dishes\n * find an office space\n * learn about a/b testing\n * raise money\nThe \"fund\" provides guidance on these things, points hustlers in the right direction,\nbut the responsibility is mostly on the hustler to move the needle.
The MVP is what you get, but obviously I'd like to protect my investment as well, so\nif it's clear that further development is helpful or required, we'll do that as well.\nThe hustler, of course, will have to justify the development cost (You are the CEO\nafter all).
If you hit the agreed upon success metrics, then lets talk about building your idea.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is that if you're really half the hustler\nyou claim to be:
1. you'll end up with a substantial equity stake in a business I think is profitable\n 2. you'll have a track record\n 3. I'll probably be pretty excited about building YOUR product too, so you'll get that MVP you wanted!\nRegarding a 5k buy in -- A lot of people will be turned off by this. That's ok. Most\nof those \"hustlers\" will talk about ideas for the next year and get nothing done.
Any hustler that can't raise $5000 isn't much of a hustler at all.
I'll lose some great hustlers with that filter, but I'm willing to give that up for the\nbetter signal to noise ratio."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Idea: Hustler School"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_ezl","story_5112792","ask_hn"],"author":"ezl","children":[5112891,5112942,5114947,5116909],"created_at":"2013-01-24T22:52:29Z","created_at_i":1359067949,"num_comments":5,"objectID":"5112792","points":11,"story_id":5112792,"story_text":"Non-technical people frequently approach me to build them an MVP. \"Why should\nI work with you?\", I ask. \"Because I'm a great hustler\", they respond.
A lot of these people claim to have access to capital, connections,\ntons of domain expertise, or whatever. Basically, there are a lot of great\nhustlers in the making, but they don't have a track record and can't prove\nthat they are good hustlers.
I'd like to invert the typical \"incubator\" process. Applicants pay money,\nbuy into a company, get an MVP, and hustle.
First time hustlers, this is where I tell you to put your money where your\nmouth is. Stop saying \"if only i had product, i'd be an awesome hustler\"
For $5,000, you get half of the company (an MVP), and operate as the CEO for\n3 months. We will agree upon guidelines for success/failure metrics and if\nyou are the hustler you claim to be, you'll win big.
If you fail, you'll be forced to either recognize that you're not the hustler\nyou thought you were or explain how/why you failed.
New hustlers wildly underestimate the amount of effort it takes to get\ntraction, how much unglamorous grunt work there is, and don't have a good\nidea of how to methodically test approaches to traction. Many new hustlers\nare also often attracted to the glamour of startups but are pretty lazy when\nit's not just sitting around and talking ideas.
The hustler's job is to take a mutually agreed upon idea (probably an MVP of my\nchoosing), and get traction.
The hustler pays $5k, gets a functioning MVP (that he/she agrees to work on),\noptions for 50% of the company, then hustles:
* write blog posts\n * seo that sucker\n * create landing pages\n * cold call\n * pass out flyers\n * do logistics for our new food delivery service\n * do dishes\n * find an office space\n * learn about a/b testing\n * raise money\nThe \"fund\" provides guidance on these things, points hustlers in the right direction,\nbut the responsibility is mostly on the hustler to move the needle.
The MVP is what you get, but obviously I'd like to protect my investment as well, so\nif it's clear that further development is helpful or required, we'll do that as well.\nThe hustler, of course, will have to justify the development cost (You are the CEO\nafter all).
If you hit the agreed upon success metrics, then lets talk about building your idea.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is that if you're really half the hustler\nyou claim to be:
1. you'll end up with a substantial equity stake in a business I think is profitable\n 2. you'll have a track record\n 3. I'll probably be pretty excited about building YOUR product too, so you'll get that MVP you wanted!\nRegarding a 5k buy in -- A lot of people will be turned off by this. That's ok. Most\nof those \"hustlers\" will talk about ideas for the next year and get nothing done.
Any hustler that can't raise $5000 isn't much of a hustler at all.
I'll lose some great hustlers with that filter, but I'm willing to give that up for the\nbetter signal to noise ratio.","title":"Idea: Hustler School","updated_at":"2023-09-06T20:40:48Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"pubby"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Sorry if this is trite, but I'm looking for life advice. Right now, I'm not making much money, and that needs to change relatively soon.
For the past few years I've been applying to programming jobs, but I just can't get any interviews. I'm guessing this is because I don't have formal education nor do I have relevant work experience. If there was a cookie cutter for Joe Developer, I just don't fit.
My second thought was to start a company/side hustle of my own. Over the past year or two I've done a small amount of this and made a profit thus far, but I'm definitely more passionate about making things than sales or running a business. It doesn't help that all my interests are in bad markets, like games.
This leaves me with a very uncomfortable feeling, where I feel confident that I can create things, but nervous that the final result will earn nothing and be a huge waste of time. I feel like an obscure fine artist, who can paint a beautiful scene but will die in poverty because nobody cares about owning it. And I do love "painting", but I have bills to pay.
If I was sitting on a wad of cash, I'd probably feel better about this. But with my lack of funds, I don't know what to do. Companies don't want me, and the path to self employment feels like a risky grind. And yet, I still want to write code. Is there any advice for someone like me?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: I feel both valuable and worthless"}},"_tags":["story","author_pubby","story_40072065","ask_hn"],"author":"pubby","children":[40072190,40072195,40072761,40072782,40074356,40074556,40084676],"created_at":"2024-04-18T01:32:46Z","created_at_i":1713403966,"num_comments":9,"objectID":"40072065","points":9,"story_id":40072065,"story_text":"Sorry if this is trite, but I'm looking for life advice. Right now, I'm not making much money, and that needs to change relatively soon.
For the past few years I've been applying to programming jobs, but I just can't get any interviews. I'm guessing this is because I don't have formal education nor do I have relevant work experience. If there was a cookie cutter for Joe Developer, I just don't fit.
My second thought was to start a company/side hustle of my own. Over the past year or two I've done a small amount of this and made a profit thus far, but I'm definitely more passionate about making things than sales or running a business. It doesn't help that all my interests are in bad markets, like games.
This leaves me with a very uncomfortable feeling, where I feel confident that I can create things, but nervous that the final result will earn nothing and be a huge waste of time. I feel like an obscure fine artist, who can paint a beautiful scene but will die in poverty because nobody cares about owning it. And I do love "painting", but I have bills to pay.
If I was sitting on a wad of cash, I'd probably feel better about this. But with my lack of funds, I don't know what to do. Companies don't want me, and the path to self employment feels like a risky grind. And yet, I still want to write code. Is there any advice for someone like me?","title":"Ask HN: I feel both valuable and worthless","updated_at":"2025-02-13T12:55:01Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"SteveChurch"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Hey all,
So I have never actually posted on HN however I have been a reader for many years. My time, however, has come to ask a question and potentially some advice or support.
I'm a bit of a project addict, although I have always been in employment my whole career I am constantly coming up with ideas and trying my hardest to push them out there into real business models. It's a passion and a hobby of mine, my current employer is fully aware of my "side hustles" and most managers I have worked with in my career have always been welcoming as these side projects tend to really stretch our knowledge. I am sure I am not alone.
Now, the problem I currently face is about one of my projects under the guise of The Night Project (https://www.thenightproject.com)
Like all projects, I tend to stumble at the point of financials (funding) or resources (people) - And sadly this project I am about to share with you is no exception.
Crypto Dip is something I started earlier in the year and have been working on and off to get to a nice live and steady state to really push. It has been welcomed in all of the channels I have shared it, however, there is some farce competition. Sadly, I am starting to fall behind and the competitors who clearly have thousands of users already are starting to implement the same features I have endeavoured to push.
Crypto Dip, does not exactly bring anything unique, a lot of platforms offer the same. But the focus was always on education and simplicity. Bringing new people into the crypto world.
Anyway, I waffle (as always) - Please check out the website (WIP) and also the WhitePaper:
- Website: https://cryptodip.net
- WhitePaper: https://cryptodip.net/static/CryptoDip%20-%20WhitePaper.pdf
What I really need for CryptoDip to really be something is help, actual physical engineering help from people who want to have a slice of the cake. And I mean an even share in the project and it's Token holdings to help me push this over the finishing line.
What I am looking for from the community is the following:
- Should I sunset this and focus on personal life and other matters I have at hand.
- Should I look to diversify the project and take on some other engineers, sadly I can not pay, but I can offer token share and project equity share.
- Should I sunset the project and cut my losses, I've put a few thousand into this project thus far not to mention the engineering time.
This project came up mid way through working on a game and sadly I think if I didn't do this project I would have the Game live, which to me is a much more exciting thing to be working on.
If anyone is interested please reach out to me, Discord is probably the best place (https://discord.gg/aQrPxfF2)
I am looking for any experience or budding Python Engineers with some micro service experience who would really like to help take this to the next level. If I am unable to find the help then I think the time will have come to sunset the project and archive the codebase.
