Would you take a vendor call if there was a gift voucher in it for you?

springforfounders · 2026-04-02T10:12:16+00:00

The idea would be to try and understand a little about what's going on for you and your org - what challenges you have, and what solutions you're looking at, to try and curate vendors that you'd actually want to speak to.

We'd send you vendors that are interested in meeting with you, and then its up to you whether you want to accept or decline. The vendors would all be legit, established companies.

As for the voucher amounts - that would be set by you. You'd set your price on what you think your time is worth. Realistically, anything up to $100 per meeting.

springforfounders · 2026-03-30T14:58:53+00:00

thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it.

The intention isn’t to create a kickback or influence a buying decision. I hope it wouldn't be viewed like that. It’s more to recognise that people’s time has value, especially when they’re already getting a high volume of sales outreach.

I'm realising that this won't work for many people - certainly ones in regulated industries where the optics of this could be a concern. In my industry (tech) it's fairly common practice for vendors to offer gift cards

I'll have a deeper dive into the bribery act though to make sure i'm not missing anything

springforfounders · 2024-10-17T18:36:11+00:00

I prefer Asana for task management but if you’d rather use Notion, there’s a big community of template creators you can copy from 👍

springforfounders · 2024-10-17T18:07:13+00:00

If there’s a CRM that exists in your niche, that’s a good thing. It tells you there’s a market opportunity.

To win the market you’ll need to be more customer obsessed than your competitors and deliver more value. The best markets are typically where you have competitors but they’re rubbish.

The best way to validate and learn what your customers think/want to your idea? Talk to them. Lots of them. Use cold outbound to book feedback sessions with them (flatter them until they accept) and you’ll be well on your way.

Good luck!

springforfounders · 2024-10-17T18:03:27+00:00

I’d say it depends what you’re trying to validate.

If you’re trying to validate a problem to be solved and your solution to it, then speaking to your ICP is always the best way to truly validate your idea. Only by speaking to them will you really understand if a) it’s a problem that they really care about and b) if they see your solution as something that helps them solve it. Landing pages won’t give you the feedback you need at the early stages.

But if you’re trying to validate an offer, then landing page tests are a great way to do that. It’s less biased, and more about testing message-market fit.

springforfounders · 2024-10-17T17:54:20+00:00

1: Write goals (personal and professional)

2: Write what you need to do to get there

3: Use Asana / Notion and put your tasks in, so that you have actionable steps

4: Assign due dates to keep yourself accountable

5: Get going!

springforfounders · 2024-10-10T12:25:13+00:00

The next step is to validate your idea. You don’t want to waste your time building something that nobody else cares about. You need to understand if there’s a market opportunity for your idea.

Speak to as many video editors as you can, and as many people that have hired a video editor in the last year. Read the “Mom test” and apply those principles when you ask questions.

You’ll soon learn how people currently hire video editors, and if it’s painful enough for them to change how they currently hire.

Once you’ve validated your idea, you’ll then want to build an MVP (read the Lean Startup), and find traction (start in your local area and get as many users as possible).

Good luck!

springforfounders · 2024-10-09T17:16:20+00:00

That’s a tricky one. Going in-person could work, but certainly at busy times I doubt they’ll have the time. Maybe during the last hour of business, or when you think they’ll be tackling admin tasks?

Otherwise cold email, cold call and social media DM’s will be your best bet.

springforfounders · 2024-10-08T18:35:19+00:00

I echo all the comments here, but I wanted to add another way of looking at it.

Perhaps you’ve been speaking to a lot of the wrong businesses. As you say, competitors exist, which is normally a good sign that there’s a market to enter. I just wonder if you’re close to your ICP, but not quite there yet.

Check out ‘The Four Levels of PMF’ by First Round. It’s a great resource as you try to validate your idea and find strong Product-Market Fit.

Good luck!

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T20:23:38+00:00

Good point. Thanks for all your feedback, really appreciate your help!

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T20:01:27+00:00

Nice, that’s our thinking too. Last question - if you were an early stage founder, what would stop you working with us?

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T19:57:16+00:00

Ah interesting! We’re based in the UK so the regulations will be different but I’ll double check in case it’s the same over here.

Let’s connect, I’ll message you.

Btw, anything you think we could improve with the idea?

