krishvs's comments

Low-code: Outsystems, appian, Apex, odoo(not really low-code for the most part)

RPA: robotframework - along with python+java

Also upgrades need to be carefully planned when using low-code tools as we have seen more breaking changes when compared to popular opensource frameworks.

Yes - over the past 2.5 years. We have built products for customers that handle 100s of millions of dollars in transactions using low-code tools along with RPA. While its really great to get started..roadblocks tend be major when compared to opensource frameworks like rails or spring boot.

At some point the low-code became more-code than our usual spring boot/rails approach. Integrations with libraries that the platform does not contain functionality for is a major headache.

I think a sweet spot would be a low-code/no-code platform with minimal abstraction built on top of currently popular web frameworks.

Your story is very similar to mine, except I am currently also working for my family business with no means to escape by just quitting and moving to another company.

Has completely extinguished my love for software/product development. Managing people/clients has made me start hating humanity :). But I don't know what else to do.

I am currently just moving forward, hoping that things become better in the future.

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like you are having a lot of fun!

It seems like Zinc is highly profitable. Now that you are running Assembled - is Zinc on autopilot?

I am also curious to know..why you decided to go for VC funding for Assembled when Zinc could help bootstrap it.

Regarding the SQL builder - Is it a visual editor that allows me to explore my database and create queries?

Also curious to know how you would differentiate your offering from say retool or other low-code builders which also support multiple databases and have chart components?

I am assuming that with screen rights, a company can expose a dashboard built using retool to their customers as well.

Looks great!

How do you sandbox custom js code. Can we choose if it runs on the front-end or server-side?

Most of the low-code opensource builders seems to run it on a sandbox in the frontend using realms..but this is not great if a screen needs to perform calculations that affect financial data like a mini POS, tax calc etc

I think you and the GP comment both have valid points. Being unnecessarily negative gets us nowhere..but I do think for the most part VC funding has made things much much harder for startups that want to bootstrap.

VCs have created a winner takes all mindset. I think this is a net negative to the entire ecosystem.

The costs are 10x more for marketing and sales than it was maybe 10 years ago. Some might say do content marketing, promote on social media etc..these are long term strategies that make zero sense for founders starting from scratch with no following.

The costs for building products have become minuscule but marketing costs have skyrocketed.

I am from India but have lived in the Middle East ( over a decade) and the US( few years ).

I see very little difference among the middle and upper middle class people of these countries nowadays. With globally connected social media everyone thinks they are unique ( maybe rightfully so ). Just because you are born in India or China you are not going to be thankful for whatever life has given to you.

Western values( or is it global ) as far as uniqueness seems to be the dominant thought process atleast in the metros.

I see the problem described in the article among my friends here. Everyone is depressed, anxious or having an existential crisis.

Sounds good but does this scale in the long term? Looks like a resource placing firm.

Not sure about japan, but in India it is expected that on average as an employee you get a 10 to 15% hike year on year primarily due to inflation pressures.

How would this company be able to afford this if they are both reducing prices for customers while simultaneously increasing base salaries. Wouldn't the employees leave after 2 or 3 years as the hikes would not be possible after sometime?

This looks great! Is it possible to capture the demo environment once and then create multiple demo variants by editing ui text or data using a wysiwyg editor later? Since this is a static version?

Do you allow for customization of fields and workflows?

From my understanding of the ERP/CLM space - the reason SAP or coupa etc are expensive is because of the customization and implementation costs associated with deployments.

Even 50-100 person companies have highly customised procurement processes with inter location approvals, transfers etc. How does the system handle all of that?

Do you integrate with other modules like finance & accounting, budgeting, inventory?

There is really a need for a self service SAAS in this space..but this is a very difficult segment to compete in with the majors due to implementation complexities. Wishing you the best!

How would this affect Uipath, Automationanywhere and other windows only RPA providers?

Now that RPA is pretty much free and part of the operating system, would companies still pay for RPA?

Yes. For the majority of employees. While software engineers can work remotely, sales and pre-sales at tech firms are much better off working in office.

Any role with sales targets are coming back to office.

Curious to know if this would allow me to run client submitted java at runtime similar to how you can execute javascript in a sandbox ( ok i know it is not fully secure) using graaljs or nashorn?

Yes. Second Generation. Working for the past 4 years in my dads Software firm.

Great opportunities to learn people management and customer management. The company is highly profitable.

But it has completely destroyed my relationship with my parents. This is primarily due to a mismatch in expectations. I previously worked at several unicorn startups, went to an Ivy league uni.

The pace of work in the family business is completely different to what I was used to - it is very laid back and running on zombie mode but with millions in profit.

Covid isolation along with this laid back approach to business really caused in a strain in our relationship along with the fact that we were all living in the same house( asian country ). I was supposed to take over the company in 2023 but that does not seem really possible now and I am currently job hunting ( they are not aware - I hope to leave on good terms ).

Mixing business with family might have been the worst decision I ever took. It might have worked if we have worked from different cities or something but living together pretty much destroys any work and life seperation. Any professional disagreements spill over into your personal life.