Thank you :bow:"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: To Sunset or Not to Sunset..?"}},"_tags":["story","author_SteveChurch","story_29350375","ask_hn"],"author":"SteveChurch","children":[29351786,29351875],"created_at":"2021-11-26T14:20:57Z","created_at_i":1637936457,"num_comments":3,"objectID":"29350375","points":9,"story_id":29350375,"story_text":"Hey all,
So I have never actually posted on HN however I have been a reader for many years. My time, however, has come to ask a question and potentially some advice or support.
I'm a bit of a project addict, although I have always been in employment my whole career I am constantly coming up with ideas and trying my hardest to push them out there into real business models. It's a passion and a hobby of mine, my current employer is fully aware of my "side hustles" and most managers I have worked with in my career have always been welcoming as these side projects tend to really stretch our knowledge. I am sure I am not alone.
Now, the problem I currently face is about one of my projects under the guise of The Night Project (https://www.thenightproject.com)
Like all projects, I tend to stumble at the point of financials (funding) or resources (people) - And sadly this project I am about to share with you is no exception.
Crypto Dip is something I started earlier in the year and have been working on and off to get to a nice live and steady state to really push. It has been welcomed in all of the channels I have shared it, however, there is some farce competition. Sadly, I am starting to fall behind and the competitors who clearly have thousands of users already are starting to implement the same features I have endeavoured to push.
Crypto Dip, does not exactly bring anything unique, a lot of platforms offer the same. But the focus was always on education and simplicity. Bringing new people into the crypto world.
Anyway, I waffle (as always) - Please check out the website (WIP) and also the WhitePaper:
- Website: https://cryptodip.net
- WhitePaper: https://cryptodip.net/static/CryptoDip%20-%20WhitePaper.pdf
What I really need for CryptoDip to really be something is help, actual physical engineering help from people who want to have a slice of the cake. And I mean an even share in the project and it's Token holdings to help me push this over the finishing line.
What I am looking for from the community is the following:
- Should I sunset this and focus on personal life and other matters I have at hand.
- Should I look to diversify the project and take on some other engineers, sadly I can not pay, but I can offer token share and project equity share.
- Should I sunset the project and cut my losses, I've put a few thousand into this project thus far not to mention the engineering time.
This project came up mid way through working on a game and sadly I think if I didn't do this project I would have the Game live, which to me is a much more exciting thing to be working on.
If anyone is interested please reach out to me, Discord is probably the best place (https://discord.gg/aQrPxfF2)
I am looking for any experience or budding Python Engineers with some micro service experience who would really like to help take this to the next level. If I am unable to find the help then I think the time will have come to sunset the project and archive the codebase.
Thank you :bow:","title":"Ask HN: To Sunset or Not to Sunset..?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T09:52:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"cardosof"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Time and time again I have non tech-savvy friends and family wanting to build their side hustle without investing or learning a lot about programming. I wanted to recommend some platform for general crud apps but I don't know what's the state of the art in terms of what can be built with the new low/no code platforms out there, but I know it's a space with lots of VC funding so maybe HN knows what's best nowadays or trade offs between the top tools?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Best low/no code platform for simple CRUD app?"}},"_tags":["story","author_cardosof","story_31348850","ask_hn"],"author":"cardosof","children":[31348879,31425653],"created_at":"2022-05-12T03:08:26Z","created_at_i":1652324906,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"31348850","points":6,"story_id":31348850,"story_text":"Time and time again I have non tech-savvy friends and family wanting to build their side hustle without investing or learning a lot about programming. I wanted to recommend some platform for general crud apps but I don't know what's the state of the art in terms of what can be built with the new low/no code platforms out there, but I know it's a space with lots of VC funding so maybe HN knows what's best nowadays or trade offs between the top tools?","title":"Ask HN: Best low/no code platform for simple CRUD app?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T11:07:24Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"throw-new-money"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Hi HN,
Spent ~15 years in tech startups, worked very hard, got lucky this time. I'm worth about ~$25 million and will likely 10x this in the next funding round. I was raised by a single mom / middle class and this amount of money is not something a single person I know has. I'm all over the tax planning / wealth advisory, not concerned about that.
Where do very rich people hang out? Should I seek out the most exclusive social club and buy my way in? Start investing? Try and join corporate / non-profit boards?
I have very young children and they will be put in elite private schools, so they will network and make friends in this sphere. But does the hustle never stop? My goals after exiting the 70 hour tech exec grind are to invest aggressively and start a non-profit focused on some unique ideas I have. Should I just keep stumbling from thing to thing and meet people on the way? It seems like a lot of very rich people I know also know a lot of other very rich people, and I'm unsure how that happens except through schools I never went to, frats I never joined, parents I never had, and networks I seem to be unaware of.
A bit tongue-in-cheek, but what is the guide for a new hundred-millionaire?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Became wealthy \u2013 how to meet similar people?"}},"_tags":["story","author_throw-new-money","story_28014956","ask_hn"],"author":"throw-new-money","children":[28015071,28023938,28027328],"created_at":"2021-07-31T03:17:07Z","created_at_i":1627701427,"num_comments":3,"objectID":"28014956","points":4,"story_id":28014956,"story_text":"Hi HN,
Spent ~15 years in tech startups, worked very hard, got lucky this time. I'm worth about ~$25 million and will likely 10x this in the next funding round. I was raised by a single mom / middle class and this amount of money is not something a single person I know has. I'm all over the tax planning / wealth advisory, not concerned about that.
Where do very rich people hang out? Should I seek out the most exclusive social club and buy my way in? Start investing? Try and join corporate / non-profit boards?
I have very young children and they will be put in elite private schools, so they will network and make friends in this sphere. But does the hustle never stop? My goals after exiting the 70 hour tech exec grind are to invest aggressively and start a non-profit focused on some unique ideas I have. Should I just keep stumbling from thing to thing and meet people on the way? It seems like a lot of very rich people I know also know a lot of other very rich people, and I'm unsure how that happens except through schools I never went to, frats I never joined, parents I never had, and networks I seem to be unaware of.
A bit tongue-in-cheek, but what is the guide for a new hundred-millionaire?","title":"Ask HN: Became wealthy \u2013 how to meet similar people?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T09:02:21Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"throwunderfog"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Joining a Silicon Valley Startup Is Like Playing Squid Game
---
Scene: A hopeful coder, Alex, walks into the chic, glass-walled office of "Unicornify," a startup promising to "revolutionize sandwich personalization with AI." The team is gathered in a minimalist conference room. Everyone is wearing branded hoodies and looks suspiciously sleep-deprived.
Alex: "Thanks for having me. I\u2019m excited to join Unicornify!"
CEO (with a perfect white smile): "Welcome! Remember, here at Unicornify, we\u2019re a family. A family that plays to win."
The lights dim. A disembodied voice echoes through the room.
Voice: "Attention all employees. The first game is Ping Pong Deathmatch."
Alex: "Wait, what?"
Two employees are dragged to a ping pong table. A robotic arm serves the ball at 200 mph.
Employee 1 (sweating profusely): "I have three kids, man. Let me win!"
Employee 2: "My stock options are vesting next week. Sorry, bro."
The match begins. Employee 1 loses. A trapdoor opens beneath him.
Alex (whispering): "Where did he go?"
HR Manager (nonchalantly): "He\u2019s pivoting to new opportunities."
---
Scene 2: Alex\u2019s first day. The "work hard, play hard" mantra is taken literally.
Manager: "Our KPI this quarter is scaling user engagement by 3000%. Here\u2019s your desk, your laptop, and your weight in energy drinks. Oh, and remember, no one survives past Series B without hustle."
Alex notices an ominous poster on the wall: "ONLY 10 WILL MAKE IT TO IPO."
---
Scene 3: The All-Hands Meeting.
CEO: "Today's challenge: We\u2019ve run out of funding. Your task is to find a way to keep the servers running without money. Losers... well, we all know what happens to losers."
Alex: "This feels intense. What about work-life balance?"
The room erupts in laughter.
Coworker (whispering): "Work-life balance? That\u2019s for the Series C startups. If you survive this round, maybe you\u2019ll get free kombucha."
---
Final Scene: Alex has somehow survived weeks of sprints, sleep deprivation, and competitive foosball. The final test arrives: The Pitch Gauntlet. Alex faces off against the CEO in a game of "innovate or die."
CEO: "Pitch me the next big idea or... you\u2019re out."
Alex (panicking): "Uh... AI-powered sandwiches that... predict your emotional state?"
CEO: "...Brilliant. You\u2019ve earned another quarter. Congratulations!"
Confetti falls. Somewhere in the background, an employee screams, "WHAT ABOUT MY VACATION DAYS?"
