[Journey] My Adventure with 4 Startups

[Nw_Work]

I think this needs to be divided into two parts - those that build trust in the hosting provider and strictly technological methods. Let's discuss it step by step:
Trust in the hosting provider is determined by:

1. Company size
2. Frequency of use by others
3. Collaboration with other reputable companies (for Supabase, it's Vercel or Resend)
4. Undergoing pentests, security audits, and certifications (https://supabase.com/security)

The hosting provider cannot guarantee that our data will not be stolen. It can happen through (for example) a breach of our administrator account, not necessarily directly through the hosting company. In both cases, we can protect ourselves by:

1. Encrypting data at rest - if the database is stolen, it ensures that it cannot be read without decryption keys.
2. Encrypting data in transit - we use SSL/TLS to encrypt data between the application and the database (provider) to avoid MITM attacks.
3. Setting access control - establishing permissions for each role and limiting them as much as possible.
4. Security observability - reviewing logs and detecting suspicious activities (in Splunk, for example, although this can be more automated).
5. Backups - in case of losing access, we can easily restore data from backups taken before the incident.

What I mean is not that company like Vercel, Amazon, Godaddy etc will steal but the server admin/customer support etc will do so simply copying off entire site backup

Encrypting data at rest - if the database is stolen, it ensures that it cannot be read without decryption keys.
How to do that in Wordpress?

Setting access control - establishing permissions for each role and limiting them as much as possible.
Not feasible since you don't own the server and thus would have 2nd or 3rd level privilages compared to Server admin/customer support
Also most hosts can directly login to the backend of website as an admin so they can create new admin user and then backup site and then delete new user they made
or they can do reverse sql via database and find your login details to backend

 

[Nw_Work]

I'm wondering where I can look for a marketing specialist for my startups - I would like to focus on creating them in the future, and share equity with people who could market and sell them further. I mean individuals rather than entire teams. I'll look around on Twitter, although most of the people I know there are one-man armies.

Have you registered as a company in Poland already? Since essentially if you give equity then they become a shareholder so need check and see if Poland company law allows foreign shareholders and what process is to add them as shareholder

 

[JoHarris]

Good Luck To Your Journey. Your Startups Is Great. Never Give Up Brother.

 

[figaro03240]

Have you registered as a company in Poland already? Since essentially if you give equity then they become a shareholder so need check and see if Poland company law allows foreign shareholders and what process is to add them as shareholder

Ok, now I understand. So, step by step:

> What I mean is not that company like Vercel, Amazon, Godaddy etc will steal but the server admin/customer support etc will do so simply copying off entire site backup

I would do several things:

1. Change permissions to those necessary (min. for support, I would exclude confidential/important data [emails]).
2. Conduct access monitoring and audits - to check who downloads what data and when. Anomalies may indicate theft attempts.
3. Encryption - I mentioned this before. If data are encrypted, then nobody can do anything with it.
4. Encryption for backups and storing them elsewhere.
5. Use DLP to monitor and control data transfers.

> Encrypting data at rest - if the database is stolen, it ensures that it cannot be read without decryption keys.

1. Some WordPress hosting providers offer the option of encryption at rest as part of the hosting environment. Check if this option is available to you.
2. For database encryption, it depends on the type of database. For example, for MySQL/MariaDB, check out TDE available in specific versions. Plugins can also be used, but they may have a greater impact on overall performance.
3. For files and uploads, you can implement file-level encryption - if you're using the cloud (AWS/Google Cloud etc.), this can be done at the server-side for storage (Amazon S3). Another option is to encrypt the filesystem where the WordPress site is hosted. This happens at the operating system level.
4. Add SSL/TLS for data in transit.
5. Encrypt backups.

The issue of security strictly depends on the architecture and how much we can afford to intervene in the environment. It will always differ. In your case, I have too few details to advise something specific because this is not a simple topic - hence, general concepts and approaches.

Have you registered as a company in Poland already? Since essentially if you give equity then they become a shareholder so need check and see if Poland company law allows foreign shareholders and what process is to add them as shareholder

Yes, I have a registered business in Poland (sole proprietorship). This means that I do not have shares. With Stripe, there's the possibility of transferring a portion of all $ transferred as part of subscriptions/one-time payments to several accounts. Then, everyone settles their taxes/payments to the company on their own. At least that's what I think - I haven't checked it more thoroughly.

