r/Entrepreneur

I know it's hard to come up with the "next big thing" in literal age of AI when everyone is going to bore you with "look man I created this today with a single prompt" but as far as I see, everyone is trying to be a copy of an existing successful business.

Do not get me wrong, copying a successful business is one of the most sophisticated practices in the business, but think for just one minute. Is Anthropic a copy of OpenAI? No. They are very different in nature and infrastructure and goals. Is Perplexity the next Google? No. They have different goals.

You know I was watching "The Social Network" and everytime Zuck asks the Winklewii "How is it different from MySpace and Friendster" and one of the twins says "Harward dot e d u" I understand I personally should go after "a different experience" not "a different product". I just want to know the sub's opinion on the topic as well.

So, first a bit of context. I have a website and some organic users, some new and some returning. But what to do next? I am not earning anything currently. My website isn't holding a very valuable feature yet. So, I want to make some new features, some new tools. I have time currently too. But every keyword I search is already filled with competitors who are there before me. I don't have enough backlinks to rank among them organically. Neither is there much demand. I can't decide what to build next. I tried getting feedback from my current users but they ain't having enough free time to even press a yes or no on "was it helpful" popup.

I tried reading some blogs. But most of them are just marketing focused, or questionable, like some random generated AI blog who have no idea what it's talking about.

So, reddit users, my fellow redditors, how do you decide what to do next? what to build next?

I'm currently building a small web agency selling websites to local businesses.

Nothing crazy yet: 5 clients, a few thousand euros in revenue, lots of cold calling and learning every day.

But honestly, the thing that interests me the most is not the websites themselves.

It's the idea that in a few years AI native agencies will look completely different from traditional ones.

Right now, besides building websites, I'm slowly building internal systems:

• a company brain inside Cursor with processes, standards, meeting transcripts and client context that is able to autonomously ship websites (still far from the autonomy part)
• a tool that scrapes and enriches companies from Google Maps to decide who to contact that check each website and understand if they are bad, old or not seo friendly (still working on it, I am not satisfied with the results yet)
• a client portal where customers pay, upload content, review the site, approve deploys and request changes where once will be connected to my AI agents autonomously will ship website update for my clients.

Humans will focus on:

• sales
• trust
• understanding clients
• making strategic decisions

AI agents will handle:

• research
• lead qualification
• project management
• implementation of simple requests
• maintenance
• documentation
• deployment

I don't think the agency model dies.

I think a single person with the right systems will be able to operate like a small team.

I'm curious if other people here are building service businesses in a similar way.

What parts are you automating?

Had a week? Same. This is your consequence-free space to complain about clients, platforms, algorithms, your own decisions, or the general chaos of running a business. Keep it venting with no personal attacks. We'll be back to being professional tomorrow.

I know this is kind of a silly question, but we all know that small entrepreneurs have to do everything from sales to design to marketing almost all by themselves before the business grows into a certain degree.

So in order to keep everything in clarity, I find it difficult to keep my files tidy especially when it involves needing some of the staffs to update files into master list.

I personally use Google drives, it is very convenient in syncing through multiple devices. But it is always hard to find a certain file when I need it.

So how do you organise the digital files? Do share some tips. Thanks!

Big or small, a win is a win. First sale, first client, or first time paying yourself, share it here. This community loves to celebrate with you. No win is too minor to mention.

So quick backstory; my background is in physics and computer science, mid 20s, and I'm from a small country in Europe but speak English natively. This is going to be a bit of a chaotic rant since I'm tired.

I was a part of 2 US startups as a full stack dev but those didn't really kick it off the ground, but taught me a lot of things very fast.

I've recently setup a new MarTech business and know who's my ICP but haven't got a lot of real connections in the space. So I've been trying to connect with more people on LinkedIn but it's...brutally destroying the last bit of confidence I have left, having poured my soul into solo-entrepreneurship.

From experience, a blank request will get accepted a lot more often. A hand-written comment to their post sometimes gets a comment back. And btw, these are all people continously blasting content and pitching and promoting their business. But the moment I ask a question or offer a risk-free trial run, it's like an automatic switch in their brains into the spam department and no further engagement.

