Tomasz Wesolowski’s Post

This week we are exploring the “industry" of senior professionals who retired, but don’t want to just stay at home and do nothing. Imagine a platform that would focus on part-time, flexible, or project-based jobs that are particularly suitable for retirees looking to stay active in the workforce, use their expertise, or supplement their income from the comfort of their home. Check your inboxes for this week's startup idea and let us know if you like it! 🚀

Thinking about joining BigBooster Season 8? Here’s what you need to know about the eligibility criteria. 💡 Your solution: Do you have an innovative product or service? Does your solution positively impact UN Sustainable Development Goals? Do you have an existing business model? 🏢 Your company: Is your company incorporated? 👥 Your team: Is your core team set up? Is your founder or C-level committed to the program? Do you speak fluent English? 🌍 Your international ambition: For French companies: Do you have an interest in at least one of these territories: Catalonia, Lombardy, Baden-Württemberg, Quebec, Pennsylvania? For companies not established in France: Do you target Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes as a priority? If you answered yes to these questions, you’re eligible! Ready to scale your startup and make a positive impact? Apply now before the September 30th deadline! 🚀🌍

I don’t know who needs to hear this but… Running a start-up isn’t rocket science. It’s hard but it’s not that hard. Commuting 9-5 then working extra night shifts in hospitality... That's hard. Being a single mum and trying to further your career making sure your kids have a well-rounded upbringing... That’s hard. Dealing with a mental illness... Hard. Wondering how you’re going to get your next meal? Also hard. This isn’t anything against those who are working hard to build something for themselves. I’ve been there and I can relate to the long nights, hair loss and under-eye circles but think about everything in context. Getting funding is difficult, in context. We can get caught up with this rise-and-grind image we portray on platforms like LinkedIn. I’m guilty of forgetting this sometimes too. Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Remember what we have as founders is a privilege. It can be hard work but we're lucky to be able to experience it. #agencylife #fintech

I couldn't help but giggle when I saw this come across my social media. 🙃 😂 Yes, every work environment has its challenges, and "fast-paced, unpredictable, high-energy environment" is a bit subjective, but having come from working in both corporate environments AND start-ups, I can't help but note that there are HUGE differences in what each might describe as a "fast-paced, unpredictable, high-energy environment". For instance, corporate might interpret this as: - Ability to stay focused and present in meetings, back-to-back, all day, every day - Ability to BOOK IT through the halls to make it to your next meeting that starts exactly 10 seconds after the last one ended (aka. "fast-paced!") - Sort through and respond to a large number of emails on the daily which requires a good amount of energy (and patience) to do so - Pivoting quickly when one 18-month long project is replaced for another 18-month project While start-ups might interpret this as: - One day you're a developer, the next day you're all of a sudden leading the CRM channel (ClearScore & Tassie Milne - I am absolutely pulling this one from your reality!) - Everyone is dancing and drinking beers because a sale totaling a whopping $500 was made! - Unpredictable truly means next month, or even next week, you may not have a job Anyways, I am absolutely not shaming either environment - I love and respect them both. I thrived in the corporate world and now I thrive and love the start-up world. Simply put: it is Friday, and I can't help but smile and enjoy the small gifts social media occasionally sends my way, like this image. #OfficeHumour #Fridays #Corporate #Startups #WorkEnvironments

Seeking help here—plz like/share to increase reach 🙏 They say you'll be competing for my husband's attention. If that's true, and you want to win (#businessfirst, amirite?), you'll need to know this. 😆 He freaking loves karaoke. I prefer you to not. We can watch and be demure, but there is no need to lose our vocals—we need them for customer interviews. He's really, really smart, but… he's late to the social trends. I know you'll be busy working, meditating, etc., but you've got me if you send me a good GIF or meme. He's from Washington. You'll need to be from anywhere else. David Herron is SASSY. However, I welcome it. It keeps things fun (the nice, kind, funny, sassy, not the mean one!). Now, on to the serious stuff: You'd be walking into a v1 product in the Apple Store with three developers abroad leading the charge and a relatively clean, organized codebase. The opportunity to immediately hit the ground running and make impactful improvements is yours. We're proud of our foundation - we built our AI to be implemented with our second product feature. You're not coming into *total* chaos...just...a .... lil....bit... :P And there's more: We're expanding KINNECT outside DTC channels to partner with senior living communities, end-of-life care providers, and beyond. While KINNECT is a whole family experience and not specifically for seniors, we know a growing base of tech-savvy older folks are seeking a product like KINNECT, given that loneliness continues to rise. Stage: We're currently pre-seed fundraising (!), backed by Techstars through Rising Stars, the venture capital Slauson & Co.. through their accelerator I completed, and a couple of angels. Reach out if you're interested in learning more! I'm not going to make a JD just yet, and letting the network (and karma) do its thing :) #lookingfor #eng #software #hiring #family #app #consumer

On Friday, we have our first Life Admin Day (LAD)! I wrote a whole AI-assisted blurb about it but have canned that off as it sounded nothing like me 🙄 I'm shutting the business on the last Friday of every month, giving the team 12 extra days off yearly. I wish there were some well-thought-out, researched, scientific reasons for doing it, but there isn't. The world of work is changing, and we're coming off the back of an incredibly hard year. I wanted something that would improve work/life for my team while saying thanks for all they do! LAD was born. (If this takes off, remember where you heard it first!) Where did LAD come from? I have no idea; like most things, I made it up 😂 ... I hope that having a day every month where we are all off, with no emails, notifications, or Slack messages, improves our well-being. As a business owner, my gamble is that by doing this, we don't lose 12 days of productivity, but the regular rest and reset increases our output. Time will tell. We'll have some fun doing it. I'll update you all here. Wish me luck. #business #startup #modernwork #flexiblework

