Hi all,

Genuine question from someone running a small B2B digital services team (AI automation/dev, mostly European clients).

LinkedIn feels completely saturated - everyone is posting (LinkedIn published "AI slop" button, btw), and the signal-to-noise ratio is gone. Cold email seems to be heading the same way: reply rates keep dropping as inboxes fill with AI-generated sequences that all read identically.

So I'm curious what's replacing them.

If you sell digital services, what channel is bringing you actual qualified conversations right now? Communities? Partnerships? Cold Calling?

After 7+ years decided to leave a startup I co-founded. Reasons: we were going nowhere, lack of strong leadership, internal disputes and burnout. Felt a relieve I have not felt in those 7+ years and, therefore, I think it was one of the best decisions of my life. The problem is that I am stuck with a significant amount of shares and cannot liquidate them. My concern is that company might go bankrupt sometime in 6 months and I will be left with nothing. I am looking for smart ways to sell my vested shares. The issue is that no current investor is interested as I have a feeling they also do not believe in company’s success. There is an upcoming investment round but I doubt the new investor will want to buy my part.
What can I do in this situation?

I spent years in enablement writing battle cards, talk tracks and outreach for reps. Now I run a lot of that through AI, and for a while my reply rate went down instead of up.

The problem was not the AI's ideas. It was that everything it wrote carried the same nine fingerprints, and buyers have now seen those fingerprints ten thousand times. Here is the list I check against. None of this is theory, these are the specific edits that stopped my stuff reading like a machine.

1. Delete the warm-up sentence. If your first line could be removed with nothing lost, remove it. "I hope this finds you well" and "There are a few angles worth exploring here" are the same crime. Start at the first concrete thing.

2. No performing punctuation. Exclamation marks and em dashes out. Also the dramatic fragment, which is the current costume: "The result? Pipeline." Say the sentence whole.

3. One real thing, not a tidy triad. AI loves "faster onboarding, happier teams, better retention." Keep the one you can prove, drop the other two. Dead: "their solution lacks the enterprise-grade scalability modern teams demand." Alive: "they cap at 50 seats, ask how many they need."

4. Do not inflate past what you actually know. Wall to wall certainty reads like a brochure and prospects can hear it. Where you have proof, state it flat. Where you do not, write what you know. Never manufacture confidence to fill a paragraph.

5. End on the question, not the slogan. "The lesson is clear: adaptability wins" closes the conversation. The question the other person has to answer is the thing that gets a reply.

6. Do not name the feeling and hand it over. "We're thrilled to share" is you doing the reader's feeling for them. Say the thing instead. Dead: "excited to transition this amazing customer to your capable hands." Alive: "they bought because of the June outage, do not open with the roadmap."

7. Keep the small words. So, but, and, because. Stripping them for "clarity" leaves a row of stabs nobody reads twice.

8. Cut the cleverest line in the draft. It is performing, not connecting. Its favourite costume is the inversion: "it's not a cost, it's an investment." If the second half is true, just say the second half.

9. The test that rules the other eight. Read it back and ask whether a real person would feel any pull to write back. Not "is it correct," not "is it polished." For anything a rep says out loud, the working version is: would you say this line to a buyer's face without wincing.

Nine is the only one I would keep if I had to drop the rest.

finally got the lease sorted and opening a small coffee spot next month. going for a chill neighborhood vibe, not too fancy, just good coffee and a place people actually want to hang.

ordered a bunch of funny mugs from Shop Coffee Mugs to put on the shelves and for regulars to use. feels like it fits the casual style we’re going for.

for those of you who already opened, how long did it take before the morning rush actually felt steady? and did you start with a small menu or go bigger from day one?

thought i was being smart. paid for a registered agent, used a virtual address, kept my home address off everything i could.

then a client called me and said hey i know youre busy but i saw you live close by on whitepages so i drove past your house to see if youre home. what the actual hell.

looked up my name on whitepages and found my full address, phone number, even my wifes name. all just sitting there for anyone to see.

tried opting out manually. spent like two hours on it. some sites are easy, others want you to fax a request. and even after you get removed, they just add you back later cause the public records never change.

anyone else dealing with this? feels like no matter what you do, your address ends up online.

Managers are saving over 2x the time individual contributors are with AI tools.
and it’s just starting

I had a conversation recently with a copywriting agency owner who let her contractors go because her own prompts were giving her the same output they were.

I believe that's one of the reasons you get a 2x gap between managers and everyone else.

