300+ cold emails later… we got our first sponsor ($150)

Prince Gupta — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 07:51:24 +0000

I didn’t expect this to happen this early.

After sending 300+ cold emails, getting ignored, ghosted, and honestly questioning if this idea even made sense…

Apives just got its first sponsor. $150.

It’s not a huge amount. But that’s not the point.

The point is someone believed enough to pay.

No investors.
No network.
Just persistence, late nights, and a lot of “seen but no reply”.

There were moments I thought:
“Is this just another directory idea that won’t work?”

But then one yes changed everything.

Now it feels real.

Apives is still small. Still rough. Still figuring things out.
But this was the first signal that it’s not just in my head anymore.

If you’re building something and it feels like nothing is working, keep going a little longer.

Sometimes it’s just one yes away.

— Prince

I built Startives, a platform where developers find startup ideas & teams, not just jobs

Prince Gupta — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:06:43 +0000

The Problem:

Most developers don’t want just jobs anymore.

They want:

But the problem is:
There’s no proper place where ideas, developers, and collaborators meet.

LinkedIn = too formal

Twitter = too noisy

Discord = too chaotic

So I decided to build something better.

Introducing Startives -

Startives is a platform where:

Think of it like:

"LinkedIn + Indie Hackers + Co-founder matching" in one place.

Key Features:

Tech Stack:

Why I Built This:

I saw too many talented developers:

Startives is built to fix that.

What’s Next:

I Need Your Feedback 🙏

Would you use something like this?

What features would YOU want?

🌐 Try it here:
👉 https://startives.com

Let’s build something real 🚀__