Alex (to self): "I made it. But at what cost?"
---
End scene.
Moral of the story: At a Silicon Valley startup, you're not just playing the game; you are the game."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Startups and Survival: Silicon Valley's Squid Game\""}},"_tags":["story","author_throwunderfog","story_42571764","show_hn"],"author":"throwunderfog","children":[42571840,42571865],"created_at":"2025-01-02T04:59:47Z","created_at_i":1735793987,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"42571764","points":4,"story_id":42571764,"story_text":"Joining a Silicon Valley Startup Is Like Playing Squid Game
---
Scene: A hopeful coder, Alex, walks into the chic, glass-walled office of "Unicornify," a startup promising to "revolutionize sandwich personalization with AI." The team is gathered in a minimalist conference room. Everyone is wearing branded hoodies and looks suspiciously sleep-deprived.
Alex: "Thanks for having me. I\u2019m excited to join Unicornify!"
CEO (with a perfect white smile): "Welcome! Remember, here at Unicornify, we\u2019re a family. A family that plays to win."
The lights dim. A disembodied voice echoes through the room.
Voice: "Attention all employees. The first game is Ping Pong Deathmatch."
Alex: "Wait, what?"
Two employees are dragged to a ping pong table. A robotic arm serves the ball at 200 mph.
Employee 1 (sweating profusely): "I have three kids, man. Let me win!"
Employee 2: "My stock options are vesting next week. Sorry, bro."
The match begins. Employee 1 loses. A trapdoor opens beneath him.
Alex (whispering): "Where did he go?"
HR Manager (nonchalantly): "He\u2019s pivoting to new opportunities."
---
Scene 2: Alex\u2019s first day. The "work hard, play hard" mantra is taken literally.
Manager: "Our KPI this quarter is scaling user engagement by 3000%. Here\u2019s your desk, your laptop, and your weight in energy drinks. Oh, and remember, no one survives past Series B without hustle."
Alex notices an ominous poster on the wall: "ONLY 10 WILL MAKE IT TO IPO."
---
Scene 3: The All-Hands Meeting.
CEO: "Today's challenge: We\u2019ve run out of funding. Your task is to find a way to keep the servers running without money. Losers... well, we all know what happens to losers."
Alex: "This feels intense. What about work-life balance?"
The room erupts in laughter.
Coworker (whispering): "Work-life balance? That\u2019s for the Series C startups. If you survive this round, maybe you\u2019ll get free kombucha."
---
Final Scene: Alex has somehow survived weeks of sprints, sleep deprivation, and competitive foosball. The final test arrives: The Pitch Gauntlet. Alex faces off against the CEO in a game of "innovate or die."
CEO: "Pitch me the next big idea or... you\u2019re out."
Alex (panicking): "Uh... AI-powered sandwiches that... predict your emotional state?"
CEO: "...Brilliant. You\u2019ve earned another quarter. Congratulations!"
Confetti falls. Somewhere in the background, an employee screams, "WHAT ABOUT MY VACATION DAYS?"
Alex (to self): "I made it. But at what cost?"
---
End scene.
Moral of the story: At a Silicon Valley startup, you're not just playing the game; you are the game.","title":"Show HN: Startups and Survival: Silicon Valley's Squid Game\"","updated_at":"2025-01-02T05:28:52Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"markosn"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, I'm curious about where your best idea(s) came and what your own path looks like.
- I just turned 18 and finished school and I'm about to get into a university for engineering in Greece. - I have some pressure for inside to build wealth despite not needing it to survive.\n- I have many interests including programming, spearfishing, financial markets, computing, building in general (software and/or hardware). I have a large list of pain points, ideas, things missing from the world (~500 items) with probably at least 10 items that could be monetized and that I would genuinely love to build.\n- Update: I'm already working on a few things, most of them with a prospect of making money at some point, though that is not the main reason for building them / working on them.
The questions I have are the following:\n1. What did/does your path look like? I'd appreciate having something for reference. Did you work a job? Are you self-taught?
2. Do you have any advice?
3. Was working together with someone the key to your success? Did you do it solo?
4. What would you do if you had to start over?
5. Do you feel like you'd be better off studying something else at university, if applicable?
Update: What I'd like is to hear some of your experience. If you're solo, did you have a network, how did you build it? How did you raise funds? How did you find a co-founder (if you did)?\nDid you work a job/freelance/seasonal work first and then bootstrap some project/startup/side-hustle?\nDid your specific idea come from your experience in a job, university project, everyday life, or something else?\nDid you make any money throughout your venture? Did you have an alternative income source while working on your own business/side-hustle/project/startup?
Thanks!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, enlighten me"}},"_tags":["story","author_markosn","story_48573190","ask_hn"],"author":"markosn","children":[48573498,48574306,48577935,48578572],"created_at":"2026-06-17T16:57:46Z","created_at_i":1781715466,"num_comments":4,"objectID":"48573190","points":3,"story_id":48573190,"story_text":"Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, I'm curious about where your best idea(s) came and what your own path looks like.
- I just turned 18 and finished school and I'm about to get into a university for engineering in Greece. - I have some pressure for inside to build wealth despite not needing it to survive.\n- I have many interests including programming, spearfishing, financial markets, computing, building in general (software and/or hardware). I have a large list of pain points, ideas, things missing from the world (~500 items) with probably at least 10 items that could be monetized and that I would genuinely love to build.\n- Update: I'm already working on a few things, most of them with a prospect of making money at some point, though that is not the main reason for building them / working on them.
The questions I have are the following:\n1. What did/does your path look like? I'd appreciate having something for reference. Did you work a job? Are you self-taught?
2. Do you have any advice?
3. Was working together with someone the key to your success? Did you do it solo?
4. What would you do if you had to start over?
5. Do you feel like you'd be better off studying something else at university, if applicable?
Update: What I'd like is to hear some of your experience. If you're solo, did you have a network, how did you build it? How did you raise funds? How did you find a co-founder (if you did)?\nDid you work a job/freelance/seasonal work first and then bootstrap some project/startup/side-hustle?\nDid your specific idea come from your experience in a job, university project, everyday life, or something else?\nDid you make any money throughout your venture? Did you have an alternative income source while working on your own business/side-hustle/project/startup?
Thanks!","title":"Ask HN: Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, enlighten me","updated_at":"2026-06-21T16:08:52Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"todsacerdoti"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Given the popularity of "Who is hiring?" and "Who wants to be hired?" I thought it would be interesting to learn more about projects that are growing fast.
There are lots of projects, from side hustles and nights/weekends efforts to early and mid-stage startups, that are growing fast and would benefit from awareness, talent, and/or capital.
Please use this format:
- Project: (website, etc)\n - Description: (what problem is being solved?)\n - Location: (city, country, remote, etc)\n - Funding: (bootstrapped, venture, etc)\n - Is it growing?: (share what gets you excited)\nWho is hiring?\nhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563283
Who wants to be hired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563280
Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563281"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Who is growing? (June 2024)"}},"_tags":["story","author_todsacerdoti","story_40691457","ask_hn"],"author":"todsacerdoti","children":[40691848],"created_at":"2024-06-15T18:03:11Z","created_at_i":1718474591,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"40691457","points":3,"story_id":40691457,"story_text":"Given the popularity of "Who is hiring?" and "Who wants to be hired?" I thought it would be interesting to learn more about projects that are growing fast.
There are lots of projects, from side hustles and nights/weekends efforts to early and mid-stage startups, that are growing fast and would benefit from awareness, talent, and/or capital.
Please use this format:
- Project: (website, etc)\n - Description: (what problem is being solved?)\n - Location: (city, country, remote, etc)\n - Funding: (bootstrapped, venture, etc)\n - Is it growing?: (share what gets you excited)\nWho is hiring?\nhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563283
Who wants to be hired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563280
Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563281","title":"Ask HN: Who is growing? (June 2024)","updated_at":"2024-09-20T17:19:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Worthwhile"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Looking for a Web Developer/ CTO, Chief Tech Officer/ Technical CoFounder
I have developed a concept that needs to help to get to the next level. I am looking for a CTO to oversee the build/launch.
The vertical industry is corporate finance, with global plans, revenue model will primarily be subscription and finder fee based. The concept is proven and will be revenue generating shortly following launch. We will capitalize on social media associations, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Bootstraped funding for the project is in place.
Why would I be a great cofounder for you: I am a business guy. I need a tech guy. I am a true entrepreneur, I am and idea guy, a dreamer, a marketing guru, have depth of experience in corporate finance, business development and very good at sales and business development. I hustle and work hard. I can go to my corporate finance network and get further investment when needed.
What am I looking for:
I am not looking for a code monkey. I am looking for a partner. I have a strong bias towards someone based here in Seattle, as being able work in the same room and bouncing ideas and motivations off one another will be very strong benefit for the initial success and launch of the company.