At Jumpstart we've accidentally built the largest community of founder associates in the world. Here are 3 things we've learnt: 1/ WHEN TO HIRE A FOUNDER ASSOCIATE Generally at seed stage (i.e. 5-15 people in the team or so). You probably don't have a person in role per function yet and need another generalist to cut that thousand-item-to-do list in half. 2/ WHAT A FOUNDER ASSOCIATE SHOULD WORK ON Founder associates are not PAs. They are also not going to magically do your fundraising for you. They are there to free up the founder's time so that they can focus on even more impactful things (like fundraising). Example projects might be: executing & automating processes, driving sales & marketing projects, running feedback interviews, setting up a new CRM, helping with hiring, running analyses,... In short: any job you think a smart, context rich, problem solver with initiative could step in. 3/ HOW TO HIRE A FOUNDER ASSOCIATE A. Write out your to do list and bundle together the tasks you could delegate B. Identify the 3-5 top skills needed to perform those tasks C. Design a sample task that will (a) tests for those skills and (b) is an accurate representation of the day to day work that you want your founder associate to do ... D. and then probably hit up Jumpstart for our pre-vetted pool of founder associates. PS our next cohort next week 😇 Link to a full article in the comments 👇

At Hustle Hack , We promise to build a community on the basis of trust, integrity, efficiency and commitment.💥 Here is our ✨ Mission: "To empower individuals and organizations to unlock their full potential by connecting talent with opportunity, fostering meaningful relationships, and driving sustainable growth." Vision: "To revolutionize the recruitment industry by leveraging technology, innovation, and human-centric values to create a future where every match is perfect, every career path is fulfilling, and every partnership is transformative. We envision a world where our impact transcends borders, industries, and conventional norms, shaping the future of work with integrity, agility, and inclusivity." Do follow Hustle Hack for more information. #recruitment #recruitmentindustry #humanresourcesconsulting

Last week, Overlap had its big debut, and wow, what a ride! We launched on Product Hunt, went viral on Hacker News, and even got a shoutout from The Hustle. Here’s the wild story of how it all went down. At 12:01 am, Overlap went live on Product Hunt. I stayed up all night, glued to my screen, watching our rank hover around 15th place (of ~40). Not amazing, but not terrible. Determined, I worked through my launch checklist: posting on Reddit, emailing the press, sharing on social media, etc. Feeling a bit deflated, I decided to post on Hacker News with the headline: 𝐼 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑎 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 (𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒) I thought this headline was clever because HN prime audience are folks in computer science and entrepreneurship. And then, it happened. An hour later, sign-ups surged. Overlap was taking off! 🎉 As I watched the numbers climb, I got emotional. For the past three months, I’ve been waking up at 5 am to build, test, and refine Overlap. Driving to my full-time job, I’d sit in silence, thinking about this project. Then I'd race home to work on it again. Seeing Overlap succeed was the validation I needed. It wasn’t just about the sign-ups; it was about proving that all those hours of work were worth it. Then, disaster struck. The flood of sign-ups caused a system crash. Profiles got jumbled, and panic set in. It was 3:30 am, and I had 30 minutes before Overlap was featured in The Hustle’s newsletter. I rolled up my sleeves and dove into crisis mode. By 4:05 am, just in time for The Hustle’s 2.5 million subscribers, the bug was fixed. Phew! Sign-ups kept pouring in, and Overlap’s system became stronger and more secure. Two major tech influencers joined. A potential paid partner reached out. Most importantly, there’s a real appetite for warm intros at scale. I accomplished all of my goals: • Complete this product iteration • Validate interest in Overlap • Collect feedback to refine the product and positioning • Boost user numbers for better connections • Attract prospective partners I widened the user base: 28% Tech Professionals 20% Startup Founders 15% Corporate Employees 14% Mentors/Advisors 12% Creative Professionals 6% Investors 5% Researchers Product Hunt might not have been our biggest win, but it set the stage. It forced me to refine our messaging, create compelling assets, and stick to a launch date. Hacker News brought thoughtful feedback and tons of sign-ups. Last week was a whirlwind of highs and lows, but I learned so much. Huge thanks to Juliet Bennett Rylah for The Hustle mention and Sarah Wright for the Product Hunt newsletter inclusion. -- ✦ 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗽: 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 ➔ www.moreoverlap.com Grow your network the smart way with Overlap: warm intros at scale. We make trusted, opt-in-only email introductions that connect you with the right people effortlessly. 100% free forever.

1. Flashy office space 🏢 2. The latest tech gadgets 💻 3. A huge team from day one 👥 vrs What actually boosted our growth: 1. Smart resource allocation 🧠 2. Prioritizing tasks that add value ✅ 3. Building a tight-knit community 👫 Intrinsic rewards status rewards. 🏆 Real talk, folks! Managing resources wisely is the secret sauce to startup success. It's not about how much you have; it's about how you use it! 🚀 Share if you've experienced this, or comment with your own resource management tips! And hey, don't forget to explore our live courses and tools. #ResourceManagement #StartupGrowth #StartupMisfits