

Ask HN - Rate my startup: Struc.to - skevvis

http://struc.to<p>After working for a few startups and a few years as a freelance web developer, I noticed that I was repeating many of the same tasks all the time.<p>So I'm building a cloud service where you can define your full data schema, and get a full embeddable form/REST API. We handle the boring business logic.<p>I'm going to have the developer-ready beta in the next couple weeks, but the idea + landing page alone is starting to receive some traction. Would love to hear your thoughts!
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randall
So just going to put this out there...

Initial thought #1 -- How can we rate your startup if all you have is a
landing page? It's a good way to generate interest, but I can hardly rate
anything that I can't, well, use.

Thought #2 -- Wufoo? As part of the marketing-for-dummies crash course, think
"why me, why us, why now" when addressing your customers. Why me: because I
need forms, why you? Because you provide forms... which Wufoo also does (your
target market is likely aware of them, so you'd prolly need to differentiate
directly, think the "iDon't" campaign from VZW) and why now: I can't use your
service, so I definitely don't need it now.

Also, you have "watch the video" which might have made me watch, but that's a
dead link. Right now, in my mind, you're suffering from over promise and under
deliver, even with your slickly designed site, which does show some promise.

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skevvis
Randall - Thanks for your thoughts -

1) Right now I'm looking for impressions on the landing page + idea. Right now
that's the MVP that I'm pushing, to gauge interest on. 2) Yes, differentiation
is important. I love Wufoo and its great for non-developers to easily create
contact forms and such - this is a more powerful service for full web
applications. 3) Fixed the video link. Apologies.

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rguzman
This seems like django with a prettier interface. As a developer, I can see
the value of something like this to get something simple off the ground quick.
However, in my experience, projects become complex enough to warrant actual
programming in a real language sooner rather than later. Given that I'm a
developer, I would not use this because I'd be better off using django/rails
which will only be a little bit slower but far more flexible down the road.

The branding and graphic design are really good. Did you do it yourself, or
did you hire someone? If so, who?

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skevvis
rguzman - I appreciate your response! Send me a message at dominate@struc.to
and I'll happily refer you to my partner who did the design!

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mdolon
I think I get the idea but I wouldn't trust any critical information (esp.
user info) with a 3rd party, at least other than my host. If this product is
supposed to be like Wufoo that's fine, but if it's meant to replace the
primary database used in your web application then I don't think this is
viable. I'm sure latency will be an issue, as well as security and privacy.

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skevvis
This is a cloud service, so a developer would have to be comfortable relying
on external services, including data storage. As this is becoming a trend
among developers, there is more comfort with having your infrastructure
external.

~~~
mdolon
Another fear I have is that you could change your terms or your prices at any
time and I'd be stuck, as all of my user data would be on your machines
(unless of course I could export them). Personally, I'd rather have full
control over my database, though I'm sure a few others would be OK with this
setup.

~~~
skevvis
mdolon - I completely understand where you are coming from - having been in
that situation myself many times. Being a developer, I am planning to have
this completely open - download your data at any time, either via REST APIs or
a full export.

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kno
Clikable: <http://struc.to>

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lhorie
Initial thought:

\- Dead links everywhere.

\- Content below > flying robot.

\- Code or it didn't happen.

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bdickason
I am not a developer so I can't comment on the usefulness of your idea.

I can, however, tell you that the landing page didn't really offer a picture
of what the software does and the video is a bit out of the way. I would
suggest adding a shot of how the software makes code simpler or an example
form or an example API call or something along those lines!

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skevvis
Thanks, I appreciate that feedback!

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RKlophaus
Glad to see a DC based startup! You should join the HN Readers of DC Meetup
group (if you haven't already). We just had a meetup last night where a bunch
of startups gave elevator pitches and got feedback. Would love to have you
pitch Struc.to at a future meetup. Apart from good feedback, you will likely
get a few beta users as a result.

<http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-News-NOVA-DC>

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Aegean
Sounds good. I need some web application but I won't do it precisely because
it will be a nightmare to set up a webserver, data backend etc. etc. all the
crap required for web development. I will never use a web framework because
they are all too complicated. IMHO If you build something very simple to use
and minimal, it will get some traction.

Zillions of web startups but the web development problem is yet to be solved.

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skevvis
Thank you, I appreciate it!

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mgkimsal
If you're aiming at _developers_ , I can say that as one, I'd _much_ rather
have control over my own data on my own hardware, however nice the tools are.
That said, having your tool generate out a full running app which I can then
install and build on would be great. Build in structo, then output for Django,
Rails, ZendFramework, Grails, ASP.NET MVC, etc.

I would pay a per-use fee for something like that - the 'per use' meaning the
generation of the code in whatever framework format I wanted. It's going to
save me a fair amount of setup boilerplate time, and I can then take it and
continue to do whatever custom integration and extension work that I need to
do.

Let me design out the conceptual app I want as a non-developer, then find
someone who can implement my project. I can give that person/team a starter
kit with my core app fleshed out in whatever tech they're comfortable with,
and they can take it from there.

As nice as those frameworks are above, there's not a true drag/drop interface
for the bulk of the mundane project setup work (well, possibly for the .NET
side of things).

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mitjak
>You can now rest easy, as you don't have to worry about scaling your
database, thats on us

that's _

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tunaslut
so, at the risk of sounding facetious it's like hosted scaffolding?

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norova
I know you're looking for more than proofreading feedback, but I just wanted
to make you aware of a small typo on the main page.

Just above the email input box, it says this text: "Get in our our beta
service." I'm guessing you didn't deliberately put "our" twice! :)

Now on to some real feedback! I'm super excited to give this service a try. It
will certainly take the monotony out of many projects and allow my brain to
focus on innovation rather than repetition. Thumbs up!

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jeffepp
I'm not a dev, so most of this is over my head. +1 for using Ridonkulous and
the design itself looks great.

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sajid
I don't think this solves a problem any developer has. It's fairly trivial to
process web forms.

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sajid
On a more constructive note, you're better off providing a service like this
to non-developers. It's a much bigger market and the product has already been
validated by startups like wufoo.com

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peterhi
The link to the video just goes to the home page (at least for me using Safari
on my Mac)

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skevvis
Thanks - had a small bug pop up! Fixed that.

