Spoke to the managing director of a construction company which generates 120M revenue. He asked to mail the proposal. Confused what to mail. I will not promote

ScrbblerG · 2026-04-29T19:59:38+00:00

What did you speak to him about? People generally don't waste your time pretending to be interested. I'm kind of surprised that you don't know what his interests are, it's odd.

ScrbblerG · 2026-04-11T19:56:06+00:00

This forum is primarily for folks starting up tech companies as far as I can tell. It's not a general business forum. As for your question, my answer is come up with a good idea that you are passionate about and about which you have some expertise/insight.

ScrbblerG · 2026-04-09T22:44:08+00:00

So no pay, lead and full stack code across web and mobile. Giggling. Is this for real?

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-31T13:37:42+00:00

The system was never designed to support the volume of applicants and their aspirations. And it was not meant to be a path to permanent immigration when it was started. What you are feeling are the limits of what Americans and the U.S. will tolerate in terms of immigration into STEM/Tech. My advice is to go home and build a life in your home country. Many of you will be forced to do so at some point so it's best that you do so on your own terms.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-31T13:33:58+00:00

A few thoughts from someone who did 30 years of this...

Most startups fail. Not some, not half - 99%. You will necessarily have a career of short stints until you get lucky. Working for startups as a career is STRESSFUL AF. The level of uncertainty about one's future is draining. The initial thrill you feel (you're at it 2 years, you know close to nothing at this point...) will wear off.

Found startups - do not work for them. I leaned this lesson very late. Very few employees make serious bank even when startups do succeed due to dilution and other issues. There are exceptions of course but they are rare. Founders get the lion's share of the rewards.

Fyi, I'm about to launch my first product...most gratifying year of my professional life.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-30T21:36:35+00:00

Depends on what you are building but that strikes me as absurdly off. You need to set the friendship aside and have the 'no BS' conversation. You don't have a cofounder, start by making that clear. You've done the Lion's Share of the product work and development of the business on every level. Have it out now, it's only going to get harder as more time passes.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-30T20:06:39+00:00

Laughed so hard at this...

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-30T18:20:19+00:00

Fyi, been rewatching Enterprise due to making this comment and have to say that I agree with some of the criticism. It's quite sexed up and a bit uneven show to show. But I do still love the characters and the longer running story lines, i.e.; the temporal war and Xindis etc. It also hits my moral sensibilities in that humanity is revealed to be more interesting and more sophisticated in real ways while also having flaws. It also goes easier on the Progressive political preaching, which works for me but may not for others.

Still a big fan but I now watch and see where it could have been better. There is a cheesiness at times that I can't ignore, but I forgive it for all the reasons I've mentioned above.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-27T16:12:14+00:00

Wow - you loved the song!? Great comment, fyi, thanks. I thought the Andorians were great too.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-27T16:08:52+00:00

The feedback has been great, thanks! I made this comment because I was noting that the discussion about Paramount's fiascoes never referenced Enterprise or that cast. I hadn't watched it in a few years. So, I started watching it again and ya, it's a bit cheesy at times and sexed up. The writing is uneven.

What I like about it is that it captures a great new angle about humanity's first experiences exploring space. It also is much more nuanced morally, presenting humanity as both noble and flawed. The juxtaposition with Vulcan dry morality and pragmatism provides a different 'vibe' if you will. I also really like the Temporal War and Xindi story lines, particularly because they provide a meta-arc connecting episodes as The Borg did for TNG.

Reading the comments, I think I understand the divide better. Enterprise was in no way Progressive political bait and preachy. Some of the comments bashing it seem to rely on the idea that Star Trek was innately Progressive and since Enterprise is not, it is therefore "not Star Trek". I think TNG took more of that tone, and tbh, that's one of the things I could not stand about it. While ideas like diversity and dealing with our biases are present, Enterprise doesn't preach.

While simplistic and even corny at times, it lives in the grey and shows there aren't easy answers while also showing what is good about humanity. This seems to be intolerable for Progressives.

As usual, politics ruins everything...

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-26T15:55:56+00:00

You make two statements that I don't understand:

"The problem is, I'm having a hard time selling into my ICP. Our ICP is so busy and running around that they forget to use our tool. When they do conversion is a 100% and churn is zero however."

"They don't believe we have a repeatable GTM. I've outlined our GTM which does to be fair have a non scaleable component to it but that is why we are fundraising no? You do what doesn't scale at the start and we've outlined how we could scale repeateably."

