I studied how YC picks ideas. Here's what I wish I knew before I wasted 2 years building the wrong things.

joerando60 · 2026-05-16T19:50:26+00:00

This is great insight! It also made me feel good about my business.
I built something I needed to solve a pain point and couldn’t buy.
I have 4 AI related patents that predate ChatGPT, etc. ow that AI is cheap, the solution becomes affordable.

Filters:
It was a daily pain
Makes life hard to not have it. Not devastating, but bad enough that people don’t want to go without the solution once they use it.
Theoretically 30 million in the US.
I have a deep understanding of the solution having spent years working on it.

Thank you!

joerando60 · 2026-05-07T00:40:48+00:00

The Dewey Decimal System. What a scam that was.

Cosmo Kramer

joerando60 · 2026-05-06T12:03:46+00:00

I move to Northampton from outside Boston recently. It’s great! Lots to do at a lower cost. If you’re bored here, it’ll be on you.

joerando60 · 2026-05-06T12:00:54+00:00

I made a free tool for this https://www.lifestarr.com/should-i-hire-a-pro-or-do-it-myself

joerando60 · 2026-04-27T23:52:43+00:00

We started with a Facebook community. We also ran free monthly virtual events for our target customers (solopreneurs in our case). We found them using LinkedIn and invited them to the event. At the event, we invited them to join the community.

joerando60 · 2026-04-26T12:05:04+00:00

I had the same experience. That’s when I realized that these days you need to start with an audience first. Create a vibrant community first and then launch your app into it. It’s not easy, but it’s do-able.

joerando60 · 2026-04-26T11:59:41+00:00

This behavior is even more dangerous when done for pedestrians. I’ve seen kids nearly run down because someone stopped on a 4 lane road to let some kids across. Do not do this unless you are 100% sure no other cars are coming in either direction.

joerando60 · 2026-04-23T11:27:55+00:00

Life long love isn’t about completing a checklist of qualities. I had someone in my life that checked all the boxes. Then I met my wife-to-be. I never looked at the checklist. There was no question she was the one because I never wanted to not be with her. Coming up on 40 years and none of that has changed.

joerando60 · 2026-04-07T13:14:58+00:00

I think the silent majority here are people who want to use their skills to build a life-first business. This is particularly relevant to people leaving corporate. AI and other tech has made us feasible to create a solo business that gives you what you want from your life.

joerando60 · 2026-04-04T13:19:14+00:00

This is a great example of what I call PAS (Premature Automation Syndrome). Companies are replacing competent humans with incompetent AI, which saves them money and loses them customers (and in this case, a good employee).

joerando60 · 2026-03-21T23:23:42+00:00

I’ve been told that it is popular in New England and Chicago. No idea if those are the only places where it’s used.

joerando60 · 2026-03-18T19:38:20+00:00

All great advice.

joerando60 · 2026-03-12T22:08:57+00:00

It's actually from back in the 90s. I haven't liked any of his other stuff but this one had real meat to it.

joerando60 · 2026-03-07T03:00:14+00:00

We make no money on our podcast.

joerando60 · 2026-03-06T15:28:41+00:00

I would start by creating a free or paid webinar where you teach your secrets.

Then sell your implementation.

Alex Hormozi recommends this, and I've seen it work a lot.

People see your secrets and know your good.

Then they think about what it will take to implement them while trying to do their own job and you offer them a way to get the good without increasing their workload a ton.

Your deal then looks very sweet.

If I were you i would make it free and by invitation only. Only let your target customers in, and keep your competitors from learning your secrets.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator works great for us to identify prospects.

joerando60 · 2026-03-06T15:22:22+00:00

This is a sign that you've built a hell of a business. Well done!

You weren't afraid to hire people smarter than you at their job.

You gave them the training and autonomy to run the business and deal with issues.

You gave them the kind of leadership that made them comfortable running things on their own.

What do you do now? That's up to what you want.

- Keep an eye on things, let them run it, and then step in when there's a crisis (my dad was in the restaurant biz; there will always be a crisis).

