shantanu bhatt

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Founders: your sales team is your biggest security risk. Not your devs. Not your ops. Sales. They forward CRM exports to gmail. They share Loom videos with PII visible. They install browser extensions you've never heard of. Your CISO meeting should always start with: "What is sales doing this quarter?"

Tell me if I am wrong

Choose the one where you know your audience hangs out! One of my apps is for youngsters, so I choose Instagram. My other app is for leaders, so I choose Reddit, email, and LinkedIn. For both apps, I use email, SEO, content, and cold outreach! Just double down on the one that actually hosts your target audience.

you have a product with zero distribution. you can pick one channel to own completely for the next 90 days. which do you pick? A) Twitter/X B) Reddit C) email list D) SEO / content E) cold outreach what's your reasoning?

@braelyn_ai Not just think, did that! Twice

you’d think with AI we’d all actually finish our side projects

@aryanlabde Fact my friend, and its extremely hard!

Being a solo vibe coder is hard. You have to be the one who builds it and the one who convinces people to pay for it.

@pavelhegler So you mean if this person just buys a domain, they would become a founder? 😂

If your domain ends with .lovable.dev you are not a founder

@asaio87 Not really, brother! I’ve launched 2 apps, and both have paying customers. As a cybersecurity professional, I implemented security and privacy features first.

As a vibecoder you don’t get too far. A vibecoder just starts coding , doesn’t care about security or scaling or running costs. He just enjoys using AI to build this app The dream is to get the app to production and start having paying users Sadly it’s just a dream. Nobody tells him the app will be a fiasco if he even launches.

Your app is just a sales funnel. Your user onboarding method decides if your app will be a success or a failure.

@Jbm_dev In my opinion, ‘a’ is the worst because the compliment doesn’t mean anything, its just a deviation to get away from the conversation

what’s worse to hear from a user: a) “I love this” but they never try it b) “I don’t get it” c) “how is this different than…” c has been a big struggle for us lately, but I think b is worse?

@trikcode That happens when you totally rely on AI, for thinking an idea and then building it. If you do the grind of going out talking to people to understand their problems and then creating something that actually helps them

AI can generate 50 landing pages in 2 minutes. still can’t generate one person who wants to pay.

When you have too many options to choose from

I have read 65 books about business, marketing, and operations in the past one and a half years! Still, I learn most of the lessons by failing.

@Jbm_dev Great idea, terrible execution! Because execution is the only thing that matters

what’s worse for a startup: a) great idea, terrible execution b) terrible idea, great execution genuinely unsure

@sherifgjini Very true! And that bar keeps going up

Making your first $1 online doesn’t feel like a win for long. It feels like “now how do I make more?” The bar raises instantly.

@pmitu Also depends on how you position it and sell it

Founders Your vision is nothing until someone pays for it.

@pcshipp I have learned this the hard way, if you have a strong onboarding process then paying for the can become a no brainer! Try brainstorming that once and iterating around it, it may work wonders

Finally, I’m stopping free access - $2 revenue - $0 MRR - 802 new users Paid users >> Free users

@thoniahilary Depends on what skill you don’t have

As a startup founder, who will you employ first

@everton_dev Are your customers dropping once the free trial/ part ends?

I’m officially done building freemium apps. Never again.

@sherifgjini I am not selling anything at that point, with landing page I am just checking if there is a market for the product. Would add a lite version of just one core feature on it to test the viability

@auditormusic19 so you would try to sell the product just with the landing page not with the core feature

Founders, what should be shipped first? - demo - landing page - onboarding - pricing - core feature

@aryanlabde 💯

the hardest part of being a solo founder is being your own PM, marketer, support team and therapist, all at once.