Good Luck To Your Journey. Your Startups Is Great. Never Give Up Brother.

thanks!

 

[Nw_Work]

Ok, now I understand. So, step by step:

> What I mean is not that company like Vercel, Amazon, Godaddy etc will steal but the server admin/customer support etc will do so simply copying off entire site backup

I would do several things:

1. Change permissions to those necessary (min. for support, I would exclude confidential/important data [emails]).
2. Conduct access monitoring and audits - to check who downloads what data and when. Anomalies may indicate theft attempts.
3. Encryption - I mentioned this before. If data are encrypted, then nobody can do anything with it.
4. Encryption for backups and storing them elsewhere.
5. Use DLP to monitor and control data transfers.

> Encrypting data at rest - if the database is stolen, it ensures that it cannot be read without decryption keys.

1. Some WordPress hosting providers offer the option of encryption at rest as part of the hosting environment. Check if this option is available to you.
2. For database encryption, it depends on the type of database. For example, for MySQL/MariaDB, check out TDE available in specific versions. Plugins can also be used, but they may have a greater impact on overall performance.
3. For files and uploads, you can implement file-level encryption - if you're using the cloud (AWS/Google Cloud etc.), this can be done at the server-side for storage (Amazon S3). Another option is to encrypt the filesystem where the WordPress site is hosted. This happens at the operating system level.
4. Add SSL/TLS for data in transit.
5. Encrypt backups.

The issue of security strictly depends on the architecture and how much we can afford to intervene in the environment. It will always differ. In your case, I have too few details to advise something specific because this is not a simple topic - hence, general concepts and approaches.


Yes, I have a registered business in Poland (sole proprietorship). This means that I do not have shares. With Stripe, there's the possibility of transferring a portion of all $ transferred as part of subscriptions/one-time payments to several accounts. Then, everyone settles their taxes/payments to the company on their own. At least that's what I think - I haven't checked it more thoroughly.



thanks!

1. Some WordPress hosting providers offer the option of encryption at rest as part of the hosting environment. Check if this option is available to you.
2. For database encryption, it depends on the type of database. For example, for MySQL/MariaDB, check out TDE available in specific versions. Plugins can also be used, but they may have a greater impact on overall performance.
3. For files and uploads, you can implement file-level encryption - if you're using the cloud (AWS/Google Cloud etc.), this can be done at the server-side for storage (Amazon S3). Another option is to encrypt the filesystem where the WordPress site is hosted. This happens at the operating system level.
4. Add SSL/TLS for data in transit.
5. Encrypt backups.

But even doing all this if you can decrypt it or if your website can decrypt the data to access files for displaying site etc then surely hosting company staff also can possibly decrypt data or get a copy of website?

Due to these;
Not feasible since you don't own the server and thus would have 2nd or 3rd level privilages compared to Server admin/customer support
Also most hosts can directly login to the backend of website as an admin so they can create new admin user and then backup site and then delete new user they made
or they can do reverse sql via database and find your login details to backend

Got it so then you should mention as lifetime profit share basis and formalize with legal agreement, equity would be a wrong term for sole prop business type since it is illegal for this business type to sell shares/equity since it is one person entity either change business type to partnership or form a LLC/PVT LTD/etc if going all in else other way I said also can to do as profit share basis

 

[figaro03240]

(Day 13) Startups Journey

Yesterday, I fully implemented the section dedicated to sharing the generation with others. Additionally, I added the ability to manage the emails that I send. Additionally, I added mutations in several SWR requests and optimized their invocation on the page (sometimes old endpoints were being called due to caching).

Today, it's time to implement Stripe (I've been putting it off as long as I can).

 

[Ghoztseo]

Nice progress so far.

 

[figaro03240]

(Day 13) Startups Journey

Yesterday, I came up with the idea to launch my separate website for a newsletter about the startup journey on April 18th. I've completed a major part of it, including adding a specific CSS animation, which took up most of my day (will show u results tomorrow when finished)/

#buildinpublic #indiehackers #producthunt #startupsjourney

 

[aliens420]

(I'm adding it again, this time without links on screenshots, sorry!)

