Evgeny Saveliev

Over the weekend, Tobi, the founder and CEO of Shopify, discussed the major reason investors passed on Shopify in the early days : market size. I remember that financing round, & I remember having the same concern, & making the same mistake. Living in the valley & driving on 101, the billboards & logo-adorned headquarters of successful companies provide a daily infusion of all the mistakes in I’ve made in guessing how a company or a market might evolve. Years later, I listened as Bill Gurley shared his thoughts about market size. He asked himself a question : whether the startup was increasing, decreasing, or maintaining the market size? (I can’t seem to find the link - but I have it in my notes!) I added that question to my diligence list when meeting startups. Now much later, having seen many companies create categories or reinvigorate aging ones, the question I ask myself has evolved. It’s not as the market size large enough? Instead, it the question is : do we believe this company can create the market? Market size is the output of all the players marketing, selling, building. Their efforts alter, distort, & juice the supply/demand curves of macroeconomics. It’s not a given - not an output or a steady-state CAGR. Often it’s the startups that engender the demand, change the market dynamics, & make markets massive by taking risks with products. When done right, these founders create category-defining businesses like Shopify (now worth $90b)!

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This is John Fish:  He has ~1M on YouTube & a massive book club.  He skipped traditional VC and took investment in himself. --- Meet John Fish At 10, he was already coding his first app. By 16, he was working as an engineering intern at Shopify. For college he went to Harvard. But he wants to try to become the #1 creator on BookTube. Here's why that's an interesting decision: --- John has a serious love for reading. One that he's managed to parlay into a large (and growing) online business empire. It all started with his YouTube channel, which has almost attracted enough book lovers to earn him that coveted gold play button. (~1M subscribers) --- From there, he branched out into physical products by launching a notebook that is part journal, part daily planner. This helped him form a stronger connection with his audience and served as his first source of repeat revenue. --- Now, he's working on a SaaS app called Bookshelved. It helps users... • Discover new titles  • Track their progress  • Save and categorize their best insights  • Connect with other avid readers It also has a paid book club, which is his first source of subscription revenue. --- All that hard work eventually caught the attention of Slow Ventures. They've been writing checks from $500,000 up to $2 million for 5% of the entire financial output of that individual creator over the next 30 years. They recently wrote a check to John to help accelerate growth across his entire enterprise. --- Here are 5 reasons why... 1. A Sizable (and Growing) Distribution Channel John has grown his YouTube channel to almost 1M subscribers and uses this for awareness and distribution. 2. Defensible Differentiation John doesn’t just review books, he dives deep into their themes using an analytical, yet approachable style that appeals to a wide audience. 3. Business Acumen John uses his tech background to run data analysis that helps him understand his audience better than anyone else. This helps him optimize his content strategy and diversify his revenue sources by layering on in-demand physical products and software tools. 4. An Emerging Market 34% of Gen Z readers are finding their next title on YouTube. John has a strong foothold in an expanding market whose purchasing power is growing. 5. A Clear Path Forward Most importantly, John has a compelling plan for the money. He'll add features to Bookshelved and scale his content which benefits the entire enterprise. --- His story is a powerful example of how creators can leverage their creative talent to build successful businesses and this is exactly what we are building towards with my company Crowdsurf. With Crowdsurf, creators can raise up to $5 million from accredited and unaccredited investors in exchange for a small percentage of their future revenue and IP. And anyone can invest for just $50. If you're interested check out the website in my bio and follow Preston Troutt for more creator and startup highlights.

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🚀 Building a Customizable Step Counter with React.js 🚀 Hello LinkedIn community! 👋 I'm excited to share my latest React.js project - a Customizable Step Counter! 🎯 In this project, the user can set a custom step value (e.g., 3, 5, or any number) and the counter will increment by that value every time the user clicks the button. It's a simple yet powerful example of how React can be used to create dynamic and user-friendly components. 🔧 Features: Users can input their own step value. The counter increases by the specified step value on each click. Built using React.js with clean, reusable components. 🛠️ Technical Highlights: State Management: Used React's useState hook to manage the counter value and step. Event Handling: Added a button click event that updates the counter based on the step value set by the user. Reusable Components: Separated the counter logic and UI to keep the code modular and maintainable. Sir Muhammad Sufiyan

