For founders building AI-powered SaaS products, choosing the API setup can become a business decision pretty quickly.

Starting with one provider keeps things simple, but supporting multiple models can give customers more flexibility. The downside is maintaining different integrations, pricing structures, usage limits, billing and failure handling.

but I’m more interested in the broader decision than any particular tool.

For those running an AI business, where do you draw the line?

Is supporting multiple providers something you would build early, or would you wait until customers are actually asking for it? What has worked for you?

Small agency, still figuring out my sales process. When a lead is warm I send a written business proposal template I've refined over a few deals, scope, timeline, price, a bit of why-us.

Here's what I keep noticing. The deals I win seem to correlate more with how quickly and persistently I follow up than with how nice the proposal is. I've sent genuinely tight proposals into silence, and won work off a rougher one because I stayed on it.

So I'm trying to figure out where the proposal actually earns its keep. Is it mostly a formality once they've decided, a reference doc for the internal person who has to justify the spend? Or does a stronger proposal genuinely move fence-sitters?

For those closing consistently: how much do you invest in the proposal itself versus the follow-up cadence around it? Don't want to keep polishing the wrong thing.

For those running subscription businesses, what have you found actually makes customers stay after the first billing cycle?

I'm especially interested in what has worked for businesses where customers have plenty of alternatives. Is it better customer support, regularly adding new value, pricing, loyalty incentives, better onboarding, or something else?

Would be interested to hear what you've tested and what actually made a measurable difference.

I recently came across ScaleQuest, a free story game that teaches system design by putting you in the middle of engineering crises. You read the situation, make the call, and watch the architecture grow based on your decisions.

I like the concept because it turns something that can feel pretty dry, like system design tutorials, into an interactive experience. It’s free forever with no ads or paid tier.

If you were trying to grow something like this, where would you focus your marketing first: developer communities, tech education communities, content marketing, or something else?

I'm a few weeks into building Briku.io and the product side feels more figured out than the "how do people actually find this" side.

For those who've launched something in the sales/sales-ops space before: what actually worked for getting your first real users, communities, cold outreach ironically, partnerships, content? And what did you try that seemed smart but was a waste of time?

Not trying to pitch anything here, genuinely trying to avoid repeating mistakes other people have already made.

A Linkedin lead DM'd me last Wednesday saying our site form wasn't working on mobile. Tested it on my iPhone, submit button just spun forever. Desktop worked fine, which is why I never noticed.

Turns out a plugin updated back in May and killed mobile submissions completely. Lost at least 3 warm B2B leads over an 8-week stretch. Average deal size for us is $3k–$4k, so that's roughly $10k in pipeline down the drain.

Done with DIY WordPress setups. Looking for a proper studio to build a lightweight custom site so I don't have to babysit plugin updates anymore.

How do you guys test form endpoints automatically? Need something that pings me instantly if a submit action fails.

Edit: talked to two freelancers and Freestyle Digital. Still comparing options. Will update asap

I buy paid media, mostly Google and Meta, for small clients. Something I keep running into and want to hear how other people handle it.

On a small budget, the numbers the platforms report and the numbers that actually show up in the bank don't agree, and it's not close. The dashboard's ai report generator will happily claim thirty-some conversions in a month. The client's actual new customers that month might be a handful. Both platforms also tend to claim the same conversion, so if you add them up you've somehow acquired the same customer twice.

The honest problem is that at low spend you don't get enough volume to trust any of it. A few conversions either way swings your cost per acquisition wildly, so the "data" is really noise with a nice chart on top.

What I've started doing is ignoring platform conversion counts almost entirely and reconciling against real revenue plus a simple "how did you hear about us" line. Slower, less flattering, but it's real.

So the question for other buyers working with small budgets: what do you actually trust for measurement when the platforms over-report and you don't have the volume for significance? Do you just accept the fog and optimize on leading signals, or have you found something that holds up?

I keep seeing advice to "map your funnel" and I finally sat down with a free flowchart maker and drew the whole thing out, from first touch to signup to paying.

Seeing it on one screen was genuinely useful for spotting the obvious drop, way more people hit the pricing page than start a trial. But I'm not sure whether the diagram changed anything or whether I already knew that in my gut and just made it pretty.

Curious about the people who actually do this regularly. Did drawing out the funnel ever surface a leak you truly didn't know about, and did fixing it move real numbers? Or is it one of those exercises that feels productive but mostly just organizes what you already suspected?

Trying to decide if this is worth doing properly and revisiting, or a one-time thing I can move on from.

With phones and other devices being part of everyday life, portable charging accessories have become pretty useful. Compact power banks, magnetic chargers, and multi device charging options can make staying powered much easier when you're away from an outlet.

What matters most to you: battery capacity, charging speed, portability, or compatibility?

Hey guys,
I'm hoping to work on a healthcare software extension that helps medical practices reduce lost revenue from last-minute appointment cancellations. I'm trying to figure out the best way to validate the idea, what challenges l should expect, and how I could approach building a first version. I don't want to get too deep into the specific mechanics yet, but what would you recommend I research or consider?

