diffstrokes

Amazing work!

Agree, though I prefer B2B SaaS and someone who has a very solid B2B sales background and, at least, a good idea. This seems to be hard to find.

There are a couple good services for finding a co-founder: starthawk and YC has its own matching service that is free.

Good concept and seems like a well executed MVP. Good work!

Things that stand out in your resume: It doesn’t look like a developer resume because the skills are hidden at the bottom, job history doesn’t mention specific development skills. You say full stack but everything else indicates front end focus. Your education only shows 1 year (looks like you are trying to over represent you went to Berkeley). Your job history gaps stand out. If you applied for a full stack job, I would likely reject based on resume… for front end job would likely interview.

I’d contribute to open source projects and add that as a line in work history xxx-current and focus on front end for now.

This seems somewhat standard. The company is trying to protect its IP (and probably overvalues it). You could try to negotiate a lower term or change the language to carve out generative AI that wouldn’t compete with them.

Have you done the YC online Start-up School? It may give you good insight into the program and get you on track to a successful application.

YC has a free start up school where they teach how to build a start up, including raising money: https://www.startupschool.org/

1) YC has a cofounder matching system. There is also Starthawk. YC startup school is also worth the time investment.

2) A provisional patent, in your case, could offer you some protection.

But yeah, in general, ideas alone have little value. Your mindset needs to be “it doesn’t matter if everyone knows my idea because I will build a better product, have better marketing and be more efficient than my competitors”.

I’ve used starthawk and found good potential matches.

I work with a firm that has IP lawyers, they are mediocre and very expensive. I recommend calling local private practice IP lawyers and briefly describe your situation and ask for a 2 hour consult. Speak with as many as possible and hire the one who seems the most helpful.

Yeah, this is exactly what I meant.

By standard I mean cookie cutter: org charts, spending and strategy for targeted ads, trade show marketing, sales pipelines. With slight variations for target market/vertical.

It obviously requires a heavy spend but is also effective.

I totally agree VCs have become more aggressive in identifying opportunities and entrepreneurs aggressive in targeting small niche companies and can easily get VC funding.

I am a technical cofounder and bootstrapped three companies: 2 acquired, 1 failed. I would not bootstrap a company in today’s climate unless you do not want to exit. The VC playbooks for growth are now mature, standard and effective. So being able to leverage the funds and execute a standardized revenue generating plan is important.

Bootstrapping mostly leads to extremely slow growth unless you have skilled sales expertise on team or get lucky. Which is not all bad unless you are looking for a 3 to 5 year exit.

MIT has a fantastic online SCM micro-masters program: https://micromasters.mit.edu/scm/