The_DaveG

I’m happy to have watched the Kerno team build to this point and am very excited to see how they continue to grow in this space!

If they are not paying six figures, they can’t or won’t afford a 30 min response time and are probably trying to see how far they can push you.

Absolutely this!

I think the question also needs to be is this so mission critical that they need 30 minute response time?

If not a 4 or 8 or 24 hour response time during the week is a much more realistic way for you to cover them or leverage this to bring on the second person.

This seems exceptionally realistic.

I’ve sat next to former employees who almost certainly get paid more than I do because they know the process and no one else can match that knowledge.

I generally don’t work nuclear plants, but in my experience they are a magnitude more expensive in everything.

Compared to the cost of downtime, it’s a small price to pay.

I started with LinkedIn only connecting with people that I had met personally. Then potentially expanding to people I had conversation.

I found that I was just getting a lot of the same posts and it was a lot of groupthink.

Then I started connecting with people I hadn't met. It's significantly expanded the conversations and perspectives I'm getting.

Expanding the reach of my posts/views and the value of the network I bring.

This has helped in being seen by many as an expert. Also the value of the posts. I've had multiple clients reach out to engage in work that I had never met in person.

For me connecting and conversing with people in the same industry brings a lot of value to myself and the industry as a whole.

Connecting people across the globe into one feed has become the new idea of LinkedIn for me.

I'm going to parallel Rob a bit here.

You've managed to build something that has brought in $120k without investing dollars into outreach. Then you've invested it into (assumably) hardware. You've got a business with some value to it.

I don't know what you're making, but industrial is my space. If you'd like to drop me an email, I'd be happy to take a look at what you're making and give you some thoughts, potentially some introductions. Dave @ Capelin.io

I don't consider what I'm currently doing "tech". I think of that much more in the startup game, VC funding, and FAANG.

Generally I'm filling a consulting role. Mainly in the product development/launch phases. I will do a small number of Project Roadmapping/Architecture's every year and then PM those.

I find big problems and then help solve them. As my career has progressed, I worry less about the buckets that it falls into.

What are you selling?

Who is the market?

This is going to cause a huge variation for the answer.

All of these things are fairly common in the RFP process. Not that going to find somewhere to print and FedEx on a Saturday morning isn't always fun...

One suggestion I would offer for future RFP's is to call/meet/show up for the pre-bid meeting. In person is always better if/when that happens again for your industry.

Most of the time, they will tell you about preferred vendors list. Or explain how they are going to go about making decisions. You can also tell who they know at the meeting.

I spent a fairly short period of time in "tech."

At some point I decided that's now how I want to spend my life. I've spent the last year's in manufacturing. Mainly building software/hardware stacks to become more efficient. Understand where they are currently. How they can increase capacity and ideally jobs. Plus work on helping to train workers using 21st century techniques.

Much of it is an uphill battle within the industry or companies.

The ability to be part of something that helps to physically make food/beverage/products is more fulfilling.

This is not too far off from what I'm working towards.

I'm less worried about the community aspect and more so the sustainability and open spaces. Allowing birds, native animals, and everything else we can bring to allow room to roam.

If you're going down this route and would like some input, I'd be happy to talk. We've spent the last 4+ years traveling and living in a vintage bus and van.

These are fantastic truths.

Additionally higher hourly rates cause clients to second guess you less.

Pen Addict- one of my longest running must listens. I get an hour a week of people I've known online talking pens and to some extent many things analog. I spent a lot of time writing on paper and with fountain pens. It's very cathartic.

Small Town Murder- a couple of comedians from Phoenix prove that they know nothing about small towns, agriculture, or geography. What they do have is a couple hours of ripping good time making fun of small town and historical missteps. It's one of our favorite driving podcasts. We've been nomads for the past 3+ years. We do a lot of driving, especially post pandemic.

Not federal law enforcement, but government and major corporations generally have preferred vendors who can help sell the product for some percentage off the top. In my experience this is a much less time consuming process than going through the process of getting set up as an official vendor.

I would imagine that copyright infringement is difficult and expensive to both prove and defend in court.

I would suggest 2 things:

1) Speak directly with the investors. You have some type of relationship with them. Let them know what happened. Let them know that you're not releasing the IP. That you've gone through this process and your former co-founder who is both negotiating in bad faith and in their name. I would imagine that the prospect of a costly lawsuit will force a resolution or they will pull funding. Even if you do not sue today, there is still time down the road. They could become successful and you can go after them then.

2) Go on with life. Start your company. Pick better co-founders. Become successful. Don't spend years of your life obsessed with something that didn't turn out.

These are hard learned lessons that I wish I knew 10 years ago.

Coming from an SI background, I was thinking the same thing.

It's nice to see another integrator here. What do you guys focus on?

I get that, starting over in a new place can be tough. I would approach the looking for a new job and looking for clients as the same process. Your skills might not be something that a group needs part/full time but it could be something that they purchase your skills for a week or two a month/quarter and you would be full money wise and still have time to work on your Startup.

A company I consult with does. Either per job or on an ongoing as needed basis. Depending on job's they can pull in people as needed. It works pretty well for them, but as they grow, they will need to bring on a couple of developers full time.

