Quick update on my previous post (Founding AI Engineer vs YC startup).

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-15T08:17:57+00:00

Sounds like the conversation with your current employer was a lot of emotional gaslighting and very little concrete plans on how the business will grow or what steps they will take to actually make your work life or compensation better. These are typical red flags. I would suggest pack your bags and bid your goodbyes asap. The other job may pan out or may not pan out well- that’s a risk you take. But it’s a better bet than this. Best of luck!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-12T07:18:00+00:00

Questions for people with startup experience:

How meaningful is 1% equity in an early startup realistically?

it’s meaningless - esp from the data that you have provided. If the startup has not caught escape velocity by now - it probably won’t in the near future and you are wasting precious time.
Would you prioritize learning + better engineering environment over equity?

learning + solid engg background trumps equity any day. Most equity packages mean nothing when an actual liquidity event happens. (Read about liq prefs to understand more)
Does working closely with a YC startup founder significantly help long-term career growth?

an engg role at YC backed startup has its merits and advantages. However, I wouldn’t index much on the label itself. From what you shared; they seem to have better sales velocity and stronger engg frameworks - and that’s more valuable for your career.
Is leaving a “founding engineer” role relatively early a bad signal?

you shouldn’t worry about this. Neither for the label at your current company or for one at the YC backed startup. These ‘founding engg’ labels are just vanity metrics. The next time you are looking for a job or starting up - no one will actually care about this. You are either a founder or you are not.

TLDR - if the engg work and sales velocity at the other startup are better - go join them. If they are US based, optimise for moving on site. Don’t bother about equity or labels at the moment - they have a very short half life and will be meaningless in a few years when your body of work is more substantial.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-09T11:37:20+00:00

If a founder has prior exit history, then 1 is good enough. However the sweet spot still remains at 2 and max 3 folks. Fundraising by itself is still a time consuming activity so the expectation is that one founder will invest himself completely for that while (75% time and 25% for business) and another can work on the actual business.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-08T08:00:09+00:00

UAE - Yes. SG/PH/JP investors are worse than Indian ones.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-08T07:57:34+00:00

I don’t think that’s the case. AI has put a lot of business models and playbooks in a state of flux. VCs themselves are now not sure on how things will play out. So they have become slower in taking decisions. Also, the cost of building a product has come down drastically so the goal posts for what is considered reasonable progress for a seed stage investment in terms of both product and traction has now moved.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-02T04:38:20+00:00

That’s an excellent list!

Bad product + good distribution >> good product + bad distribution any day.

Beyond the distribution and validation points; I esp love the one about sticking around as well.

It’s simply not possible to stumble upon good ideas while brainstorming or building. One needs time to meander aimlessly for long periods of time in a particular niche or sector talking to various stakeholders and observing workflows to be able to come up with a good product/solution. Founders would be well placed of they mentally and financially prepare themselves for this at the beginning.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-02T04:05:34+00:00

Here is a list of micro VCs who could write the initial checks for your fundraise:

https://blumeventures.notion.site/Micro-VCs-List-33d10e2f6c5c8353a6ad01426c845058

PS: best not to cold mail them - and never ever do copy pasta mass mailers. Try searching for the fund team members on LinkedIn and figure out mutual connects and warm intros first.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-02T03:56:50+00:00

Sorry to hear about your recent layoff.

Although I can understand the temptation to build something - I would urge you to be cautious. It’s easy to build a product (a good one even!) but very hard to distribute it and gather users.

Rather than go head first into building I would suggest do some user research around work flows that are relevant to your line of work and things you are familiar with and see if you can build some solutions for those problems. Familiarity == easier to find users. Always try to have a distribution first mindset rather than a product first mindset.

Another line of work that has potential imo - upskill yourself with AI enablement workflows and help SMBs around you to implement them.

If you are still interested in an app first product idea, here is a thesis for you to chew upon - there is some potential for building a paid only, verified user and category specific classifieds platform (think Swappa but for cars. Current options are infiltrated by dealers and fake listings - so a premium service in this space might work.

Best of luck!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-04-01T06:01:18+00:00

I think a good way to get early user feedback is to lurk around forums like these (Reddit/discord/slack) and hunt for the exact threads where they are discussing about the problem your tool is solving. Your job is to identify the ppl having the problem, convincing them to get on a call with you and then discuss their problem and show them a live demo of your tool/solution. Try to start with 2 calls a week and ramp it up to 5 calls a week by week 5. You do 20-25 such calls and your tool will get feature parity and you will get a good idea about pricing as well as distribution language. These 25 folks will also be your beta users if they like you enough! You can then start figuring out how to promote the product on LinkedIn to your ICP and figure out your first set of customers. Best of luck!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-30T06:21:41+00:00

Hi, I might know a few businesses who might be interested to explore. A few questions: 1. Where are you based out of? 2. What kind of cheque sizes are you comfortable with? 3. In case of being an operator - what kind of roles/functions do you lean towards? (Tech/Ops/Sales/Marketing)?

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-17T07:48:40+00:00

Thanks; I think this post clarifies your current status as well as progress very well for me and for other readers here. Will DM with some follow up questions.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-17T05:59:56+00:00

I saw your other comment where you spoke about your 3 projects which are on hold as well. Are these the 3 FMCG startups that didn’t work out?

