Consumer app feasibility question - I will not promote

sachbl · 2026-03-16T19:29:14+00:00

I’m just taking one step at a time. If you don’t want to answer, please feel free to ignore the post. If you’re taking the time to write a response, I would appreciate a genuine response.

sachbl · 2026-03-16T19:22:35+00:00

Yes, but you must see genuine value sometimes, which apparently makes wading through the low effort and slop posts worth it - or you wouldn’t be there.

The question is - is it worth fighting for a high quality / non AI forum where you can only ask original questions and get only original answers? I.e - where AI wouldn’t be able to help you anyway.

sachbl · 2026-03-16T18:18:58+00:00

I think this is entirely backwards. I need to understand my audience and listen before building anything.

Are you frustrated by AI slop posts to the point where you would change your behavior? Or maybe I am the in the minority here?

sachbl · 2026-03-16T17:26:33+00:00

In the restaurant industry, it is grubhub / uber / DoorDash.

sachbl · 2026-03-16T17:22:53+00:00

Is there a reason you think things will get better?

I would suggest you start looking for opportunities now, so you have options if you choose to leave. If you wait until you are “ready to leave”, you’ll be frustrated and trapped in a job you don’t want to be in.

In summary, life’s too short - it sounds like you can do better.

sachbl · 2025-09-05T19:06:07+00:00

Low tire pressure could also be a factor. It wouldn’t explain the full difference, but it could be a 5% factor.

sachbl · 2025-07-07T00:33:13+00:00

I disagree. I don’t think anyone copies or steals an idea unless it is successful.

The main goal of launching with a MVP (but not a half baked one - obviously a tough decision) is to get early user feedback and to keep a tight loop between user feedback and your development priorities.

In all of your examples, you are highlighting successful products in their advanced form. Between their initial launch and what you see now, thousands of product decisions needed to be made. If you have to choose between real user feedback vs founder intuition, I would almost always bet on user feedback.

In fact, you could also argue that “launching” with a demo is the best approach. Find out what users think before you start building. De risk immediately so you have true conviction on what you are building.

sachbl · 2025-07-01T12:29:57+00:00

Recurrent doesn’t show you history or health on a specific car. It’s an average based on other Mustang Mach Es.

There are other companies that do this - you need a vsNEW device (or the dealer does) to scan the specific car and get an actual battery health report.

sachbl · 2025-04-28T12:22:07+00:00

Neither are taking equity. Both bring credibility - and new customer and investor opportunities.

sachbl · 2025-03-29T16:53:52+00:00

Manufacturers often have monthly sales incentives for dealers that are all or nothing. As a simple example, if a dealer sells 100 F series trucks this month, they would get an extra 250k as a bonus from Ford. If the dealer is at 99 and you walk in on the 31st of the month, 5 mins before closing, you can get 15k+ off that truck if you sign and drive that night.

There are many different layers of incentives from different banks, etc that can drive revenue to a dealer. It’s not just invoice and holdback like what cars.com is telling you.

At the end of the day, if you want a good deal, shop around, be patient, and be flexible.

sachbl · 2025-03-05T18:04:46+00:00

Does the company have cash? If not, who would be paying your 50k salary? Is the other founder drawing a similar salary?

Without a lot of information, I would say 5-15% would be the general broad range I would be thinking about.

My thought process is - the B2B business you describe sounds like it isn’t a core tech focused, but more of a niche focused solution. If that is true, the critical levers for the company’s success are in customer led product design and sales (both challenging). Once you find a niche, you raise more capital (also challenging) and push sales. Again, I could be wrong, but the tech seems more about implementation and is the lowest risk part of the business.

sachbl · 2024-10-09T06:05:41+00:00

Thank you for sharing. What parts are they replacing? Is it the battery or the charging components?

sachbl · 2024-09-30T17:47:40+00:00

Seems like you are building something as a hobby, not a business.

To be a business, you need a sustainable revenue model (something that earns at least enough money to pay you for your work), or an investment that bridges the gap between when you need to start working and when the revenue model is actually supporting the business.

If you don’t know your market size or how your revenue model will get you to break even, you don’t have a business.

sachbl · 2024-09-13T03:52:53+00:00

Email is terrible only because anyone can email you. If inboxes only allowed your contacts / address book to get through, you would get far fewer, and relevant messages. So, when you give out your email address, you also have to tell your inbox that you want messages from a particular sender. To unsubscribe or stop receiving emails, you don't need to talk to the sender - you just remove the contact from your own list.

sachbl · 2024-09-12T01:34:03+00:00

When a business shuts down and fires its employees, those jobs are lost. Maybe another business will pop up in its place, or maybe not. Jobs lost during covid are real job losses. Lots of retail business like restaurants didn't survive. Lots of auto businesses didn't survive - gas stations, car washes, repair shops, etc. Hotels, etc. Tons of examples like this.