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Introducing - CheckIN -> My Latest Project [ with actual client(s) using it ] CheckIN- http://cwash.2-ai.ca is a customer verification software for Car Wash Companies. Usually, for new carwash companies, installing new hardware and software to manage subscription and customer verification can be a very expensive thing. So, with CheckIN, customers can pay online and their subscription can be verified very easily with just the help of their license plate number. It utilizes #htmx, so the verification process is very quick and doesn't require page reloading. It brought the cost down from $150k to $4k for one of my clients. Note: eventually the expensive system might be required to handle a big load of customer. However, in the beginning saving $146k can help the business grow big enough to afford the latter system without financial burden. Beside, I am planning to make CheckIN better, so it can eventually become a permanent solution. [ I'm inviting interested investors to give this a shot. It has a great potential to disrupt an ignored industry by #BigTech. ] DM me if you wanna see a demo 😎 #software #autocarwash #verification #customerverification #django #htmx #stripe #subscription #investor #startup #investment

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Another completed project. Key Highlights: ✅ Google PageSpeed Scores: 95 (Mobile) | 99 (Desktop) ✅ Lightning-Fast Loading: Average load runs on less than 15MB of RAM ✅ Optimized with W3 Total Cache for maximum speed and responsiveness

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If I was an A player / high performer seeking employment right now, I'd look for jobs at organizations running one of these business operating systems: Scaling Up: A Gazelles Company, Metronomics, or EOS - Entrepreneurial Operating System. There are several reasons for this: -Core Values-Driven CEOs: Many will have CEOs that actually live their company core values (and insist everyone else does, too), giving you the best chance possible to thrive -A Player Team: Because these organizations are more likely to use Topgrading to hire, you'd be part of a drama-free, A Player team (do not underestimate the importance of this; if you've had bad team members or have been dismayed by workplace drama, you understand) -Get Paid More: Compensation will likely be at the high end for your role because these organizations understand the value the A Player creates -5D Focused Leadership Teams: Leadership teams are focused on Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, resulting in less workplace politics (doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason) and way less stupidity from leaders All of these things will result in the most fulfilling working environment you've ever had. Remember the "Great resignation"? That may as well have been a myth to my clients. Why? Nobody leaves an A player team. NOBODY. That was a problem for companies that don't live there core values and that tolerate B and C players. Unfortunately, there isn't a public list of these companies. That would be one incredible A Player recruitment website. But there are a few things A players can do to find these employers: 1. Reach out to the organizations above to find out if they know of companies in your area using their systems/tools 2. Reach out to your local chapter of Entrepreneurs' Organization or Young Presidents' Organization - that's where the self-aware leaders using these systems/tools congregate ***Important interview question all candidates for all candidates to ask: Is your CEO a member of EO or YPO? Self-aware leaders tend to join these peer learning associations, and that's the kind of leader you generally want as an employer/leader.*** 3. Reach out to Metronomics, Scaling Up, or EOS coaches in your area to find out which of their clients is currently hiring. I'll be posting some of my clients' open positions - as well as background on the company - here in the near future. Find a company that is deserving of your behavior and talents. #Metronomics #ScalingUp #EOS #Hiring #JobSeekers #Jobsearch #employerofchoice #topgrading #fivedysfunctionsofateam #corevalues #YPO #EO #Grovertalent #talent #Aplayers #Aplayerhiring

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🚀 Webflow just changed the game… again! 🚀 If you’re working on a site that requires a lot of maintenance, you’ll love Webflow’s newest features: Component Slots and the ability to add class attributes to elements. Combining these two features will save you loads of time, adding granularity to components and dynamic elements. #webflow

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These app founders said NO to a $30million offer!   The Kang sisters ( Soo, Arum, and Dawoon) turned down a record-breaking $30 million offer on 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐤 because they believed their app could be the next 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡.𝐜𝐨𝐦  (worth a whopping $800 million!). Fast forward to today, Coffee Meets Bagel boasts over 10 million users and a valuation of $150 million!   𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲? 👉There's a difference between a good offer and the 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 offer for your app. 👉Don't rush into a deal that undervalues your vision. 👉While a hefty offer is tempting, consider the app's 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥, 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. ---- 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 $𝟑𝟎𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or repost your thoughts to your network. P.S. ✉ Let's chat about your app and its potential! Send me a DM 🔔 If you enjoy my content, follow me, Charlie Ryan for more in the future. #apps #mobile #startups #entrepreneur #founder