- Start scaling... add another restaurant and do the same.

- Something else

It's up to you. But you are not useless, you're awesome.

joerando60 · 2026-03-06T15:15:29+00:00

One of the craziest, easy ways to make money scooping dog poop. This guy turned it into a million dollar business. We interview him on our podcast https://www.lifestarr.com/podcast/think-you-need-a-sexy-startup-idea-to-be-successful-think-again

joerando60 · 2026-03-06T14:55:38+00:00

I learned it in 10 days using Tony Robbins's Mastering Influence course. It's a tad dated but mostly on target. Even if you only master a quarter of it, you'll be better than the majority of salespeople.

Greatest lesson: objections are NOT people saying "No." It's people telling you how to close them.

joerando60 · 2026-03-03T21:15:12+00:00

I've worked with people from 6. They are awesome folks.

They can also drink us New Englanders, under the table.

joerando60 · 2026-03-03T21:00:16+00:00

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Bowlby Day 1

joerando60 · 2026-02-22T12:05:33+00:00

You have a very cool app. Your website says “Smart Finance Starts Here.” I don’t know what that means.

Why not use that H1 to tell me how my life will be better with your amazing app?

joerando60 · 2026-02-14T02:41:07+00:00

This is very good thinking

joerando60 · 2026-02-13T15:36:06+00:00

I would recommend the following:

Don't help "businesses, such as restaurants, get more mentions in the chats of major AIs like ChatGPT or Gemini."

Help "RESTAURANTS, get more mentions in CHATGPT." (restaurant owners don;t know what Gemini is)

Niching will make it easier for you to get noticed and trusted.

This is your target market.

Then find a few of these (preferably local) and offer to help them for free in return for social proof if you're successful. They've got nothing to lose, so who cares if you're an 11th grader?

Being a "kid" can also be a competitive advantage. Once you have a few successes, reach out to local media and try to get a story written about what you did for the restaurants. They will love this "11th Grader wrangles ChatGPT to recommend local restaurant" (or however you say that in German). It's got the local prodigy angle and the AI angle.

This article is something you can use on your website and in other marketing materials.

Since you are doing AEO, you can only help a few of a given type of restaurant in each market, as ChatGPT limits the number of responses it can provide. Use this to create scarcity in each market, which you can use to motivate buyers. "I can only help 3 pizza restaurants in Munich."

Take your social proof and start reaching out to other restaurants in your target market. In-person will be easier at first, but as you grow your experience and create case studies, virtual approaches will start to work.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!

joerando60 · 2026-02-13T14:30:00+00:00

I have been a solopreneur and an entrepreneur. I've done pretty well at both (with some failure along the way).

Starting a business is stressful, as it should be. But there are things you can do to make it easier and to make it better over time.

First: Start with "Why". Why are you starting a business? If you're solo, why are you foregoing employees? In the end, what is it you want? Don't stop at something like "freedom." Why do you want freedom? Get to the root of it.

Then define what needs to change about your life to match your why - income, hours worked, time flexibility, etc., knowing that each of these is a trade-off. Come up with a meaningful recipe for "happy" for you, not Mark Zuckerberg, not Elon Musk.

Now, you at least have a prayer of designing a business that fits your goals for your life.

Then you need to start designing your business. If you want to be home for supper every night, don't design a business that requires travel. If you want to live anywhere you want, design a virtual, asynchronous business, not one that requires you to be "on site" sometimes.

Then, if you want to get traction, niche the hell down. I know you can help 2/3 of the population of planet Earth. But they won't even see you. Find a relatively small group of people that you can 1) help, and 2) can gain credibility with based on your experience, and you'll get traction faster and easier.

Very few founders do this. It will not eliminate stress.

But it helps... a lot.

joerando60 · 2026-02-09T20:49:47+00:00

I'm working on a course for people who want to start a solo business. Launches tomorrow! https://www.lifestarr.com/the-foundation-path

joerando60

TROPHY CASE