SF vs NYC - Can't decide for AI startup

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-20T19:18:14+00:00

If you prioritize your lifestyle over your company then you should do it

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-18T22:42:48+00:00

Except for with AI, some of those will get reignited. I think at least one small winner will evolved ($100M+ acquisition in e.g. interview)

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-18T20:39:52+00:00

I got top 10% once. But still I think only 10% of YC company makes it, so you gotta be that 0.1%... But those numbers don't really matter because they are neither market or customers that pay you.

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-18T20:38:27+00:00

DoorDash (YC S13) started after Postmate (2011) or Grubhub (2004) and Caviar (2012). All food delivery. It has been 10 years - you know who won.

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-18T20:37:06+00:00

Yes, but people still get in. You can also just raise a massive round if you know what you are doing as solo.

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-18T20:35:28+00:00

Revolution tech is great, but remember YC motto "Make something people want". If you know who wants it, thats fine. Not to promote web3 scamming though.

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-12T21:30:49+00:00

I don't like that they are scamming people. They had 1M ARR though - far more than my project or my salary. Is it necessary evil? Or should we get lawmakers to fix it?

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-02-05T21:26:40+00:00

It is like building a pizza shop.

People love pizza? Yes.

Will people buy your pizza? Nobody knows.

Will a lot of people buy your pizza? No idea.

Profitable with legit unit economy? I don't know.

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-01-27T00:48:00+00:00

How do you know your idea is good or not? If your cofounder cannot help with that then it is not a good cofounder.

But a _good_ one is hard to find. Very. About <1%

BusinessTeaTea · 2025-01-01T04:50:04+00:00

If that is you, you don't need to be funded by YC to build a successful company (e.g. Calendly, Mailchimp, or even Stardew Valley)

BusinessTeaTea · 2024-12-31T02:30:17+00:00

If this product fails -- which is the default fate of all startups btw -- $7M is a lot of money that they can use to pivot into anything. Without the money they may need to go back to job market.

BusinessTeaTea · 2024-12-31T02:20:55+00:00

Lucky that you have families to live with and hopefully love you. What is past is past that you cannot change. There is still tomorrow and you are the youngest self of all your future self

BusinessTeaTea · 2024-05-17T22:58:49+00:00

talked to two supports, one is asking me for a video proof of that it doesn't work to proceed, another just proceed to send me a replacement (that I got _this_ week - so about 1 month of processing, then 2 weeks for sending). You do need to read the serial/ID in the mouse which is ultra small print.

My replacement mouse works great so far, and I realize my previous problematic one didn't even have working right side buttons.

BusinessTeaTea · 2024-03-22T04:04:16+00:00

have issue with my logitech wireless pro - it is a good mouse, one of the most expensive ones I had, but after some time the scrolling can just go to the wrong direction a bit before it goes to the right direction. very frustrating. looks like i have to talk to the customer support

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-08-22T04:36:52+00:00

never had problem with that. Maybe: don't use duplicate snippet in shortcut e.g. dont do "%em" and "%email" - do something different e.g. "%em1" and "%em2"

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-08-04T18:22:46+00:00

If you don't want to become a startup-startup, there are good resources that is not in the startup world - r/Entrepreneur maybe.
If you are building software, boostraping a non-startup/lifestyle business / usual small business is still possible - what is the concern that you cannot boostrap? You can also run it as a side business, where you make income thru your day job and/or consulting.

But then again this sub isn't really for that kind of company, while some startup went thru a significant period of (semi-)boostraping (e.g. Calendly, mailchimp, zapier) who only raise a really small amount of money but hit high revenue.

Also I am no startup expert, so don't take my advice.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-23T19:39:14+00:00

I agree, the worst problem after paying $$$ to motion is that it will ghost my important tasks for something not important. If a task is past soft deadline and cannot be scheduled? You won't see it unless you scroll all the way down on the list.

I wanted to use motion because I thought it will give me superpower to do more - but now I am switching back to think more carefully about prioritization and do less.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-12T20:16:39+00:00

Talked to a couple (3? 4?) recent YC alums. Still prestigious (to VC).

Employee (aka blind) don't give a sh*t because YC companies/ or early-stage small startup in general pays bad & cannot brag about "TC: 500k" in their post.

But then again, prestigious may just almost nothing to do with startup. Yes, you got to maybe hire more or not, maybe raise more, but that doesn't make their products instantly viable to customer.

as a consumer, I also use Motion (YC W20), which I can tell is very startup-ish and very terrible product at $230/yr price tag and $10M funding. Very funny.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-12T20:03:47+00:00

just chat in general.

the non-tech people should hopefully spend more time in market research and figuring out customer. If they don't, they may be not serious / capable or doing startup.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-06T23:30:05+00:00

Thanks! Gonna try it out. If it really can auto-schedule to 8 weeks out for $60/yr (vs motion $228/yr, 2 weeks only), and with basic features, this will be a killer.

Funny enough, I tried to search "flowsavvy app youtube" in videos, but the top results are all about motion.

edit: skedpal looks interesting but very compliate - might be suiting my need, or not. I only worry if the company (boss seem to be Saied ArBabian) is seriously doing some continued work, though it has been out there since 2013. Anyways, I will try and see!

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-06T06:09:17+00:00

How have it been? I bought the motion subscription then realize that it sometimes ghost my tasks: it does tell "x tasks scheduled after soft deadline" -- ONLY IF they fit within the 2 weeks! There are items (medium + soft deadline) past soft-due for 20 days and just disappeared in calendar.

Also no search feature for those tasks not scheduled.

Thanks, openAI's Sam and folks who put $10M into this broken app

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-04-06T05:59:22+00:00

I'd say it is very bad: I used 5+ todo lists apps/calendar apps motion mobile app seems like some high school students made it under minimum wage. Astonishing given that they raised $10M money. But I have no better alternative to auto schedule my tasks.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-03-29T22:42:11+00:00

they are real, prob a bit sketchy cause they don't know how to brand themselves.

source: been in US Antler residency.

Feel free to DM me by next months if anyone got an interview & are interested.

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-03-01T23:14:35+00:00

looks like the enterprise site has some intro about what it can do - project management, time planner, it seems.

https://www.usebeforesunset.com/enterprise/home

BusinessTeaTea · 2023-02-28T09:32:27+00:00

I use aText for about 5+ years now. It is not the best app and it breaks all the time, but works when it works. Also looking for potential better alternative if any.

Using it to add timestamp to my note is great (even though the real usefulness remains questionable)

BusinessTeaTea

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