I am looking for someone who can commit some significant time to this project. Someone who is willing to give this project priority, but they could have a full-time job or other freelance projects.
What is the opportunity ? I am offering up to 1/3 equity in the company. The company will have cash and can pay salary, however equity \u2013 salary.
Let me know what your experience is, past successes, LinkedIn profile, etc. and we can further discuss Company.
contact me at kevin.worth(at)hotmail(dot)com"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Looking for a Web Developer/ CTO, Chief Tech Officer/ Technical CoFounder"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_Worthwhile","story_2364836","ask_hn"],"author":"Worthwhile","children":[2364927],"created_at":"2011-03-24T16:46:21Z","created_at_i":1300985181,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"2364836","points":3,"story_id":2364836,"story_text":"Looking for a Web Developer/ CTO, Chief Tech Officer/ Technical CoFounder
I have developed a concept that needs to help to get to the next level. I am looking for a CTO to oversee the build/launch.
The vertical industry is corporate finance, with global plans, revenue model will primarily be subscription and finder fee based. The concept is proven and will be revenue generating shortly following launch. We will capitalize on social media associations, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Bootstraped funding for the project is in place.
Why would I be a great cofounder for you: I am a business guy. I need a tech guy. I am a true entrepreneur, I am and idea guy, a dreamer, a marketing guru, have depth of experience in corporate finance, business development and very good at sales and business development. I hustle and work hard. I can go to my corporate finance network and get further investment when needed.
What am I looking for:
I am not looking for a code monkey. I am looking for a partner. I have a strong bias towards someone based here in Seattle, as being able work in the same room and bouncing ideas and motivations off one another will be very strong benefit for the initial success and launch of the company.
I am looking for someone who can commit some significant time to this project. Someone who is willing to give this project priority, but they could have a full-time job or other freelance projects.
What is the opportunity ? I am offering up to 1/3 equity in the company. The company will have cash and can pay salary, however equity \u2013 salary.
Let me know what your experience is, past successes, LinkedIn profile, etc. and we can further discuss Company.
contact me at kevin.worth(at)hotmail(dot)com","title":"Looking for a Web Developer/ CTO, Chief Tech Officer/ Technical CoFounder","updated_at":"2023-09-06T19:33:04Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ovoxo"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"For a business, do you think it's "bad" to proudly tout that you use AI for everything?
I'll start by saying I know it depends on the target market, etc... but curious what this group thinks even though I know this audience isn't representative of the general public.
*Context:*\nI built Text To Frame It (https://texttoframe.it) as a midnight hustle. While I have a website for it, the actual service is a phone number (917-905-1015) you can text pics to and the recipient of those texts is an AI bot that automatically/instantly frames those pics for you onto canvas, posters, puzzles, etc... And, from there, you can purchase what you like and have them shipped to your door in less than a week. The target market for this is individuals that want a simple, quick, frictionless way to create sentimental gifts - largely, guys like me lol on holidays like this one coming up. But, I digress ...
*The point I'm making:*\nThe entire system is automated with AI - the AI bot you text message (powered by ChatGPT), the AI bot you talk to when you call that same phone number (powered by Retellai.com & ElevenLabs), the SEO-optimized blog posts (generated by a custom ChatGPT-powered AI workflow on Make.com - based off work by Nick Saraev), the ad campaigns (powered by AdWin from usestyle.ai), and more! And, I'm actually very proud of all of that. It allows me to run the entire thing as just one person. Not only does all of this allow me to keep the prices for framing the lowest in the market (with free shipping to boot), but it also allows me to focus on the core of the business: making quality products that people really like and find great for gifts and such. It also allows me to focus on how to make things quick and frictionless instead of worrying about writing the next sentence on a blog post, etc...
*So, my question:*\nI proudly have a disclaimer at the bottom of my blog posts highlighting that the blog posts are generated by AI (ex: https://texttoframe.it/blogs/posts/the-benefits-of-custom-picture-framing ). And, I'm considering adding other disclaimers throughout the site highlighting the use. *Do you fundamentally think this is a net-negative right now? And, conversely, do you think it's a net-positive?*"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Do you think it's bad for businesses to tout they use AI for everything?"}},"_tags":["story","author_ovoxo","story_42398505","ask_hn"],"author":"ovoxo","children":[42398604,42398705,42398830,42398942,42399705,42399720],"created_at":"2024-12-12T12:11:49Z","created_at_i":1734005509,"num_comments":4,"objectID":"42398505","points":1,"story_id":42398505,"story_text":"For a business, do you think it's "bad" to proudly tout that you use AI for everything?
I'll start by saying I know it depends on the target market, etc... but curious what this group thinks even though I know this audience isn't representative of the general public.
*Context:*\nI built Text To Frame It (https://texttoframe.it) as a midnight hustle. While I have a website for it, the actual service is a phone number (917-905-1015) you can text pics to and the recipient of those texts is an AI bot that automatically/instantly frames those pics for you onto canvas, posters, puzzles, etc... And, from there, you can purchase what you like and have them shipped to your door in less than a week. The target market for this is individuals that want a simple, quick, frictionless way to create sentimental gifts - largely, guys like me lol on holidays like this one coming up. But, I digress ...
*The point I'm making:*\nThe entire system is automated with AI - the AI bot you text message (powered by ChatGPT), the AI bot you talk to when you call that same phone number (powered by Retellai.com & ElevenLabs), the SEO-optimized blog posts (generated by a custom ChatGPT-powered AI workflow on Make.com - based off work by Nick Saraev), the ad campaigns (powered by AdWin from usestyle.ai), and more! And, I'm actually very proud of all of that. It allows me to run the entire thing as just one person. Not only does all of this allow me to keep the prices for framing the lowest in the market (with free shipping to boot), but it also allows me to focus on the core of the business: making quality products that people really like and find great for gifts and such. It also allows me to focus on how to make things quick and frictionless instead of worrying about writing the next sentence on a blog post, etc...
*So, my question:*\nI proudly have a disclaimer at the bottom of my blog posts highlighting that the blog posts are generated by AI (ex: https://texttoframe.it/blogs/posts/the-benefits-of-custom-picture-framing ). And, I'm considering adding other disclaimers throughout the site highlighting the use. *Do you fundamentally think this is a net-negative right now? And, conversely, do you think it's a net-positive?*","title":"Ask HN: Do you think it's bad for businesses to tout they use AI for everything?","updated_at":"2024-12-15T18:19:29Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"NHQ"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Full stack hacker here.
I would like to connect with a biz person to hustle that end of a startup, and see about fundraising.
I am interested in local advertising. No big idea here, just a simple user experience + a network with widespread reach.
But i am not limited to that. If you want to partner with a developer, and think you can come with something, hollar at me.
gmail:mostmodernist if ur interested."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hacker looking for business developer"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_NHQ","story_4199972","ask_hn"],"author":"NHQ","children":[4200097],"created_at":"2012-07-04T16:34:32Z","created_at_i":1341419672,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"4199972","points":1,"story_id":4199972,"story_text":"Full stack hacker here.
I would like to connect with a biz person to hustle that end of a startup, and see about fundraising.
I am interested in local advertising. No big idea here, just a simple user experience + a network with widespread reach.
But i am not limited to that. If you want to partner with a developer, and think you can come with something, hollar at me.
gmail:mostmodernist if ur interested.","title":"Hacker looking for business developer","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:43:34Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"m_mngadi"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Hey HN, I am hoping to validate a startup idea for a cheap alternative to paid ads for other start-ups on a low budget. I would really appreciate some constructive criticism and feedback on the idea.
Here is a little backstory on how this idea came about.
So, I was watching a FireShip skit on YouTube the other day, titled "Why did my side-hustle fail? How to validate business ideas".
1 minute and 18 seconds into the video, FireShip highlights there being really only two options to growing your startup/side-hustle business. \n1. doing the organic marketing yourself (investing time)\n2. paying friendly companies like Google or Meta absurd amounts of money to appear on their platform(investing money).
Further along the video (1 minute and 44 seconds), with classic FireShip humour says, "no one wants to stand in a corner twirling a sign for the side hustle". Which is true.
So, if investing your own time towards organic marketing (twirling a sign yourself for your business) is not option and the alternative is investing large amounts of money for paid ads, what are start-up founders and side-hustle enthusiasts on low budgets supposed to do?
This question is why I am here on HN today. I am hoping to validate an idea I put together to address this problem.
I will not bore you with the specifics, but the basic idea is to have start-up founders on low budgets post bounties for their organic marketing, with whatever funds they have at their disposal. These bounties will have descriptions and set requirements specified by founders, on what type of content they want made to market their business.
