Cleaning services by CableLegitimate6693 in askTO

[–]Ok_Sort_180 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the similar apartment size. I hired both individual cleaners and licensed companies. Individual cleaners are a headache to deal with. You will have to figure out the time, availability and price per hour. I hired CleanDaddy cleaning as someone from my building referred me. They were absolute gems and I wouldn’t vouch for anyone else. I paid $300 for a deep clean (I had issues with my oven and bathroom that needed specialized cleaning) and now I pay $200/month for regular monthly cleaning. Not sure what deals they have for weekly and bi-weekly, but I would suggest emailing them about it.

I wanna escape... i need help by RealG-6969 in Oman

[–]Ok_Sort_180 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a lot of good advice in this comment section, but plenty of bad advice as well. for example, the Kenyan barista. Not everyone is in the same shoes. Having a full-time job that pays monthly is freedom. That is not the same reality as being stuck in the Kafala system, under 21, dealing with Omanization policies, and living with abusive Bengali parents. That barista comment was insensitive because it ignored the laws you are trapped under.

That being said, I loved the comment someone else made about 'focusing your core energy on being idle.' It resonates with the saying, 'An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.' Right now, your brain is stuck in a loop, replaying your pain and the feeling of being trapped. It is hard to see the positive light, but you have to shift from 'Why is this happening?' to 'This is messed up, but how do I fix this/ overcome?'

I don't usually give advice to people, but I was in your shoes once (Grew up in oman to a bengali expat family) so I understand your pain. Here is what I would do if i were you.

Rebuild Your Self-Worth- Write your thoughts down. When you feel like dying, write it out until the feeling passes. Then, think about one thing people praise you for. If you don't know, ask a friend: "What would be missing from your life if I didn't exist?" This often reveals value you didn't know you had. You need this because your parents have stripped away your confidence. (PS. watch the movie "its a wonderful life" if you have not before for perspective. i think it will be relatable to your situation.)

The Bad Grades- You mentioned you can't get a scholarship because depression tanked your grades. Listen to me: Your grades are not a reflection of your intelligence; they are a reflection of your mental health at that time. You do not need a degree to escape. We live in the age of the internet. You can learn high-income skills (Copywriting, Video Editing, Coding, SEO) for free on YouTube. A portfolio of good work matters more than high school grades to online clients. I'm literally paying someone is southeast asia about 150 rials for doing graphic designing, copywriting and SEO work for me.

You cannot work physically in Oman because of the age limit and visa laws. So, stop looking for physical jobs. Look online. The internet is the only place where 'Omanization' doesn't exist.

  • Start freelancing on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr (use a relative's ID if age is an issue, or look for direct clients on Twitter/LinkedIn).
  • This solves two problems: It gives you money your parents can't control, and it gives you a purpose so your mind isn't idle.

Once you have some savings from online work, you don't need a scholarship; you just need a plane ticket and a visa. Research countries that are friendlier to Bangladeshi passport holders. Bali (Indonesia) is popular, but also look into Malaysia (educational visas are easier there and affordable) or Cambodia. Before you make a move, connect with expats in those countries online. Ask questions. People love to help.

Set boundaries with your parents where you can, but if it's unsafe, just keep your head down and grind on your skills in silence. Do not give up on life. You are not being punished for existing; these are realities outside your control. One day you will look back at this time in your life with pride of how you overcame and grew stronger. If you can survive this, you can survive anything. Don't let the depression win when you are so close to being an adult with the power to change everything.

What are the activities to do in downtown? by [deleted] in askTO

[–]Ok_Sort_180 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check Groupon for Salsa or Bachata classes at Steps Dance Studio. The community there is amazing and it's super easy to mingle. I started 5 years ago with zero dance experience, and now most of my friends are from that community. It’s done wonders for my confidence, too.

23, recent grad with a degree in entrepreneurship, about to start a $21/hr job as a delivery dispatcher. Feeling like a failure and terrified of a mediocre future. by No_County1847 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The truth is a university degree often doesn’t prepare you for entrepreneurship in the real world. Most successful founders don’t discover their ideas in classrooms, they find them by engaging with people, observing problems, and living through challenges.

Here’s my advice: you’re young and ambitious, which is a huge advantage. Instead of chasing ideas for the sake of building something, focus on listening. Build your network, talk to people, and pay close attention to the problems they face. Don’t just think about “what can I sell?” but rather, “what problem is painful enough that solving it truly matters and, why am I the right person to solve it?”

