u/Ill-Advantage

with the wrong competitors?

AI tools generally understand our product category, but they often compare us with companies our customers rarely consider.

That changes the framing of the answer and makes some of our strongest features seem irrelevant. Meanwhile, the competitors we actually encounter in sales conversations barely appear.

Could this be coming from software-directory categories, old positioning or the language used in customer reviews? Has anyone managed to change these associations?

Hiring always looks like it will be the easiest part, you know, when companies start expanding internationally and the operational side is where it gets more interesting. We realised this when we ourselves started the process we thought it will not be that difficult but damn it was. There is like different payroll cycles, compliance requirements, onboarding experiences and also different employment models. While going through all of the process it made me realize that the operational complexity seems to grow much faster than the headcount itself.
How was the experience for the others who started new just like us. And how did you handled the problems that you faced

Second trip to China but first time ditching the tour group. A local friend has a car for part of it so independent travel is actually realistic this time. He would plan everything if I let him but I want to actually know where I am going, not just ride shotgun.

Route I am looking at: Guilin -> Longji -> Guilin -> Yangshuo -> Xingping -> Guilin, roughly 9 days. Buffer day baked in at the end for bad weather or just lingering somewhere good.

A few self driving tips I have picked up while planning: mountain roads between Longji and the terraces get narrow fast, fog rolls in without much warning especially in the morning, would not push it after dark up there. Parking in Yangshuo and Xingping is doable but lots near scenic areas fill up early, having a local who knows the backup spots helps a ton. Toll roads between Guilin and Yangshuo are straightforward, just have cash or WeChat Pay ready. Baidu Maps or Gaode is way more accurate than Google Maps in Guangxi once you get off the main highways.

Friend also told me to grab an eSIM before landing, recommended RedteaGO. Google and Instagram work fine in China which means I am not totally clueless following him around the whole trip.

Does this pace feel about right or am I still packing too many stops in? Happy to cut something if it means more breathing room.

I'm the dad of a 9 year old, and I keep wondering why kids' backpacks don't adjust better as they get taller. You can loosen the straps. The bag still sits weird once your kid grows a bit, especially around the back and shoulders.
The idea is a school backpack with a back panel that can move with a child's height, plus a little expandable space for different school years. It could maybe last 2 or 3 years instead of being replaced every year. I’m thinking about turning this into a real product, and the Co Create Pitch competition feels like a decent place to start.
Would this be worth testing, or is it one of those ideas that sounds useful but parents would rather just buy a cheaper new backpack each year?

When I first started doing e-commerce, I thought product selection would be the hardest part. I spent weeks just looking for swholesale_suppliers
o-called “winning products”. But looking back now… it was actually the easiest step.
Whether it's Alibaba, 1688, supplier directories, or even some AI tools, you can basically find trending categories pretty fast these days. Product sourcing has become kinda standardized already.
The real hard part is actually figuring out if you can find a supplier you won’t regret later.
My process is roughly like this: for the same product, I’ll reach out to like 10–15 suppliers. Usually only about 8 reply. Out of those 8, maybe 4 will have samples or product photos that actually match reality. Then out of those 4, maybe only 2 can meet MOQ, price, and lead time at the same time. And out of those 2… usually 1 will become unstable or just disappear after the first order.
It’s basically a funnel.
Some things I learned along the way: response speed matters more than price — fast suppliers are usually more reliable. Always ask for factory real shots, product images online are pretty much useless now. Test at least 3 suppliers per SKU, otherwise you’ll get burned. Big factories ≠ better, sometimes small workshops care more about long-term cooperation.
Still not solved: how do you actually judge a supplier before spending weeks on sampling and back-and-forth? And like… are trading companies better or factories?
Reality is, you might spend a whole month just to find one supplier you can actually work with long-term.
Lately I've been trying some tools to speed this up, like AccioWork, which helps narrow down suppliers instead of starting from scratch every time. It doesn't solve everything, but it definitely makes the early chaos a bit more manageable.
Curious how others usually vet suppliers?

The AI music scene now compared to 10 years ago is completely different. The first AI-generated song that really caught my attention was Daddy's Car. It had this oddly charming lo-fi vibe to it. Now AI music can sound fully produced straight out of the gate.
As someone who already makes music, I don’t really see a problem with using AI as long as you’re still actually creating. My own workflow is more about using AI to speed things up or spark ideas instead of handing over the whole process. Sometimes I’ll use Suno or Udio to sketch out melodies, vocals, or rough arrangements, then drag the MIDI into my DAW and rebuild parts of it myself. I’ve also been using ACE Studio lately to clean up vocals or mess with phrasing and emotion a bit more. At the end of the day, the taste and decisions still come from the person behind it.
I’m not trying to let AI replace my entire relationship with music and then sit around complaining about it. A lot of AI music generation honestly feels more like creating music from a listener’s perspective. If you can’t play instruments, you’re basically describing the kind of song you wish existed. Most of the time the AI gets somewhere close to what you imagined, and occasionally it spits out something unexpected that ends up sounding even better.
And honestly, if you’re just getting into music and using AI tools, I think there’s value in playing along with what it generates. People used to learn songs by jamming along to the radio or CDs all the time. This just feels like a newer version of that.