What inspired you to start your startup? 💡
Senthilnathan RM
43 replies
The origin stories are always the fascinating ones. So did you start yours at a garage or a dorm? (just kidding) And why did you start your startup in the first place? Let the PH community know about your beautiful journey. ✨
Replies
Julien Zmiro@zmiro
Intercom
Top Product
We wanted to explore AI based side project with a friend. We spent a few weeks trying to figure out problems we could solve around "work automation". We were trying to get some interviews to better understand people's workflows and challenges but we were struggling a lot: Most people wouldn't reply, and when they did it could take weeks to get on a call. We then considered using an online survey to get some insights but we quickly realised we would need to really adapt to the user answers and to dig deeper "on the fly". That's when we got the idea of using AI to run user interviews and to follow up on people's answers.
We're hoping to launch AskMore next week: https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
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The Feed
For me startup inspiration just came down to the current wave of content marketing done by founders resonating with a business I had when I was younger.
When I was 15 I had a niche company that made custom Minecraft maps for big YouTubers. Totally blew through my expectations, cracking 6-figures.
$0 customer acquisition cost - we basically built an audience that watched our YouTube 'let's build' videos. Most work was in-bound.
Now I'm watching founders like Sahil Bloom, Alex Becker, Ryan Serhant etc. do this at a scale WAY bigger than me, building audiences of 100k+ across Twitter, YouTube, IG, etc.
Ultimately, these audiences become a flywheel for everything from investing and fundraising to building 7-8-figure businesses.
So I thought why not write about how they did it? I've always loved founder breakdowns and it seemed to make sense to share with other folks something I would've researched on my own anyway.
The Feed
@senthil99nathan @zmiro Oh sorry man, I thought I was responding to the initial post, not your comment.
Love the idea for askmore, I do a lot of user interviews for the newsletter and having a chat to do it on my behalf would be super value-add.
Intercom
Top Product
@senthil99nathan @nathan_may1 Ahah no worries Nathan! Well, let me know if you give AskMore a try then, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Just followed your teaser page!
I launched my book exchange service for recent movers when I took three books with me in my suitcase when I moved to another country :-)
My product launch teaser page
https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Getting fired for no cause.
Blocks
The core business of our company is email marketing. There is so much to do that we have always been looking for tools that would help us do more tasks in less time.
First of all, we needed a user-friendly email editor for the team and for clients. But everything we found and tried didn't meet our basic needs, didn't allow us to meet our customers' expectations. So we kept looking.
All editors have their pros and cons. The vast majority of editors are too simple and not suitable for agency tasks. Editors with support for working with code are slow, limited, it is impossible to layout classically in them, solving any task, because they always have some rules and a lot of restrictions. You can't even dream of working with an existing letter or dynamic content.
In the process of searching, the team formed a common vision of what qualities an ideal letter editor should have for an agency, a client or any other user, but we did not find anything even close to this vision.
All this forced us to create Blocks.
I want to find out why some small businesses grow and others fail, so I was fascinated by learning more about marketing and found myself developing my project to help small businesses grow without the need for a big budget to hire a real expert marketer & to help inexperienced marketers handle their work.
And I'm trying to use the project itself to grow independently and attract clients
Skyworker
While running our own staffing agency, we yelled "What the hell!" about everything that was going on in the hiring field too often to be appropriate 😅 Even though it was a profitable business, we decided to put an end to it and build a startup that will turn that hiring chaos into a fast and clear process.
Several friends from my family circle died suddenly in their 50s. None of them were sick, at least not to our knowledge, and as you might guess, cardiovascular diseases were the cause. But back then, I didn't think that these events could have been prevented. A few years later, I started working for Fitbit, which had acquired a company that was developing a platform for people with chronic diseases. The thought that was circulating among many was - if I had known earlier, then never... That's how my project began.
Transcript LOL
I was doing a lot of research into new areas for work that required watching a lot of tech talks, interviews and podcasts to capture latest thoughts in the area. It was time consuming!
So, I built transcript lol to help with extracting key points, summaries, topics etc from audio, video content. It saved me hours since then. Made it into a product because my colleagues also wanted to use it. With a few more tweaks, now it's being used by over 500 users to save hours everyday!
I'm honored with the reception and working on ways to improve it based on feedback and my own dogfooding experience. It's launching on Product Hunt tomorrow. Support me if you think this is helpful!
For me building a startup is a lifestyle defined by having a freedom of thought and unlimited creativity, where you are the one who sets the boundaries and takes full responsibility.
Nevemind was born when we were trying to solve own problems with my co-founders and figured out it's not only us.
@nevemind_com , good one. It also comes up with its stakes. Wait, what doesn't? :)
After majoring in Mechanical Engineering, I landed a job in a reputable company in the industry. While the work was fulfilling, one thing always struck me: the software applications we used were, to put it politely, lacking in the UI-UX department.
It wasn't just the outdated aesthetics that bothered me; the poor design was a daily obstacle. Tasks that should've taken seconds ate up minutes; a labyrinth of menus and buttons made even simple commands a chore. All of these hiccups took away from the efficiency of highly skilled engineers. I couldn't help but think, "We can do better. We have to do better."