With these bounties posted, content creators of all sizes, can participate in these bounties in hopes of getting a share of the bounty prize money for their top performing bounty entries, basically giving someone else the job of twirling a sign for your side-hustle.
There is a large population of aspiring content creators that want to monetize their content, many of whom give up early because of monitization restricts they struggle to reach (subscriber, follower, view counts). With this idea, content creators of all sizes can participate and earn from their top performing content.
Also, with TikTok having recently launched their "creator rewards program" to a select few regions, it isolates creators from other regions that really want to monitize their content without relying on sponsors.
This seems like a bleeding neck problem for these creators - so the market is there, and why I believe now is the right time to launch a service like this.
Well that's enough of me babbling. \nI would like to hear your thoughts around this idea, and if it can actually becoming something big if implemented.
Thank you for your time."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Is a cheap alternative to paid ads for startups on a budget needed?"}},"_tags":["story","author_m_mngadi","story_40209463","ask_hn"],"author":"m_mngadi","children":[40209606],"created_at":"2024-04-30T10:42:37Z","created_at_i":1714473757,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"40209463","points":1,"story_id":40209463,"story_text":"Hey HN, I am hoping to validate a startup idea for a cheap alternative to paid ads for other start-ups on a low budget. I would really appreciate some constructive criticism and feedback on the idea.
Here is a little backstory on how this idea came about.
So, I was watching a FireShip skit on YouTube the other day, titled "Why did my side-hustle fail? How to validate business ideas".
1 minute and 18 seconds into the video, FireShip highlights there being really only two options to growing your startup/side-hustle business. \n1. doing the organic marketing yourself (investing time)\n2. paying friendly companies like Google or Meta absurd amounts of money to appear on their platform(investing money).
Further along the video (1 minute and 44 seconds), with classic FireShip humour says, "no one wants to stand in a corner twirling a sign for the side hustle". Which is true.
So, if investing your own time towards organic marketing (twirling a sign yourself for your business) is not option and the alternative is investing large amounts of money for paid ads, what are start-up founders and side-hustle enthusiasts on low budgets supposed to do?
This question is why I am here on HN today. I am hoping to validate an idea I put together to address this problem.
I will not bore you with the specifics, but the basic idea is to have start-up founders on low budgets post bounties for their organic marketing, with whatever funds they have at their disposal. These bounties will have descriptions and set requirements specified by founders, on what type of content they want made to market their business.
With these bounties posted, content creators of all sizes, can participate in these bounties in hopes of getting a share of the bounty prize money for their top performing bounty entries, basically giving someone else the job of twirling a sign for your side-hustle.
There is a large population of aspiring content creators that want to monetize their content, many of whom give up early because of monitization restricts they struggle to reach (subscriber, follower, view counts). With this idea, content creators of all sizes can participate and earn from their top performing content.
Also, with TikTok having recently launched their "creator rewards program" to a select few regions, it isolates creators from other regions that really want to monitize their content without relying on sponsors.
This seems like a bleeding neck problem for these creators - so the market is there, and why I believe now is the right time to launch a service like this.
Well that's enough of me babbling. \nI would like to hear your thoughts around this idea, and if it can actually becoming something big if implemented.
Thank you for your time.","title":"Ask HN: Is a cheap alternative to paid ads for startups on a budget needed?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T16:56:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"kodjima33"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Tried YC cofounder matching, swiped all profiles but didn't yet find anyone relevant
Short:\nAbout Me: 24yo Thiel fellow. Scaled last company welovenocode.com to $52m, raised $3m and sold it to Toptal.com - Based in SF
Looking For: Someone interested in VR/AR/XR space OR Recruitment space. Experience doesn't matter, can be technical or biz. Hardware or Software. Be smart with achievements
Reach to kodjima33@gmail.com
Long:\nLife story: \n-Born in the middle of nowhere In Russia on an island in the Pacific Ocean\n-Started to mine crypto at 14 and sold 40 GPUs to my teacher at 16\n-Started first company at 16 and sold it by 18 fundplatform.io\n-at 19 joined 500 startups and started 2nd company welovenocode.com which I sold to toptal.com\n- at 23 became Thiel Fellow
Interests: I like Recruitment, VR/AR, robotics and longevity but open to anything else.\n- Let's make sure everyone lives in Metaverse by 2026\n- Let's make sure that robots are in every apartment by 2028\n- Let's make sure that humans live 200 years on average
SKills: I can recruit, sell, market, raise, build using nocode tools
Looking for: I'm looking for a person with achievements who likes to build. I'm a good fit with someone who likes to design, build, code\nMy top-3 values are: \n- Hustle\n- Always be learning \n- Be passionate
I don't care about your experience, but I do care about achievements. Please reach out to kodjima33@gmail.com mentioning what was the most impressive thing you did."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Thiel fellow searching for a cofounder in VR/AR or Recruitment"}},"_tags":["story","author_kodjima33","story_38301697","ask_hn"],"author":"kodjima33","children":[38313187],"created_at":"2023-11-17T10:31:38Z","created_at_i":1700217098,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"38301697","points":1,"story_id":38301697,"story_text":"Tried YC cofounder matching, swiped all profiles but didn't yet find anyone relevant
Short:\nAbout Me: 24yo Thiel fellow. Scaled last company welovenocode.com to $52m, raised $3m and sold it to Toptal.com - Based in SF
Looking For: Someone interested in VR/AR/XR space OR Recruitment space. Experience doesn't matter, can be technical or biz. Hardware or Software. Be smart with achievements
Reach to kodjima33@gmail.com
Long:\nLife story: \n-Born in the middle of nowhere In Russia on an island in the Pacific Ocean\n-Started to mine crypto at 14 and sold 40 GPUs to my teacher at 16\n-Started first company at 16 and sold it by 18 fundplatform.io\n-at 19 joined 500 startups and started 2nd company welovenocode.com which I sold to toptal.com\n- at 23 became Thiel Fellow
Interests: I like Recruitment, VR/AR, robotics and longevity but open to anything else.\n- Let's make sure everyone lives in Metaverse by 2026\n- Let's make sure that robots are in every apartment by 2028\n- Let's make sure that humans live 200 years on average
SKills: I can recruit, sell, market, raise, build using nocode tools
Looking for: I'm looking for a person with achievements who likes to build. I'm a good fit with someone who likes to design, build, code\nMy top-3 values are: \n- Hustle\n- Always be learning \n- Be passionate
I don't care about your experience, but I do care about achievements. Please reach out to kodjima33@gmail.com mentioning what was the most impressive thing you did.","title":"Thiel fellow searching for a cofounder in VR/AR or Recruitment","updated_at":"2024-09-20T15:34:28Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"JoeyChang"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Since 2011 I've been traveling around the US in a RV while working on a separate startup. It quickly dawned on me RV parks have mostly remained mostly offline businesses, while customers are becoming vastly wifi-connected. I've done user validation by talking to RV park owners and customers to establish bookings as a pain point. After doing market research and studying competitors' current offerings, I decided to go all-in.
I'm looking for a technical cofounder with the technical experience to release and scale up a robust, secure, and rapid-loading booking system. I am fully committed to taking this idea from prototype to revolutionizing RV booking, and want someone who's the same. No freelancers or 10- hours-a-week people with day jobs.
Ready for review: UI mockups and a business plan with analysis of existing competitors and on what angles we'll compete, long-term roadmap broken down into MVP and milestones. 50% equity is starting point for discussion.
As for this biz cofounder, I have deep domain experience, marketing and customer development success for another startup (5000+ email signups), experience with technical teams (incl. manager of an outsourced team), competitive SEO/SEM campaigns, and fundraising interest from angels and VCs. I'm an award-winning blogger marketing my startups, and I've run e-communities with 10k+ users. I trained coworkers and employees in native billing and invoice systems for a small business. These interpersonal skills will be paramount during the outreach rush after product release.
I hustle like there's always a fire in my rearview mirror. I will do whatever needs to get done, incl. driving across North America to drive our membership. Re: \"sweat equity,\" I believe hard work for hard work's sake is fool's gold in a startup. I pride myself on hustling to learn quickly about our customer's needs and our product's fit with said needs.
Contact: joeychang1983@gmail.com"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Be My Tech Cofounder: RV Reservation App"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_JoeyChang","story_4639119","ask_hn"],"author":"JoeyChang","created_at":"2012-10-11T02:42:23Z","created_at_i":1349923343,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"4639119","points":1,"story_id":4639119,"story_text":"Since 2011 I've been traveling around the US in a RV while working on a separate startup. It quickly dawned on me RV parks have mostly remained mostly offline businesses, while customers are becoming vastly wifi-connected. I've done user validation by talking to RV park owners and customers to establish bookings as a pain point. After doing market research and studying competitors' current offerings, I decided to go all-in.
