ash_rahman

Last month I built a content orchestration tool for myself. Some people wanted to use it, so I turned it into a (vibe coded) SaaS over a week.

Got 6 paying users in the first week, which was surprising. But now I'm buried in feature requests and realized I need funding to build this properly.

I reached out to some contacts for intros. Most asked for a deck. I couldn't bring myself to make another Canva presentation.

So built a 2D platformer playable deck instead.

Built with vanilla JS and Canvas. The whole thing is about 1500 lines of code. Takes maybe a minute to play through.

Curious what HN thinks - whether this approach to pitching is clever or just weird.

A small inconvenience had been bugging me for a while - writing down all those unstructured thoughts, temporary meeting notes, and my code snippets.

There’s OneNote, Apple Notes, and other note-taking apps, but all of them feel like a bit too much for simple, quick, temporary notes.

docs (.) new is a good option but requires an account.

I had some free time over the weekend, a cool domain, and thought I’d get something simple up and running.

This is as simple as it gets. No syncing, no AI, no accounts, lightweight, and nothing too serious.

Disclaimer - based on the popular open-source Standard Notes (their hosted version is great, but too many distractions).

I am already familiar with most of what you said here and I am not a first-time founder with an assumption that I need to raise money. I have taken steps to prove that the business I am building is something users want, generated revenue without a product, and only looking for the fund to develop a product and execute a clear, proven GTM strategy.

"Learning about investing is a huge time sink. " - honestly found these lines here insightful and helpful.

Here is a secret, YC is highly biased depending on countries. Where I am from, only one company was able to make it into the YC with founders from a US educational background, and in-person meetings with partners. Population-wise this country ranks #8. Not that it matters for me as mine is a product targeted for the internet population globally. But you get the point, YC is not much welcoming to most SE/SEA countries.

So we are left with local angels. Now, these people got their own businesses and believe wholeheartedly they know better when it comes to startup investing.

"AFAIK a SAFE valuation is the valuation when the shares convert during an A round - after you have built the business. The point of a SAFE is so you don’t have to value the business now." - This is exactly what can solve the problem. I don't want to value my business now, in fact, it's even better if we don't put a valuation cap at all. But the angels we talk, like to know their ownership when investing in %.

To simplify, let's imagine I share a valuation cap and this is when things get ugly. For example, "So you have $1.6K MRR and you are looking for a valuation of $1M? You are delusional."

How can I make them read all those YC blogs/conferences when they are familiar with traditional valuations and not willing to correct existing learnings? With revenue multiples, there is no simple way to value my company today. But I need $100K to build now and am ready to offer you 10% in the future. "Nah, this is not for me, I want 50%." - response from angels, wasting both of our time.

Bootstrapping is what favorable at this point and I am doing this already. But that comes with the problem of going too slow - fulfilling the orders manually, charging a higher fee (~$1K/order), finding leads, and running a sales process. Which can be a good lifestyle business for surviving but not enough to get a product developed and grow faster.

Anyway, truly appreciate the valuable advice shared in detail. Likely I have no ways other than bootstrapping at this point.

How do you suggest sharing these with interested investors in simple terms? They are in power position with money and think they understand better.

I am raising for playwhitelabel dot com with following stats - revenue US$16K+ (since May, 2022), paid users 120+ (including presales), and don't have a product yet.

As a 2-person team, looking forward to growing with a product, and a bit of capital, YC will suite us. But it's highly unlikely we will even get an interview. I wonder why all those later stage YC companies are being taught SuS content.