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🌤 Just Built a Weather App with React.js! 🌤 I'm excited to share my latest project — a sleek and responsive weather app inspired by the iPhone weather interface. 📱 💻 What I learned: Fetching and displaying hourly weather data along with a 5-day forecast using React.js Seamless API integration for real-time weather updates Styling to create a clean and minimalistic design similar to the iPhone app 🔧 Tech Stack: React.js OpenWeatherMap API CSS for responsive design This project helped me sharpen my frontend development skills, and I’m excited to keep pushing my limits. Check out a few screenshots below. Let me know your thoughts or any suggestions to improve it! 🚀 Sir Muhammad Sufiyan #ReactJS #FrontendDevelopment #WeatherApp #OpenWeatherMap #WebDevelopment #iPhoneWeatherApp

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AiScribe 3 Days Post Launch: - 162 Installs - Google and Apple split installs 50/50 - Trials started: 8 (all from Apple) IOS users seem more open to purchasing than Google users. #buildinpublic #mobileapp #flutter

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🚀 Exciting Project Update! 🚀 I'm thrilled to share my latest project – a seamless and user-friendly sign-up, login, and post creation page! Key Features: Sign-Up Page: When a user signs up, their data is stored securely in the local storage. If a new user tries to sign up with an existing email, they'll receive an alert stating, "This email already exists." Login Page: Only users with valid credentials stored in local storage can log in. Any invalid login attempt will result in an error message. Post Creation Page: After successful login, users can access the post creation page. If a user tries to access this page without logging in, they will be redirected to the login page. The post creation page allows users to submit content along with an image URL, making it easy to share rich media posts. I've focused on ensuring a smooth and secure user experience throughout the process. This project showcases my skills in front-end development and handling local storage for user authentication. A special shoutout to my teacher, [Muhammad Sufiyan], whose guidance and support made this project possible. Your mentorship has been invaluable, and I couldn't have done it without you! Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to refine and enhance this project. Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome! Github Url: https://lnkd.in/dmM3WhHB #WebDevelopment #FrontEnd #JavaScript #LocalStorage #UserAuthentication #UXDesign #Gratitude #Mentorship

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Ever wondered how Shopify's infrastructure handles the Black Friday tsunami? The numbers are mind-bending: Shopify delivered ~50 billion webhooks since Black Friday. But how reliable is the delivery latency for the real-time events? Through Hookdeck's infrastructure, we tracked Shopify delivery latency for hundred of millions of webhooks. The results? Impressive resilience: Our 72-hour analysis reveals: - Median (p50) latency: ~1s - Average latency: ~2s - p99 latency: ~7s We caught exactly 3 performance blips early during Black Friday, each causing a ~400% latency spike. These hiccups lasted only 2-5 minutes each. Since 11/30 14:00 UTC, it's been smooth sailing with remarkable stability. With modern ecommerce running on webhooks, delivery reliability directly impacts customer experience and merchant operations. These metrics show what true infrastructure resilience looks like in the real world - not perfect, but incredibly robust. #blackfriday #webhooks #shopifydeveloper

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$150,000 in SDE. Would you even look twice at such a business? Scott Walton and his partner did, and they bought it. And another at around the same time that was doing $250k in SDE. (All figures Canadian.) So the combined SDE of both acquisitions is below the threshold that many searchers would consider. And yet... Scott doubled the businesses in 2023 and is gunning to double them again this year, which would mean $10m in revenue and well over $1m of profit going into 2025. And much more of that profit will go directly to Scott as owner versus servicing debt had they bought a $1m SDE business right out of the gate. One of the benefits of buying small is that you pay far less for the initial acquisition... meaning far less debt service... meaning if you can grow into the desired $1m of profit and beyond, you keep a lot more of that profit a lot sooner. Today's interview with Scott is how you might do just that. Some topics today: * Hiring a president so you can step out of the business (Scott was very much in the business at first; today his time is mostly devoted to strategic projects.) * Improving culture & introducing KPIs at a blue collar business * How they solved hiring by creating a full pipeline of blue collar talent * How they financed these deals without the SBA (they're in Canada) * How Scott gets very personal with sellers to arrive at a successful negotiation * Migrating from tech to the trades A dense and fascinating episode today. Here's Scott Walton, co-owner of Matrix Mechanical. Please enjoy. ( 👉 link to interview in comments below)