I'm looking for a technical cofounder with the technical experience to release and scale up a robust, secure, and rapid-loading booking system. I am fully committed to taking this idea from prototype to revolutionizing RV booking, and want someone who's the same. No freelancers or 10- hours-a-week people with day jobs.
Ready for review: UI mockups and a business plan with analysis of existing competitors and on what angles we'll compete, long-term roadmap broken down into MVP and milestones. 50% equity is starting point for discussion.
As for this biz cofounder, I have deep domain experience, marketing and customer development success for another startup (5000+ email signups), experience with technical teams (incl. manager of an outsourced team), competitive SEO/SEM campaigns, and fundraising interest from angels and VCs. I'm an award-winning blogger marketing my startups, and I've run e-communities with 10k+ users. I trained coworkers and employees in native billing and invoice systems for a small business. These interpersonal skills will be paramount during the outreach rush after product release.
I hustle like there's always a fire in my rearview mirror. I will do whatever needs to get done, incl. driving across North America to drive our membership. Re: \"sweat equity,\" I believe hard work for hard work's sake is fool's gold in a startup. I pride myself on hustling to learn quickly about our customer's needs and our product's fit with said needs.
Contact: joeychang1983@gmail.com","title":"Be My Tech Cofounder: RV Reservation App","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:55:11Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"MatthewB"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Teamly.com is our startup - it's a SaaS tool to help teams be more effective at work. It is built with ruby on rails, less, jquery, chef, MySql, AWS, Rspec, etc.
Where we are - I recently left my very well-paying salary job to work on Teamly with my co-founder. We are now both working on Teamly full time. We have an up and running product, good traction (very active users), paying customers (freemium model), and a ton of user feedback. We are closing an angel round of funding (our first) and have some other related (non-public) big news as well. We are now focusing on our user feedback to really improve the product.
Who we are - Matt Berman (me, hacker/technical marketer) and Scott Allison (hustler) are the two current co-founders. My career background is in growth hacking and coding but I have experience with business as well. I've worked at large corporations and startups alike. Scott has had 3 previous successful businesses and is the most dedicated hustler I've ever met. He is technical in terms of knowledge but doesn't code.
Who we are looking for - We are looking for our 3rd and final co-founder to round out our skill set. We are definitely looking for another hacker to join us. This is not a small equity type position, we are looking for a true co-founder/partner. Expertise with Rails is a must and front end skills are a plus. The three main qualities we are looking for in a co-founder are: expertise/knowledge of our stack, passion/dedication to startups and our space, and resourcefulness (aka scrappiness). We are looking for someone who is in the Bay Area as well.
We believe we are on to something special and are currently at an exciting point for our startup. This is a chance to help mold not only an awesome product but a business as well. If you are interested in learning more, we'd love to hear from you!
Matt & Scott - Teamly.com - matt@teamly.com"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"Bay Area Startup seeking 3rd Co-Founder (traction, revenue, funded)"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_MatthewB","story_3639855","ask_hn"],"author":"MatthewB","children":[3639925,3642898],"created_at":"2012-02-27T18:00:19Z","created_at_i":1330365619,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"3639855","points":14,"story_id":3639855,"story_text":"Teamly.com is our startup - it's a SaaS tool to help teams be more effective at work. It is built with ruby on rails, less, jquery, chef, MySql, AWS, Rspec, etc.
Where we are - I recently left my very well-paying salary job to work on Teamly with my co-founder. We are now both working on Teamly full time. We have an up and running product, good traction (very active users), paying customers (freemium model), and a ton of user feedback. We are closing an angel round of funding (our first) and have some other related (non-public) big news as well. We are now focusing on our user feedback to really improve the product.
Who we are - Matt Berman (me, hacker/technical marketer) and Scott Allison (hustler) are the two current co-founders. My career background is in growth hacking and coding but I have experience with business as well. I've worked at large corporations and startups alike. Scott has had 3 previous successful businesses and is the most dedicated hustler I've ever met. He is technical in terms of knowledge but doesn't code.
Who we are looking for - We are looking for our 3rd and final co-founder to round out our skill set. We are definitely looking for another hacker to join us. This is not a small equity type position, we are looking for a true co-founder/partner. Expertise with Rails is a must and front end skills are a plus. The three main qualities we are looking for in a co-founder are: expertise/knowledge of our stack, passion/dedication to startups and our space, and resourcefulness (aka scrappiness). We are looking for someone who is in the Bay Area as well.
We believe we are on to something special and are currently at an exciting point for our startup. This is a chance to help mold not only an awesome product but a business as well. If you are interested in learning more, we'd love to hear from you!
Matt & Scott - Teamly.com - matt@teamly.com","title":"Bay Area Startup seeking 3rd Co-Founder (traction, revenue, funded)","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:23:55Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"MatthewB"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Teamly.com (Bay Area) - Team productivity SaaS tool (Basecamp for managing teams, not projects). Check out the site to get more info on what the product is and try it out for free. It is built with ruby on rails, JS, Chef, MySql, AWS, Rspec, etc.
Where we are - I recently left my very well-paying salary job to work on Teamly with my co-founder. We are now both working on Teamly full time. We have an up and running product, good traction (very active users), paying customers (freemium model), and a ton of user feedback. We are close to a small angel round of funding and are in talks with a few accelerators. We are now focusing on our data + user feedback (we have tons of feedback) to really improve the product.
Who we are - Matt Berman (me, growth hacker) and Scott Allison (hustler) are the two current co-founders. My background is mostly in user acquisition and coding but I have experience with business as well. I've worked at large corporations and startups alike. Scott has had 3 previous successful businesses and is the most dedicated hustler I've ever met. He is technical in terms of knowledge but doesn't code.
Who we are looking for - We are looking for our 3rd and final co-founder to round out our skill set. We are definitely looking for another hacker to join us. This is not a \"small equity\" type position, we are looking for a true co-founder. Expertise with Rails is a must since Teamly is built on Rails. The three main qualities we are looking for in a co-founder are: expertise/knowledge of our stack, passion/dedication to startups and our space, and resourcefulness (aka scrappiness). We are looking for someone who is in the Bay Area as well.
We believe we are on to something special and are currently at an exciting point for our startup. If you are interested in learning more, we'd love to hear from you!
Matt & Scott\nTeamly.com\nmatt@teamly.com"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Bay Area startup seeking Co-Founder (traction + paying customers)"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_MatthewB","story_3558759","ask_hn"],"author":"MatthewB","children":[3558817,3559744,3559849,3560682,3565743],"created_at":"2012-02-06T19:18:52Z","created_at_i":1328555932,"num_comments":5,"objectID":"3558759","points":29,"story_id":3558759,"story_text":"Teamly.com (Bay Area) - Team productivity SaaS tool (Basecamp for managing teams, not projects). Check out the site to get more info on what the product is and try it out for free. It is built with ruby on rails, JS, Chef, MySql, AWS, Rspec, etc.
Where we are - I recently left my very well-paying salary job to work on Teamly with my co-founder. We are now both working on Teamly full time. We have an up and running product, good traction (very active users), paying customers (freemium model), and a ton of user feedback. We are close to a small angel round of funding and are in talks with a few accelerators. We are now focusing on our data + user feedback (we have tons of feedback) to really improve the product.
Who we are - Matt Berman (me, growth hacker) and Scott Allison (hustler) are the two current co-founders. My background is mostly in user acquisition and coding but I have experience with business as well. I've worked at large corporations and startups alike. Scott has had 3 previous successful businesses and is the most dedicated hustler I've ever met. He is technical in terms of knowledge but doesn't code.
Who we are looking for - We are looking for our 3rd and final co-founder to round out our skill set. We are definitely looking for another hacker to join us. This is not a \"small equity\" type position, we are looking for a true co-founder. Expertise with Rails is a must since Teamly is built on Rails. The three main qualities we are looking for in a co-founder are: expertise/knowledge of our stack, passion/dedication to startups and our space, and resourcefulness (aka scrappiness). We are looking for someone who is in the Bay Area as well.
We believe we are on to something special and are currently at an exciting point for our startup. If you are interested in learning more, we'd love to hear from you!
Matt & Scott\nTeamly.com\nmatt@teamly.com","title":"Bay Area startup seeking Co-Founder (traction + paying customers)","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:18:06Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"MatthewB"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Startup in private beta of hot niche looking for a tech cofounder to come in and lead us on the tech side of things.\u00a0We currently have a private beta product up and running which is stable and works well. We have an expert UI/UX person revising our designs right now and a pretty big dev revision coming in the next few weeks.
Who we are: Three founders with previous successful businesses. We have a hustler, and hacker/hustler and a hacker as founders. Our current tech cofounder cannot take a risk at this point in his life and has decided to take on a smaller role at our startup because we are planning on applying to YC. He will stay on and help but we are looking for a tech cofounder to go \"all in\" with us. We are self-funded for now.
