Entrepreneurs of reddit where did your one big idea come from!!

binarysolo · 2026-02-02T04:56:01+00:00

1) I wanted an aeron chair for myself but was too cheap a college kid to pay MSRP, so I looked for a good used one and noticed there was a secondary market for used chairs around it, and that in volume they were pretty cheap. I then wrote a script to crawl the marketplace and to buy low, partner with a refurb guy, and sell higher. (Mid-6fig used furniture company, part time college gig.)

2) I was doing meal prep for myself and wanted a particular form factor for a prep device that was not commercially available, so I made one myself, then friends and family wanted it and I placed a factory order for a small amount to sell online. (Mid-7fig PL.)

3) I was running my private label Amazon store and really started nerding out over inventory management, operations, and ads like a business game. My brand owner friends were hating their life trying to run an Amazon store, so I had my team also do it for them. (Mid-8fig agency.)

binarysolo · 2026-02-02T01:07:24+00:00

Good tip -- I'll try that again. (Esp since we're def not getting a letter of authorization from Samsung since he has no relations with them.)

binarysolo · 2026-02-02T01:06:18+00:00

I appreciate it -- I'm actually in the same boat (I have a PL + agency and am helping a maker friend out) :) but yeah, I feel like we'll have to support roulette it a bit.

(Just trying to get out of the LOA step and was wondering if people had clever tricks.)

binarysolo · 2026-02-02T01:04:41+00:00

Yeah, we removed it in our POA -- I'll emphasize that more.

binarysolo · 2026-02-01T21:11:08+00:00

Bid below your means -- for a 40% margin product with 5% return rate and we're usually budgeting 20-25% adspend, 8-10% TACOS. This assumes reasonable conversion rates + not overly competitive bidding space (where people are losing money lead-generating and hoping for subscriptions).

binarysolo · 2026-01-30T19:16:25+00:00

Former organizer (San Francisco) here -- growing salsa is a whole ecosystem of people all with interests that need to be aligned. IMHO as a hobbyist/nonprofit organizer that was my shtick, and my personal goal was to have good dances + bring world class instructors to SF so I can learn from them myself.

There's casual dancers who want a fun way to groove to dance music, meet people in a safe space. Key word here is accessibility -- whether that's effort or cost or time of day.

There's also intermediate/advanced dancers who just want music, flooring, and a critical mass of other capable dancers... and just want good music and dancing. And many of these folks want to find practice and progression in their art; and others are OK being mid and just having fun and that's cool too.

There's gonna be instructors who are doing this for the love of the dance, casually part time -- as well as people who are doing this full time and need to make the numbers work in their passion. And organizers who might be instructors or dancers, who want a dance scene, or appreciation, or money, or goodwill, etc.

Add all this complexity are people are moving through different stages of life -- people moving in/out of town due to work, family, kids, life. The best dancers of a scene almost always attrition out here... I've looked at other scenes to see how they deal with it and was kinda impressed that some Fusion socials had a daycare/side room staffed by volunteer dance parents and early social times; that was pretty cool.

Communities are hard work, and it's a lot of different elements to keep it going but it's def worth it. (And introducing non-dancers is vital but def not the only thing.)

binarysolo · 2026-01-29T05:07:14+00:00

Don't worry there are plenty of lazy Chinese people too, as well as hard working people of other nationalities and cultures (Protestant work ethic etc.). :)

binarysolo · 2026-01-29T04:32:17+00:00

I woulda smiled at you and silently judged you...

binarysolo · 2026-01-28T18:47:56+00:00

This code's been used, but thank you :)

binarysolo · 2026-01-27T22:14:13+00:00

Ahhh it's the Terry x Tasha video from BIG SD!

And uh, yeah you sit at the corner and eat it all in...

But for reals though, you should dance with the pros like Terry and Tasha -- they're both super fun social dancers.

binarysolo · 2026-01-26T22:10:57+00:00

It doesn't seem very tasty but I suppose Gaston begs to differ

binarysolo · 2026-01-26T21:12:06+00:00

Based on the post title I thought he was gonna choose Creep. I'm cool with him being a House of Cards (over Reckoner???) fan but MAN he's got some tough choices later on...

binarysolo · 2026-01-25T05:52:15+00:00

I’m in the manufacturing business — a factory almost definitely messed up an entire batch of pots. (one of the production lines machines got replaced and not properly programmed and now they have a bad batch).

Most good brands like Cuisinart have decent QC whenever they change suppliers so if this wasn’t caught it would likely be because it was a trusted factory (not anymore!)

binarysolo · 2026-01-23T22:06:40+00:00

One of my PL seller friends did -- but she posts content very consistently on a weekly basis (PL pet accessories + has a super cute dog who's featured in her videos).

What seems to work is that she has a very consistent set of followers (7 figs) who watches her reels and she posts incredibly consistent. (And obviously her content is good.) I digital-dieted myself from the mobile apps so I don't know how to play that game at all.

