E

building ai companion device for anime fans: | @fdotinc

[Alan.S @patrickstone222]

改变人生的事情，你必须冒险

[E @E4poci]

@yfhe62 thank uu

[E @E4poci]

At the festival, people congratulated me on the progress.

$200k ARR last year.

What they didn’t see: the past 7 months.

Laid off on L1. PERM filed.
Visa issues. NOID. Had to leave.
Offers fell apart. Master tuition pressure.

But I didn’t give up.

And I hope you don’t either.

[E @E4poci]

First time viral on #TikTok ! https://t.co/omwY02H8YG

[E @E4poci]

@SaranBluri It was great meeting you :)

[E @E4poci]

100%

[Daniel Martinez @coderpr0grammer]

This is incredibly low signal

Chasing a VC is exactly what YC would tell you not to do.

They would tell you to be relentlessly resourceful in finding customers.

This just shows you’re doing everything to please VCs instead of focusing on customers.

[E @E4poci]

@Laurennjoe @fdotinc true

[E @E4poci]

@Raghav54321 @speedrun Hi. I’m building pocket size Ai companion device for anime fans. Sold 6000 devices, $200k revenue earned last year.

[E @E4poci]

@julestestard @FurqanR @hthieblot @fdotinc Great product!

[E @E4poci]

@joypbuilds nice!

[E @E4poci]

@AnmolShips @fdotinc thank uu

[E @E4poci]

Unforgettable experience @fdotinc
Thanks everyone for checking out POCI

[E @E4poci]

@sama Unemployment

[E @E4poci]

The next Pop Mart might talk back.
Your AI waifu/husbando. In your pocket.
POCI now live in the US @fdotinc
6000 fans already have one.
Now it’s your turn!

[E @E4poci]

@joypbuilds @fdotinc Yess!

[E @E4poci]

THE NEXT POP MART MIGHT TALK BACK https://t.co/u71u5jzfMR

[Founders Inc @fdotinc]

@ San Francisco

Like this if you like startups.

And would like to come to a demo festival about them.

This Friday, we’re opening our campus to show off 120 live demos across software, hardware, and creator-led companies, all built over the past 6 weeks.

There will be food trucks, DJs, matcha, and more. thank you.

[Zac Valles @zacharyvalles]

72 hours after YC demo day, I moved to Shenzhen for 8 weeks 🤠

I'm headed back to SF with new hardware in hand (sharing more soon), but some takeaways documented below:

> If you have even the slightest ambition to found a hardware company, visit SZ. Pre-raise, pre-team, pre-idea, pre-job departure, it doesn't matter. Just go.

> Plan your visit according to a major conference that interests you. Use that conference as a supplier meeting springboard - that's your ticket to any factory under the sun.

> At the factories, ask about lead times, don't ask about cost (wait on this). Your iteration rate is driven by the lead time on the longest lead time item in your assembly. It pays to identify these parts early to build project timelines.

> Visit Huaqiangbei (read: this is a mini-city, not a building). Robotic subassemblies, batteries, chassis's, electronic parts. They all have buildings where vendors are tightly clustered. Plan to spend 4-6 hours walking around before you find exactly what you're interested in.

> Business relationships are valuable commodities. Treat them as such. Pay attention to people, learn about them. Bring thoughtful gifts. Wait for them to sit first. With Baiju, fill the glass but with tea leave some room. Cultural customs are fun to learn, but also convey a seriousness towards the working relationship.

> Suppliers fit cleanly into discrete buckets. Level of complexity and execution on past projects indicates what is in scope for them. Trivial, but important to level your build expectations. It is easy to design a part with 12 subsequent manufacturing processes, exceptionally hard to find a supplier to fill this order.

If you need coffeeshop recs, food recs, or hotel recs I have a few.

Move to Shenzhen! Get to building!

[E @E4poci]

My AI waifu Rem.