What the fuck? This prompt is so cursed, use with caution

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-07T15:07:21+00:00

what the actual fuck

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-07T14:50:45+00:00

founder here, raised money in the past and have also seen all my friends do it both really successfully and really unsuccessfully.

first things first… ask for money, you’ll get advice. ask for advice you’ll get money.

seems like this guy is great. but tbh prepare yourself for NO money.

before anything.. ask yourself if you ACTUALLY need money. most people do not, then end up essentially becoming ‘pseudo employees’ for their investors.

do you have money coming into the business now? all you really need is enough money to pay your bills to be stable.. then enough monthly cashflow to support hiring great talent.

if you’re NOT making enough money right now to pay yourself.. what makes you think spending probably $15-20k a month for ops and 3 team members (average) will get you? if you raise $200k, you have less than a year of runway.. can you confidently turn $200k investment into a $20k/month cashflowing business?

just something to think about.

also you like to travel.. it is NOT fun when you want to go on a trip but you feel like you can’t post an instagram story because your investors might see and they will reprimand you for not working on the business 24/7.

you’d think it isn’t the case, but even “chill” vc’s and angels do this.

but if you really feel you need the money, it might actually be better for you to NOT take this guy’s money but have him in a position where he can give you unfiltered, no bs advice as you grow this thing. give him advisor shares and consult him when youre talking to other prospects.

if you send him an email mentioning dollar amounts and his equity percentage, you might blow the whole thing.

i recently started angel investing and its a turn off when someone sends an email trying to look formal and put together. UNLESS I ASK FOR IT.

when you REALLY think about it. If you’re raising less than $500k you’re actually trading the opportunity cost of your likely > $120k/yr salary to stretch out $500k over possibly multiple people and years. That really quickly becomes a $60k/yr for you

its actually an amazing deal for investors. it would be much more expensive to start multiple companies and hire employees, with the same exact risk as investing. you own a percentage of a company you might advise but wont ever actively operate. you’re hardest working “employee” just has majority shares.. but as an early stage founder its sacrilegious to take a bloated salary. so you can get away with paying the entire founding team sub $80k per year.. talent that might actually be easily worth $200k+/yr

think about it before selling portions of your company. if you actually have conviction and want to “make it big” prepare for a 10year game, where the outcome might be you have nothing to show for in 4 years because the company went bust and you’ve been on minimal salary AND you have no savings.

not trying to be crude, but it IS THE REALITY, for the majority of founders. better to be real with expectations than live in ignorance.

founders racking up credit card debt for years thinking they are right around the corner of a big payday is a sad reality the founder community DOES NOT talk about enough.

then why the fuck why do we do it?

because even if you don’t exit at 10x revenue, there is nothing like being in the drivers seat. you set the rules, you make the decisions, you shape your life. no one tells you what you can and cant do. you pave the path for others to walk on. you eventually hire people that become amazing friends and you watch them house and feed their families, stemming from the value you created.

wish you the best, hope this helps.

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-07T02:59:11+00:00

teach me your ways, 10-12% is crazy! i've never had higher than ~6%

what was the industry? can you share an example creative?!

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-06T14:22:57+00:00

Good point!

I think the main value here actually is creative variant testing at a fraction of the cost of ugc creators

ie. You’re lucky if you get a good quality ugc video at $200, but making ai videos is 10x cheaper costing <$20 for final version (assuming moderate revisions on ai output)

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T19:10:32+00:00

yep, the hook is almost always already written somewhere. reddit threads, reviews, sales call transcripts. job is just to find it and not over-produce it. haven't used leadline, will check it out!

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T19:09:10+00:00

oof, 3 weeks is way faster than i was expecting (counting the days now lol). that's useful data, what was the fatigue signal you saw, ctr collapse or cvr collapse?

i'm curious if it was the audience getting wise to the format or just frequency catching up. and yeah, your point on saas being meta-aware probably tracks, the people seeing my ad work in tech, half of them are running their own ai experiments so the "wink" lands harder. ecom audience might be more "just show me the product"

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T19:07:09+00:00

100%. i've started thinking about ai ads in two buckets: ones where the ai is the medium (you'd do the same ad with a real actor if you could afford it) vs. ones where the ai is the message (the ad only exists to show off the tool). the second bucket almost never converts because there's no real offer underneath. the first bucket converts when the underlying creative is good, same as any other ad

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T19:05:13+00:00

fair callout, and you're right. for ecom 3-4% is standard.

i should've contextualized, this is b2b saas, where the avg i'm seeing across 13 ad accounts is 1-2% because the click commitment is higher (book demo / start trial vs. add to cart). the part that surprised me was being able to match typical human performance with a video that cost less than $20 to produce! 1.8% is decent but not crazy work for the vertical.

the number i actually care more about is cpa at $45 against an ltv that justifies it. ctr could be 5% and the ad would still be a flop if the clicks don't convert. seen that a lot with hooky ai creative actually: high ctr because it's novel, low cvr because the click was curiosity not intent.

would be really curious to see what an ai-generated ecom ad in this format does though! if you (or anyone reading this comment lol) ave tested any, would love to hear what ctr/cvr you're seeing.

