u/Willing_Front_2397

Always start as a pilot project. Seriously.

One principle I believe in strongly in business is: don't start big just because you want to become big.

Start as a pilot.

That's how I started too. Small, testing things, figuring out what people actually wanted, making mistakes and changing things along the way. Eventually crossed 7 figures in revenue, but the starting point still demanded capital in my case because of nature of business but I started off from the contacts I built during my job as a Software Developer at MNC so my MOAT was contacts and complete inside information what machines are legit or not so that helped a lot !

Similarly , visited a Korean restaurant in Delhi. What I found more interesting than the food was their story. They basically started operating from home. Small setup, limited overhead, test the food, understand customers, improve the menu etc.

Now they're doing really great.

And I keep seeing this pattern.

People sometimes think they need the perfect office, branding, website, staff, equipment and everything ready before they can call it a business.

I think its completely opposite.

A pilot project gives you something very important: ground level information.

Not information from Youtube videos, business books or excel sheets.

Actual customers.

Will they pay?

Will they come back?

What are they complaining about?

What are you spending money on which nobody even cares about?

You learn all of this much cheaper when the business is still small.

Some principles I personally try to follow:

- Start small enough that failure won't kill you financially.

- Get paying customers before trying to look like a "big company".

- Listen to customers but don't blindly implement every suggestion.

- Cash flow matters more than looking successful.

- Reinvest where you can clearly see returns.

- Don't scale a problem. Fix the system first and then scale it.

- Last and most Importantly, whatever gives you the biggest pain in business is what brings the most business ( in my case repairing the device for customer) addressing most painful issues which costed me time and money brought the maximum business to me in which customers were repeat and gave reference

Pilot simply means you're buying information cheaply before putting serious capital behind an idea.

One more thing I started doing lately and apologies for the last time , i took help from AI and was bashed from people for posting for the right reasons !

I have started writing everything on paper lately.

I realised typing everything directly was making my thoughts too fast and sometimes all over the place. Writing with a pen forces me to slow down and articulate what I actually mean.

Surprisingly this habit helps in business too.

When you can put a complicated thought on one sheet of paper in simple words, decisions become much easier. You notice where your own logic is weak.

Maybe thats another business principle in itself.

Would love to hear from people here who started something as a small experiment and it became much bigger than expected.

Attached photos are of businesses which I have seen from my own eyes that started off as pilot projects

People kept texting me on Instagram saying, "Bro I can’t DM you on Reddit."

If you were trying to DM me and thought I was ignoring you — nope.

Tap the 3 dots → Send a message.

Reddit really turned flirting into a quiz !

-

My Instagram DMs were full of people saying they couldn’t DM me on Reddit.

Turns out Reddit just hid the chat button behind the 3 dots.

So no, I wasn’t ignoring you.

I don't know what reddit devs and UX guys are cooking 🙂

Apparently my Instagram DMs got flooded with:

“Bro, I can’t DM you on Reddit.”

Turns out Reddit didn’t remove the chat button — they just decided to hide it behind the three dots like it’s a secret side quest.

So if you’re trying to message me on Reddit:

Profile → 3 dots → Send a message

I don't know what devs at Reddit team are cooking in the name of user experience 🙂

Sold out some M4 and Ryzen 5 Pro 8650 u only in delhi NCR sold all to commercial customers.

The 10 devices that arrived in the latest batch were sold to previous customers who had been waiting for them.

For anything priced above ₹1 lakh, dealings will only be done in Delhi. Keeps higher-value transactions simple and straightforward.

Last month , purchased 50 of these at 4200 each from a dealer in noida now i called him today as well the price he quoted was 7000 for the 50 pieces , why there is a sudden spike again inspite of prices already being this high ?

​

Recently closed a corporate requirement workstations for a company working heavily in 3D / rendering / professional graphics.

And this order taught me more about procurement than probably the years of selling machines.

Usually, sourcing is:

Find machine → verify → negotiate → buy → test → sell.

For 50 expensive workstations, absolutely not.

The bill itself was large enough to make me stare at my banking app for a few minutes and reconsider every decision that brought me here.

But the biggest learning was supply chain.

At this quantity and value, saving another ₹2-3k per device stops being the priority.

The priority becomes:

Where exactly are these 50 machines coming from?

Because one wrong supplier at this scale isn't a “bad deal.”

It's a potentially catastrophic deal.

So for the first time, I went through the process of sourcing directly from the manufacturer itself.

And even then, there were a surprising number of things to understand and verify.

✅ Exact configuration

✅ Serial numbers

✅ Genuine warranty status

✅ Warranty start/end dates

✅ Invoice trail

✅ GST/documentation

✅ Whether warranty is actually valid in India

✅ Packaging and accessories

✅ Safe movement of 50 machines

✅ Who is responsible at every stage of the supply chain

When you're procuring 50 machines, you have to build a process where you don't need to blindly trust anybody.

That was probably my biggest takeaway.

Don't trust the box.

Don't trust the sticker.

Don't trust “sir warranty hai.”

Check the serial number.

Check the manufacturer warranty portal.

Check the invoice.

Check where the machine originated.

Check who you're paying.

