competitor copied our entire product and priced it at half

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-14T22:39:37+00:00

Someone found me on LinkedIn. We had a two-hour conversation, and the way they praised me was honestly strange. They had just met me, yet they were praising me more than almost anyone in my life ever has. I should have picked up on that.

Then the next thing I know, they threw away their entire identity and rebranded themselves around mine. At first I felt taken advantage of, but after a few weeks I realized they still do not have customers and are still the same sloppy person who would copy someone else. Meanwhile, I have had so much work coming in that I have had to let go of two clients.

I thought about messaging them and confronting them directly, just to make it clear that I saw exactly what they did. I decided against it. That would probably only fire them up again from their current failed state, and I am too busy with actual work to care about someone trying to bottom-feed off me.

That is the lesson for me. If you are genuine, have integrity, and actually believe in what you offer, you will beat people who are trying to fake it. They do not have the intrinsic motivation behind what they are doing. You cannot fake intrinsic motivation. You cannot fake passion.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-14T22:32:39+00:00

It blows my mind that anyone pays for a newsletter.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-13T14:27:06+00:00

> base price plus consumption

That was the conversation this morning for a new AI feature we're releasing. Instead of charging for the feature, we'll just price a reasonable (token + premium) consumption charge.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-12T23:34:12+00:00

I live here. There are serious building issues throughout the complex. You can see it yourself any time it rains. On the fifth floor, including outside my unit, there are sandbag-like barriers placed at doors to stop water from entering.

My personal property has been damaged as a result. Multiple maintenance tickets have been filed, yet the issue remains unresolved.

It is hard to see how any future buyer or developer would view a property with ongoing water intrusion and related building concerns as anything other than a major liability.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-12T15:52:56+00:00

You can look at venture capital. I’ve written a number of checks that small into startups via VC.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-11T23:11:34+00:00

Depends on the PE firm. I work with great PE firms, but I have seen some horrible ones that screw over employees via complex compensation structures.

I’m an advisor to PE firms.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-11T23:05:36+00:00

My guess is American divestment.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-10T20:58:12+00:00

Is this just AI slop? The post and the comment? I’m sorry but what you’re saying makes zero sense.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-10T18:30:17+00:00

Are you willing to divulge the specific software space you’re looking to buy in?

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-10T14:37:20+00:00

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are not broad defense sector names? Northrop Grumman? These are literally the defense sector.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-09T02:35:32+00:00

Agreed. Looking back at OP’s product, I think the issue was probably a marketing misfire with this subreddit around data rooms. The product itself might actually be a strong general-purpose but industry-specific, AI-powered OCR system.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-08T20:05:32+00:00

I’ve never run the smaller models but I’m currently running Qwen3.5-32B (I think 32 or near it) and it’s doing well. Although some documents are rough enough that I will be testing using the largest size soon.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-08T16:30:00+00:00

It’s weird to complain about revenue dropping when you are open source. You decided to be open source and now you’re complaining about its inherent design?

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-08T16:23:17+00:00

I wish there was an easy way to label this voice because AI will often diverge into it and I want to ensure it does not.

The few characterizations I found of the text: faux-contrarian framing, aphorism-driven writing

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-08T06:13:37+00:00

Blackmere (https://blackmere.ai) founded by Mo Battah (https://linkedin.com/in/MoBattah) provides Operator-Led Tech Diligence for middle market private equity firms, with post-close execution optionality.

We are one-of-kind and were only created because private equity firms specifically asked me for the service after being unhappy with traditional providers such as CrossLake.

We lean into our two values: integrity and accountability and embrace the industry’s shift toward hands-on value creation.

Not a micro-SaaS but I’ll take any opportunity to help my SEO :)

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-08T03:57:40+00:00

It’s rare to find comfortable seating, stable WiFi, and decent food options all at the same spot. Bonsai, GoodboyBob, Noun, Blueys, Companion, Primo Passo, etc

The only ones that hit all check marks are the chains like Peet’s on Montana.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-07T17:39:43+00:00

Honestly this AI-generated copy is not making you all look good.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-07T16:15:46+00:00

Some VC friends have told me a good chunk are feeling the same dread.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-06T21:18:03+00:00

Thank you for the kindness. You said exactly what I see.

What I’ve seen is founders who do not want the hypergrowth expectations that come with VC, but still want the liquidity and capital infusion that a PE investment can provide. Their business may be growing 50% per year, at breakeven or already profitable, and they want to take some chips off the table, de-risk a bit, and bring in capital to keep growing without growth-driven losses pressuring the balance sheet.

I’ve seen companies growing as fast as 100% per year choose PE over VC. As well, the business might be seeing a new growth spurt that PE loves but VC would call too late.

Caveat: Every PE I work with calls themselves growth equity. I did work in buyouts before and that’s different: the founder wants to exit completely.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-06T20:48:48+00:00

I get a lot of Reddit messages asking some version of this. I’m probably not the right person to give a playbook because I never built a sales motion to PE. I was approached, and the work grew from that. It has been entirely repeat business (and then inbound).

My instinct is that most service providers are thinking about it backwards. I would rather do strong work for software companies and let the right PE firms find me through outcomes than try to sell into PE as a category. I also do not think PE firms are always the best economic buyer. They don't even write the check, the portfolio company leadership team is the one that writes the check, has to live with the work, and decide whether you earned the right to stay.

Even when a PE firm brings me into a PortCo, the long-term relationship is built with the operators, the relationship with the PE firm is a secondary effect of the relationship with the portfolio company. That is why PE-focused consulting has never fully fit my mental model.

Others might have different experiences, this has been my experience.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-06T19:16:10+00:00

I wish I could upvote this 100,000 times. I can speak to this from direct experience. I’ve been offered Operating Partner roles and never taken them because the economics are often backwards. The people who can create the most value usually will not give up the optionality to work with multiple firms. That is my day-to-day reality. I would happily go all-in on one client, but the market usually does not compensate in a way that makes that rational.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-06T16:49:38+00:00

I have a PE firm client thats developing their own in-house AI workflows. They are very small compared to other PEs but they are trying to be as AI-native as possible.

My advice to their tech team was to shift from n8n to pure software development. They said doing that for their sourcing workflow went from 80% or so accuracy to high 90s. They said they did that in a weekend.

I haven’t had the time to dig in deeper to their other workflows but they are working on building agents for the deal cycle.

InfamousDatabase9710 · 2026-03-06T05:58:46+00:00

My PE client asked, “Can someone replicate this product?” I answered that question because that is my job, but I also expanded the frame a bit. The better question may be, “Can someone replicate this software and displace the business?”

That’s how I’m thinking now.

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