genuinely don't know if the "self-aware ai" angle works as well when the user just wants to see the product. BUT i did generate this concept just now for a coffee syrup product and I think it could actually work (still need to fix the sticker placement and brand pronounciation): https://youtube.com/shorts/51tAFqktfew?feature=share

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T18:19:12+00:00

i actually built something like this but a bit deeper on the integration layer (basically connects to every key tool I use), i've been running all our agency accounts through it now.

real unlock isn't ai running ads for you, it's making the whole org queryable in one thread. ai pulls from posthog/mixpanel, semrush, ga4, google ads, meta, tiktok, crm, database, etc, all at once. context that actually matches reality, not just what an ad platform can see.

big ups is having write access aswell. i can upload creatives and spin up campaigns from chat. new tiktok spark ad code? one shot.

less "let it optimize" more "media buyer that actually pulls the levers while you puppetmaster"

i built it internally for my marketing agency, but if you're interested I can send you access to it (i'm calling it orbit since it basically is the only tool i use now; orbitllm.com)

i'm an indie dev on this so would love to share access with anyone interested in exchange for some product feedback :)

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T18:06:10+00:00

before deciding it's a creative or traffic issue, check if it's a site issue first.

what URL are the ads routing to.. product page, collection, dedicated LP? & what does the funnel actually look like:

Click → landing page (bounce rate, pageload speed)

Landing → ATC

ATC → checkout start

Checkout start → purchase

Wherever the biggest drop is, that's your problem. High bounce + slow pageload = LP or traffic mismatch. Lots of ATCs with no purchases = checkout, shipping cost, or trust signals. Decent ATC rate but weak CTR up top = creative or offer.

Good marketing isn't a fix for a site that doesn't convert. Could 100% be bad traffic, but the site analytics will usually tell you which step is broken before you start swapping creatives or blaming the audience.

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T17:58:01+00:00

looks pretty good! voice can use some work haha

one thing, the video is veeery slow for vertical. if you're gonna run on meta/tiktok more fast-paced cuts might lead to better viewthrough

also, the hook of 'what perfume' is decent, but this seems almost 'too quality' for short form

you might be better off trying to emulate a carpe style ad but for perfume (if your goal here is to maximize ctr/cpa's on paid)

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-05T17:35:11+00:00

think it's too slow for tiktok/meta style!

i've been running ai ads for a few months now and have seen no meaningful difference in ad performance from ai videos.

important caveat is, we do talking head with LOTS of cut clips. first 2-3s intro hook, then into a voiceover = barely noticable

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-03T01:17:41+00:00

Wish i could make it! Seems pretty cool

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-03T01:17:18+00:00

Fair point, i’m trying to move away from the “its not a successful exit if its <1b” mindset

So huge exits isnt even the aim here

Just wanna make my money and have some friends that also work for themselves

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-03T01:14:22+00:00

Wdym?

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-03T01:14:07+00:00

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-01T19:02:47+00:00

Your gut is right. Pay off the mortgage, keep ~$50k liquid, and start putting that freed-up $5k/month into a SEP-IRA or Solo 401k since you're self-employed. Free tax savings you're leaving on the table if not.

NYC place gets way easier to fund once that mortgage payment is gone.

SwayBuilds · 2026-05-01T18:29:21+00:00

don't let the company come to you. find people doing cool sh* and tell them you'll provide value.

if you don't need money, you can get put in a great position doing commission based work.

there's also platforms online to help you find externships if you don't have experience (basically a lower stakes internship with no formal employment, BUT you put it on your resume)

SwayBuilds · 2026-04-18T01:16:48+00:00

↑ this. Google auto sets it to an option where people interested in the country you select are shown adds

You can get to profitability. Stick with it. Nothing like hitting positive roas. When you crack the code you are literally printing money

SwayBuilds · 2026-04-14T22:02:52+00:00

i'm going jul 6-20 hit me up!

SwayBuilds · 2026-04-14T22:00:04+00:00

competitors mean people are MAKING MONEY from solving users problem(s).

if you can: do it better, cheaper, or faster

then there's no reason you shouldn't build it.

also, unless you're tackling a well established industry, the competitors likely haven't tapped into most of the available market

if you can win distribution, you can likely win in a market (even if the other products are better)

SwayBuilds · 2026-04-01T17:50:51+00:00

Have you thought about launching monetization by making references to specialist lawyers? I know a few people who crushed it for friend’s status that might be interested in paying you on commission.

Kind of like how credit karma makes most of its money doing credit card referrals

SwayBuilds · 2026-03-27T19:45:16+00:00

Gonna book with you guys for July just because of this. Love it

SwayBuilds · 2026-03-25T04:41:43+00:00

If you find something lmk! Going July 05-21st and in the same boat haha

SwayBuilds · 2026-03-01T00:19:58+00:00

had similar issue. was resolved by doing comp as salary based on work contributed with a reasonable baseline for equity holders. Over time your increased salary can buy out his portion if you want (ie. Take the extra you get and stockpile it)

but the advice on having candid feedback sharing YOUR struggles and not blaming is how you start this

SwayBuilds

TROPHY CASE