I think the info you're getting from LLMs is misguiding you. And having LLMs write your content is not going to help. Even if you see other adults around you do that recklessly.
Cold emails have not been the recommended marketing approach for a long time. And if the emails were further composed by LLMs (even if you did the research on those leads) does not help
I've worked for, with, and run a boutique consulting company. Hundreds of clients managed is not the norm, it's far below that, in the tens, for the happy path.
I think you're building a model, for ideas that might be reinforced by a LLM, but niche in practice.
I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'd recommend applying to YCombinator, if you're old enough for their program.
Honestly, the one thing that irked me the most was the fact he says he emailed 70 partners, on one replied and then the next paragraph, he quotes a reply. So... some replied? Of those I emailed, 70 didn't reply? What is it? It feels inconsistent logically.
> I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'd recommend applying to YCombinator, if you're old enough for their program.
Genuine question, I think I am fairly young too but I don't understand the point of applying to Y-combinator/VC funds in general unless your project demands it.
It seems that many people my age sometimes optimize for building/(Hyping?) a project/company and then having it be VC-funded just to get access to the money even if there might not be necessity of it.
Not/(maybe even many) every project should be VC-funded. I think though I like to treat tech as still a business with sound financials. Although I see some aspects of VC funded tech to be quite de-tached from business with sound financials.
Also if I care about a project, I'd like to prefer to keep the control of the project without any external pressure if/as long as possible.
If any of my projects needs money, I have those ideas in back of my mind and I can then work on projects/ideas which don't need much money and then hopefully make money through that or job and if I still feel passionate about the other project, then launching that too. Atleast that's how I think.
My recommendation remains in this case, because we're talking about a young person that tries to launch a business, for some CRM software; and that can't be the hobby software of someone that young. He's probably getting into this business to make money, with ideas (and without capital to execute it - assuming), something like YCombinator (or any other seed, angel, vc) is a way to get on that path.
Yes I agree with your comment as well. But if the only thing that they want to do is get money. Then I mean c'mon they are 15, I wish to say to them that even though I am 17, 15 were one of the most fun periods of my life. The amount of nostalgia hit from all the things when I was 15 hits quite a lot actually.
So I kindly suggest them to not use them solely for making money. I would recommend them not to worry about money, as I think that there are no free lunch generally and if there is any little free lunch, then there's a million times more competition to get to that free lunch that its not worth it.
I wish to say to them to stop worrying about money. Just, enjoy life with friends and do what they feel like. 15 was the most liberating age because not worried about college or anything that much. It was the last year of that thing and me and my friends from school constantly have nostalgia about that age.
I recommend them to setup a minecraft server, yes I know, not the most financial thing but one of the coolest things I had in my life was when I was 15 and me and my friends all went home and 8-11 people played minecraft with each other and we then talked in class.
You got your whole life to make businesses, but this age is genuinely nostalgic. I suggest them to savour it if possible and let their interest in things grow naturally if possible rather than be forced like a carrot on a stick where the carrot's money/hype.
So I would recommend them to create a minecraft SMP, heck even make minor modpacks themselves or learn about servers. One of the first projects I made was breaking nats by custom-patching ssh/dropbear on an intel nat jupyter server only and only because I wanted to play with my friend and he wanted to add some modpacks and I didn't wish to pay for servers. That was one of the best things I did. Although I didn't write any line of code and well for what its worth, many of my projects still haven't been written but I wish to write them by hand when I get into college this year hopefully or the next. My point is that this whole experience genuinely gave me this feeling of code/open source can do so many things, the possibilities are endless :)
All because I wanted to play minecraft with my friend in a more hacker-y way than usual inspired by Hackernews posts and comments too.
(So direct tldr to Wilhelm: You should enjoy your life with your friends at the moment and make a minecraft SMP or anything similar and there are so many stuff that you can gradually move on from there and take your time with that, don't rush hopefully.)
Edit: Another point I wish to add but when you are 15, code/learn about open source because you want to etc. too because you like doing it I guess. My biggest investment in my life at 14-15 was running Linux, so I recommend them to do that if that's possible too making my own custom rices and mixing and matching. Taught me quite a lot of things and familiarity with terminal which has helped me a lot.
So I suggest Wilhelm to use Linux, get familiar with open source projects that he finds cool. Bookmark/star them. Create Minecraft servers with their friends and try to relax perhaps.
I mean I wouldn't be wrong when I thought that damn I should've learnt to do some things that I do now but when I was 15 because I had less stress that time but it was only with this discussion that I feel like, it was for sort of good actually that I didn't stress too much about things and just used linux and everything and I recommend them to do the same if possible.
So within the tldr, use Linux is another priority too :) and you can actually level up in those things too Wilhelm with ideas from Debian/Fedora to Archlinux etc and so many other things and all of this is very likely to help you in future as you become more familiar with Terminal.
>> Hermann Simon — the founder of Simon-Kucher, one of the world’s most respected pricing consultancies — was one of the few people who did reply. He told me directly: we have no structured process. No structured process. At a firm that has advised thousands of companies on their most important strategic decisions.
