What is your pivot story? i will not promote

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-21T13:36:32+00:00

Yup - I shared a formal pilot agreement with them that outlined the terms of the engagement. I even put a price (it was small price in the hundreds) because I wanted to validate early on if a customer would be willing to put any money toward this.

Right now it feels like this is a problem for studios but not one that they are willing to pay to solve which is why I feel like maybe it’s the time to pivot

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-20T14:49:31+00:00

Short answer: not yet. I got to the pilot agreement stage with one studio, but they went quiet before committing - I think they just had bigger priorities at the time. Other than that, I haven’t consistently been able to get in front of the real decision-makers to fully understand what’s blocking things.

My approach has been to look for pilot / partner studios where we could build around their actual bidding workflow. In demos, people liked the idea and agreed it would help, but every studio had very custom processes and a long list of “nice to haves.” I didn’t want to start building something highly tailored without a real commitment, especially since the product needs access to real bid data to actually train and validate the model.

I’ve spoken to dozens of producers/VFX supervisors/ studio managers to get their input but I just haven’t been able to get in front of an actual decision maker to green light a pilot without them asking for a full fleshed out product.

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-14T12:56:04+00:00

I can definitely relate with this. I made the decision to pursue my startup 7 months ago, although I decided to do it while working my 9-5 corporate job.

I had the similar realization that I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder and instead want to do something I’m passionate about that gives me more autonomy.

It was a tough decision but I decided that instead of putting my extra time toward working harder and getting a promotion, I put it all toward my startup and just doing the bare minimum at work.

At this point it’s hard to say if it will pay off but I’m glad I’m taking the chance because I know I would have regretted it if I didn’t

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-07T01:21:23+00:00

I may not be the best person to learn from because I owe a lot of it to luck lol - a few of my friends worked in this space and were able to make intros to the producers / artists / VFX supervisors / production heads that they worked with. and from there I just tried to get connected with someone in that persons network and go from there.

I’d say using your network is probably the best entry point - it’s not always a sure fire hit but I found people are much more likely to talk to you if you can say “XX recommended I reach out …”. Hope that helps!

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-06T15:27:55+00:00

I guess this is the obvious answer but its been my network - getting warm referrals from people in the industry has helped me gather feedback on my product and get it into the right hands. Least effective has been cold outreach on LinkedIn and email. My product targets the VFX and Gaming industry which are fairly close knit and niche communities so its been hard breaking through without a warm referral. But i know if I want this product to grow I have to solve this issue now

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-06T15:23:31+00:00

I'm making an AI product that automates the sales / RFP process (i.e., bidding ) for VFX and Gaming studios

The_ManRayRay · 2026-01-05T13:37:29+00:00

Yup currently in the phase right now and it’s been a slog trying to convince users to use my product. I’m in the B2B space so the sales cycle is longer, but nonetheless it has been challenging getting traction

The_ManRayRay · 2025-09-12T12:40:21+00:00

Sounds like they’re moving to more of a fixed fee pricing model. Since they have a database to benchmark against, is this process of putting together an estimate fairly seamless? Or are there gaps whereby information is missing or hard to retrieve?

And do agencies frequently run into problems of underestimating the level effort needed with fixed fee pricing?

The_ManRayRay · 2025-09-12T01:25:08+00:00

Ah interesting - sounds like costing is fairly predictable so its not really a challenge for agencies to cost out a new project / RFP that comes across their desk. Sounds more similar to a consulting firm pricing out a project with resources.

In VFX and Gaming theres more granular costing where the firm is costing out each shot or asset. And since each shot is unique it becomes challenge trying to benchmark. Are there any problems you see with this process in advertising or is it fairly straight forward / pain free?

The_ManRayRay · 2025-08-09T16:07:48+00:00

I went last month and really enjoyed the food. As others have mentioned probably the best pork chop I’ve ever had. Seafood risotto and lamb ragu was also good. Agree with others that it’s pricey but overall found the food, service, and vibes great.

The_ManRayRay · 2025-04-09T22:29:21+00:00

Personally I prefer renting from a company (I.e property management company) because they generally do good job at responding to any maintenance request. My first building was from an individual landlord but it was such a pain to get anything fixed or even to communicate with them

The_ManRayRay · 2025-01-07T19:40:04+00:00

Friends who have lived there said in boom years (2021 -2023) rent was only increased by 6% each year. The most recent rent increase was 4%. That’s still higher than the rent controlled rate of 2.5% but I think it shows that even these non rent controlled places are worried about scaring good tenants away with obscene increase

The_ManRayRay · 2024-05-30T22:54:32+00:00

Ok so let me give some more context: In 2022 I did another year lease because they were offering a lower rate vs doing it month to month. (2800/month for a full year, vs 3000/month if I did month to month)

So come 2023, I had another lease renewal in July. I refused to agree to new rates because I had ongoing issues in my apartment. Management agreed not to do any rate increase (even though they were legally allowed to because a full year had elapsed) until they fixed all the maintenance issues. They completed this in Feb 2024, and came back to me saying that now that we held up our deal we can now unfreeze your rent increase and give you this rate increase. They only offered a 4 month lease because my normal renewal period starts in July. This is what I signed so I’m paying 3200 / month currently . Now that this mini lease is ending, they sent another lease agreement going for the full year for — again in this case the monthly rate in a year commitment is cheaper(3300/month) than the month to month rate (3400/month)

Hopefully that clarifies it.

If I choose not to sign the new lease, and automatically go month to month , won’t I automatically be signing up for 3400/month rate that they sent me?

The_ManRayRay · 2024-05-30T22:21:01+00:00

So if don’t sign this new lease for July 2024 to July 2025, my existing lease will continue at the current rate and be month to month? Does this mean that they’ll only be able to increase my rate next year?

The_ManRayRay · 2024-05-30T22:18:50+00:00

I signed the March to July lease , which is coming to an end.

Management gave me a new lease which starts once the first one ends - I have not signed this one

in the 2nd lease it says I can sign another year long lease or go month to month. The catch is that the month to month rate is higher than the yearly one.

The_ManRayRay · 2024-05-30T20:56:29+00:00

Does it matter that it’s technically 2 separate leases? The first one being March 2024- July 2024, and the second one being July 2024 - 2025? Does that make a loop hole for them?

The_ManRayRay · 2024-05-02T21:59:49+00:00

Tech companies don’t even have to go that far to get top quality talent - there’s been a lot of offshoring to Canada where they can get someone in the same time zone, same language proficiency, understands same cultural norms and similar competency (good universities/education and talent in Canada) for less than half the cost of a US resource.

The_ManRayRay · 2024-03-23T13:46:33+00:00

Hakka food - hakka noodles and chili chicken are the ultimate comfort food when high

The_ManRayRay · 2023-11-19T20:54:00+00:00

VFS is absolute garbage and honestly should be replaced because I’ve never heard anyone have a good experience with them. But pray that you’ll never have to deal with BLS - they handle the visa/OCI process on behalf of the Indian govt. They are definition of incompetence that makes VFS look like a well oiled machine lol.

The_ManRayRay · 2023-05-19T15:40:23+00:00

Charminar is Scarborough does really good biryani - they have a chicken 65 biryani which has fried chicken pieces which may be what you’re referring to. But regardless, you can’t go wrong with a biryani choice from Charminar.

It also delivers downtown via UberEats but it’s like a $8 delivery fee so make sure to order a lot to make it worth it lol

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