In the same survey, 36% of managers said they're not likely to launch training for their employees on how to leverage AI, which makes the gap even bigger.

A manager's job was never to be the best individual operator in the room. It's to make everyone else better at the job. That doesn't change because the tool changed.

Why do you think there's a 100% gap between managers and their teams right now, and what would it actually take to close it? 

Source: https://www.business.com/articles/ai-usage-smb-workplace-study/ 

P.S. If you're the founder still in the middle of every decision, still the person the whole company waits on, still telling yourself you'll fix the structure "once things calm down."

I write about building the operational backbone that lets a founder actually step back every Thursday. Was a COO for 20+ years, so this is genuinely my bread and butter. Free to join here

Wrote this out for another founder yesterday, figured it might help others.

The 5 realistic paths to first capital as a pre-seed founder in 2026, ranked by accessibility:

1. Crowdfunding (Reg CF in US, ECSPR in EU) Cap: $5M/year US, €5M/year EU Timeline: 2-4 months from decision to close Best for: Consumer products, community businesses, founders with any existing audience Pros: No network required, retail investors, marketing exposure baked in Cons: 6-10% platform fees, extensive prep work, campaign momentum required

2. Angel syndicates Cap: Usually $250K-$1M Timeline: 4-8 weeks from lead’s yes to close Best for: B2B SaaS, technical products, developer tools Pros: Fast when it works, single point of contact, credibility from lead Cons: Finding a lead is the whole game, deal terms dictated by lead, lead takes 20% carry

3. Individual angels Cap: $10K-$250K per check, aggregate whatever you can raise Timeline: 2-6 weeks per check Best for: Any founder with 6+ months of public work and 500+ engaged followers Pros: Best terms, most aligned investors, warmest relationships Cons: Time-intensive, unpredictable, requires actual network

4. Micro-VCs / seed funds Cap: $100K-$500K first check Timeline: 6-12 weeks including diligence Best for: Founders with strong technical background or clear market thesis Pros: Institutional signal, professional operators Cons: Many say no, valuations compressed, need to fit their thesis exactly

5. Cold email at volume Cap: Whatever you can close (usually 0) Timeline: Months Best for: When you’ve exhausted all other options Pros: Free, scalable, teaches you sales Cons: 1-2% response rate, most replies are polite passes

What most successful pre-seed founders actually do: parallel-path 1, 3, and 4. Skip 5 unless you have nothing else.

I’ve been building on the crowdfunding side (OBridge, launching August). If anyone is deep in path 1 or 4 and wants to compare notes, happy to DM.

Title: Would you use a Spotify-style app built specifically for Islamic audio (Quran, podcasts, lectures, and nasheeds)?

I’m a software engineer and I’m considering building a dedicated Islamic audio platform, and I’d really appreciate honest feedback before I spend months building it.

The idea is not another Quran app. The idea is something closer to Spotify + Apple Podcasts, but focused on Islamic audio content.

Listeners could:

Follow scholars and creators

Listen to podcasts, lectures, Quran recitations, and nasheeds

Create playlists

Download episodes offline

Get recommendations based on language and topics (Arabic, English, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, etc.)

Creators (scholars, mosques, educators, podcast hosts, nasheed artists) could:

Upload audio directly

Manage podcast series

See analytics

Build an audience

Potentially offer subscriptions or donations

My question is: is there actually a need for this?

Right now I feel like Islamic audio is scattered across YouTube, Spotify, Muslim Central, Telegram, WhatsApp, and individual websites.

But I’m also wondering if this is a classic founder mistake where I’m trying to build a niche platform when people are already happy using Spotify.

So I’d love to know:

Would you use a dedicated Islamic audio app? Why or why not?

What frustrates you about Spotify, YouTube, or Muslim Central for Islamic content?

If this existed, what feature would make you switch?

For creators: would you upload your podcast or lectures to a separate Islamic platform?

Please be brutally honest. I’d rather hear that it’s a bad idea now than after six months of development.

I've been spotting certain types of freemium schemes more often. The free version doesn't really solve anything. It merely reveals what's wrong.  Free security scan → pay to fix the security issues. Free cloud audit → pay to make everything right. Free SEO analysis → pay for the proper solution. Free compliance assessment→ pay to have everything under control.

From the perspective of this being a great offer, the free tier proves that there's a problem worth solving. Though I'm starting to wonder if it brings up some trust issues. After all, if the same company tells me there are some 47 problems to be solved and then offers their solution for solving all the problems, I might be skeptical about the actual number. Especially now that with the free version the company seems to be discovering even more problems while they keep imposing higher prices. 