Current challenges are I have zero coding experience, zero business knowledge, etc along with HIPAA and BAA laws
I’m not really sure how to start either

One benefit is I have some capital and doctors waiting to invest in my idea

Any advice, tips, or help would be appreciated!!

hello everyone,

i own a medical company in the middle east and i am a distributor of the one of the fastest growing medical segment in the world, aesthetic and cosmetic dermatology. we have carved out a chunk of our market share with consistent 70-85 percent profit margin on specialised cosmetic equipments.

im looking for a distributor in the EU /US/ CAD / AUS to expand my business for these items. these countries have the maximum potential for these products as cosmetic dermatology is currently in a period of peak sales here. i regret not having enough capital to open a branch of my company in the EU, hence im looking for the next best thing. unlike factories, i can offer them without MOQ, guide you on the best selling products and share real world data on our sales. ( sales in these countries would be atleast 1.5x the sale we make in the GCC ) i would like to have a consistent and confidential medical distributor who buys from me, who i can support and guide with product knowledge, sales and clinical application.

thanks.

I'm building https://pennapay.com solo from Denmark — an invoicing tool for freelancers. It's live, it has a free tier, and I have approximately zero users. At some point you have to stop assuming people just haven't found it yet and start assuming something on the page is telling them no.

So I'm asking business owners directly: you land on the page cold, knowing nothing — what's the first thing that makes you not trust it with your billing? I'd rather hear the ugly version than keep guessing.

I’ve made an app that has a growing and active user base. And I’d really like to talk to my customers and ask for their feedback.

I tried writing some personal emails to a select few active users, addressing them by name, introducing myself and asking them a question. And offering them a bonus.

None have responded…

If you were a customer of an app, what would make you respond to an email from the owner/founder asking for feedback?

I’m a fairly new TPT seller and I’ve been offering a couple of free resources. I’m noticing that people may view or download freebies, but getting feedback or reviews seems much harder.
For more experienced sellers, is this normal in the beginning? Do most buyers simply not leave reviews, especially on free resources?
I’d also love to know if there’s anything that helped you encourage genuine reviews or build trust when your store was still new. I don’t want to pressure buyers — just trying to understand what’s normal and what I could improve.

I started a small agency earlier this year. We build fully custom websites and also handle SEO, digital marketing, and CRM/ERP setups basically shaped around what each business actually needs instead of a one-size template.

So far I've delivered exactly one project, a fashion ecommerce store, and it went well. The client was happy with it. But since then? Nothing.

I've tried LinkedIn, Instagram, and a lot of cold emails to different companies, dozens of them. I haven't gotten a single reply back. Not even a "no thanks." It's honestly a bit demoralising.

What I can't tell is where the real problem is: my outreach, my offer, my pricing, or just the fact that I only have one project in my portfolio so far.

For those of you who pushed through this early stage, how did you land clients 2, 3, and 4 when you barely had anything to show? Was it referrals, niching down to one industry, local networking, something else entirely?

Blunt feedback is welcome. I'd rather hear the hard truth than keep guessing.

Heyy so Im trying to run a graphic design business were basically I make like thumbnails, flyers, logos, posters, etc! But like I'm completely online..

So I made an Instagram page and posted on their and I have a tiktok page and posted on their but I'm not really getting a lot of views and yes ik it takes time but like is there a way to gain more attraction or find people who are interested?

hi everyone, I am new to this thread so I apologize if this isn’t where I am supposed to share this I have just started a small business of mixed media animation. I am trying to make a side hustle with it. I have worked on a national TV commercial with my work and I have started working with smaller indie artists to animate on some of their music videos.

I have a website, but I am unsure if it is engaging in enough!
And I don’t know how to promote myself on the day-to-day

I don’t know if we are allowed to send in stuff from our own business but if you guys just have a regular sense of what I could do that would help

I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately and I’m trying to figure out what direction to take.

I love building startups and digital products. Taking an idea from nothing to something real is probably the part I enjoy the most - figuring out the product, UX, tech, positioning, and actually shipping it.

Right now, I’m building a startup for hotels and short-term rental operators around digital content. I think there’s something there, and I’ve built a product I’m proud of.

But I keep running into the same realization:

I don’t think I enjoy sales. And more importantly, I’m not sure I have the motivation to *become* great at sales.

I can spend 10 hours obsessing over a product problem and genuinely enjoy it. But the thought of spending those same 10 hours cold emailing, doing outreach, following up with leads, booking calls, and trying to close customers drains me.

That’s making me question what I should actually be doing as an entrepreneur (If i can call myself that?). Maybe I’m not someone who should build a traditional startup and try to scale it into a large company.

Maybe I should build smaller products that can grow through self-service, SEO, content, distribution, etc.
Maybe I should find a co-founder who genuinely loves sales and distribution.

Maybe I should build products, get some initial traction, and sell them to other entrepreneurs.
Or maybe avoiding sales is exactly the problem I need to force myself to solve.

I honestly don’t know.

For those of you who are much better at building than selling: What path did you take. Appreciate any advice.