Hard to be very detailed here without knowing a lot about what you are doing.. However here are some ideas.
1. USA - Stripe for payments and managing subscriptions. They have numerous tools for doing so. Their subscription handling is pretty good at the moment and useful for people who want to cancel etc. The handled processing, fraud etc. Pretty simple to setup with your saas.
2. Talk with an accountant or lawyer for your specifics regarding the state. They differ wildly so you want to make sure you are prepped and handling that from the beginning. Any good accountant should take about an hour to break this all down for you. Worth the $$.
A couple of weeks ago i had a CC go out of date on Spotify when I was on their mobile app. To put a new card in they asked me to go on their desktop page to renew my subscription. They dont take the payments on the apps for this 30% reason. I'm thinking they sideline it there for the same reason.
I personally think some of the community DAO tokens are interesting. For ex, $FWB (friends w benefits) is this membership type community where there are members + workers in a DAO like operation that utilizes a token for governance / membership etc. There are a lot of others popping up & I think in terms of tokens there is some room for improvement but some people are making money actually working in these systems.
Sometimes these memberships are in the forms of NFT(s)/tokens for access & that is interesting. DAOs trying to pool money for causes, that are interesting. It's early, yes.
The problems you write about - specifically the Token swapping id done because there was a problem (taxes).
There have been tracing applications around for years now in this space. They've identified wallets & send micro transactions around to many to distinguish who is who in terms of dark markets, services, bad actors etc. Given the many hacks with wallets and also services selling that data believe me they know more than you are giving them credit.
In terms of the bad actions.. Those who are trying to hide money have known this for years so they are in different currencies that provide better privacy.
I tend to disagree with this sentiment only because our actions in life have consequences. The SV bro club have/had their issues for obvious reasons & I think its more than fair that entrepreneurs that might be interested in funding from so etc should be aware of such a past.
Harvey Weinsteins's new fund is here to help save the world... Should we not mention his past?
Just an idea.. Try the wikipedia model maybe and ask for some donations if you've been using the app. I did this with an old product and it was helpful.
I graduated the same time as you & had a side project that I handled for about 2 years at bigger co before making the transition to running with it full time (now ~3 years)..
I can tell you the points that stick out the most for me:
- i've learned a HELL of a lot. I've learned so much running through the hustle life that comes with making these projects work & handling life around it etc there couldn't really be a price tag on that. At first I was more or less a hacker w some sales skills. Now I feel like I could handle ceo-coo-cmo-cto type things all because I had too.
These are lessons & knowledge for the rest of your life. Even a generalist will be thrown constant challenges, I guarantee it.
- I had to make big adjustments to my social life. It's good you have some remote experience because this one was a challenge. Deciding what to go to and trying to spend time w/ community is difficult when you are trying to get it all done. Spend energy and time in places you enjoy & appreciate. When I worked at big co I would go to things all the time on weeknights and throw it on the weekend but you cant really afford all those peaks as much when youre on call as the boss. It's too taxing.
- Self Care: Could really go a long way with this one but damn.. This is the most valuable lesson I have learned. You have to watch over yourself. Like Marshawn Lynch put it this past weekend.. "watch over your mentals, your emotions, your chicken (i think he was talking about the body." Take some time off to relax when needed, keep tabs on your body and mental well being & keep close community who can help and support you when needed. It will go a long way to have someone who can help you when you just need to vent or maybe have a glass of wine ~ ~
- I'm happier - I do a little bit of work just about every day but I'm also spending a bit more time in creative areas that really make me feel good that I coulnd't seem to get time for at a big co. I make less money but I can't really seem to put a price on that "hey i'm gonna go surf cos waves are crushing right now.. will do this when I get back" option. The ability to control my time in life is one of the most valuable assets I have.
There is something about humans and how we think about what it is like on the other side. Is the grass greener? Only one way to know ~ ~ good luck xX
This is lovely, many thanks for sharing. I am having a lot of fun with this & will most likely use this for some art related things in the future. I'd love to be able to export these & have the same view I have via the browser. Seems that exporting picture will give me some extra space on the right with different gray space etc. Still love it, many thanks.
1. USA - Stripe for payments and managing subscriptions. They have numerous tools for doing so. Their subscription handling is pretty good at the moment and useful for people who want to cancel etc. The handled processing, fraud etc. Pretty simple to setup with your saas.
2. Talk with an accountant or lawyer for your specifics regarding the state. They differ wildly so you want to make sure you are prepped and handling that from the beginning. Any good accountant should take about an hour to break this all down for you. Worth the $$.
Best of luck.