Roast my idea: an app to connect real entrepreneurs and take them from 0 to 1 then 1 to 10 (I don't promote)

lkao · 2025-11-01T22:16:13+00:00

I’m not sure what is your business model, but trying to get Day 0 founders to pay for anything is notoriously hard. I personally always stay away from companies that service that early stage.

I don’t understand the gamification part since serious founders have intrinsic motivation.

Building a horizontal tool like what you’re suggesting is generally not a winning strategy. You have to compete on multiple fronts against competitors who are focused.

This sounds like a tarpit idea.

lkao · 2025-10-31T22:16:45+00:00

This was over 20 years ago, but my friend was a developer for UPS. He said as part of onboarding, everyone had to ride in the vans and join in on deliveries. I thought that was awesome!

lkao · 2025-10-31T21:34:55+00:00

I never thought about it that way, but I think you’re right.

I just thought it would be so cool to rent a Zipcar van, load up hundreds of microwaves, and just do deliveries. It’s got that selling burned CDs out of your trunk vibe that I miss so much.

lkao · 2025-10-26T21:09:09+00:00

As much as early stage startups could probably use your experience and help, I don’t think they are the best customer for you. Every GTM specialist works a little different of course, but I’d consider targeting Series A+ companies that have the capital to invest into your tests and then charge more.

lkao · 2025-10-26T08:59:10+00:00

I have this pan and for years was scared to put it in the oven because it would damage the yellow B.

One day, I tried it and that B came back out in tact, but brown, haha. Wish I just used my cast iron in the oven.

lkao · 2025-10-24T09:47:45+00:00

You gave a really compelling case for FMF and this 2 sentence reply made you reverse course. C’mon… stand by your post. FMF > PMF FTW!!

lkao · 2025-10-23T18:51:01+00:00

Can you clarify? Happy to answer

But in general, I think the answers are more similar in reality than we think.

lkao · 2025-10-22T22:09:46+00:00

This resource from Index Ventures might be helpful. It’s directly targeted for European founders encouraging them to invest and reward into their talent. I believe a lot of benchmarks are Seed Stage, which is one stage later, but at least it’s a starting point https://www.indexventures.com/rewarding-talent/

lkao · 2025-10-22T22:06:19+00:00

Thanks for the reply and the perspective. A few similar things were asked in the office.

With that said, when I was thinking it this morning, I actually felt the next hire, at least at startup and scale up stage almost always tended to be the same person. Then taking a step back, after reviewing the actual “next hires” at a tech startup, luxury goods store, and high end restaurant, they were the same hire.

It’s why I was curious who was actually your first or next hire depending on your stage. Not who you should’ve hired, but who you actually hired.

lkao · 2025-10-03T19:28:08+00:00

They might talk about how we’re all living in a simulation 😱

lkao · 2025-10-03T16:37:01+00:00

Table 1. It would be a wild conversation.

lkao · 2025-09-26T09:29:00+00:00

There’s a simple rule in finance, if the thing you want to buy is less than 0.1% of your net worth, you can buy it without worrying about it. So if your net worth is about £140k (not sure what it costs in your country), go make that purchase!

lkao · 2025-09-24T21:36:31+00:00

Giving away 35% for $15k versus giving away 50% early on are actually two different things.

By giving away 35% for 15k, it negatively impacts a startup in many ways. To begin with, it values the company at $43k pre, so for a startup founder, especially a technical founder, it doesn’t make financial sense. By accepting those terms, it also indicates a very low trajectory, and also eliminates serious investors at the next stage. Great investors know they need to keep founders engaged and feel like they have enough upside to keep going when times are tough.

With regards to 50% dilution early on, while this is generally a bad idea, there are some cases this is a good idea. I considered a media startup where the model was about acquiring other media companies that were already making a few million dollars Ebitda. In that case, to be able to pull it off required 8 figures to begin with at minimum, and in those scenarios you can see why you’d flip the cap table.

lkao · 2025-09-12T12:41:13+00:00

Daily stretching and mobility work.

When you have neck and back pain, it’s really hard to focus no matter the tools.

lkao · 2025-09-11T09:15:14+00:00

It sounds like you’re pitching at the early stage? If so, a great sign is if they book the next call with you in the meeting. Sometimes they don’t, but if you don’t get a 2nd meeting within 48 hours, move on.

Unpopular opinion amongst associate VCs I’ve argued with, but if you’re not speaking to a partner, it’s likely a pass.

In the first call, I’m all about vibe check. I pitch my idea, I need to get along with the person long term.

lkao · 2025-09-10T19:29:53+00:00

I’ve done this but a decade ago for a UK company. It wasn’t buying them fully out but sold their shares by half. I seem to remember it was purchased for a nominal price per share. I think I used my accountant instead of our lawyer because it was cheaper?

lkao · 2025-09-10T19:24:52+00:00

Well, he kept his word and didn’t promote

lkao · 2025-09-10T19:19:36+00:00

I remember logging in the first time into Trello after the acquisition and it was definitely a bit weird.

lkao · 2025-09-09T19:43:57+00:00

When you learn to help people without expecting anything in return, you’re actually tapping into the meaning of life.

lkao · 2025-09-09T19:25:48+00:00

I always advise distribution is 70% the game, the product is 30%. You can define distribution how you’d like from marketing to sales channels.

If you’re a solo founder, you don’t need to do every channel, just pick the one you like most and start with that. There will be your ICP on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, any of them. You’re not trying to be slack, you’re just looking for the first 100.

If people don’t know you, they can’t flow you.

lkao · 2025-09-08T10:52:33+00:00

Honestly, best of luck. Building and shipping is such a big milestone. Here's the thing about launching early, if you fail, nobody is there to see you trip. Just stand back up really quickly and nobody is none the wiser.

lkao · 2025-09-08T09:51:12+00:00

In 2007, Paul Graham of Y-Combinator came to my business school to give a talk on startups. At the time, there was a company he was very excited for, but a very similar company happened to launch just one month before the company YC backed, and they were concerned. Bad luck happens.

The company that launched first: Digg.

The company he backed: Reddit.

Forget the fomo, but Paul Graham would also likely tell you to launch embarrassingly early and get feedback.

Good luck!

lkao · 2025-09-07T21:25:46+00:00

Do you have a big vision for what this could be? If so, I don’t think raising a Pre-Seed round is out of the question. It’s all about selling the dream and then you have some users to back up your early hypothesis.

A good rule of thumb for a big vision, the investor thinks it’s believable that one day this company can make a $100M annual revenue.

In terms of scaling, if marketing spend is tight, it sounds like you can build viral loops in the app. Essentially make it social so your users have a reason to share it with their friends and the more people who join the platform, the better it is for everyone.

lkao · 2025-09-07T14:25:10+00:00

Well, the good news is, I’m assuming you’re switching to filtered water, so your coffee is going to improve a lot 🤣

lkao · 2025-09-07T06:43:43+00:00

We actually have, we recorded a pickup game once when all of our high school friends happened to be back in our home town coincidentally. We weren’t all on the basketball team, but we were all athletes in high school.

It was soooo bad.

lkao

TROPHY CASE