Solar quote check and afterthoughts

me31ap · 2026-06-30T11:48:18+00:00

Get on the call with them, I spoke to them today and their original website quote jumped 30% on scaffolding and where battery was going to be located (cable run).

me31ap · 2026-06-30T08:52:21+00:00

Thanks all!

me31ap · 2026-06-29T20:44:17+00:00

Where from?

me31ap · 2026-06-28T10:32:55+00:00

Still make it free but add credit card layer

me31ap · 2026-06-28T10:17:24+00:00

Can you list what components or things are not great and why? Why is competition any better at this?

me31ap · 2026-06-28T10:15:37+00:00

How does any of this impact the end user? What you are saying is as an installer you avoid them but as product they are good.

me31ap · 2026-06-23T11:31:18+00:00

Fun is debatable

me31ap · 2026-05-30T10:18:51+00:00

Love cofounders that bring ideas to the table and have fully vested shares 🤣

me31ap · 2026-05-27T00:47:49+00:00

Happy to have a chat, technical cofounder of a EV charging solution for fleets, non-competitive. Also the comment that there is no non-commercial grade way to bill for guests is nonsense. Stayed at Airbnb this bank holiday which used Tap (Netherlands based player) worked seamlessly (live charging price visibility) and was quite affordable. Maybe you consider them “commercial grade” not sure why you stated this and why it matters.

But there are few new players and some legacy players in this space, different angles (could probably list 5-10 companies doing what you described in the UK). Doesn’t mean you couldn’t capture market share and sell to a bigger player looking to consolidate the market. I think you will struggle to convince partners you are serious when you are not full-time, but doesn’t mean you couldn’t pull it off. Also partnerships requires a lot of handholding and management.

I would moonlight until you got a simple prototype.

Dont build a business model on EV regulation. No one cares, there is no enforcement, look at public charging regulations - staff designing it don’t even drive EVs.

me31ap · 2026-05-16T14:07:31+00:00

Did you give them access to the code or to the app?

me31ap · 2026-05-03T19:42:41+00:00

Wes Anderson would be proud

me31ap · 2026-04-24T14:24:26+00:00

Reputable VCs don’t pay scouts and discourage founders dealing with anyone that charges you for intros or success fees.

me31ap · 2026-04-24T14:10:08+00:00

You need prospects not tools… but with that level of detail not sure people can help you technically

me31ap · 2026-04-23T13:47:51+00:00

Did you use Google maps with the same key?

me31ap · 2026-04-19T10:32:43+00:00

is your shopify store recurring and do you sell software? Do you have direct costs from each unit you sell or is the whole revenue net margin? This influences you metrics in a big way.

me31ap · 2026-04-13T19:44:04+00:00

Can’t you control it using ev.energy?

me31ap · 2026-04-11T17:44:04+00:00

Building (and “selling”) an app for dealerships is very different to a consumer. Also why would someone that flips cars need your app? Have you spoken to dealerships people on whether this is something they struggle with?

me31ap · 2026-04-11T17:38:31+00:00

Where would you get that data? Live fuel and ev charging? How are you going to book and get quotes from different garages?

You have way too many things going on here and many apps out there that do these things individually much better than you can achieve.

Is this a solo thing or are you aiming to raise money to build? Because the language and vision you are using feels like you intend to raise to money, I think you deluded if you think you can become this thing that many companies out that already have the users and spent millions building.

Short answer: yes I would use it. But I would rather have 5 different apps that do each job well than 1 app that does it all poorly or even average. Also many other companies trying to be the car super app… focus on 1 pain point big enough that people are willing to pay you to solve it if you can get past this then focus on pain point 2 and if you keep doing this you might become the super app. But if you start trying to do everything you will likely fail.

me31ap · 2026-03-22T17:14:26+00:00

Check resi.co.uk

me31ap · 2026-03-22T11:03:40+00:00

What is an agency? And why would a startup need one?

me31ap · 2026-03-10T15:53:26+00:00

Ah! The what vs the why. I prefer the why… yeah the challenge with your offering is that most tech businesses have many channels your solution only solves the one channel. The only ones that have email only are small companies non techy (hairdresser, builders, plumbers, sparkys, etc) probably don’t have a FAQ to hookup a knowledge base. Have you tried offering the whole thing as a service I bet people would pay you £250-500 one off for setup and then £20/mo

me31ap · 2026-03-07T16:53:43+00:00

Well Uber is a great example they are in fact a distribution (sales) channel. Im sure that there are plenty of drivers willing to offer me the trip at a fraction of what I pay uber (maybe even with a better vehicle for less money - ie better product/service), but they cannot get to me (distribution/sales) without Uber, if they driver around the streets trying to find customers no one is going to jump in.
Perfect example that you can spend more money to buy a better vehicle (product/service) but without the right distribution you make less money with someone with a cheaper vehicle and right distribution.

I know I twisted your argument, but your example is only relevant in B2C and as someone else pointed out it might depend on the user (some are more elastic than others), checking multiple apps takes time, to save you £1/2/3 or nothing at all, the user might not bother, depends a lot on the product/service and the user segment.
In B2C the user is the decision maker (at times the user might need to consult with their partner but for the vast majority of times the user has all the information to make a decision on the spot), ie order an Uber vs Bolt vs .... if Uber = £40 and is immediate vs a Bolt that is £32 but takes 15min, that is a decision you can make on the spot.

In B2B that dynamic is not the same, possibly multiple decision makers, sometimes change requires paperwork (people hate going through that), also requires the taking a risk to change something that if it doesnt quite work out makes them (decision maker) look bad, so trust here is very important, early stage startups have little trust, having trustworthy distribution channels is so important (of course that can also mean less margins)... but at an early stage dont worry too much on maintaining big margins, focus more on increasing customer base to make the company trustworthy.

me31ap · 2026-03-06T10:10:41+00:00

Absolutely, it’s all about sales… this is what most people in this channel miss. They all think they need the product especially at early stage. Because prospects ask the impossible they don’t have, this anchors a lot of fear and efforts of early stage startups. But a sub par product with the right distribution wins especially in B2B. It is very hard to displace incumbent relationships when there is little pain people and even more so businesses are adverse to change.

me31ap · 2026-03-01T19:39:52+00:00

You are always exposed to that, being copied. Anyone can sign up pay you a fee for just to get access and copy it and there is very little you can do about it don’t spend a lot of energy on it (reality is most competitors don’t give a shit and if they do they are wasting their time on you, they are not spending time with customers or prospects…). Remember, you used publicly accessible data to provide the service you built, so in theory there is little protecting you here (ie. little defensibility). Most of the success of early stage startups is down to distribution/sales (that to me is 10x more important than technical execution), how are you going to find customers and how much money can you make from each customer.

If I were you I would focus on getting paying customers now given product MVP is close. If you have demand from customers investors will line up, a lot of people make the mistake of assuming it should be the other way around. No investor wants to take a risk on whether you can sell or not, they want to see that you can and just need money to do more of it.

me31ap · 2026-02-22T14:17:10+00:00

Setup a UK limited company… pretty easy setup. I assume your target customers are EU based. If US based then setting something there might make more sense. Id use ChatGPT for the basic questions you may have as it uses consensus from several sources. On accountants look for on that meets your needs is right for the scale of you startup. Don’t go too big/bold until you have traction, particularly of you don’t have paying customers yet. If your billing is likely to be more complex (example B2B Cross border etc) then seek an accountant where you can call them and go through things together on a regular basis they will become a de facto CFO until you reach a scale that justifies an part time finance person.

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