

Show HN: My girlfriend's startup - pxlpshr
http://jellifi.com

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patio11
That MTV video... I'm choosing my words very carefully here. That video says
something about the company. That's the point, right?

I imagine the notion of having a) a launch party, b) a launch party with
burlesque dancers, c) a launch party with burlesque dancers filmed by MTV was
not an accidental choice by the company. Perhaps jellifi is aimed at a
particular submarket in the event planning space which is very interested in
the glitzerati world of fashion models and reality TV celebrities. If so, that
video isn't completely insane. If you're not aiming to cement your reputation
as that sort of business, I would strongly reconsider having that video on
your home page.

In particular, in picking who to show that video to, I would note that it is
going to be _positively radioactive_ to multiple, independent, broad swathes
of people in the tech community.

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run4yourlives
What the heck is it supposed to do?

That's a serious question. I scrolled all the way to the bottom, clicked on
About Jellfi, read a bit about the founders, and then finally noticed that:

"Jellifi matches both professional and casual event planners to the best and
most unique local talent for flawless and fun events without the stress."

That (preferably with fewer adjectives) needs to be the first thing I (and
anyone else) see, IMO. Without it the service seems all style no substance.

(Granted this may not be as much of a problem with promoters and artists than
it is with a 38 year old programmer that lives in insurance.)

~~~
jgs1
To me, part of the issue is that there are two audiences (event planners/event
related services vs. someone who needs help planning an event) and the
homepage attempts to market to both at the same time. The subheading and the
call to action seem to contradict each other. "Jellifi is looking for event
planners" vs. "Plan Event Free"...huh?

That said, I do think it's an interesting concept and suggested it to a friend
who does event photo booths and he seemed very interested in signing up.

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pxlpshr
Yes, a 25 year old female founder. 3 engineers, 1 ex-radio industry veteran,
and ~5 other team players.

She got started last year, went through a rough patch with a different
designer+developer team, had to rethink everything, and then in Jan of 2013 --
landed an amazing marketing opportunity for the site which will air later this
year. Very proud of their accomplishments, especially in a city like Austin
where consumer startups are much more difficult.

Please show her and her team some HN love, feedback, etc. I've been a member
at HN for a long time so I'll be here to answer any questions.

~~~
cpeterso
One of the landing page screenshots says "Jellifi Can Help You Throw A Better
Weddings Event!" Is that a typo? Is "a weddings event" a thing?

~~~
grannyg00se
I guess it can help you plan an event consisting of multiple weddings. I've
never been to such an event, but I imagine it would be quite a challenge given
that planning a single wedding event can sometimes lead to massive personal
meltdowns.

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twodayslate
This is a terrible title. It tells me nothing about the product. I expect a
title like this in /r/pics but not in HN.

~~~
pxlpshr
You're right. I should have known better... :)

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biot
Looks good. Out of curiosity, why didn't she submit this herself? To me, this
is as odd as a woman submitting "Show HN: My boyfriend's startup".

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Jemaclus
It looks great to me. My main problem is that she asked me to give over my
personal information before I can really do anything. I chose "Birthday" (my
birthday is coming up) and I wanted to see what kind of suggestions would come
up, but the first thing I see is "Give us all your information and create an
account", but I don't particularly want to do that just yet. Can't she wait
and ask for that at the end, when I presumably do something like hit a "Create
This Event" button?

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xoail
The app seems to have pretty large customer base already. And I thought Show
HN was for people to show-off their new products/features/hacks. Anyway, I
still don't understand what it does that is unique compared to competition.
From its description all I see is all kinds of adjectives thrown around
without concise use-case. Is it like a market place for planners and service
providers?

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mnicole
Her social media feeds are really trying too hard. Does spamming people with
unrelated memes and asking for likes really onboard users vs alienate those
she already has? And I'm with patio11 on the video, I had to stop it. Show me
the prep and the setup, give me testimonials and shots of various types of
events she's done. Not close-ups of women taking their clothes off.

------
jdminhbg
Main call to action seems confused -- text suggests that you're looking for
suppliers, button underneath suggests you're looking for buyers. The "event
planners" you're looking to supply are probably not enticed by the "Plan Event
Free" button. Maybe split it in half to appeal to each?

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primigenus
How do you pronounce "jellifi"? Jellify? Jellifee? Jellifih?

Was the original idea for it to be <http://jellifi.sh>, but they changed their
minds and went with jellifi.com?

This is something they should figure out - if I tell someone "just go to
jellifi.com" there's a decent chance they won't know how to spell it. So
perhaps look into making the name more obviously spellable (jellify.com),
extend to jellyfish.com, grab all the alternate domains, or work hard on your
SEO so even misspelling it still nets you the right site. :)

~~~
pxlpshr
jell-eh-phi :)

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why-el
Good idea, but hard to figure out when I first landed on the page.

Also, that speed register thing that's supposed to work with Facebook, I cant
figure out how to do it. It is not implemented yet?

Otherwise great work. Tell your girlfriend congrats.

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coherentpony
Interesting idea! Thanks for sharing.

Just a quick note, the pricing page (<http://jellifi.com/Pricing>) needs to be
fixed, it still has the standard 'Lorem ipsum...' filler text.

~~~
pxlpshr
Good catch, almost silly it went missed. Reported! Thanks.

~~~
Domenic_S
2 hours later, still Lorem Ipsum. Hmm. I hope this doesn't reflect turnaround
times if I were ever a client.

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bratsche
Cool idea. What sort of things is she doing to get it out there and try to
start getting people using it, get it known and stuff?

~~~
pxlpshr
A lot of local-level marketing in Austin and parts of Texas. They just started
to expand into other cities and part of that is due to the pending
national/international exposure.

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shayanjm
Banner image doesn't stretch on Chrome + retina display. <http://puu.sh/2upQE>

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dpham23
auto-complete search bar for location is a little too small, using chrome

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eclipxe
bubble, what bubble...

~~~
nilkn
This and Summly do indeed give the feeling of a bubble, don't they.

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danso
Good layout...I like the big call to action with the rest of the page being
devoted to a semi-walkthrough of what you'll find.

However, the "call to action" button text should be fixed. Currently, it
reads: " _Plan Event Free_ ". It looks like a typo was made, though I
understand you wanted to keep the text short...but right now, it looks like an
amateurish grammar mistake. Perhaps, these might work:

"Free: Plan an Event" "Plan an Event for Free"

Or separate the text into a button label and header:

    
    
       Try it for free:
       Plan an Event
    
    
    

edit: Another suggestion: Use geolocation to narrow, by default, the services
listed here: <https://jellifi.com/service>

Right now, it simply shows everything that's on the site, which immediately,
in my mind, triggers a "there's a bunch of unfiltered spam listings here that
I won't be interested in"...even though it looks very nice. But a little
personalization will help a long ways.

And if the listings are too sparse to personalize it for most users, then
limit the selection to just the cities you've focused on. No shame in saying
"We've just launched in Austin, TX and San Francisco, SF. Follow us on Twitter
to see updates when we open in other cities!"

~~~
pxlpshr
Awesome, great feedback so far.