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My free Shopify app store listing audit is killin' it. I met great founders, ambitious to succeed and willing to put in the work. Over the next few months, I'll be teaming up with 3 of these ambitious founders to elevate their apps to the next level. But my favorite part is being able to help up-and-comers who can't afford my full services right now. I realized it's time to craft a solution just for you. If you're a Shopify app founder at the beginning of your journey, how would you prefer my help? How about a cohort? Or a bunch of quick courses? Let me know in the comments below.

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Here's a new list of 36 growing Y Combinator backed startups, with < 50 employees, hiring for REMOTE roles: 1) sync. - lip sync tool (US remote / India remote) 2) DevCycle - feature flag management (US remote / Canada remote) 3) Reprompt (YC W24) - AI agents for location (US remote) 4) Capi Money - international supply payments (US remote) 5) FlexDesk - office portfolio management (US remote) 6) TeamOut (YC W22) - marketplace for team retreat venues (US remote) 7) VectorShift - gen AI automations platform (India remote) 8) Fella & Delilah - telehealth clinic for obesity (US remote) 9) Sully.ai - AI medical employees for healthcare (US remote) 10) CandorIQ - headcount & compensation management (US remote) 11) Infisical - open-source secrets manager for developers (remote) 12) Optery - remove private info from internet (remote) 13) Wasp - enterprise web apps (remote global) 14) LunaJoy Health - mental health care for women (remote US) 15) doola - business-in-a-box for LLCs (remote US) 16) MedMe Health (YC W21) - software for pharmacies (remote global) 17) Cascading AI (YC S23) AI - AI agents for banking (remote US) 18) Myria - marketplace of luxury services (remote US) 19) Ply Health (YC S24) - get providers in-network with payers (remote US) 20) AuthZed - open source permissions database (remote US & EU) 21) PostEra - medicinal chemistry (remote US) 22) Firecrawl - extract AI ready data from web (remote US & BR) 23) Vital - API for at-home health data (remote US) 24) Wanderlog - travel planner (remote US) 25) Toma (YC W24) - AI for auto dealerships (remote US) 26) Ascen - EOR for the staffing industry (remote global) 27) Phonely (YC S24) - AI call centers (remote US) 28) Handle.com - payments for construction suppliers (remote US) 29) QuestDB - open source time series database (remote US) 30) SuperTokens - open source user authentication (remote US) 31) Embrace - mobile observability platform (remote global) 32) Banner Technologies - CRE capital spend management (remote US) 33) Lightly - toolkit for building in AI (remote global) 34) Extern - professional experiences (remote US) 35) RocketLit - learning and assessment platform (remote US) 36) Great Question - user research on autopilot (remote AU) Direct links to their career pages in the comments. Thanks Ben Lang for the list 💜

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Shopify needs to kick out all of the payment options to recapture 40% of platform GMV + regain Billions in rev/year. Today they only process 60% of its stores’ Rev. Other payment processors/options (Paypal, Amazon Pay) capture 40% of GMV. Their major problem: how does Shopify stay friendly with the bizs who pick Shopify’s pocket? Shopify’s value prop has always been flexible options at checkout. But 70% of Shop’s Rev is from payments. At the end of the day, Shop needs to collect that Rev. Their options are limited: - Restrict options at checkout. - Charge a toll to the other payment providers. - Hide/deprioritize others in the UI. I’m watching this evolution closely. Shop’s still growing, so this won’t be a tomorrow update. But eventually, Shopify will need to monetize more of their GMV. Leaving half of their current opportunity on the table is only excusable when there’s other growth to be had. #shopify

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