

Rate My Startup - eclocking.com - bnoland
http://eclocking.com
Please take a look at eclocking.com and give me some feeback.<p>It's a stopwatch that lets you save, organize and chart your times.<p>Some questions:
1. Is this useful?
2. How much functionality does a premium plan need before I can charge?
3. Any other feedback is appreciated.
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hristov
Ok I am not sure this would be very useful as it stands. I don't think many
people need that kind of timer while having an internet connection. But you
may be more succesful if you turn it into an iphone/blackberry/android app
that does not need constant connectivity.

I will give you another idea which is tangentially related to what you are
doing. There are timers that are used for people that bill for their time
(e.g., consultants, lawyers, accountants, etc.) They are some pretty expensive
ones that are used by top law firms and work very well. And there are a lot of
cheaper ones that are aimed at startups and the like and are pretty terrible.

I am an attorney that just left one of the top firms in the nation to try to
start my own practice. One of the biggest annoyances is that I cannot find a
timer application that works as well as the one my law firm used. It should
not be that difficult. But all the applications aimed at small businesses are
pretty bad.

So I think if you aimed your timer for people that bill for their time, you
might be succesful. But you have to make it good. You have to make it so it
supports client- matter billing. Also make sure it can easily interact with
standard accounting software. Also make sure it is easy to switch between
tasks and create new tasks (this where most existing applications fail
epically).

Basicly, if you can make a billing timer which is as good as Capre Diem but
does not cost an arm and a leg, I think you may be very successful.

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Zarathu
What about Billings?

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markbao
_website_

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chaosmachine
Since this is getting upvoted, I'm curious how people make the distinction
between a startup and a website.

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kneath
My personal distinction:

\- A website is just that. A website on the internet, usually consisting of
HTML, CSS, Images and Javascript.

\- A startup is a venture to start a profitable company.

For a website to be considered a startup, there has to be some case where one
could make a sound argument it will be able to make more revenue that it costs
to maintain (and the incurred cost of building it)

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chaosmachine
At first, I thought this was just a one-page javascript demo. After watching
the screencast, I can see there's more to it than that.

I'm not sure anyone will really use the online timer, it just doesn't fit with
most scenarios where you need a stop watch.

I like the graphing / tag filtering system. It's your strongest feature. Could
be useful for freelancers to track their hours on various projects. If you can
come up with a way to get data into it that doesn't involve leaving a browser
tab open, you've got something. Alternatively, come up with a really easy way
to enter times manually.

Side note: If you're going to record speech for a demo video, use a windscreen
on the mic to avoid those popping sounds (you can make your own by wrapping
some light cloth around the mic).

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igurari
Contrary to what most people here have said, I believe there is a use for such
a service. However you would have to focus on a niche. Lawyers time their
tasks - they bill by increments as short as 6 minutes. To be useful for
lawyers you would have to add more features. A few that come to mind would be
having multiple connected timers (starting one stops whatever other one is
running), labels associated with the timers, notes associated with the timers,
and a whole lot of security. Current timer solutions for lawyers are all
desktop applications, so a web based solution could be interesting.

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mishmax
I just used it to time myself writing a bunch of emails...I find I work better
when I'm under some kind of time crunch or competition, so this may be
useful...

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Mark_B
There's a bug at _exactly_ one minute, ten seconds.

150 0.6 1:10.5

149 0.5 1:010.0 <\- This one.

148 0.6 1:09.4

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bnoland
thanks, fixed.

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az
Maybe DJs can use this create a smooth flow from song to song. They can preset
the time beforehand when the songs should change and when one the stopwatch
the 'effects' should be added. If this is possible, they can effictively sit
back and relax.

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bnoland
It's a stopwatch that lets you save, organize and chart your times.

Some questions:

    
    
      1. Is this useful?
      2. How much functionality does a premium plan need before I can charge?
      3. Any other feedback is appreciated.

~~~
kyro
To be quite honest, I don't find it useful at all. For the past several
minutes I've been trying to come up with a use case for it, but can't because
I don't find myself needing a stopwatch whilst using my computer, unless
you're in a research facility. Maybe if you can automate the stop watch and
start/stop it according to certain actions, along the lines of RescueTime,
then it could be a bit more useful. As far as premium plan, you have quite a
ways to go to convince me to pay for your service. My iPhone stopwatch is
sufficient for my needs and I don't see a reason to use your service.

Maybe you were going for a specific use case that I'm not aware of, and if
that's the case, let me know.

~~~
bnoland
Thanks for the honesty. Most people don't use stopwatch at their computer.

I created a mobile version of the website for use on your phone. It's better
than your other stopwatch if you want to keep track of your times.

~~~
martey
Don't many mobile phones include stopwatch applications? I know my Sony
Ericsson from 2004 had one.

Having neither an iPhone nor an Android phone, I do not know whether they
include stopwatches, but I would be more likely to use a native application
version than a mobile website.

~~~
dazzawazza
The iPhone does have a stopwatch.

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proee
I think it's brilliant. Nice work!

In terms of a business model, it may not be a million dollar idea, but with
enough connections (like an iphone app) you could certainly make some good
income.

Keep up the good work.

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eam
This might be useful for joggers, walkers, or anyone in athletics who has a
mobile phone.

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InclinedPlane
Considering that your competition is a mobile device that costs anywhere from
$1 (basic model) to $30 (deluxe models with many more features than your
website), can be used anywhere in the world (or off it) without concern for
internet access, has a battery life on the order of 5 years, and a total
service life of over a decade...

I think you're screwed.

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romanm
Original feature, personally I don't like to count minutes of work because 5
minutes of good concentration is much more better than a hour of sleepy mouse
clicking , but I am sure there is people that will find it useful.

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omouse
This is a joke right? I hope so.

