The community built for founders

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. A few years ago, one of the hardest parts of starting a software company was actually building the software. You needed developers, designers, time, money, and sometimes months of work just to get something usable in front of people. Now? You can have an idea in the morning, use AI to help you build it, deploy it, and have something real to show people by the evening. That part has become ridiculously easier. But then you launch it and realize something uncomfortable: Nobody cares. You can build the product faster than ever, but you still can’t force people to use it. And I think this is where a lot of founders are getting stuck. AI has dramatically reduced the cost of building software, but it hasn't reduced the difficulty of earning attention and trust. In fact, it may have made that problem worse. Because when everyone can build faster, there are suddenly more products competing for the same limited attention. Your product isn't competing only with companies that raised millions anymore. It is competing with another founder who spent their weekend building something similar with AI. So the advantage is slowly moving away from "Can you build it?" It is becoming: Can you get someone to notice it? Can you explain why they should care? Can you earn enough trust for them to try it? Can you get them to come back? This is also why I’m starting to think distribution is becoming one of the most important founder skills. You don't necessarily need to become an influencer or spend thousands on ads. But you do need to learn how to talk to people, find where your users already hang out, create useful conversations, build relationships, and consistently put your product in front of the right audience. AI can help you build the product. It can write your landing page. It can help with your emails. It can even help you research your market. But it can't magically make people care. And honestly, I think that's a good thing. Because if building becomes almost free, maybe the real test of a startup isn't who can build the fastest anymore. Maybe it's who can understand people the best. What do you think is harder today: building the product or getting the first 100 customers?

A while ago, I posted Finaxa here and asked founders for brutally honest feedback. Some of the responses really stuck with me. One criticism was that there were too many things competing for attention, and it wasn't clear what the main use case was. Another person visited the site and basically said: “What is Finaxa? When I visited, I only saw a blog full of ads.” That second criticism was especially useful. Even if I disagreed with the conclusion, I couldn't ignore the fact that someone had visited the ecosystem and didn't understand what I thought was obvious. So I changed it. I redesigned how the site presents itself to make it clearer: * what each tool does; * who it's for; * what problem it solves; * where the products are; * what's free; * and how the different parts of the ecosystem connect. Now I want to run a different test with you. I'm not asking whether you “like” the new design. I want to know whether your perception has changed. If you've never seen Finaxa before and visited it today: Can you explain in one sentence what Finaxa is? And after exploring it for a few minutes: Can you identify which part could potentially become a really big business? If the answer is “no,” that's exactly the kind of feedback I want. If you saw the previous version, even better: What changed in your perception between the old and current version? I'm not looking for approval. In the first discussion, you gave me some uncomfortable feedback — and that feedback is exactly what pushed me to change the product. Now I want to find out whether I actually fixed the problem, or just built a prettier version of the same problem. finaxa.me

I’ve been building this ecosystem for a while, and I’m at the point where I want some brutally honest feedback from experienced founders.[https://finaxa.me) Instead of asking “do you like it?”, I want to ask something much more useful: If you had to buy this business today, how much would you actually pay for it? Not the code. Not the domain. I mean the whole ecosystem: the website, tools, financial products, calculators, content, existing infrastructure, branding and the possibility of turning it into a real business. I’m not looking for compliments. If you were evaluating this as an acquisition, I’d really like to know: * What would you remove? * What would you rebuild? * What would you add? * What would stop you from buying it? * What would make it worth 2x more? * And most importantly: what would you personally pay for it today? You can assume you were buying it as a founder looking for a base to build on, rather than starting from zero. I’m especially interested in answers from people who have actually built, bought, sold or acquired online businesses. Feel free to be brutal. I’d rather hear that the business is worth $500 than get a polite “looks great”.

While building and researching tools for startups, I noticed that customer support software can become a difficult decision for early-stage teams. Many founders start with popular platforms like Intercom, but as the team grows, pricing, flexibility, and control become important factors to consider. I have been exploring open-source customer support options because they give startups more control over their data, customisation, and workflows. I would love to learn from other founders here: What customer support tool are you currently using? Have you tried any open-source alternatives to Intercom? What is the biggest factor you consider when choosing support software: cost, integrations, AI features, or flexibility? Would appreciate hearing your experiences and recommendations.