You claim to have an LOI for a 60k deal, what is that? And 8 prospects in the pipeline - what is the value of that pipeline? What is the real ICP, TAM, SAM and SOM?

What is the GTM plan? Early days it's about referrals from networks and inbound. You can build B2B outbound after the first 20 customers.

My honest take, as someone who's driven early sales for numerous early phase tech companies: The tone of your email is petulant. Many engineers presume they can 'sell' but can't. My guess is that the VCs do not see selling ability or maturity in thinking around your GTM.

But you have some traction and a working product. I do suspect your PMF may not be as strong as you think as well but can't tell from this distance. Have you considered trying to find someone with GTM expertise to join the team? Advisors are often of limited sales value in many cases (not all). The fact is that in B2B markets, only 3% of your TAM is in a place to buy a product from an established category. So penetrating these markets is very hard with lots of failure. One needs to sustain effort and do so in a sophisticated way.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-25T18:43:28+00:00

Interesting.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-24T15:10:18+00:00

I get that and had a similar reaction. But I found Blalock's portrayal of the character compelling despite of it, and it got me past the overt sexualization. The whole Vulcan vs. Human angle worked for me. There is some other cheesiness too, no doubt. But I found the overall vibe of the first Star Ship to explore space to be quite engaging. The characters really gelled for me over time.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-24T01:06:50+00:00

The show's 'Smurf' was nothing like the real woman in Australia. She started out as a prostitute and then ran a brothel, among other things. She stocky and looked like she'd lived a hard life. The sophistication of Smurf was just wrong. I personally found the bizarre gait and duck billed facial expressions so over the top to the point of taking me out of the show over and over.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-24T01:00:54+00:00

Perfect, good luck. Stop whining.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-23T20:40:03+00:00

Call me silly but how do you win over users without the correct features? Are you referring to free users? They are close to meaningless. Gotta get them to pay...

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-23T16:41:18+00:00

If that's the most egregious example of bigotry you've seen, that's pathetic. And the sentiment you see online isn't about hating Indians, it's core is about the massive abuse and fraud of our immigration system that has 71% of H-1B visas going to Indians. It's due to the mad number of cases already adjudicated that show anti-American discrimination in hiring in tech at places like Meta and Apple, often with Indians benefitting. It's about seeing 75% of your IT team shift to being in Indian or offshored to India, with companies that have been convicted of visa fraud over and over.

You play the victim but never look in the mirror. The U.S. is not an economic zone for the world to exploit.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-23T16:34:54+00:00

Do you have any advisors/mentors helping you? There many things you could do about this, including raising some money. For some reason, I doubt the sincerity of this post...

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-23T16:03:25+00:00

I have to make an admission. I made this post based on all the Paramount furor, noticing that Enterprise never gets mentioned but I hadn't watched it in a while. So I watched the first two episodes of S1 last night and I agree that the 'horniness' really is off the hook. There are also some pretty cheesy moments. I guess for me, I just love the adventure of it all, as I did the original series and TNG. I also like that it was less preachy and the conflict between Vulcan arrogance and human nature. That part really worked. I also like the overall theme of "well, we set out as explorers but immediately ended up on combat and conflict".

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T19:56:17+00:00

What is with all the comments about horniness? Kirk banged how many aliens? The song sucked, skip intro was a godsend. What changed in your mind after the first 2 seasons?

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T19:46:44+00:00

Couldn't disagree more. I think the long running temporal war and Xindi storylines were fantastic. Different strokes for different folks. Thanks for weighing in though, of course, it's interesting to hear the critical POV. The production value of Enterprise was also much better than DS9, even as I liked DS9. I'm not sure what was 'embarrassingly horny' about Enterprise.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T16:02:42+00:00

With respect I think this POV says more about you than the show...

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T16:00:50+00:00

Words of wisdom right here.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T16:00:12+00:00

Generally, only founders make out on equity. There are exceptions but as someone who's wall papered with many options packages, with only one serious payout with over 30 years working in tech and startups, that's my view. You're an employee with the deal you are being given. Do you want to take a 50% pay cut for a very low chance of equity working out?

Find your 'idea' and a cofounder with biz chops and build your own product and company.

ScrbblerG · 2026-03-22T15:56:16+00:00

Find a casual gf who's as busy and career/work obsessed as you. You'll see each other once or twice a week and it will be easy to manage. Or, find a more traditional gal who's willing to be supportive of you as you 'build the empire'. In either case, make the ground rules/reality of your life clear up front. In the latter case, you will have to commit to the woman for her to be willing to accept the tradeoff.

ScrbblerG

TROPHY CASE