Hi!
I've decided to quit my job as a programmer to focus on creating the startups I've planned. Why? I simply can't manage to juggle everything time-wise. I have a financial safety net as a cushion.

What are these startups? I'll be revealing them slowly - one after the other. Today, I'll tell you about the first one.

Name: Startup 1
Description: A curated open-source list of places where you can promote your products, both paid and free.
Revenue model: None. It's open-source. The main idea is that I want to build a database (newsletter) of people who are interested in developing their startup. This will be key for the second startup.

What have I done so far?

1. Frontend and backend of the app.
2. Architecture and integration with external sites.
3. A full version of the app (not just a waitlist, available now) with functionalities.

Some screenshots below.

View attachment 330771

View attachment 330772

View attachment 330774

Next steps: Launch of the app (scheduled for April 18 on producthunt), finishing the project I'm currently involved in (I'm serving my notice period at my current job), and working on the second startup. After the first launch, I'll check to see if I think I'm doing the right thing. If so, I'll launch the second one. If not, I'll need to change my approach to reaching people.

Currently, I'm also managing several social media accounts and have started being more active on Twitter.

Is this already a fully developed website or just a concept?



What did you use to create the front-end it looks amazing. Credits to you

 

[figaro03240]

Is this already a fully developed website or just a concept?



What did you use to create the front-end it looks amazing. Credits to you

thanks! This is the finished website. I used React, Shadcn, and Tailwind. For the background gradient, I used pure CSS.

 

[figaro03240]

I wanted to show you the animation I wrote about this morning. It's a bit frustrating that I can't include the names of startups, their links, etc., which means I have to spend time removing names, editing them, adding censorship (like below), etc. (the newsletter's name is also fake, obviously) due to self-promotion. If any of the moderators are reading this, please let me know if there's a way to bypass this (subscription?). For this reason, there won't be as many videos, but rather screenshots of views. If someone is interested, they'll definitely stalk me lol

https://giphy.com/embed/zdSYYDYNomhcQ3fZVs
By the way, I have a problem with embedding media - I don't know why, but I can't directly post a media link from Giphy here. I've tried a few methods, but it doesn't work. I hope I won't get banned for this gif

 

[TMONEX]

Tip

Add list of AI directories to your database. This the first place new AI owners go to promote their app.

Thereisanaiforthat.com , futurepedia, etc like thousands of them right now

 

[figaro03240]

Tip

Add list of AI directories to your database. This the first place new AI owners go to promote their app.

Thereisanaiforthat.com , futurepedia, etc like thousands of them right now

Thanks for the tip! They're already added to my list Most of the directories on the website are pages promoting AI and SaaS

 

[Pegarak]

Loving the UI on this project. Following for more.

 

[figaro03240]

To summarize the work and startups (it's easy to get lost in what I do and what I post).

Startup 1 - A directory of pages where you can promote your SaaS/product/startup for free/paid. It's finished, with the official launch in 14 days (April 18th). Its main goal is to gather a list of emails that I will use in the 2nd startup.
Startup 2 - AI for generating engaging newsletters that increase conversion. What's left is to integrate Stripe, generate ~70 blog posts, and make a few cosmetic changes. I'm hoping to finish this by April 18th.
(Semi) Startup 2.5 - Added yesterday. If the launch on April 18th goes well and everything is ok (1st startup), I will launch this a week later. The goal is the same - to collect an email list and build a community to be able to move it to Twitter, etc.
Startup 3 - Undisclosed. In the next few weeks, I will call a potential business partner to arrange a coffee meeting and talk about the concept and get to know the industry more (specific, very hermetic, and commonly known for "money laundering". Overall, it's not something illegal and enjoys high respect).
Rest - Undisclosed

 

[figaro03240]

To summarize the work and startups (it's easy to get lost in what I do and what I post).