Quotes like this won’t lead to people replying to you.
Herman would likely be unhappy to see this published from what he probably considered a private email exchange.
Since you’re only 15 years old I’ll give you the most important business tip you’ll get - respect your clients and potential clients, don’t quote them in public without their permission, NEVER say anything that might make someone look bad, especially if they went to the trouble to reply to your cold email. That’s the basic of sales.
> I sent 70 emails. Personalised. Researched. Each one had a PS line referencing something specific about that person — a career pivot, a published article, a podcast appearance. I spent real time on every single one.
> Zero replies.
.
.
.
> Hermann Simon — the founder of Simon-Kucher, one of the world’s most respected pricing consultancies — was one of the few people who did reply.
I know when I'm being lied to. I stopped reading here.
My friend, I am 17 so its nice to see that you are 15 but here are some discussion points I'd like to share.
Your writing sadly feels AI to me. I want you to know to NEVER use AI for writing purposes.
Second point, Mass cold out-reach (especially using AI) is not a good thing to do (reputation-wise). That's my opinion but maybe that can change.
Third point, Try to take things slow. At some point saying that we are 15 or 17 isn't the thing that one expects (that's my opinion). Because I think that stable businesses take a risk of migrating towards a product and they want to know that they are betting "safe"
Somethings don't require this concept of safety like say new businesses but even they would like to see previous reviews. A bit of chicken-and-egg issue to get first customers even and this is why cold-outreach didn't work for you
Fourth point, Everything doesn't has to teach you something right away. Things take time to teach you sometimes. Something like delayed-feedback rather than instant-feedback.
Fifth point: Realize why you are doing this. Are you doing it because you had wanted this yourself and you want to share this to others, or because you want to make money or want to make fame and that's all great as well fwiw :)
I can't speak about yourself but I have had multiple ideas shift, they come and go and singular digit ideas stick in mind and even they get crossed and changed to get to one and that's my point too, all you need is one business as well.
Sixth point: Never compare yourself to anybody or chase trends even if short-term could be fine. Maybe this is just my opinion but its not so good chasing trends and trends personally as your moat becomes timing and you might scroll say twitter to find the newest AI thing and this would just suck the joy out of building.
Hi Willem.
I think the info you're getting from LLMs is misguiding you. And having LLMs write your content is not going to help. Even if you see other adults around you do that recklessly.
Cold emails have not been the recommended marketing approach for a long time. And if the emails were further composed by LLMs (even if you did the research on those leads) does not help
I've worked for, with, and run a boutique consulting company. Hundreds of clients managed is not the norm, it's far below that, in the tens, for the happy path.
I think you're building a model, for ideas that might be reinforced by a LLM, but niche in practice.
I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'd recommend applying to YCombinator, if you're old enough for their program.
Honestly, the one thing that irked me the most was the fact he says he emailed 70 partners, on one replied and then the next paragraph, he quotes a reply. So... some replied? Of those I emailed, 70 didn't reply? What is it? It feels inconsistent logically.
> I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'd recommend applying to YCombinator, if you're old enough for their program.
Genuine question, I think I am fairly young too but I don't understand the point of applying to Y-combinator/VC funds in general unless your project demands it.
It seems that many people my age sometimes optimize for building/(Hyping?) a project/company and then having it be VC-funded just to get access to the money even if there might not be necessity of it.
Not/(maybe even many) every project should be VC-funded. I think though I like to treat tech as still a business with sound financials. Although I see some aspects of VC funded tech to be quite de-tached from business with sound financials.
Also if I care about a project, I'd like to prefer to keep the control of the project without any external pressure if/as long as possible.
If any of my projects needs money, I have those ideas in back of my mind and I can then work on projects/ideas which don't need much money and then hopefully make money through that or job and if I still feel passionate about the other project, then launching that too. Atleast that's how I think.
I'm in complete agreement with your comment.
My recommendation remains in this case, because we're talking about a young person that tries to launch a business, for some CRM software; and that can't be the hobby software of someone that young. He's probably getting into this business to make money, with ideas (and without capital to execute it - assuming), something like YCombinator (or any other seed, angel, vc) is a way to get on that path.
Yes I agree with your comment as well. But if the only thing that they want to do is get money. Then I mean c'mon they are 15, I wish to say to them that even though I am 17, 15 were one of the most fun periods of my life. The amount of nostalgia hit from all the things when I was 15 hits quite a lot actually.
So I kindly suggest them to not use them solely for making money. I would recommend them not to worry about money, as I think that there are no free lunch generally and if there is any little free lunch, then there's a million times more competition to get to that free lunch that its not worth it.
I wish to say to them to stop worrying about money. Just, enjoy life with friends and do what they feel like. 15 was the most liberating age because not worried about college or anything that much. It was the last year of that thing and me and my friends from school constantly have nostalgia about that age.