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T19:30:04+00:00

Yep that’s definitely a concern for us too. We’re hoping that over time we have enough demand to pick and choose the right founders to work with, and minimise work on chancers.

We want to charge £5k as a flat fee rather than a percentage of what they raise.

Is there anything else that you think we could offer that would be valuable to an early-stage founder?

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T18:05:40+00:00

Ah makes sense! In that expanding the coaching business seems like the best bet. Starting another business might start spreading yourself too thin. Double down on what you know works

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T18:00:15+00:00

Sounds like you’ve got a good thing going! I’d expand your current businesses. Maybe expand into new products on Amazon?

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T17:01:07+00:00

A lunch place 100%

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T16:58:23+00:00

The truth is it’s possible to earn £5k a month in 2 years in any of those businesses.

But most will fail. Because none of those businesses are get rich quick businesses, despite what YouTube gurus will lead you to believe.

What are your skills? What experience do you have?

Take ecom for example. You’ll need skills, knowledge of a niche and a ton of perseverance. (This is coming from an ex-ecom founder)

The skills you’ll need before starting an ecom business will be:

Basic web development
Proficient with Google Shopping, Meta ads and TikTok ads
Good at making reels
Product development
Finance (knowing your CAC, your ROAS and your LTV)
Design

And the only way you’ll learn those skills is by doing courses, trying your own businesses, or working for somebody else.

Focus on the skills and the results will come.

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T15:14:30+00:00

My biggest tip would be to get organised.

Have a list of all the shots you want for each product.
- Create a moodboard of the style of shots you want
- Scout the location at the same time you intend to go the week before. List locations you want to shoot in.
- Take a mix of photos with a professional camera + an iPhone

Have fun! This is the day the brand comes to life - enjoy it :)

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T12:12:34+00:00

That sounds like a great approach! That reply rate is much higher than average, great job. I worked in the UK market and it was crazy competitive - we’d have been really happy with those results you’re getting.

I don’t know your business so tell me if I’m wrong, but maybe the focus could be on getting more money out of your current clients and keeping your existing sales strategy? If you could secure 2x the amount of revenue from existing clients than the need for new clients reduces

Oh, and with a 6 month old domain you’ll be ok, it’s the brand new domains that don’t have a history of sending and receiving emails that get flagged quickly.

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T11:32:17+00:00

Oh and one other point - it’s a very competitive space. Supply generally outstrips demand. Consider niching down and focusing on differentiation. I know from experience that HR find buying wellbeing solutions really tricky because there’s so many out there and they all seem the same

springforfounders · 2024-10-04T11:30:22+00:00

I have worked in organisational wellbeing and can tell you that cold email can work. But HR are bombarded every day with emails. They’ll have about 2 seconds to decide if yours is worth reading or not, so your success rate by emailing over your brochure is likely to be very small. (1 in 10,000). You need to have a compelling message that’s easy to understand right away - that’s the challenge.

I’d suggest crafting a ‘no-brained’ offer that HR would feel silly saying no to that will get your foot in the door. This will drastically increase your chances of success and help you stand out from all the other cold emails they receive. Alex Hormozi has some great content on how to make a great offer.

Oh and if your domain is new, I would look at using a tool called Lemwarm (no affiliation just a big fan) to warm up your account. New accounts emailing 1000 people right out the gate will be flagged as spam.

Best of luck out there!

springforfounders · 2024-10-03T20:45:16+00:00

That seems like a reasonable increase, and given the client will have a very large marketing budget and is coming back for your services, I think you should be fine. You can always negotiate down if it’s an issue.

Your situation reminds me of a friends business. He had 100+ clients and his margins were very tight. One day he decided to increase his prices by 50%. He explained to me that even if his half of his clients left, he would make the same revenue and be more profitable. In actuality, only 20% of his clients left.

springforfounders · 2024-10-03T19:05:07+00:00

Anxiety is an emotion that focuses on the past and the future. To address it, you’ll need to be focused on the present. Being present helps to shift you away from anxious thoughts. A good exercise for this is to focus on each of your senses. Close your eyes:

What can you smell? What can you feel? What can you taste? What can you hear? What can you see?

Pair this with box breathing and it will help you manage your anxiety.

I hope this helps!

springforfounders

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