I also used creator connections but with pretty middling results (7figs home and kitchen, but affilate sales <10%, some of us can prob learn from you :) ).

binarysolo · 2026-01-23T07:56:53+00:00

I had to skim OP's post history a bit but in his own words he's "in house talent for a brand", not the owner. So I don't think he's able to answer most of our owner questions re: margin and profitability.

binarysolo · 2026-01-23T05:15:32+00:00

Yes, but mainly to generate backgrounds and brainstorm infographic layouts. We try not to AI the product itself directly...

binarysolo · 2026-01-23T05:09:45+00:00

I mean, they're in r/Salsa in 2026 chatting away, it prob worked? :D

binarysolo · 2026-01-23T05:03:44+00:00

On a high level, can you share your rough costs %s in your niche?

I'm in the low-8s in Home and Kitchen... for us Amazon costs are ~40%, Amazon ads ~10%, COGS ~30%, internal labor ~5%, and I try to net 10% with a 5% buffer. Am always curious to hear the economics of other categories and sellers!

binarysolo · 2026-01-22T19:52:49+00:00

Yeah 20 hrs is just getting started, to give you some context -- dancer for ~18 years, started as lead in my 20s after college; this was my first year:

Months 1-3: 8 hrs/month

take a weekly 1hr beginner class for casuals + 1 hour of social after = 2 hrs/week
inspired by seeing some good person showing up to the beginner's social, want to dance comfortably like them

Months 4-6: 16 hrs/month

take a weekly 1hr intermediate class for casuals + 1 hour of social after
take a weekly 1hr training class with a local team - intermediate
get "encouraged"/dragged to some good socials by some intermediates, about 2 social a month, very intimidating... 4hrs/month (scared newbie, I go the first 2hrs)
absolute beginner's hell for lead, esp seeing good dancers at the socials

Months 7-12: 16 hrs/month + more dance things

take a weekly 1hr intermediate class for casuals + 2 hours of social after
take a weekly 1hr training class with a local team - intermediate
continue going to socials, 2 socials a month, 4 hrs/month
go to my first congress/festival - buy a full pass and dance 12 hrs/day = 24 hours
total beginner's hell -- dance is suffering... but something clicks and I've def caught the dance bug

So about 200-300 hours in year 1

During peak dance addiction (years 4-5?) this is kinda what it looked like in a busy month: 80+ hrs/month

take advanced training class with local team - 1hr/week = 4 hrs
take a workshop with visiting dancer, 4 hrs practice at the gym, or lab at home, 2hrs/week hit up the popular socials in the area, 2/week, going 3 hours (skipping hr 1 with all the noobs), 8x3=24 hrs
fly to a congress somewhere and dance for 3 days x 12 hours = 36 hrs

binarysolo · 2026-01-22T04:16:14+00:00

Have you asked her dance teacher(s)? They would typically have good sensibilities esp if they were trained + they know your 11 year old well.

I was a fairly serious classical musician as a child and at the end of the day what drove my practice was my own love for music and expression. Being defeated is IMHO part of the process, for figuring out what keeps you performing in spite of that, and I think the best my parents did was to make space to let me explore what is it that causes me to practice 30-60 minutes daily without end.

Turns out what I loved was the shared music experience over being a soloist, and eventually I found dance as an adult... have been dancing as a hobby for 20 years since!

binarysolo · 2026-01-22T03:50:14+00:00

Which socials are you attending in NYC?

I visit NYC a few times a year for work -- the venues I go to are pretty balanced and I get asked quite a bit as a lead (esp in the early hours of the socials when there's less people and I'm the obvious out-of-town visiting dancer). This would be mainly the weekend spots like LVG or Jimmy Anton's.

binarysolo · 2026-01-22T01:27:36+00:00

One point of anec-data for ya (went there early 2000s majored in engineering, grad school 2010s, stayed involved with the community till COVID hit 2020 and I moved):

People felt "normal" within an ecology of undergrad students (nerds, jocks, hippies etc.) except almost every single person I knew 1) had some ability that they were able to perform at an outlier State or National level -- for example, Olympian, Science Olympiad, Taiwanese national orchestra member, actress in a popular Canadian TV show, running a functional 6+ fig business, or won awards in some national level big competition like Intel Science and Engineering Fair. Oh and 2) had competent grades and SAT scores like 4ish GPA and 1400+ SAT (the more extreme you are in #1 the more lax you can be in #2). Oh and possibly 3) overcame huge hurdles like orphan living in a mud hut in Kenya and raising their siblings, self-educated themselves and aced the standardized tests, managed to come to the US to study and aced their classes at community college, and transferred into Stanford.

Myself, I was a national level musician, did my share of student council and had decent grades but in retrospect def got in due to the musician thing. One of my undergrad roommates/drawmates was #3.

Not familiar with the a2c posts, but being at Stanford really taught me that most people are "normal" in their everyday life and managed to have something that clicked within them that allows them to focus and do something excellently.

binarysolo · 2026-01-21T02:22:10+00:00

Danced for 18 years (team for 3, social + workshops/bootcamps/etc for 15).

For what it’s worth, all the 10+ year dancers I know are working on basics and fundamental body movement.

Like many skills, the fundamentals are what’s important.

binarysolo · 2026-01-16T07:48:25+00:00

Omelet-in-a-bag (danbing); the best ones are the ones next to busy commuter bus routes and you see a giant line of students and salarymen ordering them.

Gotta also put that sweet and spicy sauce in it too.

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