[LikeAnElephant]

Or, you know, build a business that customers are willing to pay for…

Spend less than you earn. Maybe get an SMB loan if the numbers work. This approach is older than the tech industry.

[tptacek]

Nobody disagrees with that. The clear subtext to that comment is "if you plan to raise money". You can bootstrap a successful firm without raising a dollar.

[9rx]

Trouble is that there isn't much the consumer is willing to pay for anymore. They've become accustomed to devices like their phone where a single purchase fulfills an endless number of functions. The thought of buying much more is becoming a foreign concept. To complicate matters: For what they are not buying, they aren't saving up the money ready to deploy when something compelling does come around. They've decided to redirect that money into paying more for things like housing instead. Good luck chipping that away.

There is still plenty of opportunity to build a business that sells to customers who are collecting those angel checks (directly or indirectly). But that is dependent on at least some businesses being funded by angels.

[LikeAnElephant]

I respectfully disagree that there’s no business opportunity that people are willing to pay for.

If your only target are developers or the tech industry, maybe, but there’s a whole world of non technical business people with problems that have extremely easy (and boring) technical solutions.

I’ve recently signed up my third customer paying $49/mo with a simple CRUD app. No targeted ads or landing pages. I literally walked into offices in my town and asked what the most annoying part of their job is and I made a prototype. They signed a 6 month commitment.

They’re amazed at my “computer skills” only because they don’t know any better.

Not saying I’ll become insanely rich, but my goal is a reasonable living ($200-$300k) within 5 years.

All this to say I think the opportunities in this market are there, but they look different.

[whilenot-dev]

B2C isn't the only business model, businesses and governments pay for a ton of stuff.