Thoughts on "B2B" side projects?

The question is more how does this project compare to others. Of course, having a project is better than having nothing, but the question I'm asking is compared to projects that Alex and Rahul have made (and to a larger extent, everyone who is applying for jobs), how does this one stand up? Would it set me apart from other applicants? What percentile of applicants would this project land me in?

To answer your question, I use linkedin sales navigator to find leads. There's a feature to load everyone's email into a spreadsheet. I then use Google's mail merge to mass send emails. Google's mail merge is free but you can send up to ~500 emails/day and it's a little finicky to use sometimes (the mail merge "feature" is actually just a script someone made).

https://developers.google.com/apps-script/samples/automations/mail-merge

Thanks for the answer. I do list this as work experience but to extend the conversation - where do you draw the line between work experience and side project? When you generate a significant amount of revenue? When you acquire a ton of users?

This isn't completely scientific, but if you make more than $10,000 doing something, that feels more like work experience to me.

Another litmus test is if you have any external stakeholders/obligations/contracts. For side projects you can always just stop and its ok. But if you cant just stop or have a contractual agreement for providing a service I would be ok calling it work experience

Thank you all for the insights! Here are my responses to Rahul

What is your goal with this project? Use it as a stepping stone for a job or continue to grow revenue until it becomes self-sustaining?

I've been treating this startup more like a side-hustle. In school and even in my current internship, if I'm not working my primary job, I'll be working on this startup. For now, I see my startup more as a stepping stone for a job rather than growing revenue until it becomes self-sustaining. The reason being that I don't see this becoming a unicorn given how small the market is (the market is around 1-2bn).

In the next 1-2 years, my vision for this startup is to be a profitable side-hustle. My hope is to use the profits to bootstrap another startup that has a legitimate chance of becoming a unicorn (which I can then pursue full-time). In the worst case, it can just be an extra source of income. (more later on whether to pursue this full-time)

If I were evaluating you, the main thing I'd want to figure out is how much of the sales you received are for your time or your product.

The sales I receive are primarily for my product more than than my time. There is an onboarding process (setting up the accounts, having a call to walk through how to use the product and set up expectations etc.), but after the setup, these companies are paying for a pure software solution. On a resume, can you give a few guidelines on how to emphasize this point?

If these multinational companies are paying for a pure software solution, that's even more impressive, and I'd encourage you to pursue this full-time

This is one thing I've been considering but not sure if it's the right move for my career. I think there are two factors influencing this - mainly the risk-reward ratio isn't good enough:

1. Market sizing isn't big enough (reward): As mentioned before, the industry I'm in isn't huge, so there's a limit to how big my profits can be. With a lot of hard work and many years, I can see this startup hitting 10mm in ARR, but that's a long long way and I don't think these returns are good enough for me (one of my life's goals is to build a unicorn).
2. Lack of venture funding/prestige (risk): As you know, 90% of startups fail, and this one is no exception. Suppose I did fail, then the question is how will I fare in the job market as a failed founder? I likely won't have any brands associated with me (ie can't call myself ex-YC or ex-Sequoia) since it's hard to attract investor interest. In that case, I think it'll be hard to break into big tech without any brand names associated with me (I only have a chinese big-tech company on my resume).

Rahul - you started Kosei after graduating. Can you share more of that experience? What compelled you to exit to Pinterest, and why not keep building? Did you have a backup plan if Kosei didn't work out?

Thank you so much for the high praise!!!