It is hard to find part time sales/biz dev roles from larger companies. By the time they are looking to hire, they are looking for a full time person because they have a (mostly) full time need. Especially if there is commission involved, then it just continues to feed into the more, more, more...

Source: Before moving into consulting, I ran sales teams.

I would imagine that Customer Success would be easier to find on a less than full-time basis.

Consulting as Mooreds pointed out could be a good solution. Could you consult or do paid work for clients within the realm of what your start-up is going to be doing?

I've negotiated deals like this in the past and white labeling products are a great way to go about it.

In the past I've done an $X upfront as the cost to create the white labeled product and then some % of the revenue based on the value that you bring and the time/cost it takes you to do so.

Best suggestion is to think of the numbers that would make you insanely happy, double that, and then use that as your starting point for negotiation.

Wife and I decided that we were done with the city and lack of space and wanted to travel. Spent the next year downsizing as much as we could while looking for remote first/only companies to make a jump. Found one of those companies that wasn't necessarily large nor stable and bought a vintage transit bus with the goal of making it at least 6 months to see how it went. Two and a half years later, we moved on from that company and are traveling slightly different, but the remote first companies and nomad lifestyle are instilled in us.

Of course, looking forward to following along your journey!

I have seen this be a huge problem for smaller companies that do not either a) have someone's who is good at their job of following up on invoices or b) an owner to does this themselves.

Like months past due on invoices that are make or break for payroll and at least one time that a company missed payroll over this.

Without knowing much about what you've made beyond the link, I think that there is a need for what you've created.

Not really, most of the products/services that I launch are more on the B2B Enterprise domain and do not have a lot of crossover.

I do have a couple of products getting ready to launch that we will probably launch on a couple of those platforms.

I'm a Buffer user for the past 5 or 6 years including various versions of their paid plans over the years.

I've used it personally, for companies I was working for, and for clients in a freelance engagement.

Overall I really like what they are doing, their tools, and the company as a whole.

From everything I know, Hootsuite is similar, I just got to buffer first.

There are some gaps in what they currently do in regards to data analytics, but my understanding is it's mostly the API's and third party platforms they are using that make it difficult.

In regards to launching to web pages, I have not seen anything like that and would be very interested in a solution like that, even if it's just scripting in a wrapper to take posts and push them to other websites.

I've been waiting, hoping that others would be using more notebooks than me...

Right now I'm using 2 paper notebooks an A4 LEUCHTTURM 1917 Master Slim dot grid in Red, I've also done the orange for a while. This is basically my going through making notes in meetings, projects, etc. I've gone as far as cutting old pages out and making mini folios with Washi tape within the notebook for projects that continue over. This is my 4th or 5th of these and while I really like them, I might change to a more desk type longer notebook when I'm through this book. I'm ready to make a change in this.

I also and currently using a Stalogy 365 day planner in grid. I ran out of my A5 notebook, wanted to try a soft cover and planner. This was the best solution on August. So far I like the soft cover, like the paper, don't like the grid, don't like the way the date is set up. Still up in the air if I buy a new planner for 2020.

Then I have an assortment of "pocket notebooks" the Write notebooks version of Field Notes. I want to love these, but I can't make them work for me.

For the pens/pencils,I really enjoy fountain pens. Currently inked: TWSBI Diamond Mini AL (Gold) 1.1 Stub nib with Iroshizuku Ku Jaku TWSBI 580 AL (Rose) 1.1 Stub nib with Pilot Metropolitan Medium nib with Iroshizuku Ina Ho Nemosine Singularity Purple Demonstrator.8 Stub nib with Nemosine Moon Crater Black Karas Kustoma Ink in Purple and Brass with a 2-tone M nib with Iroshizuku Yu Yake

Then a Rotring 600 .5mm and a Pentel P207 in .7mm

I'd imagine if you've gone down that rabbit hole, you know Chase Reeves and his reviews? https://youtu.be/-jYZYKJaqq0

All of these things! I'm not sure if I would have purchased if not for the camera specific need, but I know more people than not who carry this without a camera.

The dividers are great to separate things including gym clothes. My cousin loves hers for the daily commute in DC.

I've used and love the Peak Design Everyday Backpack 30L for the past two years and absolutely love it. https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Design-Everyday-Backpack-Camera/...

Originally I was on the fence because it's an expensive purchase ($289). Honestly wish I purchased this sooner.

One of the major reasons I purchased this was for work/work travel so I could carry a camera with me. It's my entire mobile office as I've worked remotely. It's lived through ~100k airline miles, 60k driving miles, and the last 6 months living out of a van.

I typically am hard on my gear, but all the Peak Design gear holds up really well. It actually looks better with age.

From the top of a mountain shooting pictures to walking down any street in a major city. It's not out of place, which is really nice.

It's very modular and with a pouch or two, it fits everything I could ask to fit in with room for more.

I'm a huge fan of A4 notebooks and fountain pens!

I'm currently partial to the Leuchtturm 1917 master series, at least in part because of all the beautiful colors there are to choose.