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Today’s Edition
🧾 Founder Friday with InvoiceQuick’s Iftikhar Sherwani
🧺 Free Appliance Hauling Service - Don’t worry, we have a plan to make money
❄️ Global Cooling Startup Attempting to Dim the Sun
🦉 $1 Billion AI Language Education Startup Attempting to Beat Duolingo
🎤 How to Succeed with a Startup - by Sam Altman
💧✏️ Waterproof Paper for Shower Thoughts
💡 Today’s Minimum Viable Idea
🧺 Free Appliance Hauling Service
IDEA: Let’s say you buy a new washer and dryer set. It was about time since the set you had was getting old and maybe not drying as well as it used to. The new laundry machines have been ordered, but you have a problem. What are you going to do with the current set and how are you going to disconnect them without flooding the entire house? Sure, the store you bought the new set from probably offers hauling service, but isn’t free. Lowe’s charges $50. And you could probably figure out how to unhook everything and sell it on Facebook Marketplace, but who wants to deal with that hassle? That is where this idea comes in.
PRODUCT: Offer a free hauling service for appliances. When a customer is buying new machines for their home, show up before the delivery, disconnect the current machines, and haul them away at no cost.
But, how does it make money?
Easy. Many customers get rid of their appliances just because they are old or just in need of a small repair. Some are in perfectly good condition. Fix up the appliances that need it and resell them. If they can’t be fixed, simply take it to the scrap yard for quick cash. Use SEO or Google Ads to make sure you show up when customers are searching for new appliances.
MVP: Appliance disconnection, hauling, and reselling service.
REVENUE MODEL: Transactional, sell hauled and refurbished appliances to customers or sell for parts to a scrap yard.
EXIT STRATEGY: Partner with an appliance distributor like Lowe’s or Home Depot to be their official, sole provider for appliance hauling.
🧾 Founder Friday: CEO of InvoiceQuick Iftikhar Sherwani
Check out InvoiceQuick’s website.
Our founder this week comes to us all the way from Karachi, Pakistan. I had the pleasure of meeting Iftikhar Sherwani virtually through this very newsletter and it is deeply satisfying and heartwarming to see the reach that Minimum Viable has achieved and we love being able to bring founders from around the world together. See what Iftikhar has to say about entrepreneurship and and his startup, InvoiceQuick, below.
What are you working on now?
I have launched InvoiceQuick, an app that helps solopreneurs, freelancers, and small teams create invoices anywhere, anytime in seconds: without templates, without setup. Just a few steps, and share the invoice instantly. It’s built for people who struggle to create invoices on time every month.
Why did you want to become an entrepreneur?
After 16 years in sales and marketing, I realized the excitement and challenges I loved had been missing, along with the learning opportunities. The journey of entrepreneurship is filled with endless possibilities, and it’s up to you how far you want to go. The thrill of continuous hustle, a vision, and the opportunity to earn better pushed me to become an entrepreneur.
Was there a specific moment or a “that’s it” reaction that made you make the jump?
A close friend complained to me a few times about his struggle to create invoices on time. At that moment, I realized there must be thousands of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses who face the same pain every month. That was the moment when the idea of InvoiceQuick was born. The objective was straightforward: to build a simple solution that enables users to create invoices instantly with no hassle.
What is something that we should know about the early days of starting a company?
You are on your own: building, selling, supporting, and learning. It’s messy and unglamorous. You aim to create a perfect product to solve everything at once. The real growth occurs when you stop running for perfection and aim to ship quickly, and get feedback from real users. Momentum matters more than mastery.
Is entrepreneurship for everyone? And what is something people should be 100% sure about before they start?
Not at all. It looks fancy from the outside, but once you enter, it is filled with uncertainty, sleepless nights, critics, and ups and downs without applause. There are no overnight wins or red-carpet welcomes. You need to have vision, patience, and a strong will to move forward. Before diving in, be confident about one thing: you must be solving real problems for real people. If you start there, everything else becomes easier.
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🚨 Startup News, Trends, and Resources 🗞️
Publication: Politico
Summary: The Israeli-U.S. startup Stardust Solutions has raised $60 million in its latest funding round to develop a solar-geoengineering method that sprays reflective particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet. This brings its total funding to about $75 million. The company’s founders, both former Israeli nuclear physicists, say their inert, non-toxic particles mimic the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions and plan controlled stratospheric tests in 2026. The move has raised ethical, environmental and geopolitical concerns since the technology remains largely untested and is being pursued by a private firm rather than public institution.
Spin: Not sure how I feel about this one. Good on them for trying to do something to help the planet, but it seems to just be treating a symptom and not attacking the root causes of climate change. One of the big problems people seem to be having with Stardust Solutions is that the technology has not been tested thoroughly. Not sure how they could test without actually spraying particles into the atmosphere, but if nothing else, it could buy us some time to fix the planet.
Publication: Yahoo! Finance
Summary: The startup Speak has reached a $1 billion valuation after a recent funding round backed by heavy-hitters including OpenAI and Khosla Ventures. The company is now reported to be earning over $100 million in annual revenue as it races to compete with education tech platforms like Duolingo. The success signals the continuing boom in generative-AI startups, attracting major investment and positioning Speak for aggressive growth amid increasing competition and expectations.
Spin: I would tread very lightly if I were trying to take the top spot from Duolingo. You have no idea what that owl is capable of. Anyways, I would love to learn a new language. We all, especially Americans, should learn at least one language outside of English, and no, 2 years of Spanish in high school does not count. If AI can make it easier to learn languages then chalk it up as another pro fro AI. Learning a new language is the key to bringing people together and broadening worldviews.
🚂 Motivation Station
🧱 Ready to run through a brick wall or do you need an extra push?
Today’s motivation comes from one of the top minds in Silicon Valley entrepreneurship and former President of Y Combinator, Sam Altman. If there is anyone that knows how to make a startup work, it’s him. I’ll let him take it from here:
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🔥 HighDEA
💧 ✏️ Waterproof Paper for Shower Thoughts
IDEA: I am sure I am not alone in this, but I tend to have some pretty good ideas in the shower. But what do you do when inspiration strikes? Do you end the shower early, do you grab your phone with wet hands, or do you continually mutter the idea to yourself until you’re done?
What if the answer was ‘none of the above?’ Create a waterproof paper pad that sticks to the side of a shower. Simply write down your ideas while you’re in the shower, turn the page and start brainstorming again.
Actually, I may on to something with this one. Keep an eye out this as the main idea one day.
📣 We Want to Hear from You! 📢
Do you have a startup and want to be featured on the next Founder Friday?
Send us an email! Let us know what you’re building, what you thought about today’s newsletter, or whatever else is on your mind.
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