Note: I've read posts about people blasting 50-100k emails. I'm not that kind of person. I deeply research every cold lead I have. But at the same time I'm just feeling like everyone but me is a successful seller and I'm just left with this bitter feeling of not being seen or having a chance of showing my worth. I know my stuff around internal operations and building human/system pipelines and feedback loops, but bootstrapping from scratch...guess I'm too lost here to think clearly and rationally.

What I'm pitching is hand-tailored and personal involvement, not a SaaS and I'm struggling to get rid of this feeling of "nobody gives a f**k about you until you're a multimillionaire" regardless of how valuable and capable I am right now.

My options are to either learn how to start cold calling using apollo? zoominfo? or something like that, pay an agency that offers to do the linkedin stuff on autopilot but it's a 4 month commitment, or to start producing content, heck maybe even run paid ads. Analysis paralysis right there while I'm bleeding cash... The ironic part is that I've got my service figured out for businesses already off the ground and wanting to scale/automate/innovate, but can't run the system myself at this stage where I am. Would literally be an intern/VA just to get to some warm intros/network circles and show my skills...there's no clear next step to this and I guess I'd like to hear where am I wrong.

Anyways, any help and advice is appreciated kind redditoors, apologies for any typos, I'm on my phone.

TL;DR - should I try cold calling despite no xp in there, shooting content, paid ads, keep grinding the linkedin connections or take a shot at an agency claimung they will bring me 10-20 meetings/mo but want a 4 month paid engagement?

I'm a developer and a marketer; but I've avoided cold outreach throughout my career. My expertise is mostly on content, SEO, inbound side. Ever since starting my own SaaS, I'm tempted to give cold outreach a serious try. The problem - I do not have any clarity on how to go about it for our SaaS.

About my SaaS:

Our SaaS allows businesses to create white-label community that runs on their own domain, attracts users organically and retains them. We help our clients build the community from scratch in about 3-5 months; and that's the main reasons our early customers chose us over our competition.

The pricing starts at $299/mo.

Cold Outreach Problem:

Currently I'm facing the following problems:

1. I do not have razor sharp clarity on who our ICP is. Current set of customers came from inbound (our speciality) as well as some of my posts on Reddit. But they are very different customers than the ones we identified: Marketers and Head of Growth, Head of Community at B2B SaaS. The diverse se of customers makes it harder for us to really nail the ICP.

2. Because we do not know who really to target; we are unable to make any progress with prospecting, writing copy and sending emails.

3. Following the YC advice, I made a list of about 60 marketers in the B2B SaaS domain and sent personalized emails (all hand-typed!) - However, there's no response yet. I've done 2-3 follow ups. I understand it's too early to judge the success of this; but the amount of time I'm spending in this makes me think if it's really worth following this approach.

As I write this: I believe my real problem is finding the ICP; not the 'cold email'. I'd however like to hear from fellow founders and SaaS operators.

What suggestions do you have for us?

Share your website, pitch, logo, idea, pricing, copy, or anything else you want honest eyes on. Tell us what you're looking for: brutal honesty, general impressions, or specific questions.

Return the favour and leave feedback for someone else while you're here.

My story:

Six months of blogging. Two posts a day - tech news, healthy lifestyle. The hardest work of my life. The same day Google confirmed me as an official advertiser, they banned me. For life. Earnings seized.

The crime? My sister clicked my banner three times. Trying to help. I didn't know. Google didn't ask.

No warning. No human. No appeal that works. Just an algorithm, a verdict, and silence. Six months of work erased by three clicks I never made.

That's what "free platform" costs. They own the channel - you rent your existence on it, and the lease can end any morning, no reason given.

Own your channel. 🫤🖖

Founder here, we run a skincare/beauty brand doing about $1M in sales across Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Shopify. I run finance/ops for a B2B SaaS company as my main gig, so I know how to run a business, just not this specific game.

