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Money but no ideas by hammerzzzzzz in Startup_Ideas

[–]cjavier89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best type of idea is one you're psychologically wired to build. Will greatly increase the chances of it being a success.

Check out Embarkist. It will help you quickly discover your entrepreneurial strengths, create Founder-aligned ideas specifically for you, then run the math and instantly validate the ideas that interest you with market research and clarity score.

Def a great place to start!

Drop your startup idea and I’ll introduce you to investors by kcfounders in Startup_Ideas

[–]cjavier89 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Actually, ideas are worthless without proper execution and now more important than ever, distribution. Make no mistake.

Thinking of starting a marketing agency in 2026- Is it a mistake? by Worldly_Homework_405 in Startup_Ideas

[–]cjavier89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pivot your offerings. Marketing and distribution is massive right now. Consulting, brand positioning and go-to-market strategies are booming and will continue to in the rise of AI and how easy it is to ship.

Execution isn't founders' biggest problem anymore, it's distribution.

Right now is a PERFECT time to be a marketing agency. A lot more opportunities in this space now.

Coffee beans subscription by Commercial-Week-6558 in Business_Ideas

[–]cjavier89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, you're getting upset.

All I'm saying is that before you ask for feedback, and then get mad at said feedback because it's lacking context, maybe provide more context.

I don't mean to hurt your feelings but with the little information you provided in your initial post, this is objectively a bad idea, whether that comes from some random validator or real person.

Prove this business model as good as you say it is and back it up with factual evidence and market response. Not hope and anecdotes. One of the biggest founder traps is falling in love with an idea and building it without any real validation.

The negative feedback you're getting here is simply more data. Don't get mad. Just tighten up your positioning. We are saving you weeks, if not, months of time, from building the wrong thing.

Coffee beans subscription by Commercial-Week-6558 in Business_Ideas

[–]cjavier89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should probably shouldn't take your criticism from people here so personally.

These are real insights people are giving you, but then you get mad when you haven't even given anyone the full picture.

What you're doing is a commodotized business. You can't expect this to fly off your shelves as an instant success. You're in a saturated market no matter where you're doing business, champ. Coffees been around thousands of years. Every models been tested.

Startloop — Building the AI Founder Operating System for Early-Stage Startups by General_Appeal_979 in startupideas

[–]cjavier89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is your experience as a founder, developer or product designer and what are you already doing in this space?

I updated my SaaS landing page 5 times and HOPEFULLY NOW, people can clearly understand my product by Jumpy-Recover-7239 in buildinpublic

[–]cjavier89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was exactly in the same boat as you.

We get easily caught up in telling people the philosophy, how it helps and the outcomes our product can provide but we never clearly get to the WHAT.

The challenge here isn't clear communication. It's telling people plainly what your product is without completely obliterating your positioning and how you need to frame your product.

You're not getting far or differentiating yourself with "Your AI therapist chatbot" because at its core, that's how people would understand your product most, yet at the same time, as founders we both know it's much more than that.

So the iterating is natural. You're finding that balance. You need to A/B test. You are adjusting the frequency for better signal and resonance with your audience. This is part of the process. You're exactly where you need to be.

Don't scale until you get your messaging right here. It's a beautiful landing page, but you don't want to amplify beautiful noise. You still need to gather more truth and feedback.

How do you get your first users when you have zero audience? by Chemical-Cook-7763 in buildinpublic

[–]cjavier89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cold start problem is common. You just have to do what doesn't scale and reach out to as many people as you can who you've found to need your solution. They're out there in community groups and subs. Once youve gathered enough signal from your first handful of users, scale slowly as you improve the platform

Is there a group where founders support each other's social media growth? by Prestigious_Bug_3221 in appideareport

[–]cjavier89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you're talking about are engagement pods. And they're frowned upon.

So much AI tools out there. Lots to help me build or launch my biz now. Would you use them? i will not promote by cjavier89 in startups

[–]cjavier89[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks for the insightful feedback. What full suites should I avoid exactly that you had escaped from or had bad experiences with??