Startup 1 - A directory of pages where you can promote your SaaS/product/startup for free/paid. It's finished, with the official launch in 14 days (April 18th). Its main goal is to gather a list of emails that I will use in the 2nd startup.
Startup 2 - AI for generating engaging newsletters that increase conversion. What's left is to integrate Stripe, generate ~70 blog posts, and make a few cosmetic changes. I'm hoping to finish this by April 18th.
(Semi) Startup 2.5 - Added yesterday. If the launch on April 18th goes well and everything is ok (1st startup), I will launch this a week later. The goal is the same - to collect an email list and build a community to be able to move it to Twitter, etc.
Startup 3 - Undisclosed. In the next few weeks, I will call a potential business partner to arrange a coffee meeting and talk about the concept and get to know the industry more (specific, very hermetic, and commonly known for "money laundering". Overall, it's not something illegal and enjoys high respect).
Rest - Undisclosed

At the meeting, I want to showcase my previous startups to build trust in me. I'm quite young (24 years old), but I look older. The partner will definitely check me out and see a lot of my content online.

Here's also a pro tip: For over two years, I created content under a pseudonym, which was a big problem in the future when trying to migrate content and build my personal brand. Regardless of what you create, include your first and last name (unless it's something blackhat ;p). It will be useful in the future, both in 9-5 work and in private life.

 

[Juhku]

Very interesting journey you have - best of luck!

If it's something you want to share,
How experienced are you in the startup scene?

Asking because, don't you think that releasing multiple startups a month is a bit counter productive?
Your time will be diversified over all the startups, which naturally makes it very hard to scale any of them exceptionally large.

 

[figaro03240]

Very interesting journey you have - best of luck!

If it's something you want to share,
How experienced are you in the startup scene?

Asking because, don't you think that releasing multiple startups a month is a bit counter productive?
Your time will be diversified over all the startups, which naturally makes it very hard to scale any of them exceptionally large.

Thanks! I've had contact with real-life startups from the development side - I worked in a small company that serviced such firms. Damn, those were the best projects I've been involved in. I left because I started to develop myself in other areas. Moreover, I have experience in:

1. Development (3 years as a programmer with a very narrow and specific specialization).
2. Design (2 years of commercial work as a graphic designer).
3. Client communication (stemming from points 2 and 1).
4. Marketing - due to point 2.
5. Automation - writing bots, spamming, scraping, integrations, content creation, etc.
6. Edit - I used to create videos on YouTube. For now, I've put that on hold, but I'll probably come back to it in the future (once I have roughly some passive income and some business successes) and I'll create content about building startups. Maybe even a podcast for fun. Mostly in my native (Polish) language.

Of course, I don't want to do everything at once, but I'm aware of two things:

1. All activities require time. For example: if I'm creating a startup that requires cooperation with third parties, after spending 3 days sending emails, contacting, discussing, etc., it will take a few days before I get a response and feedback. If the conversion is small, it means I'm doing something wrong and need to rethink it. Therefore, the time spent waiting is wasted time. Hence the need to use this time for other projects.
2. In subsequent startups (Startup 3, 4 etc.), work related to marketing, reaching out to people, etc., will be on the business partners' side. I want to offload this in favor of refining products, creating features, etc. Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but Startup 1 and (semi) Startup 2.5 serve strictly for the promotion of Startup 2. Marketing for the rest of the startups is supposed to be handled by business partners.

Currently, the whole thing might seem chaotic, but the marketing of the 1st startup will be highly repetitive, and it's impossible to dedicate, for example, 3 weeks day in, day out to promotion. You need to give SEO time, and you also can't post the same content on Reddit in the same subreddits day after day. That would only sink me.

To answer the question - if startups require you to have a full-time job, then yes - creating several startups is counterproductive. However, if some of them need to mature, you need to receive feedback, and some require repeatable promotion with limited resources, then no, I don't think it's counterproductive. Everything depends on the marketing plan, business plan, and the specifics of the project.

To be specific - promoting a newsletter. Sure, I could comment and spam for 8 hours a day in posts on Medium. But why, when it can be automated? I could also spam Reddit daily, but why, if it will bring the opposite result from what's expected? The same with groups on Facebook or Discord.

I'm not sure if you understand me - I wrote this a bit chaotic lol

 

[Juhku]

Seems like you have things all planned out. Well planned is half done.

1. All activities require time. For example: if I'm creating a startup that requires cooperation with third parties, after spending 3 days sending emails, contacting, discussing, etc., it will take a few days before I get a response and feedback. If the conversion is small, it means I'm doing something wrong and need to rethink it. Therefore, the time spent waiting is wasted time. Hence the need to use this time for other projects.
2. In subsequent startups (Startup 3, 4 etc.), work related to marketing, reaching out to people, etc., will be on the business partners' side. I want to offload this in favor of refining products, creating features, etc. Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but Startup 1 and (semi) Startup 2.5 serve strictly for the promotion of Startup 2. Marketing for the rest of the startups is supposed to be handled by business partners.

