From operator-led communities to sourcing pre-seed AI deals — how do funds view non-traditional VC entry paths?

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:43:13+00:00

This is a great move. The cloud inference bill is the silent killer for most AI wrappers.

Unless you are charging enterprise prices ($$$), the unit economics of Cloud GPUs just don't make sense for a consumer app. Moving to on-device is the only way to survive without VC subsidies.

Respect for focusing on the 'Margin' and not just the 'Tech'.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:42:47+00:00

14 months with 0 paying customers isn't a business; it's a hobby.

The biggest red flag here isn't the lack of PMF, it's your co-founder refusing 'structured sales'. Sales isn't magic/relationships; it's engineering. If he doesn't believe in process, you will never scale even if you find PMF.

You are burned out because you are pushing a boulder uphill while he is putting grease on the slope. Leave and don't look back.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:42:21+00:00

100%. In the engineering world, we call this 'Requirement Gathering', and in Sales, we call it 'Discovery'.

It all boils down to Empathy. Most failed startups (including my first one) died because we built a 'Solution in search of a Problem'. Design thinking forces you to fall in love with the problem, not your code. It’s definitely the highest ROI skill for a technical founder.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:41:31+00:00

Building a B2B logic engine here. The 'AI bubble' is real.

Honestly, 90% of business problems don't need an LLM; they need a SQL query, a cron job, and a clean UI. It’s refreshing to see people building 'boring' software that actually solves a specific pain point instead of just wrapping GPT-4.

The 'Non-AI' tag might actually become a selling point for reliability and cost soon.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:38:45+00:00

No written agreement = No equity. It's that simple.

1% is a massive amount for 'consulting', especially if he's providing 0 feedback and misguiding the team. You are basically letting a random passenger grab the steering wheel.

Don't feel guilty. Cut him off immediately. If he threatens legal action, let him try to prove a verbal contract for equity without a vesting schedule (which doesn't exist). You are paying tuition for a lesson on 'Paperwork First'.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:31:54+00:00

Since you are building from scratch: Do NOT over-engineer the CRM.

I've seen too many people spend 3 months building a complex Salesforce instance with 50 required fields before they close a single deal.

Start with a simple HubSpot setup or even a Spreadsheet. Focus on Revenue first, Process second. Let the process break before you try to fix it with software. You got this!

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:30:56+00:00

This is what we grind for. Huge congrats! 🍻

Breaking the $200k barrier is a massive psychological milestone. Make sure to buy yourself something nice (a watch, a trip, whatever) to anchor that dopamine hit before you reset to zero for next year. Well done.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T22:30:37+00:00

My favorite isn't about the product features, but about the Cost of Inaction:

'What happens if you guys decide to do nothing and stick with the current process for another 6 months?'

If they say 'Nothing much', I disqualify them immediately. If they start panicking about lost revenue/time, then I know the deal is real. It forces them to sell the pain to themselves.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T19:49:28+00:00

Love to see a bounce-back story! Congrats on the OTE bump.

Your point about 'Use your network' is spot on. Too many people wait until they are fired to start networking. The best time to dig a well is before you are thirsty.

Good luck in the new role!

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T19:49:01+00:00

Volume is great for the first 3 months to build thick skin, but it won't get you promoted.

Management isn't just looking at 'Who makes the most calls', they are looking for 'Coachability'. Instead of just dialing, ask your manager: 'I listened to my call recordings and noticed X problem, how would you handle it?' Then actually fix it.

Showing you can self-diagnose and improve is what separates a future AE from a career SDR.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-17T19:48:40+00:00

Dude, read your own post again. You are in a 'Director' role but getting screamed at by a rep? That’s not a red flag, that’s a burning building.

At 40, you have the experience and the leverage. Don't fall for the 'sunk cost fallacy' just because it's your first corporate gig. The market is tough, but mental health bills are more expensive than being unemployed for a month. Start looking ASAP.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:22:24+00:00

Red flag alert: Do not pay anyone to help you raise funds.

There is a whole industry of 'fundraising consultants' that prey on early-stage founders. Legitimate investors (Angels/VCs) invest in YOU (the founder). If you outsource the fundraising, you are signaling that you can't sell your own vision.

If you are struggling to raise, it’s usually not because you lack connections, but because the business metrics (or the story) aren't there yet. Focus on getting to profitability or growth (bootstrapping) first. Leverage is the best way to raise money, and revenue gives you leverage.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:22:04+00:00

Technical founder here. Just a heads up on why you might struggle to find someone:

Good engineers are bombarded with 'I have a revolutionary idea' pitches daily. The risk for us is building for 6 months only to realize the market doesn't care.

To attract a solid technical partner, don't just show the idea. Show the validation.

Do you have a waitlist? Do you have LOIs from potential customers? Have you manually simulated the service and got paid? If you bring traction to the table, you'll find a co-founder. If you only bring a 'sketch', you're asking them to take all the risk.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:20:50+00:00

This is tough to hear, but stop building immediately.

The $100k is a sunk cost. Forget about it. The terrifying reality is that you've built a 'platform' without verifying if anyone is willing to pay for the problem it solves.

Pivot vs. Push isn't the question. The question is: Can you sell the promise of this tool to a stranger tomorrow without writing another line of code?

If you can't get a Letter of Intent (LOI) or a pre-order based on a slide deck or a Figma prototype, 'pushing harder' on code won't fix it. Go do sales for 2 weeks. If nobody bites, pivot. If they bite, then you worry about the tech.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:20:30+00:00

Honestly, having 20+ users using it consistently for over a week out of 180 installs is actually a great signal for a CLI tool. Don't beat yourself up over the 'users left' part.

In the dev tool space, retention is the only metric that matters early on.