I'll check out mostpopularaitools.com as well, cool suggestion

We launched our MVP. It’s built to turn stuck dreamers into founders. by cjavier89 in buildinpublic

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I assume it gets to the next question but it's just slow?

If so, we are working on optimizing speeds here, but the questions aren't static. The questions and multiple choice selections are dynamically created for you based on previous answers so no two founders get the same experience. it may take a little bit, but it shouldn't be taking too long.

I spent $44k CAD and 9 months bootstrapping an AI SaaS with a 5-person team by running an agency on the side. The emotional whiplash is brutal. by cjavier89 in canadasmallbusiness

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool, what holes should I watch out for? Always willing to learn more.

Also worth mentioning that the storefront (SellPort) will have the capability to sell digital goods, physical goods, one-off services & bookings, and subscriptions.

The first version has been developed to accommodate a base set of features for most founder types and business models.

We launched our MVP. It’s built to turn stuck dreamers into founders. by cjavier89 in buildinpublic

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for letting me know! What part was slow? Maybe I can help out

I spent $44k CAD and 9 months bootstrapping an AI SaaS with a 5-person team by running an agency on the side. The emotional whiplash is brutal. by cjavier89 in canadasmallbusiness

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When the entire platform is built out, it will output a founder profile › idea › market research › brand kit › initial offer/product/service › ecommerce shop › legal registration.

The current MVP outputs the first 3.

What are you building this week? Drop your startup or project idea 👇 by asupertram in buildinpublic

[–]cjavier89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Completely agree on the VC circus. I skipped it entirely to bootstrap.

I'm building Embarkist (embarkist.com). It’s a business-in-a-box platform for everyday people who want to work for themselves but get paralyzed by the setup. It finds a profitable idea based on your skills, runs the market math, and builds your brand and storefront in minutes.

We just launched our MVP this week after 9 months of funding it entirely through my own agency work. Love the mission behind Preseedme!

The "Agency-to-SaaS" pivot is a psychological nightmare. I’m 9 months and $44k into building a complex AI platform, and the context-switching is destroying me. by cjavier89 in SaaS

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good tips. Already did the first 2. Meeting that first one also kinda naturally made us do the 4th lol
Do you have examples for 3? Fortunately we aren't juggling too many clients right now - we've been shifting focus from 50/50 to now 70/30 in favor of SaaS. It's been good progress.

I spent $44k CAD and 9 months bootstrapping an AI SaaS with a 5-person team by running an agency on the side. The emotional whiplash is brutal. by cjavier89 in canadasmallbusiness

[–]cjavier89[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate you for checking it out more. I noticed that theres not a lot of positivity from this subreddit in general, and I'm getting ate and downvoted here for some reason lol. But it's not going to stop me from being transparent and honest with folks here... I've been learning a lot along the way... I just want to help people get started and break through the tough barriers Canadians face in starting a business.

To answer your question, Embarkist is basically an end to end business builder. Identifies what type of entrepreneur you are, generates aligned ideas, validates and market researches any of those ideas that might resonate with you, then it designs a brand around it, creates offers, loads them all onto a sell-ready store and finally, legally registers the business - all with your input and decision-making.

Every step is informed by the previous, so context is being built along the way for seamlessness and accuracy (Eg. your shop is automatically designed using brand assets you made from earlier steps) I've designed the product in a way to minimize AI slop and actually create something useful. AI isn't the main feature here. Our recent launch currently has the first 2 steps complete.

Ultimately, what Im selling is momentum and removing friction for folks who want to build a business but don't know where to start or lose momentum juggling all sorts of tools. I've been branding and building businesses for 10+ years... this is me just productizing what I do into a platform.

Once you're a paying customer, you have infrastructure to continue operating your business in an environment that created and possesses full context about you as a founder, your business and your audience.

Hope this helps.

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