What we are building:\u00a0We will give private beta invites to anyone who is interested in learning more about joining us but we would rather keep our product private for now...we don't think it's ready to be shown to HN :) What I can say is that it's a web application (HTML4/5 w/ jQuery) with a custom PHP/MySQL backend using PHP5 PDO, Pear and Zend packages, hosted on an AWS EC2 farm (mostly custom configured 64-bit Ubuntu servers) managed via Scalr. I know this description is not informative at all but we can provide more info for people who are interested.
Who we are looking for: A tech cofounder looking to help build a startup. This cofounder should be ready to go all in with us on this idea and be willing to come to SF if we get accepted to YC. The perfect candidate will have experience with all of the technologies listed above. We want someone who loves dev and just as importantly loves this industry. Passion + skill is what we are looking for.\u00a0
Please send requests/info to beatjunkie84 @ that google email service.
Thanks!
TL;DR - Web application startup and next round YC applicant looking for passionate tech cofounder."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Next round YC applicant looking for Tech Cofounder"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_MatthewB","story_2507492","ask_hn"],"author":"MatthewB","children":[2507584],"created_at":"2011-05-02T19:30:19Z","created_at_i":1304364619,"num_comments":4,"objectID":"2507492","points":7,"story_id":2507492,"story_text":"Startup in private beta of hot niche looking for a tech cofounder to come in and lead us on the tech side of things.\u00a0We currently have a private beta product up and running which is stable and works well. We have an expert UI/UX person revising our designs right now and a pretty big dev revision coming in the next few weeks.
Who we are: Three founders with previous successful businesses. We have a hustler, and hacker/hustler and a hacker as founders. Our current tech cofounder cannot take a risk at this point in his life and has decided to take on a smaller role at our startup because we are planning on applying to YC. He will stay on and help but we are looking for a tech cofounder to go \"all in\" with us. We are self-funded for now.
What we are building:\u00a0We will give private beta invites to anyone who is interested in learning more about joining us but we would rather keep our product private for now...we don't think it's ready to be shown to HN :) What I can say is that it's a web application (HTML4/5 w/ jQuery) with a custom PHP/MySQL backend using PHP5 PDO, Pear and Zend packages, hosted on an AWS EC2 farm (mostly custom configured 64-bit Ubuntu servers) managed via Scalr. I know this description is not informative at all but we can provide more info for people who are interested.
Who we are looking for: A tech cofounder looking to help build a startup. This cofounder should be ready to go all in with us on this idea and be willing to come to SF if we get accepted to YC. The perfect candidate will have experience with all of the technologies listed above. We want someone who loves dev and just as importantly loves this industry. Passion + skill is what we are looking for.\u00a0
Please send requests/info to beatjunkie84 @ that google email service.
Thanks!
TL;DR - Web application startup and next round YC applicant looking for passionate tech cofounder.","title":"Next round YC applicant looking for Tech Cofounder","updated_at":"2023-09-06T19:45:32Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"sixQuarks"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Me: Good ideas. Proven track record.
You: Ambitious, talented, hustler who can make decisions and get things done. Full-stack developer with UX skills preferred, but open to designer who can hire the right people, manage things, understand and execute my vision.
Funding: I will invest $50,000 into this project
What's in it for you?: Depends on your skills and what you're looking for, we would need to iron out the details. Up to 50% ownership, vested over time, or combination of ownership and monthly stipend (which comes out of the original $50k investment). More importantly, this will be a good opportunity to absorb my 15+ years of marketing and product development experience.
-----------
I realize this sounds crazy (oh sure, another biz guy that wants me to do all the work), I get it, no need to comment on how terrible this is. You just have to assume that I'm not BSing, either you're interested or you're not.
Send email introducing yourself to: hn@sixquarks.33mail.com
please include examples of your work and/or accomplishments."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Biz guy with good idea looking for someone to do all the work"}},"_tags":["story","author_sixQuarks","story_12492050","ask_hn"],"author":"sixQuarks","children":[12492146,12492406,12492408],"created_at":"2016-09-13T20:43:02Z","created_at_i":1473799382,"num_comments":10,"objectID":"12492050","points":2,"story_id":12492050,"story_text":"Me: Good ideas. Proven track record.
You: Ambitious, talented, hustler who can make decisions and get things done. Full-stack developer with UX skills preferred, but open to designer who can hire the right people, manage things, understand and execute my vision.
Funding: I will invest $50,000 into this project
What's in it for you?: Depends on your skills and what you're looking for, we would need to iron out the details. Up to 50% ownership, vested over time, or combination of ownership and monthly stipend (which comes out of the original $50k investment). More importantly, this will be a good opportunity to absorb my 15+ years of marketing and product development experience.
-----------
I realize this sounds crazy (oh sure, another biz guy that wants me to do all the work), I get it, no need to comment on how terrible this is. You just have to assume that I'm not BSing, either you're interested or you're not.
Send email introducing yourself to: hn@sixquarks.33mail.com
please include examples of your work and/or accomplishments.","title":"Biz guy with good idea looking for someone to do all the work","updated_at":"2024-09-19T23:45:18Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["hustle"],"value":"josh_hustler"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"1. Go to FundBase.ai\n2. Just add your startup details. For example: 'We are a fintech app raising $100K in Sydney.'\n3. And Taa Daa! AI starts matching you with the right investors.\n4. Start sending emails and your pitch deck to them.\n5. Happy Pitching!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: We Made an AI Matchmaker for Startups and Investors"}},"_tags":["story","author_josh_hustler","story_41686363","show_hn"],"author":"josh_hustler","children":[41686413],"created_at":"2024-09-29T10:30:01Z","created_at_i":1727605801,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"41686363","points":2,"story_id":41686363,"story_text":"1. Go to FundBase.ai\n2. Just add your startup details. For example: 'We are a fintech app raising $100K in Sydney.'\n3. And Taa Daa! AI starts matching you with the right investors.\n4. Start sending emails and your pitch deck to them.\n5. Happy Pitching!","title":"Show HN: We Made an AI Matchmaker for Startups and Investors","updated_at":"2024-09-29T10:40:19Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"davedx"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["hustle","fund"],"value":"Hi HN! This is my latest side hustle, OctoLoops: an app to help indie devs and SMEs find paying customers for their business.
I first started building OctoLoops around 2 months ago because so many of my own projects, big and small, had failed or petered out from lack of users and the valuable feedback that comes with them.
When I started seriously digging, I found that distribution is one heck of a rabbit hole. The more I read, the more I found how much I didn't know. But I wanted to learn - and I really wanted to _apply_ that learning too, to all my new projects, in a repeatable, autonomous-as-possible way.
What better way to implement this plan than building a distribution app?
The idea was supposedly simple: implement a handful of "agentic loops" that anyone could easily run, in a web UI - no downloads or installing Claude Code, no complexity, human stays in the loop. A simple agentic harness in the browser with some superpowers to let it do its job.
I launched it quite soon after, and immediately started dogfooding, running the Community Loop. It found threads across Reddit from all those builders who'd made something cool, but were now at a loss when it came to finding and acquiring users. It drafted replies for me and gave a "spam risk", because yes - many kinds of marketing and sales walk a fine line between signal and blatant spam - and I started working the loops. Often I'd edit or write the replies myself; sometimes I'd remove the OctoLoops mention from the message.
It worked. I now have ~50 users, including one from a post-revenue B2B startup interested in using the Outbound loop. But there have been significant challenges already that I want to be open about here, in the hope that it helps other public builders.
1. Activation. This is currently my #1 pain point. My Community loops work - I can get people to sign up, enter their email, and I know there's even some buying intent. But people often log in once, then don't use the app. I've reached out to users, and they've said it's partly just that they don't want to post their app in communities they don't yet feel a real part of. Resistance to being rude or spammy, imposter syndrome - anyone who's done any marketing can identify. I'm trying to solve some of the issues of activation by building a more streamlined, less cluttered UX, but I'm not sure how to motivate people to really use the app in earnest. Maybe it's missing evidence of outcomes? Video tutorials?
2. Product focus. While researching competitors, what I notice most have in common is they focus on _one thing_: automated outbound; automated advertising; keyword monitoring. Not many people seem to be trying to make a fully autonomous omnichannel GTM agent, because that's too much. I decided to hide most of the channels I'd built already behind UI so users focus on community outreach and outbound sales. It's too early to say if that's the right call, and I know I'm still following an omnichannel strategy for OctoLoops itself.
3. Prioritising. I'm sure everyone says this, but: content strategy; SEO; socials; dogfooding... trying to talk to users, to understand why I'm not yet solving their problems and delivering them the outcomes they want. Attempting to keep my potential corporate customer in the funnel. Implementing new features - but which ones? And keeping up with the _insane pace_ of agentic apps and AI at large: so much is happening right now, hype and BS is everywhere, sometimes it's hard to know what's real.