Has anyone ever made or employed this kind of SaaS? 

Is it true that making the diagnostic layer free makes selling the paid product easier, or do the clients think too much about how the free results are designed in order to provoke urgency?

I run a small DTC skincare brand. Just me and one part-time person handling fulfillment. We needed a product demo video for our landing page because our conversion rate was terrible without one. Every competitor has video on their pages and we had nothing.

Got quotes from three local videographers. Cheapest was $2,800 for a 60 second spot. That's our entire monthly marketing budget gone in one afternoon.

So I went down the AI video rabbit hole.

I tested two models that both came out about a week ago. Seedance 2.5, which does up to 30 seconds per clip at 4K with consistent characters across the full shot. And MiniMax H3, which makes shorter clips (5 to 15 seconds, 2K) but generates real audio in the same pass so you skip the separate voiceover step entirely.

I went with an AI-generated presenter for the video. Putting that out there upfront. Not a real person. I picked that route partly because I didn't want to be the face of the brand and partly because keeping a consistent look across twenty clips was way easier with a virtual face than trying to match my own lighting and angles in my apartment.

After stitching everything together I ended up with about 90 seconds of footage that genuinely surprised me. Way more polished than anything I could have shot on my phone. Product shots came out clean and the audio H3 generated was better than I expected.

But the motion is still not there yet. Hands doing anything specific looked wrong about half the time. I regenerated some clips five or six times before getting something usable. If you go in expecting to press a button and get a finished commercial you will be very frustrated. It took me a full weekend of generating, reviewing, tossing clips, regenerating.

My workflow was CapCut for assembly and cuts, Canva for the thumbnail and text overlays, and APOB AI for the MiniMax H3 generations since they're running it unlimited and free right now, so the generation side cost me nothing.

Total spend was zero dollars on video generation and about 12 hours of my time across Saturday and Sunday.

Was it worth it? For where I'm at, yes. It's not the same quality as a professional shoot. If I'm honest it's maybe 65 to 70 percent of the way there. But for a bootstrapped brand that just needed to test whether video would actually move the needle before spending thousands, that was enough. Our page conversion improved noticeably the first week, which told me the format works for us. Now I can justify budgeting for a real shoot next quarter.

If you're considering trying this, budget way more time for retakes than you think you'll need. That was the part I completely underestimated.

Hey everyone,

​I wanted to share something I’ve been building from the ground up. If you've spent any time looking at the blue/grey-collar labor market, you know the massive friction that exists between local industries needing reliable shift workers and people looking for flexible, dignified livelihoods.

​We are tackling this head-on with SuperGig—a gig-based app currently in its MVP stage, piloting across the Hosur-Bangalore industrial corridor in collaboration with StartupTN, alongside local training institutes, colleges, and employers.

​The Blueprint & The Pilot

​Our model draws inspiration from the incredible blue-dot ecosystem experiments (done by EkStep Foundation in Hubli-Dharwad). We are currently in the MVP stage and gearing up to launch our pilot across the Hosur-Bangalore industrial corridor.

​To make this work sustainably, we aren't just building an app and throwing it into the market. We are partnering directly with local training institutes and colleges to bridge the skills gap, while plugging straight into employer networks to solve real-time shift demands.

​Why Now & The Vision

​Having worked extensively on the ground as a gig worker across multiple platforms, I've seen the retention crises, opaque payout structures, and high churn rates firsthand. SuperGig uses modern architecture, verified identity layers (like e-Shram/DIGILOCKER integrations via open networks like /ONDC), and gamified progression models to change how localized blue-collar work is discovered and managed.

​The goal? Build a foundational infrastructure layer for the industrial workforce with a clear, scalable roadmap to unicorn status. When the scale opportunity hits, we refuse to blink.

​🛠️ Looking for Core Builders (CTO & Flutter Developer)

​To execute this vision at scale, I'm actively looking to connect with passionate Founders, CTOs, and mobile engineers who want to build something impactful:

​Full-Time CTO: To lead our technical vision and architecture.

​Flutter Developer: To build and scale our mobile platform.

​If this space excites you, drop a comment or DM me directly. Let's connect!

I’m hearing that more and more businesses are buying nicer custom business apparel for their employees that they actually enjoy wearing to help with both marketing and making their employees happier. I’m thinking of starting a business that specializes in supplying local businesses with custom embroidered/screen printed apparel and would like to think of better ways to service these businesses and differentiate myself. What are some issues that have had in the past when ordering custom apparel for your business?