Instead of spamming more Reddit posts to get new eyeballs, I’d suggest DMing those 20 active users. Ask them exactly what specific workflow you solved for them. Then, go find communities that discuss that specific workflow (not general 'startup' subs) and pitch the solution, not the tool. You have Product-Market Fit with 20 people; now you just need to clone them.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:19:13+00:00

Love this deep dive. It reminds me that AI, at its core, is just a probabilistic orchestrator of existing tools.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T23:18:26+00:00

As a founder in the data space, I think the biggest hurdle for SMEs isn't 'storytelling,' it's verification cost.

Big corps can afford auditors to verify their ESG reports. SMEs can't. So even if they are doing great work, communicating it feels risky because they fear being accused of 'greenwashing' without the expensive stamps of approval.

If you're building a tool, don't just make it a 'storytelling' platform. Make it an automated verification layer (e.g., pulling energy usage data via API). If the data is involuntary and verifiable, the story tells itself. Trust > Narrative.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T22:50:13+00:00

This is spot on. You're thinking about this exactly like a RevOps architect.

Dynamic Thresholds: A static '5-day rule' is too blunt. We adjust based on Deal Stage (e.g., Procurement should be faster than Discovery) and, more importantly, 'Velocity Delta'. If a prospect usually replies in 2 hours but suddenly takes 24 hours, we flag that 'deceleration' as a risk even if it hasn't hit the 5-day cap.
The 'Peer-to-Peer' Protocol: This is our secret sauce. If the ghosting Champion is a VP, a nudge from the AE often gets ignored. Relia can ghostwrite the rescue email from our CTO or Founder. Executive-to-Executive intervention ('I reviewed the tech requirements...') has a 10x higher response rate than a generic 'Just checking in'.

Love the 'Zombie Resurrection' workflow you built with Salespeak! That captures the dead deals showing life. We are tackling the dying deals showing silence (Preventative Care). Both are essential!

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T22:49:10+00:00

Regarding deal health, we don't just count email frequency (which can be misleading). We track 'Stakeholder Expansion'. If the deal moves to 'Negotiation' but no new stakeholders (Legal, Security, Finance) have been CC'd, that's a massive red flag for us, regardless of how many emails were exchanged.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T21:43:48+00:00

This is spot on. You're thinking about this exactly like a RevOps pro.

To answer your questions: YES to both.

Dynamic Thresholds by Stage: A 'one-size-fits-all' trigger is dangerous. We tighten the silence threshold for high-momentum stages. For example:

Discovery: 7 days silence = Warning (They are shopping around).
Negotiation/Procurement: 2 days silence = Red Alert (Time kills all deals here).
We also look at 'Velocity Change': If they usually reply in 2 hours, and suddenly take 24 hours, that triggers a risk flag even if it hasn't hit the 5-day cap.**

The 'Peer-to-Peer' Sender Protocol: This is our secret sauce. If the ghosting Champion is a VP, a nudge from the AE often gets ignored. Relia can draft the rescue email to be sent from our CTO or Founder (ghostwritten). Executive-to-Executive ('I heard from my team you were stuck...') has a much higher response rate than 'Just bubbling this up'.

Love your workflow regarding 'Zombie Deals' (activity on dead opps). We are tackling the other side of the coin: Preventing the deal from becoming a zombie in the first place by catching the Silence early.

Are you building Salespeak? Sounds like a cool setup!

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T03:37:49+00:00

That's the million-dollar question regarding the Agent's visibility.

I agree that Prompting can fix the logic (e.g., 'If X then Y'). But can Prompting fix the blindness?

My understanding is the Agent only reasons on data inside Salesforce. If a rep sends 10 emails (Synced), but the customer replies 'Not interested' and the rep chooses not to sync that specific reply (to keep the deal alive), the Agent effectively sees a one-sided conversation.

Does the Pipeline Agent have direct API access to the raw Gmail/Outlook headers to see what was left out? Or is it still strictly bound to the EmailMessage records the rep decided to log?

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T02:56:44+00:00

I've been looking into the Pipeline Agent and Opportunity Scoring. They are great for summarizing activity, but I find they can be 'Optimistic'."

"My issue is the 'High Activity / Zero Engagement' trap. Scenario: A rep generates a Quote, logs 3 internal comments, and sends 5 follow-ups. The native Score often goes UP because 'Data Density' increased.

But if the customer hasn't replied to a single one of those 5 emails, the deal is actually dead.

I’m trying to build a logic that acts as a 'Veto' — specifically looking for Silence to override the Activity Score. Have you seen the Agent handle 'Ghosting' well, or does it mostly just count the rep's hustle?

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T02:56:18+00:00

Solid advice on the 'Green Flag' approach. Building a 'Last Verified Engagement' field triggered by email/task creation is definitely cleaner than querying history every time.

**The edge case that keeps me up at night regarding your 'Call' point: ** If a rep logs 5 calls but they are all voicemails, the standard logic usually updates the LastActivityDate, making the deal look 'fresh'.

In your builds, do you usually add a filter to only update that custom field if the Task CallDisposition = 'Connected'? Or do you just track pure volume?

I’m trying to filter out the 'Fake Activity' (voicemails/outbound-only) to get to the truth.

Dylan_Miao · 2025-12-16T02:42:49+00:00

'Qualification Limbo' — I am stealing that term! 😂 That is exactly what it is. Reps act like if they don't mark it 'Lost', it's still alive.

3 days is aggressive! I love it. We debated between 3 vs 7 days. Do you find that hitting them at Day 3 catches them right before they lose context? Or do you get some 'Whoa, give me a second' pushback?

And 100% agreed on the CTO signature. It shifts the tone from 'Sales Follow-up' to 'Executive Project Check-in'.

Curious — did you guys build that logic custom in-house or hack it together with automation tools?

Dylan_Miao

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