And most importantly, understand who is responsible if something goes wrong.

The machines themselves are monsters:

Core Ultra 7 265HX

32GB DDR5

RTX PRO 1000 Blackwell 8GB

But weirdly, the hardware wasn't the interesting part of this deal.

The procurement was.

Manufacturer → supply chain → documentation → warranty → logistics → corporate delivery.

Slight character development. 😛

And also a newfound respect for people whose entire job title is “Procurement.”

I understand your pain now.

Will share more of what I learned from this deal because there are honestly a LOT of ways people can get screwed while buying so expensive machines in bulk.

Now I just need to figure out where to keep them before sending to the corporate!

​

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, especially after seeing what is happening with RAM prices and the general cost of PC components.

RAM prices going up this sharply doesn’t feel healthy at all. Whether it is suppliers cutting production, manufacturers managing supply, AI/data-center demand taking priority, distributors holding inventory, or simply companies realizing that customers will keep paying more, the end result is the same: normal buyers end up getting squeezed.

And this isn’t happening in isolation.

Look at everything else around us.

Unemployment and job insecurity are still major concerns for a lot of people. Salaries in many sectors are not increasing anywhere close to the rate at which expenses are rising. Groceries, electricity, transportation, education, healthcare, electronics, insurance, subscriptions — almost everything feels more expensive than it did a few years ago.

Then there is real estate.

Property prices in many cities have reached levels that seem completely disconnected from normal salaries. Rents are also increasing aggressively. A bigger and bigger percentage of people’s income is disappearing just to maintain a basic standard of living.

This creates a very unhealthy cycle.

When housing, food, transport and other essentials become expensive, people naturally have less disposable income. When people have less disposable income, they spend less on restaurants, electronics, clothing, entertainment, upgrades and other non-essential things.

That hurts businesses.

Businesses then face their own increasing costs: rent, electricity, salaries, transportation, raw materials, financing, inventory and taxes. Smaller businesses especially cannot absorb unlimited cost increases.

They either increase prices, reduce staff, delay expansion, cut quality or shut down.

Higher prices then reduce consumer spending even further.

And we keep going around in circles.

That is why I think people should be a little careful right now, especially with PC hardware.

If you genuinely need RAM or an SSD for work, studies, gaming, editing, development or because your current hardware has failed, obviously buy what you need.

But if you already have enough RAM and storage, I personally wouldn’t panic-buy huge quantities just because people are saying prices might go even higher.

You probably do not need 65 GB of RAM just because it looks attractive on a spec sheet.

You probably do not need another 1 TB SSD sitting unopened in a drawer because you are worried about future prices.

Buying excessive inventory out of fear can actually make shortages and price increases worse. It also locks up money that might be far more useful somewhere else.

Buy according to your actual needs.

Upgrade when the upgrade genuinely improves your experience.

And please don’t get trapped in the mentality that you constantly need the newest CPU, GPU, phone, laptop, car, watch or gadget.

A lot of modern consumer culture is designed around making perfectly functional things feel obsolete.

Your five-year-old computer is not automatically useless.

Your three-year-old phone is not automatically bad.

You don’t need to compete with people posting expensive setups online.

Financial stress is real, and constantly comparing yourself with other people makes it worse.

This applies beyond PC hardware too.

Try to avoid reckless spending when the economic environment is uncertain. Keep some emergency savings if you can. Avoid unnecessary EMIs and debt for things that are mainly wants rather than needs. Think carefully before committing yourself to large recurring expenses.

And most importantly, take care of yourself mentally.

It is very easy to become overwhelmed when every conversation seems to be about layoffs, inflation, AI replacing jobs, unaffordable homes, rising rents and increasing prices.

You cannot personally control global supply chains, semiconductor companies, landlords, inflation or the job market.

You can control some smaller things: your spending, your health, your skills, your relationships, your savings and how much doomscrolling you expose yourself to.

Enjoy your hobbies, but don’t financially destroy yourself for them.

Build the PC you can comfortably afford.

Upgrade when you genuinely need to.

Support good businesses when possible.

Save some money when possible.

Help friends and family when you can.

And if prices are ridiculous and you don’t urgently need something, sometimes the smartest purchase is simply not buying it.

Companies notice when consumers stop accepting every price increase.

Our wallets are sometimes the strongest vote we have.

Take care of yourselves, everyone. Hardware can wait. Your financial stability and mental health are much more important.

Really grateful for the response. Didn’t expect them to go quite this quickly. Thanks to everyone who picked one up — hope you enjoy it. 🙏

Bhaiyon/Behnon 🫵 ye sab mat karo mujhe aur strict moderation karni padegi nhi toh !

Some laptops are built for emails.

Some are built for the moment the project file hits 14GB and the room suddenly goes quiet.

Up for sale is an HP ZBook Fury 16 G11—a proper mobile workstation for CAD, 3D rendering, architecture, engineering, video production, data science, development, and other work that tends to make ordinary laptops sound like small aircraft.

