u/Both-Molasses-2765

Hi everyone! I'm working on a new financial decision platform for small businesses.

The idea is simple: accounting software tells you what already happened, but business owners still have to figure out what to do next.

We’re working on helping owners understand things like why cash is getting tight, which invoices or expenses need attention, what cash could look like over the next few weeks, and how decisions like hiring, purchasing, or changing payment timing could affect it.

Still early, and I’d love to connect with small business owners around Columbus who deal with these kinds of decisions regularly.

Happy to chat.

I’m developing an early-stage fintech idea, but finding potential customers to interview has been harder than building the initial version.

I’ve tried cold outreach to business owners, but received almost no responses. I’m not trying to sell or recruit anyone here. I want to understand how other founders overcame this problem.

For those who started without an audience or established network: how did you secure your first five useful customer interviews? Did introductions, industry events, online communities, or another approach work best?

Also, what did you say in your initial message that made someone willing to respond? I’m particularly interested in approaches you personally tried, including those that failed.

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring a SaaS idea for small-business owners who struggle with cash-flow decisions.

I don’t want to build another generic dashboard that simply displays charts, balances, and forecasts. The idea is to create a decision-focused product that helps owners narrow down the practical options they could consider for example:

• Which overdue customers should I contact first?
• Which bills are most urgent?
• Can a payment safely be postponed?
• Will I have enough cash for payroll, taxes, and essential expenses?
• Should I use available financing, or is there a better option?

The product would explain why an option is being suggested, show its likely effect on cash, and leave the final decision with the business owner.

This is still a broad idea, so I’d like to learn from people dealing with the problem before deciding exactly what to build.

If you run a small business:

1. What cash-flow decision causes you the most stress?
2. How do you handle it today?
3. What information is usually missing when you need to decide?
4. Would prioritized, explainable options be more useful than another dashboard?

If this sounds familiar and you’re open to sharing your experience or potentially helping shape an early version please comment or message me. I’m looking to learn and collaborate, not sell anything. Please don’t share sensitive financial information publicly.

I’m a solo founder building an early fintech MVP around cash-flow decision support for small businesses.

The idea came from conversations at a networking event in Columbus, where I heard business owners describe the difficulty of deciding what to do when cash becomes tight. I started building a tool that combines cash balances, receivables and payables to provide practical recommendations.

So far, I have:

* Built an early working MVP
* Tested it with sample QuickBooks accounting data
* Contacted approximately **120** potential users
* Attended **23** networking events
* Tried outreach through **Reddit, email, LinkedIn**
* Received zero meaningful customer-discovery responses

Product development is my stronger area; marketing and communication are where I struggle.

The lack of responses is affecting my motivation. I try to compensate with discipline, but lately I’ve struggled to focus, and then I feel guilty for not working hard enough.

I’m not asking whether I should “just keep going.” I would appreciate specific advice from founders who have experienced this stage:

1. How did you determine whether your outreach was wrong or the underlying problem was weak?
2. What customer-discovery channel produced your first five genuine conversations?
3. How did you structure your week when building and outreach were competing for your attention?
4. What measurable checkpoint would you set before deciding to continue, reposition or stop?

I’d especially value advice from bootstrapped B2B or fintech founders.

I’m a solo founder building an early fintech MVP around cash-flow decision support for small businesses.

The idea came from conversations at a networking event in Columbus, where I heard business owners describe the difficulty of deciding what to do when cash becomes tight. I started building a tool that combines cash balances, receivables and payables to provide practical recommendations.

So far, I have:

• Built an early working MVP
• Tested it with sample QuickBooks accounting data
• Contacted approximately 120 potential users
• Attended 23 networking events
• Tried outreach through Reddit, email, LinkedIn
• Received zero meaningful customer-discovery responses

Product development is my stronger area; marketing and communication are where I struggle.

The lack of responses is affecting my motivation. I try to compensate with discipline, but lately I’ve struggled to focus, and then I feel guilty for not working hard enough.

I’m not asking whether I should “just keep going.” I would appreciate specific advice from founders who have experienced this stage:

1. How did you determine whether your outreach was wrong or the underlying problem was weak?
2. What customer-discovery channel produced your first five genuine conversations?
3. How did you structure your week when building and outreach were competing for your attention?
4. What measurable checkpoint would you set before deciding to continue, reposition or stop?

I’d especially value advice from bootstrapped B2B or fintech founders.

I’m a solo founder working on a fintech startup.

The idea started after conversations I had at a networking event in Columbus. I heard business owners talk about how difficult it is to manage cash flow and decide what to do when money gets tight.

That led me to explore a cash-flow decision layer not just another forecasting dashboard, but something that helps business owners understand their position and make wiser decisions based on practical recommendations.

I started learning, researching and building the MVP. But somewhere along the way, I began to feel lost.

I’m trying to build the product while also doing early customer discovery and validation. So far, my reply rate has been zero, and it’s starting to affect me.

As a solo founder, wearing multiple hats is difficult especially because marketing and communication are not my strengths. I’m trying to learn fintech, build the product, understand customers, network and stay consistent, all at once.

Lately, my mind has been filled with negative thoughts. I want to rely on discipline when motivation disappears, but I’m struggling to give the work my full attention. Then I feel guilty because I genuinely want to bet on myself and give this startup a real chance.

Right now, I feel caught between wanting this badly and not knowing how to regain momentum.

For founders who have experienced this stage: how did you find your direction again when the silence, pressure and uncertainty started affecting you?

Any honest advice would mean a lot.