So, fueled by my newfound mission to marry mechanical engineering and UI-UX design, I decided to start my own company. A startup focused on overhauling the stale, cumbersome software plaguing mechanical engineering firms with sleek, intuitive solutions.
It wasn't easy. There were skeptics who didn't see the value in improving something as 'trivial' as software design in a field dominated by heavy machinery and complex systems. But, as engineers, aren't we trained to optimize and innovate?
Fast forward to today, my company now partners with leading firms in the mechanical engineering sector. We are revolutionizing the way engineers interact with their tools, making workflows more efficient and life a whole lot easier.
For those of you still sitting at the crossroads of what you studied and what you're passionate about, know this—sometimes the most disruptive innovations come from combining worlds that appear to be poles apart.
It turns out, the gears and levers of mechanical engineering and the pixels and palettes of UI-UX design aren't that different after all. Both are about creating solutions that work not just effectively, but elegantly. And that's a mission I am proud to be a part of.
Creatosaurus AI
When we saw how tedious it is to manage large marketing we thought of Creatosaurus. Right now we are focused on making a Generative AI-powered graphic designer which we will launch on PH - https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
I faced a problem myself and couldn't find a quick solution. So I decided to make the solution myself and help others to solve the same problem. By the way, we are making a user-friendly financial planner for SaaS startups that doesn't demand deep financial knowledge.
IXORD
Solving your problem and the problems of others
AI Profile For Slack
Remote work makes it hard to build connections. So, I created an app to help people connect personally and form real bonds with colleagues for distributed or remote organizations all easily available in slack at a click
Astro Typers
I grew up gaming. And as a kid I loved Oregon Trail, Treasure Mountain, and even Reader Rabbit. I really didn't even realize I was learning back then but I was having a blast as a kid!
Fast forward to today. My co-founder was standing in line at Best Buy. He had a Quest 2 in his hands. A lady came up to him and asked if he knew any good games for her kids since she was buying 2 headsets herself.
When he told me the story, I remember the joy I had as a kid playing these games. So I started looking to see what is out there today. I just wasn't impressed. It seemed like the effort were put more towards profits than the game.
So... We decided... with ZERO game dev experience... to found an educational gaming company. (come from software dev & marketing backgrounds)
I'm extremely thankful I did.
Yes its been incredibly stressful but the hard work and endurance are starting to pay off. We have an amazing team now and I have learned so much. We're even working with schools and libraries now.
Its absolutely amazing to create a company that provides an impact.
Just shows what you can do if you just try.
@skillprepare , aww, I'm so touched. :') Congrats and all the best in your future endeavors!
I had a dream of making people's lives easy. So, I wanted to provide all the premium tools and services on a single platform only where people don't have to remember multiple websites and pay them separately, which ultimately costs a lot. This vision led to the creation of AiToolsKit.ai, an all-in-one platform that combines productive AI, SEO, writing, social media, and marketing tools.
https://producthunt.com/posts/ai...
When I dove into the world of startups and marketing, I realized the constant juggle between various tools and platforms was not only time-consuming but also financially draining. The inspiration to start AiToolsKit.ai came from this very frustration. As someone who values efficiency and practicality, I wanted to offer a solution that would streamline processes for entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, and anyone seeking a comprehensive toolkit. With AiToolsKit.ai, users can harness the power of SEO optimization, writing assistance, and social media management all under one roof, simplifying their workflow and enhancing their productivity. It's about bridging the gap between different aspects of online presence and providing a holistic approach that aligns perfectly with the challenges entrepreneurs face daily.
Unstuck
I struggled with anxiety for most of my adult life and it hindered me from living my life as I wanted to. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helped me minimize it enormously, but paying for therapy is horribly costly and also inconvenient. It pained me that it had to be so hard, and I also thought about all the people out there who couldn't even afford a single session with a therapist.
I was using CBT journaling as part of my process, and I saw great potential in it. By following a specific journaling structure, you can literally retrain the way your brain works. It felt so powerful, but I couldn't find a good tool for it that utilized the technique well enough. So, I started to wonder if the concept could be served to people in a more accessible and appealing way while still maintaining its solid technical approach. So that was the beginning of Unstuck.
Working on it is incredibly rewarding as I feel like it can really help people in need, but it's also one of the most daunting endeavors in my life, and it makes me thankful that I also have Unstuck for my own use, to give me my daily founder anxiety relief.
@maria_hagsten, that's great to hear and anxiety do affect a lot of lives in different ways. All the best! :)
Fit Workout Routine
For me I have been working as a developer for the past few years, and wanted to try out launching my own product, since I felt like I had enough experience from my day-job to give it a try.
The product that I starting developing was a fitness app, because as someone that goes to the gym I wanted something super simple and quick way to log/track my progress of exercises without going through the hassle of going through a lot of menus in other fitness apps to log my workouts. Also, I found it hard to program an exercise in advance so I wanted to be able to schedule workouts in advance.
So, in turn a solution to my gripes was building a mobile app which I'll be launching on Monday.