Specifications:

Intel Core i9-14900HX — 24 cores / 32 threads

NVIDIA RTX 3500 Ada — 12GB GDDR6

32GB DDR5 RAM

1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD

16-inch 4K OLED touchscreen

3840 × 2400 resolution

Windows 11 Pro

ISV-certified workstation

3 years official HP warranty

No RGB carnival. No unnecessary drama. Just serious hardware in a suit.

Units : 15 units

Condition: Box not opened

Price: 2,30,000 INR

Location: Only in Delhi NCR

20 of these ❤️

Only 20 pieces landed. Nothing dramatic. Just a small batch waiting for photos, captions and a proper “now available” announcement.

Apparently, the M5 Pro had no patience for any of that.

All 20 pieces disappeared before the advertisement could even make it out of the drafts.

Two customer keyboard issues came up recently.

The first laptop had a key that stopped responding, while another key kept popping out as if it had completed its notice period. A compatible replacement keyboard was confirmed, the customer ordered it from Amazon, and the full amount was reimbursed.

The second issue was handled over a call and resolved through troubleshooting, so no replacement was needed.

Keyboard problems can look similar but have different causes—a loose keycap may need a small fix, while an unresponsive key can point to a deeper keyboard issue. Previous customer cases helped narrow down the right solution instead of replacing parts blindly.

Just black magnesium, sharp edges, red TrackPoints, and enough ThinkPads to make this subreddit lose all self-control.

The X1 Carbons know they’re pretty.

The P14s know they can handle more.

Please behave in the comments. Or don’t.

​

The weather has delayed a few shipments over the past 2–3 days.

Apparently, laptops are portable. Roads are not.

Things will get moving normally as soon as conditions improve.

Not taking any new interstate orders until weather improves a bit !

​

I never thought I would have to make a post like this, but this situation has now been going on for months, and I genuinely do not know how much longer I am supposed to remain patient.

A customer from Hyderabad contacted me to purchase a laptop. He requested Cash on Delivery and assured me repeatedly that payment would not be an issue. Based on those assurances, I agreed to proceed with the order.

The laptop was delivered to him successfully. He received it, took possession of it, and has been using it. However, the payment was never completed.

Since then, almost every day has brought a new excuse.

One day, he says there is a banking problem.

The next day, he says somebody else is supposed to transfer the amount.

Then he says he is travelling.

Then he says there is a family issue.

Then he says he will pay by evening.

Evening becomes the next morning. The next morning becomes another two days. After two days, there is yet another explanation.

I have heard every possible version of “tomorrow,” “in a few hours,” “by tonight,” “my friend will pay,” and “please give me one last day.”

Initially, I tried to be understanding. Genuine emergencies happen. Payments can sometimes get delayed. People can face personal or financial difficulties. I did not want to publicly embarrass anyone or immediately assume bad intentions.

But when the same cycle continues for months, it stops looking like a temporary problem and starts looking like deliberate avoidance.

The strangest part happened when he gave me the phone number of a supposed friend and said that this person would coordinate the payment. When I contacted the number, it appeared to be associated with adult-service or escort-related calls and had absolutely nothing to do with the laptop payment.

I do not know whether the number was given intentionally to waste my time, to mislead me, or simply to prevent me from contacting the actual person responsible. Either way, it made the entire situation even more suspicious and frustrating.

I have kept screenshots of the conversations, delivery information, order details, payment promises, and the numbers that were provided to me. I am deliberately not posting anyone’s personal information here because I do not want this to turn into harassment or doxxing.

However, I also cannot pretend that this is normal.

For a small seller, one unpaid laptop is not a minor inconvenience. The money invested in that device is blocked. It affects the ability to purchase new stock, fulfil other orders, and operate the business normally. Large companies may have systems to absorb such losses, but an individual seller or small business cannot casually ignore them.

What makes this more disappointing is that I agreed to COD because the customer wanted reassurance. I trusted him enough to send the laptop without collecting the full payment in advance. That trust has now been used against me.

I have tried being polite.

I have tried being patient.

I have tried giving deadlines.

I have tried accepting partial-payment promises.

I have tried contacting the person he claimed would handle the payment.

Nothing has worked. Every conversation ends with another promise, and every promise is followed by another excuse.

At this point, I am considering sending a formal written demand for payment and filing a complaint using the delivery records and chat evidence available with me. I would still prefer that the customer simply pays the pending amount and closes the matter peacefully, but months of excuses cannot continue indefinitely.

I am sharing this experience for two reasons.

I want other small sellers/buyers to be extremely careful. Trust is important, but documentation and payment protection are equally important. Do not rely only on verbal assurances, emotional stories, or repeated promises. Verify the COD process, preserve proof of delivery, and have clear written terms regarding payment and ownership.

Has anyone here faced something similar? What steps did you take, and what would you recommend I do next?

My whatsapp account is under review even i don't why that happened so please don't panic call and don't worry I'm not scamming anyone !

orders which are already placed and customers have paid for order and if order is dispatched then don't worry your order in in transit , for those who have paid and orders which are supposed to be dispatch today will be dispatched today as per usual timing ( 1 pm pickup and 6-7 pm tracker live )

Update : The account is back !

I know it's in there.

My brain knows it's in there.

My hand still unzips the backpack every single time because it feels like I'm carrying air.