I recommend them to setup a minecraft server, yes I know, not the most financial thing but one of the coolest things I had in my life was when I was 15 and me and my friends all went home and 8-11 people played minecraft with each other and we then talked in class.
You got your whole life to make businesses, but this age is genuinely nostalgic. I suggest them to savour it if possible and let their interest in things grow naturally if possible rather than be forced like a carrot on a stick where the carrot's money/hype.
So I would recommend them to create a minecraft SMP, heck even make minor modpacks themselves or learn about servers. One of the first projects I made was breaking nats by custom-patching ssh/dropbear on an intel nat jupyter server only and only because I wanted to play with my friend and he wanted to add some modpacks and I didn't wish to pay for servers. That was one of the best things I did. Although I didn't write any line of code and well for what its worth, many of my projects still haven't been written but I wish to write them by hand when I get into college this year hopefully or the next. My point is that this whole experience genuinely gave me this feeling of code/open source can do so many things, the possibilities are endless :)
All because I wanted to play minecraft with my friend in a more hacker-y way than usual inspired by Hackernews posts and comments too.
(So direct tldr to Wilhelm: You should enjoy your life with your friends at the moment and make a minecraft SMP or anything similar and there are so many stuff that you can gradually move on from there and take your time with that, don't rush hopefully.)
Edit: Another point I wish to add but when you are 15, code/learn about open source because you want to etc. too because you like doing it I guess. My biggest investment in my life at 14-15 was running Linux, so I recommend them to do that if that's possible too making my own custom rices and mixing and matching. Taught me quite a lot of things and familiarity with terminal which has helped me a lot.
So I suggest Wilhelm to use Linux, get familiar with open source projects that he finds cool. Bookmark/star them. Create Minecraft servers with their friends and try to relax perhaps.
I mean I wouldn't be wrong when I thought that damn I should've learnt to do some things that I do now but when I was 15 because I had less stress that time but it was only with this discussion that I feel like, it was for sort of good actually that I didn't stress too much about things and just used linux and everything and I recommend them to do the same if possible.
So within the tldr, use Linux is another priority too :) and you can actually level up in those things too Wilhelm with ideas from Debian/Fedora to Archlinux etc and so many other things and all of this is very likely to help you in future as you become more familiar with Terminal.
>> Hermann Simon — the founder of Simon-Kucher, one of the world’s most respected pricing consultancies — was one of the few people who did reply. He told me directly: we have no structured process. No structured process. At a firm that has advised thousands of companies on their most important strategic decisions.
Quotes like this won’t lead to people replying to you.
Herman would likely be unhappy to see this published from what he probably considered a private email exchange.
Since you’re only 15 years old I’ll give you the most important business tip you’ll get - respect your clients and potential clients, don’t quote them in public without their permission, NEVER say anything that might make someone look bad, especially if they went to the trouble to reply to your cold email. That’s the basic of sales.
"I have no idea what the answer is, so it must be ..."
A phenomenon I call "Out of ignorance, comes certainty".
> I sent 70 emails. Personalised. Researched. Each one had a PS line referencing something specific about that person — a career pivot, a published article, a podcast appearance. I spent real time on every single one.
> Zero replies.
.
.
.
> Hermann Simon — the founder of Simon-Kucher, one of the world’s most respected pricing consultancies — was one of the few people who did reply.
I know when I'm being lied to. I stopped reading here.
My friend, I am 17 so its nice to see that you are 15 but here are some discussion points I'd like to share.
Your writing sadly feels AI to me. I want you to know to NEVER use AI for writing purposes.
Second point, Mass cold out-reach (especially using AI) is not a good thing to do (reputation-wise). That's my opinion but maybe that can change.
Third point, Try to take things slow. At some point saying that we are 15 or 17 isn't the thing that one expects (that's my opinion). Because I think that stable businesses take a risk of migrating towards a product and they want to know that they are betting "safe"
Somethings don't require this concept of safety like say new businesses but even they would like to see previous reviews. A bit of chicken-and-egg issue to get first customers even and this is why cold-outreach didn't work for you
Fourth point, Everything doesn't has to teach you something right away. Things take time to teach you sometimes. Something like delayed-feedback rather than instant-feedback.
Fifth point: Realize why you are doing this. Are you doing it because you had wanted this yourself and you want to share this to others, or because you want to make money or want to make fame and that's all great as well fwiw :)
I can't speak about yourself but I have had multiple ideas shift, they come and go and singular digit ideas stick in mind and even they get crossed and changed to get to one and that's my point too, all you need is one business as well.
Sixth point: Never compare yourself to anybody or chase trends even if short-term could be fine. Maybe this is just my opinion but its not so good chasing trends and trends personally as your moat becomes timing and you might scroll say twitter to find the newest AI thing and this would just suck the joy out of building.
have a nice day.
"It’s not a CRM."
Well, it's not a CRM. It backplanes or derives a CRM, apparently, and recommends top 5 contacts based off the implicit CRM.
Contacts could be figured out other ways