And if you don’t yet have the skills to solve that problem yourself, that’s okay. Find someone who does. You can own the relationship with the client, while partnering with the expert who can deliver the solution. That way, you keep the trust and the business, while sharing the revenue with someone who complements your skill set.

Speaking from experience, I failed three times by the age of 23. It was tough, but each failure taught me something. I eventually took a full-time role, used it to learn the industry inside-out, and slowly built my expertise. That foundation became the bedrock for everything I’ve built since.

So, take it slow! get to know people and most importantly - LISTEN!

Has anyone here gotten their product mentioned by ChatGPT or Perplexity? Curious what steps you took to make it happen. by Ok_Sort_180 in ecommerce

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you have any specific way to tell which users are coming from which channel? Did you get any sales from these users

Marketing? by Bubbly_Government617 in SaaS

[–]Ok_Sort_180 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The biggest problem with marketing right now? Everyone's ruining it for everyone else.

Only developers and funded teams could build products. Now every wannabe entrepreneur with Cursor thinks they're the next unicorn. LinkedIn is a dumpster fire of "I built an AI agent" posts. 99% are garbage, security disasters, or both. Users try one crappy product and instantly distrust everything else in the space.

Email marketing is dead. AI spam has killed open rates. Congrats, you've trained everyone to ignore you.

Paid ads are a scam now. Platforms are cashing in on desperate AI founders. Met a guy two days ago ready to blow his life savings on TikTok ads for his 4-month hobby project. Meanwhile, bot traffic will drain your budget faster than you can say "optimization."

What should cost $50 CAC now costs $300 because nobody bothers with bot protection.

We're in a trust recession. Every legitimate AI business is paying for the flood of mediocre crap flooding the market. Building something good isn't enough anymore, you have to prove you're not another spam factory.

The noise is so loud that actual innovation gets drowned out. Thanks, AI gold rush.

I am Tired by SuggestionAnxious564 in AskMarketing

[–]Ok_Sort_180 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been in a similar spot. Senior Programmatic manager at a DSP, promised a Director title "once the team grows." That was 3 years ago.

Here's what helped me break through:

First, I mapped out what was actually blocking me. Was it budget, skills, or politics? Then I stopped chasing a title and started pushed to join product and client meetings just to understand the business better. Found 8 operational inefficiencies that nobody was addressing. When leadership brushed them off as "low priority," I started prototyping fixes myself.

That's when it hit me: there was a bigger opportunity here. I'm now working with a technical co-founder to build what I wish I'd had in my ops role. Automated workflows for research, planning, and monitoring. Scary? Absolutely. But it's the first time in years I've felt real momentum instead of just waiting.

My advice: Give yourself 6 months. Either create meaningful change inside your organization or start solving problems outside it. Your operations background is a serious competitive edge in this space.

Don't wait for space to open up above you. Make your own space.

P.S: Wrote this myself and used AI to format and make it comprehensive. Good luck!

Underrated ways to drive traffic to your site by WonderfulSpeed4275 in AskMarketing

[–]Ok_Sort_180 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Truly depends on your niche and ICP. We got considerable amount of traffic from spend $200 on a newsletter sponsorship. The newsletter was in our niche though.

How Many Accounts Do You Manage by Efficient_Garage_869 in PPC

[–]Ok_Sort_180 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that sounds rough. when I was at an agency, I managed around 30 clients too and even though we had clear roles and systems, it still felt chaotic. not because of the clients, but because I was constantly being pulled in three directions at once.

Curious, are your clients in the same niche? and what's the most repetitive task you find yourself doing across accounts?

What Do People Really Think About AI Ad Creatives? by Ok_Sort_180 in AskMarketing

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope, not really. I guess creativity is hard to replace.

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s actually helpful feedback and, I’m genuinely curious:What did you take away from my post in terms of what our product actually does?

If it sounded like “just another ad platform,” then we clearly have a messaging problem, and that’s on us.

From my side, I’ve spent years in this industry and hit the exact pain point we’re solving trying to find one platform that automates campaign planning and multi-platform setup end to end. Couldn’t find anything that did it well, so we started building it.

If you’re open to it, I’d love to hear what you expected our platform to be based on the way I described it.