Where we're at:

• TikTok Shop was a strong channel, now it's gone downhill (algo changes, ad costs, saturation, pick your reason)
• Amazon is steady but not growing fast
• We killed Meta ads because CAC wasn't working
• Growth has flattened and I don't have full conviction on why

I'm trying to figure out how people in this space actually find mentors, not courses, not agencies pitching a "growth package," but someone who's actually built a brand past the $1M mark and can tell you what mistakes they made or what actually moved the needle.

Is this something people find through founder communities, masterminds, industry events, cold outreach to people you admire, or something else? Curious how others in ecommerce/beauty have approached this, especially past the plateau stage.

Until next year im planning on networking and learning how to become a broker for industrial items with b2b model but i have concerns with ai as many others also have. I could use ai model aswell i guess but it doesnt feel very legit as the company i would sell to could just go online and ask an ai like slimstock and pallet about it so what would be the point of me starting anything?

Doesnt feel very long term or robust enough as then it probably will be who will use the cheapest ai model so who would even care about the work anymore as its that easy to get.

I’m a content strategist (and social media manager/management), and I mainly help businesses and creators grow organically on insta and tiktok. My work revolves around content strategy, not paid ads or cold outreach. Personally, I’ve never relied on cold outreach to get clients, so I’m curious how it’s working for others in 2026

Is cold outreach still a reliable way to land clients, or has it become much harder than it used to be? I’d love to hear your experience. Has cold outreach worked for you, or have you found other channels to be more effective? Personally, I tend to ignore most DMs that jump straight into a sales pitch, so I’ve always wondered how well that approach actually works today

Hey everyone! I'm into the entrepreneurship space for 4years now, was into a lot of businesses but after I read the Almanack of Naval Ravikant, my entire perspective changed and I realized I should build a long-term empire that runs without me in the future. I started to spend a lot of hours researching and brainstorming, I finally decided and validated my niche through my natural obsessions and specific knowledge, started talking and writing about it a lot. And now thinking about the code leverage to actually build an infrastructure every multi-million dollar company did.

I'm curious how is it for you, were you thinking about stuff like that lately? And what are your techniques, or what did successful founders use in the past? Im geniunely curious about that because this is fundamental in business..

I've known this for a few months now, but I gotta tell this story just for anyone who doesn't know.

Back in February (fucking February!) I had a client who reached out to me asking for me to run a promo for them. Sure. No problem.

For context, I was going through chemo at this time. Constantly tired, no energy, etc.

The break from work had given me lots of time to work on my business though, so I asked if he'd be willing to test it out since I think he'd be a good fit. Sure he says, to which I say great.

I deliver his copy, and I also get to work on his AI caller. I sent an email asking for basic info (probably sent this email like 5 times in the span of 2-3 weeks). Eventually decided fuck it, guess that's that.

Come mid-late April, he emails me out of the blue, asks if I'd be interested in doing another run of copy. At this point I want to just write back "Fuck you" and hit send. But it occurs to me that this time I'll tell him "sure, but rather than pay me through cash, try the system for 30 days". He agrees.

But this mofo always seems to take a minimum of a week to schedule things with me, or cancels his appointments. It was only recently to my great relief he said it was okay if I booked appointments on his site. I was literally about to close him this week so I can finally be done chasing him all the time, everything is finished, but i open his site and he's away for the next 2 weeks.

I'm so done with this guy. anyway, that's my TED Talk.

I really appreciate this community and value peoples takes in here. I have come to find that for me, more than anything, entrepreneurship is about self reflection and self development. And making money and building a business of course, but also all the learnings.

What have been some of your reflections and learnings over the years?

A highlight of mine (may not apply to your experience, this has been mine)

- Keep it in the family. I only start any new business ventures with my husband from now on. Have been burned too many times by others and others may have been burned by me as well, by all means. I feel like everything we do is for our family, so I'm not involving others in that.

Hope some of you want to share yours!

When people talk about turning points in business, they usually mention the big moments.

Landing a major client.

Hiring the first employee.

Launching a new product.

Looking back, mine wasn't anything like that.

It was a small decision that didn't feel important at the time.

