u/Bhavithiran97

Small business owners: what's your invoicing workflow? (Trying to understand if my solution actually solves a real problem)

I've been talking to a lot of small service business owners in Southeast Asia — people who do aircond servicing, plumbing, electrical work, catering, freelance design, etc.

One pattern I keep seeing: almost everyone runs their business on WhatsApp. They get leads on WhatsApp, confirm jobs on WhatsApp, send prices on WhatsApp. But when the customer asks for a proper quotation or invoice, suddenly they need to:

1. Go home and open their laptop

2. Open Word or Excel

3. Spend 20-30 minutes formatting a document

4. Save as PDF

5. Send it back on WhatsApp

Or they just skip all that and send a text message with the price breakdown, which looks unprofessional and makes it harder to get paid.

I built a simple tool where you just type the details as a WhatsApp message (customer name, items, prices) and get a professional branded PDF back in under 30 seconds. No app to install.

But I have zero customers so far, which makes me wonder — is this actually a problem worth solving, or do people just live with the pain?

For those of you running service businesses: how do you handle quotes and invoices today? Would you actually pay RM19/month (~$4) for something like this?

I built a SaaS for a market that doesn't Google their problems. Here's what I learned.

I'm a hardware engineer from Malaysia. I built ChatNbills — a tool that turns WhatsApp messages into professional PDF invoices and quotations.

The target market: Malaysian tradespeople. Aircond technicians, plumbers, electricians, small contractors. These guys do RM2K-10K/month in jobs, all coordinated through WhatsApp.

Here's what I got right:

- The pain is real. They spend 20-30 min per invoice in Word, or just send ugly screenshots.

- WhatsApp is the platform. No point building a web app they'll never open.

- The product works. Type a message, get a branded PDF back in seconds.

Here's what I got wrong:

- My target customer doesn't search "invoice SaaS" on Google. SEO is almost useless for this audience.

- They don't read Product Hunt or Hacker News.

- They're on Facebook groups and WhatsApp group chats. That's it.

- I spent 4+ months building before doing any customer discovery.

The uncomfortable truth: I built a product for people who will never find it through the channels I know how to use.

Now I need to learn an entirely different kind of marketing — Facebook groups, WhatsApp word-of-mouth, maybe TikTok demos. Basically the opposite of everything the indie hacker playbook tells you.

Anyone else built for a non-tech audience? How did you bridge that gap? Would love to hear your experience.

MRR: RM0. Users: 0. But I shipped it anyway. Here's my micro-SaaS journey so far.

Hey folks. Solo founder from Malaysia here. I work full-time as a design engineer and I've been building a micro-SaaS on the side called ChatNbills.

The idea: Malaysian small business owners (aircond repair, plumbers, contractors) run their entire business on WhatsApp. They quote jobs, confirm work, and chase payments all through chat. But when it comes to making a proper quotation or invoice? They open Word, spend 20 minutes formatting, or worse — just screenshot their Notes app.

So I built a tool where you literally type a WhatsApp message like:

"Invoice

Ahmad

0123456789

Aircond service x2 RM150

Chemical wash x1 RM80"

...and you get a branded PDF back in seconds. No app to download, no laptop needed.

The stack: Next.js, n8n for workflow automation, Gotenberg for PDF generation, PostgreSQL, deployed on a Hostinger VPS with Traefik.

Where I'm at:

- Product is live and working

- Stripe payments integrated

- Free tier (5 docs/month) + paid plans

- Zero customers

- Zero marketing done until now

My biggest mistake: I spent months perfecting the product before talking to a single potential customer. Classic builder trap.

What I'm doing now:

- Starting to post in local Facebook groups where my target users actually hang out

- Trying Reddit (hi, this is my first real post)

- Planning to record a quick TikTok demo

Would love any advice from folks who've gone from 0 to first 10 customers. What worked for you?

Site: chatnbills.com (feedback welcome, roast me if needed)

Do RISC-V SoC startups actually need ready-made motor control IP, or do they just build it in-house?

Been reading about the RISC-V ecosystem growing fast especially in robotics and EV space. Curious about one thing — when a fabless startup is designing a motor control SoC, do they typically:

a) License a ready-made FOC (Field Oriented Control) IP block

b) Build it from scratch in-house

c) Hire a contractor to build it custom

Like is there even a real demand for synthesizable, bus-portable motor control IP from a third party? Or is this kind of IP so specific that companies always prefer to own it internally?

Also — would an FPGA IP marketplace (like OpenCores, or similar) even be a viable channel to reach these buyers, or is that too low-end for serious SoC work?

Just trying to understand how this space actually works. Appreciate any insight from people who've worked at fabless companies or RISC-V startups.

Has anyone actually made money licensing silicon IP as a small team or solo? Curious about real stories

Not talking about ARM or Synopsys level companies — I mean regular engineers or small teams who designed an IP block and managed to license it out.

Always wondered if this is actually viable outside of big corporations. Like:

- How did you find buyers?

- Was it royalty-based, flat fee, or something else?

- Did you go through a marketplace or direct deals?

- How long before you saw real money?