r/Entrepreneur

Hi there, early 30's small serial entrepreneur here. I have my own methods of investing i've found along my short journey so far in life... and I'm curious if there are older and wiser folks out there.

The reason I posted this in the entrepreneur reddit is because most of my family are corporate climbers and literally none of them know how to invest outside of the stock market in one way or another.

Not looking for anything less than a 25% return annually.

For example, one of my better performing investments is an Airbnb. It effortlessly yields extremely far beyond a 25% annual ROI, though most would "classify" it as a risky investment, from a finance perspective.

Curious if people are open to sharing these things, places, and things or if they are gate-kept secrets.

Not looking for these answers:

- individual stocks
- crypto
- gambling

Thanks!

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Been in this sector for over a decade. Feels like things are getting harder and much more competitive. I don't even bother joining accelerators because of their intake stats are mind blowing.

We got enough traction with patent but maybe still not good enough

I think AI has good and bad qualities. AI allows entrepreneurs to start something without having to invest too much into an a product that may or may not work. However, it also introduces too many entrepreneurs making AI generated products diluting the digital product market which increases competition as well as lowering customer trust. I know that anything in this world has pros and cons but I want your opinions on this question. Btw I am simply asking this because I am curious on what others think about AI use in entrepreneurship

I'm thinking of starting a YouTube video production service for B2B businesses. Wanted to get some honest feedback before I start!

The idea is to have the company's own experts (an engineer, a technician, a sales rep, whoever actually knows the answer) answer the real questions their customers ask before buying, on video. Things like "how much does X cost", "X vs Y, which one do I need", "what goes wrong when you install X". I collect the questions in a short call with the sales team, record a remote call with the expert, cut myself out in editing, add screen recordings of the product if needed, and publish it on the company's YouTube channel.

The point is that the video is useful even with very few views I think. The sales team can send it to a prospect who asked that exact question and over time it can rank on YouTube and Google for searches people actually make.

In addition to that, the added value is the content repurposing: turning each video into vertical clips with subtitles, LinkedIn posts, a newsletter, a blog post, etc., so the company gets more content out of a single recording.

A few things I'm unsure about and would love feedback on:

• Would they prefer remote recording or someone coming to their office with a camera (this was originally my idea to add some extra value to the service)?
• Is "videos your sales team can use tomorrow" a stronger pitch than "grow your YouTube channel"?
• Which industries do you think this would work best for?

I’m researching how entrepreneurs get feedback on business ideas from people in their target market.

If you’ve tried doing that on Reddit recently, what happened? Which audience were you trying to reach, what did you post, and did the responses help you make a decision?

If it didn’t work, what did you try next? If it worked well, what made the difference?
I’m exploring a business in this area and want to understand people’s actual experiences before proposing anything.

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.

A survival income for businesses that already exist and keep a place alive, but can't win on pure profit.

My list:

🏘️ Last grocery shop in a village

💊 Small-town pharmacy

👞 Shoe and watch repair

📚 Independent bookshop

🥖 Local bakery

🔧 Village mechanic, plumber, electrician

🎹 Piano tuner, tailor, bike repair

📻 Electronics and hi-fi repair (right-to-repair angle ⚡)

✂️ Barber in a town of 800 people

Add yours...

The rule behind them: social value is bigger than profit. When they close, the town loses more than a business. It loses a reason to stay.

Pay the baker who keeps a town alive, or pay freeloaders to stay home. Which one is the better deal?

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.

Recently, I experimented with a different way of explaining my web tracking service.

Let me be honest: I am a developer, and reaching out to customers is not something I am good at or feel comfortable with. On top of that, business owners were not able to connect with the service I offer, and they were asking questions that were not easy to answer in a few messages.

What I did was write a blog post in which I documented the journey of implementation, but it was quite long and more suited to educating someone already interested in the topic.

So I turned it into an AI-generated video podcast: an AI version of me as the guest, with a fictional host asking questions business owners asked me during the calls, plus others they might ask.

The answers came from my own content and implementation experience.

At an agency I previously worked with, clients would request podcast scripts and arrange studio recordings, which involved considerable time and expense. That experience made me curious about whether this format could be useful for smaller businesses, especially when AI tools are getting insanely good at doing such things.

I haven’t measured whether it generates inquiries yet. Producing something convincing and getting someone to trust it enough to contact you are different things.

Curious whether anyone has tested this and seen actual inquiries or sales.

October 1st was the date I’d picked to launch my first platform.

For almost four months, I’ve been building this alongside my 9-to-5: a platform where creators (YouTubers only for the MVP) share video ideas they’re planning to make, and fans can tip them on the ones they’d like to see. Getting to the point where I could finally let people use it felt like a huge achievement. I’d never built and launched something entirely on my own before.

Then last week, one week before launch, Stripe closed our account. I was using Stripe Connect so creators could receive payments through their own connected accounts, while I took a small commission on each tip. That setup also narrowed down the alternatives. Stripe classified the business under their restricted categories, but the email wasn’t clear about whether the issue was content creation platforms or crowdfunding.

I contacted human support, explained the model, and shared our terms of service. I clarified that we don’t host any content and don’t allow adult content or harmful suggestions. I asked whether they could explain the issue or whether there was anything I could change to comply with their terms.

The human support agent didn’t help much he clarified that my business was classified as "Content Creation Plattforms" which is one of their restricted businesses. And that their review was final and there was nothing I could do.

Obviously it was very surprising for me since i know Kofi, BuymeaCoffe and other Content Creation plattforms also use Stripe Connect and are very similair in their offerings.

So today, instead of sharing a success story about our launch, I’m waiting on another payment provider and slowly losing hope.

My mistake was leaving the business-model approval too late. I’d been worrying about VAT registration through EU OSS (which I successfully completed), working on SEO to get some traffic before launch, and sending personalized outreach emails to 200 content creators. Ten had joined the waitlist.

But I should have confirmed that Stripe would support exactly how the platform works before building around it.

If your product depends on a third-party service, get that fit checked early. Explain who pays whom, what they’re paying for, and which countries you need supported. Ask for written confirmation.

We’ve applied to PayPal now too, and I’m hopeful they’ll accept us. Still waiting for an answer.

Pretty gutted about missing today, honestly. Hoping I’ll get to write the actual launch post soon.

Anyone else had a third party provider derail their launch?

I think there’s a positioning problem that’s easy to miss if most of your customer research happens before the sale.

During the sales process, you hear what someone hopes to get. Once you’re doing the work, you find out what actually makes the relationship valuable to them. Those can be pretty different things.

Take an agency, for example. A client might buy because they want more leads. Six months later, they might value the fact that someone finally owns the process and they don’t have to spend every Monday chasing updates. The leads still matter, but the relief of having that handled could be a bigger part of the renewal decision than the agency realizes.

Meanwhile, the website still says exactly what it said six months ago, because the people writing it weren’t part of those conversations.

What interests me is deciding how much that should change the pitch.

The thing that makes an existing customer stay might be your strongest selling point. It could also be something a prospect won’t appreciate until they’ve worked with you. Leading with it too early might actually make the offer harder to sell.

I’d want to compare what customers said they wanted on the first call with how they describe the value when they renew. Especially the language they use without being prompted.

For anyone who’s had customers long enough to see that difference: what did they end up valuing that surprised you? And did putting it into your sales pitch help win new business, or was it mostly a reason existing customers stayed?

Translation: Have you tested for PMF ? Seeing so many silly ideas out there.

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.

Pay it forward. Drop your free resources, templates, tools, or anything else that's helped you and might help someone else. No strings attached; these resources have to be free.