It changed how I handled clients, how I spent my time, and how I made decisions going forward.

The interesting part is that I didn't realize how important it was until months later.

It made me wonder how many of the biggest changes in business actually start as small decisions that almost seem insignificant at the time.

What's one decision that seemed small when you made it but completely changed the way you run your business?

Why is it so hard to start a bank? This is like a random question, but why aren't people or wealthy entrepreneurs founding banks, hospitals, colleges, etc?

I know this sounds like an obvious question, but even people like Elon tried starting one and it failed, if he couldn't do it, how did banks like Chase, Wells Fargo, HBSU, etc do it? Is it that they have to borrow from the UN? (Where does the highest person in the chain also get their money?)

Jeff Bezos might have the money for it, but he doesn't do it. If I'm not mistaken USA has like 3000 billionaires, but how many own banks?

Why aren't they also founding hospitals then if banks have too many regulations? Everyone is founding AI tech we don't need, where is the actual advancing technology & institutions?

When I started, I thought saying "yes" to every opportunity was the fastest way to grow.

Every new client felt like progress.

Every custom request felt like good customer service.

Every discount felt like a way to win the deal.

For a while, it worked.

But after a few months I noticed a pattern.

The customers who negotiated the hardest often expected the most.

The projects with unclear requirements usually took the longest.

The work I accepted "just this once" often became the work I enjoyed the least.

Eventually I realized I wasn't growing the business.

I was just getting better at creating more work for myself.

Now I spend much more time deciding what not to take on.

It hasn't reduced opportunities.

If anything, it has helped me spend more time with clients who value the work, communicate clearly, and become long-term customers.

Looking back, learning to say no was one of the biggest steps toward building a healthier business.

Did your business become better after you started saying no to certain customers or projects?

TLDR, built app with Claude, profitting as of now less than one month into building. Why I share this? No idea, just haven't told anyone in our circle besides my wife because saying "I built a homestead app to track how many eggs our chickens laid" might be the biggest conversation ender. So I guess just wanted to share with fellow entrepreneurs and if anyone had questions, happy to answer. I'm no expert, 2,900 is rookie numbers for most apps, just happy with this

First off, I apologize if this is all over the place. I have seen all the memes and vids about "just start an app" using AI. I am grateful that it actually worked for me and just wanting to share experience as I think it is situational.

For reference, I have experience starting businesses, ZERO experience coding whatsoever. I had the idea for a homestead analytics app purely out of interest to look at the insights of our homestead, spending, sales, what days our animals are most productive, family trees, etc... I built this website, marketed it for free (95% FB, 5% making blogs for it). I used and continue to use Claude ($20 plan) entirely to build the code.

Completely user funded. Making Money approach: essentially donation funded. I made the website into an app because about 10-15 users offered to pay the developer fee for Apple and Google Play to get the app going. I have yet to pay a dime for marketing, simply through FB organic marketing. App stays free because some people pay. I have added ways in the app to "incentivize" (no paywalls, donors get nothing besides pat on the back essentially).

The app has been live for around a month, has 2,900 users, 15 5-star reviews, and roughly 60 users who have voluntarily subscribed to donate $1-10 a month to continue watching the app grow along with about 50-60 one time monetary gifts. App is free, no ads, funded by users who choose to donate. The monthly costs:

Vercel Pro $25

Supabase Pro $25

Claude AI $20

Cloudflare domain $10/year

Total costs per month: About $71

Total Subscriptions: $135

One-Time Costs: $125 (Apple + Google Play)

Total One-Time Gifts: $305

Profit so far: about $220

I'm not saying it's going to be a huge money maker, that was not the goal. I just wanted to share my experience. I believe part of why it works well is the transparency and the start-up feel. People want to support someone who is actually in the space (homesteader making a homestead app) and they want to help you grow it. I think I could make more money if I made it a premium app but I am happy to be breaking less than a couple months in. Early on, even with Claude doing all the coding, it was a ton of hours but it's addicting to build. Now, it's less than an hour a week and growing.

EDIT: Are all these comments AI? They sound like AI LOL