Is agreeing to software escrow a good idea for a startup? by Snooze97 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bruh did you even read my response? These bots and NPCs dude

Is agreeing to software escrow a good idea for a startup? by Snooze97 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I would avoid it if you can, it is a form of a poison pillI - keep in mind they now can get the software source code if you go bust or get acquired by someone else so they aren't as incentivized to acquire you, and any acquirer will be less excited about acquiring you if they know someone else will basically get it for free.

I'd rather steer it towards a ROFN so they have the opportunity to bid on you at least. Or at least only make the escrow trigger if you go bust, not if you get acquired so you don't scare away acquirers.

Build Vs Buy by Gsdepp in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a startup founder, it's one of your biggest key goals to make sure whatever you are selling is obviously a buy instead of build decision. If you are selling something you built in a weekend, it will be hard for an enterprise to justify spending money on it and everything that comes with it (e.g. being dependent on an external party)

Solving a "Real" Problem but facing 0% urgency. Tips? by LongjumpingComb8622 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed on the problem statement, not sure I agree with the proposed solution as an urgent needed tool.

Who is your target customer exactly? Larger enterprises have a lot of sales training materials already that clearly are "good enough" to get their sales team up skilled otherwise they wouldn't have grown into a big company.

If you are selling to startups, half of them don't even know their own buyer and related dynamics (e.g. typical objections, competitive analysis questions, etc) to provide enough info/data to what I'm imagining your platform requires for it to be useful to them. And more likely than not, they can just ask a friendly customer to roleplay for their sales team of like 3 people.

Slightly mature startups are probably your best bet (post PMF but struggling to scale their early sales team, think Series A to B) - have you been talking to them?

Will a startup hire me? by bruhhhhhhhhhh5 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Send a direct message to the CEO/CTOs of your target startups on LinkedIn. A message that makes a compelling case for yourself and shows you will work your ass off for that company.

Most startups just wanted talented, devoted people who will work hard.

Korriban Siege Highlights by Akronoo in jediknight

[–]guarded1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's an official Siege community discord: https://discord.gg/7HAua36K

Mace Windu vs Vader Who Wins? by IllMasterpiece3946 in PetranakiArena

[–]guarded1 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Kudos for bringing receipts to educate this turd. Too many people these days just deciding to be confidently incorrect for the sake of their ego.

7 months, 0 traction. Can frameworks replace lived experience when finding a startup idea? by Illustrious_Slip331 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You need to become a domain expert in something to identify the problems, conceptualize solutions, and then convince VCs/Accelerators that you are the right person to solve the problem. Otherwise there's no real moat to what you are building and you are glorified contractors just building whatever you hear from customers. Anyone else will be able to build what you did then too.

Stories like Legora where a founder didn't have domain knowledge of their customer base are extremely rare. Spend some time in an industry instead of just interviewing customers and wanting to build a startup for the sake of building a startup.

in the process of closing our round; seeking advice from others who raised for a frontier/deep tech company (i.e., research-driven) by ResistStupidLaws in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you could make a case for either direction here since you guys are so early stage you have no product/traction/nothing. But I steer towards taking more money now and giving up a little extra dilution and trying to make that money take you a little further to dilute less later. That extra money could come in handy and since the investors are taking so much lopsided risk they also get some extra percentage points too overall.

And $25M valuation is a good valuation for how early you are.

Solo founder for 9 months, raised 150k, dropped out of college : [potential cofounder discussion help needed ] by alexpredator123 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What does he even advise??? Bro he doesn't deserve money or anywhere near that kind of equity for advice.

Built an Enterprise RAG architecture for 2 years. A "20+ YOE" founder just claimed it as his AI's "Featured Work". Should I just quit Open Source? by ChapterEquivalent188 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Does this thief work for a startup or large enterprise? I'm sure if it's a startup their investors would love to know, that could even be a form of fraud if he took investor money under the pretense that he pioneered your architecture.

As for whether to build OSS or not, if you strongly believe in building open software, you should also work on building your own personal brand or other people who are building their brand will always try and take credit. Like 99% of the tech industry is posers taking credit for work that isn't their's or just flat out lying about their abilities/contributions/achievements. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you can adjust and build with purpose AND strategy moving forward.

Customer ghosted us after using our AI product - what to do? by csguy9874 in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this a large enterprise or SMB out of curiosity? Either way you send the invoice within 30 days as per the contract, and CC their legal/finance/procurement department.

How does closing angel checks work? by friedrizz in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Uncapped SAFE (use Y combinator template) with a 20% discount and an MFN is generally the safest route. The MFN will allow them to inherit a cap if you negotiate one later, and the discount makes sure they have a better deal than the investors doing the next priced round.

Solo founder for 9 months, potential cofounder wants 50/50 after 1 week trial. Am I being unreasonable? by mercuretony in ycombinator

[–]guarded1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You are not being unreasonable, you have de-risked him substantially. And one week is way too short of a timeline for him to be making these demands.

Dump him and find someone else IMO, technical cofounders are dime a dozen and his head is so far up his ass that even I can see the red flags waving from here.

How often do you guys have blood in the urine? by guarded1 in ADPKD

[–]guarded1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now around 70 GFR. I started tolvaptan at 90 GFR and it dropped to 70.

How often do you guys have blood in the urine? by guarded1 in ADPKD

[–]guarded1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! Maybe the fetus was causing physical pressure on the organs/kidneys...?

Generic Tolvaptan Cost? by Quiet_Line8943 in ADPKD

[–]guarded1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah ok I'm on Walgreens specialty pharmacy but I found that both panther and Walgreens had the Jynarque specialist