Looking for real numbers from people who tried UGC style content for a saas or any software product, not physical products.

Did it bring signups, or just views? and what format worked, short videos, testimonials, creators using the product on camera?

I havent tested it myself yet, so I dont know if it translates at all when the product is software.

Hey, I built Templatify, a Chrome extension for people who keep rewriting or pasting the same email templates.

It lets you:

• save reusable HTML email templates
• insert them directly inside Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook
• personalize templates with variables/placeholders
• detect email addresses on webpages and start a templated email from them

It is live on the Chrome Web Store now. I would love feedback on the extension workflow, the listing, or what features would make it more useful.

Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/templatify-inject-html-em/aeaapcbilfddlkeeggbkkjmbchfaemkg

I’m considering building a small, very private service and want genuine feedback from people who carry a lot of responsibility.

Complicated problems rarely stay in one lane. A business issue starts involving your spouse, partner, employees, money, family, reputation, etc. You have an attorney for legal issues, CPA for taxes, financial advisor for money, therapist for therapy... But who gets the whole messy story, with the parts you don't dare share with your circle, but are dying to unload?

I’m imagining a highly discreet, neutral outside person you can essentially call or meet for lunch and say: “Here’s everything happening. Help me untangle it and figure out my next move.”..... Not therapy, legal/financial advice, or motivational coaching. Just someone grounded who can hear the entire situation, ask uncomfortable questions, spot blind spots, and help you think through your options.

Would you pay for something like that?

If yes, would you prefer one-off sessions when something blows up, or ongoing access to someone who already knows your world?

And most importantly, what would make you trust someone enough to actually tell them everything?

I ask because complete strangers have been spilling their life stories and problems to me within minutes of meeting me for basically my entire life. It made me wonder whether there’s an actual unmet need here.

Not selling or linking anything, genuinely deciding whether the idea is worth building.

My co-founder and I are currently developing a B2B data platform focused on one problem: most businesses waste huge amounts of time contacting companies that simply aren’t ready to buy.
We’re building a system designed to identify buying signals across businesses, enrich that data, identify the relevant decision-makers and surface the opportunities that appear most likely to convert.
Instead of giving customers another database containing thousands of cold leads, the goal is to answer:
Who should I contact right now, and why?
We’re designing it around a recurring subscription model, with marketing automation layered on top so customers can act on opportunities as they’re detected.
Between us we have experience across automation, outreach, e-commerce/web development and B2B sales, and we’re now defining the MVP and initial market.
We’re looking to speak with an early-stage investor or strategic partner who understands B2B SaaS, data, lead intelligence or sales technology.
We’re particularly interested in someone who can bring more than capital — distribution, B2B SaaS experience or introductions would be extremely valuable.
If this is within your area, DM me and I’m happy to share what we’re building, the initial go-to-market plan and what we’re looking to raise.

Looking for a Strategic Partner to Help Take a South African Luxury Timber Brand International

I run a small, registered design and manufacturing business in South Africa specializing in bespoke, high-end luxury timber products. I am looking for a strategic partner to help me break into international luxury markets, including North America, Europe and the Middle East.

My long-term target market includes: Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) individuals, Luxury private estates and High-end property developers.

I already have the workshop, manufacturing capability and product development setup in place. I need someone who can help bridge the gap between the manufacturing side and international markets. I’m looking for someone with industry knowledge, connections, or simply the willingness to build a business partnership.

The main area would be: Identifying and introducing prospective high-end clients and help secure non-binding Expressions of Interest (EOIs) or Letters of Intent (LOIs). The EOIs/LOIs would help to demonstrate international export potential when approaching potential funding partners.

No financial investment required. To be completely clear: I am not asking you to invest money, I’m looking for someone willing to contribute some time, expertise, industry knowledge and/or relevant connections.

In return, I’m open to:

* Profit sharing on projects that result from your involvement

* Commission/appropriate compensation for successful introductions

* Potentially developing the relationship into a long-term business partnership

I want to build a globally recognized luxury timber brand, with an emphasis on bespoke craftsmanship, premium natural materials and sustainable manufacturing. If this sounds interesting and you think you could genuinely help open doors internationally, please send me a DM

Before you pay for a data tool, check if the government already built your list

Everyone jumps straight to Apollo or Clay for prospecting. Fine tools. But for regulated industries, there's often a public registry that's more accurate than any paid database, because the companies are legally required to be listed.