Currently, the whole thing might seem chaotic, but the marketing of the 1st startup will be highly repetitive, and it's impossible to dedicate, for example, 3 weeks day in, day out to promotion. You need to give SEO time, and you also can't post the same content on Reddit in the same subreddits day after day. That would only sink me.

To answer the question - if startups require you to have a full-time job, then yes - creating several startups is counterproductive. However, if some of them need to mature, you need to receive feedback, and some require repeatable promotion with limited resources, then no, I don't think it's counterproductive. Everything depends on the marketing plan, business plan, and the specifics of the project.

To be specific - promoting a newsletter. Sure, I could comment and spam for 8 hours a day in posts on Medium. But why, when it can be automated? I could also spam Reddit daily, but why, if it will bring the opposite result from what's expected? The same with groups on Facebook or Discord.

I get where you're coming from.

You mentioned that you will be partnering with others who will handle the marketing side (and some other stuff), but you also mentioned that you also have experience in marketing.

Any specific reasons why you'd split the profits with business partners, when you have the expertise do it yourself?
Even if you didn't have the same level of expertise as your potential business partners, it would be a fantastic opportunity to gain more experience on the matter. These seem like a long-term projects either way.

I'm somewhat deep in my own local startup scene (SaaS specifically) and have personal experience in how destructive it can be to manage multiple projects/businesses at the same time.

If I had the opportunity to start things all over, I'd very easily choose to only focus on max. 2 projects of which I own 100%, instead of splitting the profits of numerous projects. Would also give you good opportunities to learn more skills.

I'm sure that if you would only focus on 1-3 projects alone, you'd still have your hands full even if some/most stuff would require a lot of waiting time.

But of course, you do you. Just weighing my own insights here, as I feel like I can offer some perspectives on the matter.
Either way, best of luck with the projects and I'll be following your journey with great interest

 

[figaro03240]

Seems like you have things all planned out. Well planned is half done.


I get where you're coming from.

You mentioned that you will be partnering with others who will handle the marketing side (and some other stuff), but you also mentioned that you also have experience in marketing.

Any specific reasons why you'd split the profits with business partners, when you have the expertise do it yourself?
Even if you didn't have the same level of expertise as your potential business partners, it would be a fantastic opportunity to gain more experience on the matter. These seem like a long-term projects either way.

I'm somewhat deep in my own local startup scene (SaaS specifically) and have personal experience in how destructive it can be to manage multiple projects/businesses at the same time.

If I had the opportunity to start things all over, I'd very easily choose to only focus on max. 2 projects of which I own 100%, instead of splitting the profits of numerous projects. Would also give you good opportunities to learn more skills.

I'm sure that if you would only focus on 1-3 projects alone, you'd still have your hands full even if some/most stuff would require a lot of waiting time.

But of course, you do you. Just weighing my own insights here, as I feel like I can offer some perspectives on the matter.
Either way, best of luck with the projects and I'll be following your journey with great interest

The answer is simple: I don't have as much expertise in several fields as potential partners do. For example:

1. One target group is very tight-knit and requires a huge authority in that specific niche. It's a closed circle that would take me several years of work to enter on my own, requiring specific expertise.
2. I have knowledge in marketing, but others have greater expertise and perform better. For example: TikTok. I can think and invest time into it, but there are people who already have:
   a) Established reach
   b) Do it daily
   c) Understand it much better than I do.

The main obstacle is time. Look at it from the other side: why would my business partner do this with me when they can learn programming themselves, and then applications, architecture, etc.? It's more advantageous to share profits in this particular case. The nature of the next undisclosed projects is so specific that I realize I won't be able to do it alone.

+ The fact that it's an excellent opportunity is true. In one of the industries, I would like to stay longer. I hope to be actively involved in it in the long run.

Thanks for the discussion - if anything comes to your mind or if you disagree with something, please comment. It's worth throwing in new perspectives and discussing. Everyone (including those who are reading this) benefits from it.