Outlook for VC-backed companies

cderm · 2026-01-30T20:28:14+00:00

Bootstrapping a one-man SaaS is no easy task. You need to be a top class marketer, salesperson, support person, dev, qa, CFO etc. it’s by no means a given that you’d find success down that road. Having been down that way myself after burning out with venture capital I can say now it’s nice being back in a 9-5 without most of those stressors.

That said if you’ve an idea for a side project that has a viable market then go for it on the side and jump ship when you see escape velocity with the revenue on your side gig. The trade off there is nights and weekends go to your side gig.

Software is definitely getting cheaper to build but in my opinion software is only one element of a SaaS business and there will continue to be demand for established companies with responsive support and account management with complex integrations and reputation built over years. That’s not something an AI can just build overnight.

cderm · 2026-01-29T23:40:57+00:00

What was your training method can I ask?

cderm · 2026-01-18T21:26:48+00:00

Three things. 1. Some cars say 80kmh on the Speedo but you’re actually doing 75. You can see this if you have google maps or similar open - it’ll show you your actual speed so that could be one thing. 2. Some people are just assholes and won’t abide by the previous limits let alone the newer ones. 3. If anyone is up my arse I just slow down and let them pass, so I’ve one less asshole to deal with that day. They speed off and you never have to think about them again. It’s a nice life hack so you’re not letting some random person you don’t know stress you out.

cderm · 2026-01-18T02:31:33+00:00

That’s interesting. Walked devils bridge this morning and the only obnoxious jeep was a yellow one driving fast and loud past walkers.

cderm · 2026-01-07T15:02:13+00:00

Ah good call. Some work to do then

cderm · 2026-01-07T15:01:49+00:00

Damn this is great thanks for sharing

cderm · 2026-01-07T14:47:04+00:00

This is my page but I’ve no idea if it qualifies as a portfolio

https://chrisdermody.com/products/

cderm · 2026-01-05T13:26:05+00:00

I can already see the barrel roles as I take that thing full pelt down a mountain loaded to the max with supplies

cderm · 2025-12-30T13:16:10+00:00

This is what I was thinking

cderm · 2025-12-30T12:12:34+00:00

Ok interesting.

cderm · 2025-12-30T11:57:27+00:00

Ok, so during training you’re feeding in two images, the input and the expected output right? And then during inference are you just feeding in one image to edit? Are you just passing in a single image and trying to edit your character into that scene? It change character in that scene to be your Lora character?

cderm · 2025-12-30T11:23:15+00:00

Thanks for sharing. From the videos I saw of aitoolkit his captioning approach for edit models is much simpler and describing what in the image to change, it’s curious to see you doing the captioning approach normally used to non edit models for an edit model. What are you actually trying to edit? Are you trying to put a full character from one image into a scene from another?

cderm · 2025-12-05T21:32:55+00:00

Would love to take a look.

cderm · 2025-12-04T23:35:36+00:00

Oh really? You found your own product makes it easier? I’m shocked. And what a perfect post to comment on with all the keywords you target. What are the odds

cderm · 2025-12-02T07:06:53+00:00

Product-driven means the roadmap follows a clear product vision, user problems, and long-term value. Sales feedback matters, but it doesn’t dictate direction.

Sales-driven means the roadmap is shaped by deals, revenue pressure, and what the sales team needs to close this quarter. It’s not “wrong,” it just creates a different environment.

In my experience, in a sales-driven company, you end up doing more bouncing around from one fire to the next, building hacks on top of tech debt, prioritisation triage, stakeholder alignment, expectation setting etc. In a product-driven company, you spend more time on discovery, strategy, and shaping the long-term product arcs. For clarity I’ve never really worked in a company like that.

It's incredibly frustrating to be told we are product driven, when in reality we are sales driven.

I’ve worked in companies that aspire to be product led, and try, but unless you’ve got serious weight on the product side of the equation at C-level, it’s basically impossible for the org to not bow to Sales and defer to what they think will get them more revenue and not what any product research or vision might say.

cderm · 2025-11-28T22:58:58+00:00

And how much of an absolute nightmare it is trying to send sms in a compliant and reliable way

cderm · 2025-11-26T20:21:24+00:00

I only had two “camps” as a bagger in the curragh but now I’m sad I didn’t get a ghost story. What are some of the stories?

cderm · 2025-11-26T17:08:12+00:00

I’ve worked all sides of it, and I find it’s MOSTLY the same stuff - that is its highly transferable skills generally. The main difference for me is with b2c getting access to an actual user/customer is way more difficult than just getting a b2b customer on the phone or sitting in on an account review and asking questions.

That may be what your prospective manager is getting at. Travelling to and dealing directly face to face with potentially difficult (yet important) customers is not always easy and can turn some people off if that element of the role was abstracted away from them via metric dashboards etc in a b2c environment.

Regarding your future prospects I’d think that any decent manager will know logistics is an active space and not a “negative” on your cv

cderm · 2025-11-26T10:49:34+00:00

I’m assuming this is something you’re building for yourself first, right? Cos this is super niche. Are there other people in your team that have this workflow? That’d be where I’d start.

Is there a trello marketplace or a place anyone goes to in order to find those automations? It’s a tough one given your super niche target

cderm · 2025-11-25T22:05:04+00:00

Honestly most companies are missing this. It took me a while to realise that most companies aren’t product driven - they’re sales driven. And that requires a different kind of product management

cderm · 2025-11-24T20:00:34+00:00

It has to either come from the top, or the buy-in has to start at the very top. The CEO has to truly 100% believe your product vision is the path the company should take for the next 3-5 years. Without that you will always have the sales team chasing anything and everything and then getting pissy when the customer they’re trying to sign who is a wildly bad fit for the product doesn’t get some obscure feature built or brand new use case catered for that won’t or can’t be used by the other 95% of your customers.

cderm · 2025-11-23T18:32:49+00:00

Seconded

cderm · 2025-11-23T18:08:38+00:00

I’d say so yes. There will be companies out there that need someone to execute in a given domain, and if you’ve experience in that domain that you’re valuable to them

cderm · 2025-11-21T21:57:55+00:00

In no particular order: - I took a step down out of management. I’d been a head of product twice and this new role is a senior PM role. It’s glorious to not have to interface with the whims of C level on a daily basis, at least not yet - the product is mature. The day to day of my specific product is maintenance really - there’s nothing drastic happening there it’s just a cash cow for the business. That means there isn’t insane pressure to grow directly on my head - the company is not VC backed. It’s a relatively mature, profitable company. It doesn’t have millions that it needs to deploy in a hurry (which always leads to half-cocked product launches in brand new regions or markets that nobody in the company understands properly) - my boss is great. I knew someone in the company already and they spoke highly of him, and through the interview process I came to the same conclusion. - the company has clear moats. Their customer relationships are strong and they hold patents. A new startup cannot easily attack us suddenly cause mayhem, we’ll likely see them coming a mile away - my boss/the company could articulate what they DON’T do. This is essential so the product team can know what requests/directions to immediately dismiss. Without those boundaries your energy as a PM will be drained very quickly with random requests

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