

Ask HN: Rate my startup, Gradifi.com - theli0nheart
http://www.gradifi.com/

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DanielStraight
I think the biggest barrier to entry is that the front page doesn't tell you
anything about the product. I can't even tell what the product IS. Is it a
website? A desktop app? A smartphone app? A Facebook app? What does it do? How
does it work? What does it look like? Where are the answers to these
questions?

~~~
theli0nheart
You make some great points.

Here's a shot: Gradifi is a web application that recommends courses to
students based on courses that they've already taken. In addition, students
can share notes with one another and can sell them to people who they don't
know. Books that you list are advertised for free alongside course
descriptions on the website.

I'm afraid of putting too much text on the front page and perhaps scaring
people away. Maybe that's an unfounded fear. Maybe screenshots may be helpful
as well?

~~~
DanielStraight
I understand you don't want to scare people away, but why would anyone sign up
for a service if they didn't know what it was? Screenshots would _definitely_
be helpful. Consider a screencast too.

Also, why not show publicly shared content? At least give some indication of
what's inside if you sign up.

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spokey
The purpose of the site as expressed on the about page ("We think choosing
courses is hard, and we're here to do something about that.") seems to bear no
relation to the purpose expressed on the homepage ("Share your notes. Sell
your books. Make money. Get better grades. Dominate."). Of the two, I think
the about page MVP sounds more interesting, although probably less profitable.

Out of curiosity, why do you have that RackspaceCloud logo in your footer? Are
you affiliated with Rackspace somehow? Are you getting a referral bonus or
something? Just big fans?

------
theli0nheart
I realize that most of you won't actually be able to create an account, so
forgive me in advance for that. The service revolves around college students
at a few select schools, and if you don't have an alumni or current email
address for any of those schools, you're out of luck.

So, my biggest worry is conversions. How do I get people who visit the front
page to actually make an account? Are there too many "barriers" to entry (i.e.
graduation year, first name, last name, etc)?

Also, I'm concerned that people who visit the site don't actually know what
it's about, or what it's used for. How would you recommend I make this a
little more clear?

~~~
apsurd
I'm glad you are at least aware of how ridiculously obtuse your homepage is.
The signup form (in this case) seems very very unwelcoming.

To answer your question, why don't you just list the schools? I assume you are
only marketing to them anyway so you can even have school specific landing
pages. It's a much easier sell when you are talking _directly_ to your niche
audience. "Hey Ucla student, 500 of your peers are sharing their notes from
__ucla_class___ wanna take a look?"

Next, doesn't the value of your site depend on how many active users you have?
Hence, chicken/egg. In this case, depending on your resources, my advice would
be to cut every single school except for one, and prove it there. Do this
literally at only one school , the school you can market directly to the most.
If you have concerns that you need a lot of users from multiple schools, I
don't see how that makes sense because your site, as it stands, is a very
unattractive (to outsiders like me) walled-garden. So if it's a walled garden,
make it a walled garden (one school only) if not, open it up, pick one!

This is definitely a space where many have failed, I'm not saying you will,
but I think something novel is needed. And since I've done some brainstorming
in the space once upon a time, I have reasoned it would be most effective to
dominate one and only one school, prove it, and then leapfrog. Hey "it worked
for facebook" =]

~~~
theli0nheart
Thanks for the awesome reply. I'll go through one by one.

* Listing the schools is a great idea. I'll do this immediately.

* Yes, the site's value does depend on the number of active users. We launched at Yale and right now half of the student body is actively using it to choose courses...but other schools haven't seen the same success. I'm a horrible designer (and I'm kicking myself constantly because of it) and I'm aware of the unattractive landing. I'll try to make it less of a walled garden, because no one likes walled gardens.

* Something novel is definitely needed. Whether or not Gradifi succeeds, that remains to be seen.

BTW, could I shoot you an email?