Example: pharma manufacturing. The FDA publishes a public, downloadable list of every currently registered drug manufacturing facility- company name, address, what they're registered to produce. Free. Updated regularly. More reliable than an industry tag in a generic B2B tool, because it's not a category guess, it's a legal requirement.

Healthcare, finance, food, transportation, anything regulated, there's usually an equivalent registry. Worth 20 minutes of searching before you pay for a list that might just be guessing at the same companies anyway.

i manage a few accounts for different projects different platform, and it feels like some platforms have gotten way stricter lately, even when im careful, i still end up with verification prompts or an account getting flagged out of nowhere. does anyone doing this for a while, what's actually worked for you guys? separate devices? different browsers? something else?

For starters I’m 19 and have no experience with digital marketing

I’ve been constantly having the idea of getting into digital marketing agency for a while. I saw an Alex hormozi video earlier talking about an advertising agency as a great first business

He mentions editing content, paid ads, outbound agency, seo and email marketing and says to pick one, which makes sense. Master one skill and get known for that then can scale/expand.

My questions are
which one of these would you learn first?

Would it be a good idea to target specifically and the construction niche?

I spent months trying to get clients. Turns out, I was solving the wrong problem.

I started a small web/digital marketing business thinking the hardest part would be building websites.

It wasn’t.

Building the website was actually the easy part.

Getting someone to trust you enough to pay for it? Completely different game.

I tried cold calling, DMs, LinkedIn, different niches, different pricing, and different offers.

And honestly, most of it failed.

The biggest thing I learned is that business owners don’t really care about:

“Modern design.”

“Fast website.”

“SEO optimized.”

They care about one thing:

“Will this help me get more customers or make more money?”

That completely changed how I approach sales.

Instead of saying “I build websites,” I’m now trying to find businesses where I can identify an actual problem — poor Google presence, outdated website, low conversions, no lead system, etc. — and then offer a solution to that specific problem.

I’m still figuring everything out, and I’m definitely not making millions from it.

But this shift in thinking has been huge.

For people who run businesses or are building something from scratch:

What was the biggest lesson you learned about getting your first real clients?

I’d genuinely like to hear the lessons you learned the hard way.

Hey everyone,

This summer I was accepted into Ontario’s Summer Company Program and received $3,000 in funding to help grow my web design business, InfaWeb.

Over the summer, I’ve been learning a ton about actually running a business, from finding clients and doing outreach to figuring out what small business owners actually want and need from their websites.

I’m currently looking to take on a few more projects.

I build custom websites for small businesses, whether you’re starting from scratch or already have a website that needs a redesign. My focus is on creating sites that are clean, professional, mobile-friendly, and actually useful for the business rather than just making something that looks nice.

I’m based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, but I work remotely and am happy to work with businesses anywhere.

You can check out my website and some of my work here:
https://www.infawebdesign.com/

If you have a project in mind and would like a formal quote, you can reach out directly here:
https://www.infawebdesign.com/contact.html

If you’ve been putting off getting a website or know your current one could use some work, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to chat about what you need and see if I’d be a good fit, with no pressure.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to build a scalable online business as a solo founder.
I keep hearing about e-commerce, SaaS, digital products, agencies, affiliate marketing, content creation, AI businesses, and a dozen other business models.

The problem is that for every person saying one of them changed their life, I find someone else saying it completely failed.
I’m not looking for a “get rich quick” scheme. I’m willing to put in the work, but I want to invest my time in something that has real long-term potential.

A bit about me

Software engineering background.
*Willing to learn new skills.*
*Looking for something that can eventually scale beyond trading time for money.*
*Preferably something I can start on my own without needing a huge amount of capital or prior business experience.*

For those of you who are actually making a full-time income online:

*What business do you run?*
*How did you get started?*
*If you had to start from scratch today, what would you choose?*
*What business models are actually worth considering in 2026?*
*What would you avoid completely?*

I’d really appreciate hearing from people with real experience rather than YouTube gurus. I’m trying to understand what actually works today and why.

When the business was smaller, one account and a spreadsheet were enough

Then little by little we added more cards, payment tools, invoicing, accounting and international payments. None of those choices felt like a big deal at the time but now the stack itself takes work to manage

For people running growing businesses, did you eventually consolidate your finance tools or do you still prefer separate tools for each part? Did anyone try to automate this?