So that's where I'm at, 2 months down the line. It's already been a fun journey. Any questions I'm happy to answer. Criticism is welcome too - I recognize some will view this as contributing to the already high volume of spam and slop out there, but that's honestly a balance I'm trying to find, and I'd love to hear opinions on how people should do sales and marketing in 2026 without driving people crazy."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: OctoLoops \u2013 automated marketing for indie devs"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://octoloops.com"}},"_tags":["story","author_davedx","story_49535048","show_hn"],"author":"davedx","children":[49570443,49576587],"created_at":"2026-09-02T12:07:26Z","created_at_i":1788350846,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"49535048","points":2,"story_id":49535048,"story_text":"Hi HN! This is my latest side hustle, OctoLoops: an app to help indie devs and SMEs find paying customers for their business.
I first started building OctoLoops around 2 months ago because so many of my own projects, big and small, had failed or petered out from lack of users and the valuable feedback that comes with them.
When I started seriously digging, I found that distribution is one heck of a rabbit hole. The more I read, the more I found how much I didn't know. But I wanted to learn - and I really wanted to _apply_ that learning too, to all my new projects, in a repeatable, autonomous-as-possible way.
What better way to implement this plan than building a distribution app?
The idea was supposedly simple: implement a handful of "agentic loops" that anyone could easily run, in a web UI - no downloads or installing Claude Code, no complexity, human stays in the loop. A simple agentic harness in the browser with some superpowers to let it do its job.
I launched it quite soon after, and immediately started dogfooding, running the Community Loop. It found threads across Reddit from all those builders who'd made something cool, but were now at a loss when it came to finding and acquiring users. It drafted replies for me and gave a "spam risk", because yes - many kinds of marketing and sales walk a fine line between signal and blatant spam - and I started working the loops. Often I'd edit or write the replies myself; sometimes I'd remove the OctoLoops mention from the message.
It worked. I now have ~50 users, including one from a post-revenue B2B startup interested in using the Outbound loop. But there have been significant challenges already that I want to be open about here, in the hope that it helps other public builders.
1. Activation. This is currently my #1 pain point. My Community loops work - I can get people to sign up, enter their email, and I know there's even some buying intent. But people often log in once, then don't use the app. I've reached out to users, and they've said it's partly just that they don't want to post their app in communities they don't yet feel a real part of. Resistance to being rude or spammy, imposter syndrome - anyone who's done any marketing can identify. I'm trying to solve some of the issues of activation by building a more streamlined, less cluttered UX, but I'm not sure how to motivate people to really use the app in earnest. Maybe it's missing evidence of outcomes? Video tutorials?
2. Product focus. While researching competitors, what I notice most have in common is they focus on _one thing_: automated outbound; automated advertising; keyword monitoring. Not many people seem to be trying to make a fully autonomous omnichannel GTM agent, because that's too much. I decided to hide most of the channels I'd built already behind UI so users focus on community outreach and outbound sales. It's too early to say if that's the right call, and I know I'm still following an omnichannel strategy for OctoLoops itself.
3. Prioritising. I'm sure everyone says this, but: content strategy; SEO; socials; dogfooding... trying to talk to users, to understand why I'm not yet solving their problems and delivering them the outcomes they want. Attempting to keep my potential corporate customer in the funnel. Implementing new features - but which ones? And keeping up with the _insane pace_ of agentic apps and AI at large: so much is happening right now, hype and BS is everywhere, sometimes it's hard to know what's real.
So that's where I'm at, 2 months down the line. It's already been a fun journey. Any questions I'm happy to answer. Criticism is welcome too - I recognize some will view this as contributing to the already high volume of spam and slop out there, but that's honestly a balance I'm trying to find, and I'd love to hear opinions on how people should do sales and marketing in 2026 without driving people crazy.","title":"Show HN: OctoLoops \u2013 automated marketing for indie devs","updated_at":"2026-09-06T22:32:41Z","url":"https://octoloops.com"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"doojin"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["fund"],"value":"If you know your web application will not need scale ever, then you don't need a distributed system.
However, learning distribtued system design is not that complicated unless you are an entry-level developer.
I guess people who tell others to not care about scalability for a software startup are probably marketers, hustlers, or financiers who consider product building as someone else's responsibility and are willing to discard failing products and hire developers for a new product. They typically try to fail quickly, discard companies, and start new ones. That's why these types love starting with agency businesses which don't require product development. You can learn a lot from them, but if you are a solo software entrepreneur, product development is your responsibility, and you should learn distributed system design before writing code or starting a business. You wouldn't hire entry-level engineers for your business, would you?
I think it's valuable to learn distributed system design and basic software engineering techniques like unit tests and documentation and functional programming and simplcity-oriented software design(rich hickey's simple made easy).
After you learn basic software engineering and distributed system design, you can reuse these design patterns over and over for the rest of your life and move quickly as a solo software entrepreneur.
It's a one-time cost that pays for the rest of your life. Design is cheap. Fixing a production system that has a fundamentally broken design that can't scale is very expensive. Solo software entrepreneurs should start with a solid distributed system design instead of trying to bolt scalability and solid software engineering practices onto production web applications. Many other online businesses suffered scalability issues so that you don't have to. You don't have to learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from other people's mistakes.
You can be a marketer or a hustler as a solo software entrepreneur once you learn distributed system design and basic software engineering.
Solo software entrepreneurs shouldn't try to copy marketers and financiers who have money to hire quality engineers.
I also recommend not using SaaS frameworks because the cost will snowball if you try to grow. AWS lambda isn't really free of infrastructure management. If you use SaaS, use ones that you can easily migrate away from. You don't want to be locked into specific vendors."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Every web application that may need scale later should be a distributed system"}},"_tags":["story","author_doojin","story_43741015","ask_hn"],"author":"doojin","children":[43741256,43743583],"created_at":"2025-04-20T02:03:28Z","created_at_i":1745114608,"num_comments":4,"objectID":"43741015","points":1,"story_id":43741015,"story_text":"If you know your web application will not need scale ever, then you don't need a distributed system.
However, learning distribtued system design is not that complicated unless you are an entry-level developer.
I guess people who tell others to not care about scalability for a software startup are probably marketers, hustlers, or financiers who consider product building as someone else's responsibility and are willing to discard failing products and hire developers for a new product. They typically try to fail quickly, discard companies, and start new ones. That's why these types love starting with agency businesses which don't require product development. You can learn a lot from them, but if you are a solo software entrepreneur, product development is your responsibility, and you should learn distributed system design before writing code or starting a business. You wouldn't hire entry-level engineers for your business, would you?
I think it's valuable to learn distributed system design and basic software engineering techniques like unit tests and documentation and functional programming and simplcity-oriented software design(rich hickey's simple made easy).
After you learn basic software engineering and distributed system design, you can reuse these design patterns over and over for the rest of your life and move quickly as a solo software entrepreneur.
It's a one-time cost that pays for the rest of your life. Design is cheap. Fixing a production system that has a fundamentally broken design that can't scale is very expensive. Solo software entrepreneurs should start with a solid distributed system design instead of trying to bolt scalability and solid software engineering practices onto production web applications. Many other online businesses suffered scalability issues so that you don't have to. You don't have to learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from other people's mistakes.
You can be a marketer or a hustler as a solo software entrepreneur once you learn distributed system design and basic software engineering.
Solo software entrepreneurs shouldn't try to copy marketers and financiers who have money to hire quality engineers.
I also recommend not using SaaS frameworks because the cost will snowball if you try to grow. AWS lambda isn't really free of infrastructure management. If you use SaaS, use ones that you can easily migrate away from. You don't want to be locked into specific vendors.","title":"Every web application that may need scale later should be a distributed system","updated_at":"2025-04-27T16:09:45Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"josh_hustler"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"SW HN: We Made a Crunchbase Alternative"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://fundbase.ai/"}},"_tags":["story","author_josh_hustler","story_41672360"],"author":"josh_hustler","children":[41672361],"created_at":"2024-09-27T16:14:00Z","created_at_i":1727453640,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"41672360","points":3,"story_id":41672360,"title":"SW HN: We Made a Crunchbase Alternative","updated_at":"2024-09-27T16:21:43Z","url":"https://fundbase.ai/"}],"hitsPerPage":50,"nbHits":43,"nbPages":1,"page":0,"params":"query=Hustle+Fund&tags=story&hitsPerPage=50&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":14,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":18},"afterFetch":{"format":{"highlighting":3,"total":3},"merge":{"mergeLoop":{"prepareNextHit":2,"total":2},"total":2},"total":2},"fetch":{"query":5,"scanning":4,"total":10},"total":14},"query":"Hustle Fund","serverTimeMS":18}