• 0 Posts
  • 12 Comments
Joined 10 months ago
Cake day: November 11th, 2023
  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoStartups•Tech repair and Consulting Rates RecommendationsEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I am an electrician and I charge 10% to buy components, but I do not specify it to the customer, because most complain about.

    Best way to find your price is knowing your total costs first, and how much is per hour. Then pretend to be a customer and ask for price estimative from competition.

    After this you need to have a better price then the rest or a better service/differential to charge more then your competition.

    Check at Fiverr and Upwork to see also how much the sellers charge fro similar services, or local association. Usually they have a base for price per service.

  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoStartups•Advice for New DeveloperEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    You are taking too long to build an MVP, specially the amount of work you are putting on it. Dont be a feature creep, focus on what is essential and show it to your users. Even if you finish your MVP, it could still a long way to start having revenue, imagine profit or being able to get funded.

    Ideally you should have an income or savings even if your startup makes money, taking a salary could hinder other sector of your business.

    And your cofounders should know about your situation, because if you put yourself under financial stress, it soon will reflect on you job, so be honest with them.

    What about a half period or weekend job, is it enough to cover your expenses?

  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoStartups•How do I go from Prototype to optimized part selection for production?English
    1·
    10 months ago

    You need to get a technical cofounder (I know its fucking hard) or outsource parts of your project.

    Im doing hardware too as a solo founder and Im using affordable services from developers at the Fiverr platform.

    The learning curve for manufacturing ready product is steep, and there are too many aspects, regulations and design requirements to be observed.

    Injection molds are super expensive and can take months to be ready, so at this point any change on the product is going to increase drastically time and budget.
    You are going to need technical drawings and different certifications that cost a couple of thousands of dollars too

    I usually hire developers/engineers to make small tasks, see how they care and how much they know about the subject, like some kind of trials.

    For example I work with 2 different 3D modeling professionals.

    One is cheaper and with less experience, so I do the biggest part of editing the stl file with him and later send to the more expensive guy and with more expertise do the refinement.

    Other guy is doing the PCB and another is 3D printing.

    They send me all the parts and I assemble and test it at my garage and with a few users.

    Every iteration helps me to check functionality, resistance and design patterns.

    I guess when you get to the point where you have almost no changes between the last batch of prototypes, then you start to converting to a mass production design.

    So if you are not sure about it, get someone technical with experience in manufacturing, go to conventions about manufacturing, talk with engineers and industrial designers.

    Good luck!

  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoSmall Business•Not able to talk to friends about my professional ideasEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I have similar issue. My friends are the people living around me and we share some interests, but is always the conventional things and ideas or conversations that are a bit out of this spectrum, sounds uncomfortable and they tend to ignore, give a short comment about or even make jokes.

    Every time I mention my idea ( which came from 20 of experience on my area) people think I’m crazy. But one friend in my circle want to be a famous singer and people cheer her and write crazy supportive comments on her social media.

    So I guess is easier to find empathy from people who is on the same area of interest or have a non conformist personality. I remember when my family used our house to make a BnB in the year 2000, before Airbnb was a thing and my friends thought that would be dangerous and we would host a killer or an organ harvester. It was easier for people to believe in urban myths than believe in my new business. Our business was bootstrapped, worked for almost 20 years, was one of the first Airbnb host on my city and we had a 4.9 rating. Of course we need to be aware that our project is not too crazy or too stupid (like juicero), but sometimes we are waiting for support from the wrong people. But remember that the founders of Airbnb were rejected by more than hundred investors.

  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoStartups•My startupEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Can you share the links to the shops? I know it’s hard, but have you tried marketing your products without paying for ads? I had a shop and spent some good money on ads and it brought very few results, because I didn’t knew my audience so I advertised to the wrong people, instead of growing organically. It’s important also because of cost of customer acquisition. And how are you raising the funds?

  • notrightnever@alien.topBtoStartups•Community & Distribution is Everything - But I struggle with itEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    YC recommend to start with things that don’t scale, like to your customers directly if possible. I also have problems while dealing with social media, I feel more comfortable talking through my brand channel instead of my private accounts. You can build channels that talk and post about the pain the your customer suffers from it, like blogs use to be in the past. If health is you area, build a community sharing tips or information about the subject they might be interested in. The other way is to hire someone or get a cofounder to take care of it while you build the product.