

Review my startup: JamRides - Carpool to events - jaytee_clone
http://jamrides.com

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pedalpete
as a creator of a live music search site (www.HearWhere.com), I love the idea
that you are proposing. However, i think getting users to post events is a bit
of a challenge, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of 'discovery'
built in. How will you manage how different people input the event
differently? some might enter the band name, some might enter the location.

Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming?

I just realized in your demo all of your events are demo. Why not have those
listed on the home page, you could do a 'search from area'.

Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you
could list the events near them.

I don't think the 'from' field makes an sense in the address sense (unless you
are just geocoding to region or something).

Not sure what you are thinking of with respect to a use-case. Do you think
people who have extra space are going to post the event? Or people who are
looking for a ride would add it?

Obviously the second makes more sense, but I'm not sure why the person with
extra capacity would be driven to your site. Maybe i'm just having difficulty
imagining it without enough content.

If I were you I'd spend some time getting REAL events, and make the site
something people could actually use (meaning working with real data, not demo
data).

Maybe even a screencast of who the actors are, and what they would do would
help.

The idea itself is simple to understand, but getting from 'people would use
this to carpool to gigs' to actually getting the site used is a bit of a
bigger leap than you expect. I'm speaking from experience. I've gone through
many versions of my site since launching this summer, and it still needs more
refinement. Best of luck with the new site.

~~~
jaytee_clone
Thanks for all of the great ideas. Here are my response:

"Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming?

\- I have. However first, I want JamRides to be adopted by bands and venues,
so that then can make or link to their own carpool page like this one:

<http://jamrides.com/calendar?pblc_key=6619203945241087998>

"Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you
could list the events near them" \- Definitely. In fact, I did that already.
It will look like this: (if you live in berkeley)

[http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca](http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca)

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jaytee_clone
Also, it's kinda hard to see how JamRides is different than other service from
the homepage. You guys should really check out the about section too.
(Specifically the section explaining the difference.)

<http://jamrides.com/about.html>

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siong1987
In fact, I think that you can make the Web Application a bit more humanistic.
For instances:

1\. Everyone now is so concerned about Global Warming. Maybe you can add a
"Carbon" bar on each user on how much carbon they save when they take a car
pool instead of driving their own cars. Same, you can tell the people who are
willing to offer the car pool on how much carbon they save by offering a
carpool.

2\. Make a small social circle among the users. Usually, people who take car
pool are people who will go and forth from two different spots quite
frequently. I think people will always go back to the same car pool with the
same driver.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

~~~
jaytee_clone
1\. Great idea. In fact, a lot of carpool sites have them. That will be a
feature to implement in the future. Right now I'm just more tied up with the
main features.

2\. Yes. I thought a lot about whether I should make this community "profile
centric" or "anonymous centric". There seems to be pros and cons in both. It's
hard to decide.

Right now, I'm hoping the social circles will be people who like the same
musicians.

Maybe uploading user photo?

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markessien
Your application is completely dependent on the network effect. No people, no
use. So you need to find a partner. You need to have one major partner or you
will go nowhere. See finding that partner as 40% of your product.

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jaytee_clone
I'm the creator of JamRides. This is my first webapp, so please feel free to
throw me whatever you can think of, especially the obvious.

FYI, I decided to leave out anything that explains what JamRides is about on
the homepage, (check the about section) mainly because I don't expect anyone
to come to JamRides through homepage linking. In fact, the main feature of
JamRides enables anyone can post carpool links anywhere, so the traffic coming
in will should already know what we are about (somewhat).

Does this make sense?

~~~
pedalpete
I agree with your thoughts on leaving out explaining JamRides on the homepage,
as it is simple enough to understand. But if i where you, i'd put your tagline
'Carpool to shows, events, gatherings' on the page. Not everybody will see the
title, but that tagline is enough to describe what you are doing.

~~~
jaytee_clone
I agree. Where would you recommend to put the tagline?

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smoody
Nice idea. Personally, I would hold off on the ads until you have some
momentum. The revenue will be minimal until you have traffic and I believe not
running adsense ads will make it more attractive to your early adopters.

~~~
jaytee_clone
Totally agree. I was just testing the ads. Taking them off now.

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guruz
FYI, does not look good in camino.

[http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d...](http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d7033aa53/)

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symptic
The name gets to me. Affiliating "jam" with anything that has to do with
vehicles makes me think of traffic.

Just my $.02.

~~~
jaytee_clone
Yeah. I agree that it can come off like that.

I just really like the word Jam.