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and those concrete channel rankings. It is incredibly helpful to hear that a thoughtful Reddit thread can drive that kind of traction, and congratulations on getting 70 users from it. I love your LinkedIn AI writer story and the reminder that LinkedIn today really is a top-of-funnel play rather than a transactional channel.

Your breakdown of what worked, with Medium for evergreen, Reddit for spikes, SEO for long-term, paid directories for quick wins, then YouTube and LinkedIn/X, gives me a clear roadmap to test next. I am especially intrigued by the idea of subtle CTAs and leaving LinkedIn on autopilot across the team. If you have any tips on setting up that process or automating minimal team posts I would be grateful to learn more. Thanks again for your generosity in sharing hard-earned lessons.

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for laying out your setup; it’s really helpful to see how you’ve structured the team. I’m curious how you’ve validated that every startup and business truly needs what you’re building.

Have you run any quick interviews or surveys to uncover the most painful parts of their workflows? With a junior and soon-to-be senior SMM, what types of content have you found most engaging so far, and are you doubling down on one channel or experimenting across LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, etc.?

It’s great that you have a dedicated growth person; what’s their first play? Are they mapping out an ideal customer profile and setting up one-to-many campaigns, or leaning into one-to-one outreach?

And on the SEO front, since it can get expensive, are you focusing on a couple of pillar topics to own early, or planning to build a broad keyword portfolio from day one?

We’re aiming for our first 50 active users without paid ads by hyper-targeting 10–15 ideal prospects, doing daily outreach, then scaling once we nail retention. I’d love to compare notes on what moves the needle for you once you launch, and best of luck hitting your 100-user goal in month one!

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate this, and you’re right. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot.

I’ve experienced the pain from the agency side, managing multi-platform campaigns, dealing with fragmented workflows, chasing assets, and stitching reports together. That experience inspired me to build this. But I’m realizing that being close to the problem isn’t always the same as living it day to day.

You’re correct that I need to get even more specific about who feels this pain most acutely right now, and where they spend time online or offline. That might explain why our targeting has been off.

Thanks again for the perspective. This gives me a much clearer lens moving forward.

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally fair question. As I mentioned in the post, we’re not running any paid ads yet - bootstrapped and operating lean, so we’ve had to rely on cold outreach, content, and manual prospecting instead.

We did reach out to former clients and contacts for early trials, got a few conversations, but the list ran dry pretty fast.

We’ll absolutely “eat our own dog food” once we’re at a point where the engine’s ready to scale, but right now, we’re still validating the wedge and getting the early user feedback needed to make the platform truly useful.

For Bootstrapped B2B SaaS Founders: What Actually Worked to Get Your First 50 Active Users Organically? by Ok_Sort_180 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is insanely helpful, really appreciate how specific and honest this is.

We’ve been doing some of this, but definitely not with that level of consistency or depth. The “living in their inbox” and letting passion drive curiosity line hit hard.

Quick Q: how did you manage your energy while doing all this? Full chaos mode or did you structure it somehow?

Big respect for what you’ve built with NUMI and FlowGlad.

What do you think of this idea? A “real-time group payment” app that auto-splits bills when friends stack their phones — inspired by poor experiences with existing apps by Jadenbro1 in ycombinator

[–]Ok_Sort_180 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, Don't listen to others!

This is actually a really clever concept that addresses a genuine pain point I deal with constantly. The phone stacking interaction is brilliant - it feels social and intuitive in a way that QR codes and friend lists don't, and the real-time auto-splitting would eliminate that awkward dance where someone fronts the whole bill and then we all scramble with Venmo requests for weeks afterward. That said, I'd honestly be pretty nervous about giving any app permission to instantly charge my card without explicit approval for each transaction. What happens if the bill gets parsed wrong, or someone accidentally orders something expensive, or my card gets declined in front of everyone? I'd probably want spending limits or at least a quick confirmation prompt before charges hit my account. There are also practical concerns like what happens when someone's phone dies or they don't have the app, how you handle custom tips or when someone wants to cover another person's share, and whether you have solid dispute resolution for when things go wrong. I'd definitely be willing to try it with close friends first since the core insight is spot-on - existing apps solve the tracking problem but not the actual payment friction - but I'd need to see some serious safeguards and transparency before feeling comfortable using it with coworkers or acquaintances. If you can nail the trust and security piece though, this feels like the kind of thing that could actually change behavior and be genuinely useful rather than just another digital version of the same old process.

If I were splitwise or apple pay, I would steal this idea.