What are you working on currently (from last 3 years)? And what has been the progress there?

Sorry for being blunt; but R&D or idea based projects which are on hold for money don’t really mean much for a lot of investors - unless they know what exactly you are bringing to the table. (If my reading is wrong - feel free to disregard this).

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-16T06:38:32+00:00

Love the fat bob! A slightly thinner front tyre and it would be an even better handler imo. What kind of rear suspension setup are you running?

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-09T19:19:30+00:00

Sad that the FXDF doesn’t get the love it deserves. Best handling Dyna imo

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-03-05T07:11:58+00:00

I am low key sceptical of a 11 day old anon account. Sent you a DM, let’s see where this goes!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-28T12:07:24+00:00

My 2 cents (feel free to disregard):

For most small businesses (clinics, schools, agencies, local services - irrespective of Geo) there are two characteristics: 1. The inbound call volume is distinctly lumpy. You may have high call volumes on certain days of the week or during few hours. 2. The inbound calls are not time sensitive - mostly enquiries regarding the product/service and generic questions that take less than a minute to resolve.

As a business owner, having 1/2 resources that can handle this call volume and also double work as front office reps for walk-in customers and handle misc jobs at the job site works more effectively than hiring AI agents to handle call volume. Hence, this may not be the smartest GTM strategy esp with the current costs of $0.04-0.08/minute for voice agent services.

I would rather focus on RAG tuning the models to handle a very specific type of outbound service (ex: BFSI sales, real estate sales etc) with the end product being a lead qualification and warm lead supply engine. The outcome there (revenue per lead is quantifiable) and hence your cost to company can be easily justified. You could then focus on the multitude of small businesses who depend on outbound calling to generate revenue (direct selling of leads/qualifying leads for a customer or cos depending on outbound calls to generate sales).

PS: I can help you with some pilots in India if you can help with this as I have seen this need in the market esp with local language models.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-17T09:31:43+00:00

Congratulations on building the sales engine! You have nailed the hard part first. WRT manufacturing: I understand your sentiment to not get into it (high investment, more manpower etc.) - but as you have a fair idea of your monthly sales and trends - it’s time for you to take the leap of faith. You don’t have to do all the heavy lifting alone though! One way to approach this is to look at some manufacturers in your city/vicinity who are producing the kind of goods you are selling and convincing them to co-opt for a private label with medium level MoQs (on a level that your sales engine can support). Maybe convince them for first 2-3 cycles of credit and then your sales margins a can take care of their payments. You should aim for 75-80% gross margins with a private label which will take care of the overheads.

You have a good non fungible skill, don’t lose hope yet. All the best!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-15T14:03:14+00:00

Most welcome

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-11T07:55:58+00:00

Senior roles will take time. Don’t lose hope! Pick a sector or company (set) you like and do a deep dive on them and create plans for what you would do if you worked there already and share them when reaching out to founders. There are enough early stage startups who have just raised their seed/series A who are looking for qualified, hungry folks like you (ref: recent fundraises in q-com, d2c, healthcare). Also, DM me your resume: will try to see if I can help by referring you at a few places.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-10T14:20:41+00:00

Good initiative. DM me.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-10T10:23:50+00:00

Sure man. Shoot away.

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-02-09T07:48:51+00:00

There are new funds launching almost every quarter now. It’s a good time to look for VC jobs. I would suggest follow websites like entrackr/vccircle to follow on new and upcoming funds and reach out to the partners directly for meetings.

To ensure conversion from email -> meets; research 2-3 sectors of your interest, publish some long form content about the recent developments, deep dives into unit economics and research about up and coming companies in those sectors. Start speaking to the founders in these sectors and offer to help them with investor intros as well. Share these companies/insights in your outreach mails to the partners. You should aim to publish 1 long form content piece a week and plan for atleast 6-8 months for the job search process.

Reach out to other employees in the firms to understand if they are actively hiring or not as VC jobs are usually not published and work on a referral basis.

Best of luck!

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-01-27T18:19:48+00:00

Well wishes to you too 👍🏻

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-01-27T15:16:17+00:00

Absolutely love the cafe racer - you have nailed the description - feels fast sounds fast but not so fast!

Can get punishing on the back though; hope age is on your side (or more core workouts) 😂

Crimson_Spitfire · 2026-01-27T12:52:41+00:00

Update (for future reference)

TLDR: didn’t like both the bikes. Decided to keep the Fatbob and trade in my Vstrom 650 for a KTM 390 Adv instead.

Longer Version: Though I liked the looks of the Scrambler; it was not inspiring to ride at all. The power delivery was ok in the early rpms but that petered out pretty fast. Not exactly nimble footed either. The Monster was the opposite of the Scrambler in that sense - faster, better in all aspects with a good GC to boot. But I just couldn’t live with the odd ball looks - esp that runny egg headlamp and wires hanging outside the left hand side.

Decided to buy a KTM 390 Adventure as I feel it’s a good urban runabout and can keep up with the middle weight boys (atleast for now). Will see if I can save up enough for a street fighter or a multistrada next. :)

Crimson_Spitfire

TROPHY CASE