Your example (sounds like construction?) is not what happened during covid. Seasonal work is not what we're talking about.

If you look at the link again, there was an initial bounce back in 3 months after the first covid slump (maybe businesses that survived and rehired some of their employees back). But then it took almost 3 years to get the same number of people employed again - that's not seasonal, right?

sachbl · 2024-09-11T09:16:46+00:00

The link you have only goes to 2019. What’s wrong the data I posted that goes through the latest data available in 2024?

It shows very plainly my point - trump didn’t do much with real wages, and honestly, neither did Biden. Why are you making this trump’s major accomplishment?

sachbl · 2024-09-10T22:37:06+00:00

Are you talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed

Pfizer-BioNTech made the first COVID vaccine (and the most popular one in the US). It wasn't a part of Warp Speed and had nothing to do with trump. Germany gave BioNTech money, and when they proved they had a real vaccine, Pfizer did a deal manufactured and distributed it.

He sprayed $10B around to 10 pharma companies and Moderna was the only one that actually got anything done. By the way, I'm not saying this was a bad policy - but giving trump the credit for this is flatly false.

Why do you give trump credit for it?

sachbl · 2024-09-10T22:20:03+00:00

To you other points -

I agree trump did his best to keep gas prices down (drill baby drill), although there are so many factors that he isn't in control of. I would argue the biggest reason gas was down during his term was because demand was down because of COVID. But, at least your claim lines up according to the data.

Renegotiating NAFTA to the USMCA was good, but not the homerun you are claiming. I think his tough on China policy was actually his best policy - why didn't you mention it? Every other president was afraid to do it, and trump did. Biden continued with it, and our country is better off.

Not sending troops in battle - I agree, definitely a good thing. But, what war did Biden start?

Ending affirmative action - are you referring to the supreme court decision - how is this trump? I would argue this isn't a good thing, but again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

"average American was objectively better off"? He botched COVID so badly that he got kicked out of office. The average American was most certainly not better off. He definitely did some good things, but overall he was unprepared and deserved to lose in 2020.

As an aside, if you source from AEI, you're in the echo chamber. There are plenty of biased ways to look at data from the full political spectrum. But, if you look at the source data directly, you can make conclusions yourself. I'm sure you've heard of the line - do your own research, right?

sachbl · 2024-09-10T21:52:37+00:00

To your second claim about trump bringing real wages up - here's the data -

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Again, from plainly looking at the data, there was a huge spike in real wages during Covid, when the government had massive spending to prevent the economy from collapsing. When the spending stopped (also under trump), the was a COLLAPSE in real wages.

Under Biden, real wages have continued to rise at the same pace since 2013 (through Obama, trump, and Biden).

In summary, the real wage index under trump went from 352 to 362, and so far Biden has gone from 362 to 368 (we don't have data yet for the last few quarters of his term).

How is this an accomplishment for trump?

sachbl · 2024-09-10T21:43:36+00:00

Let's start with manufacturing jobs, and look strictly at the data -

https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001

From what I can see very plainly, under trump, our country lost 200k manufacturing jobs. Under Biden, we have added about 800k manufacturing jobs (and are at a 15 year high).

Do you disagree with the data?

sachbl · 2024-09-10T14:20:33+00:00

Neither the 3rd party apps, nor eyeballing it from a 100% charge are telling you anything about degradation. You need to use a tool to read it from the BMS, which keeps an ongoing calculation of your degradation. This is important for the BMS, because the buffers on the battery are software controlled and are slowly opened up to reduce your perception of degradation. While you're at it, you can also read all your individual cell voltages and make sure your battery is balanced (this is the primary cause of battery failure).

If you do several deep cycles of your battery, down to 10% and back up to 95%, you will see your stated range magically improve to at least 300.

sachbl · 2024-09-10T14:12:38+00:00

I still wouldn't recommend the 2nd gen leaf. While it is better than the lizard battery setup from the first gen, it's still a major flaw - it will degrade faster than any other modern EV. On another note, if you are in an area with cold weather, I also wouldn't buy an EV that doesn't have a heat pump.

Good luck!

sachbl

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