

Ask HN: Rate My Startup, Sprred - kuldeep_kap
http://www.sprred.com

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petervandijck
Writing: "The easiest way to share your entire content." is not a good
sentence. Better option: "The easiest way to share all your content."

From a glance, I don't understand what the product does. From reading the
boxes below, I kind of get that I can post by email, and some other stuff, but
I still don't really get it.

"More than a blog" -> so you provide a blog service with easy crossposting?
I'm trying to understand the service, not easy.

"Create a complete profile" -> So I can create some kind of Facebook-like
profile?

You need to improve the writing on the front page a lot, try to find a way to
better explain it. Don't try to explain every feature on the homepage, but
search for the one main thing that you are awesome/different at, and explain
that. Good luck.

~~~
cookiecaper
These are my complaints too. I spent three seconds on the page before going
back because I already know about a lot of "autoblogging" service and have no
interest in them, and from what I read, that's all I think your product does.

If it does something else or if it does something better, you should be
explicit about it. I want to know right away, I don't want to be met with
marketing-speak about how easy it is to "share my entire content", which is a
very amorphous task. A better thing to say in that prime real estate would be
"Email your content, see it on web page", or whatever it is you do, and then
have the line about ease in a tertiary position somewhere, like a tagline
instead of the main point of the thing.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks for the feedback.

May be it just me, but it's not that unclear what service is. It's your
Blog+Photostream+Videostream. It might be confusing cause its something of a
new concept and you seem to have caught the usual/known features like
Autoposting and email posting, but that's not where we defferentiate
ourseleves.

~~~
RossM
Where do you differentiate yourselves then? is it just the convenience of
having an combination of different services in one place?

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Heres my Sprred - <http://kuldeep.sprred.com>. you can also see how its
different than tumblr/blogger. It offers better videos and photo support and
lets you create a complete personal website with all your info and content.

------
msy
I'm sorry but this feels like a me-too amalgamation of a grab-bag of other
services, a little bit of Tumblr, a sprinkling of Posterous, a dash of
Flavors.me but without the secret sauce of any of them - the social elements
of Tumblr, the beauty and editing tools of Flavors.me or the rah-rah early
users of Posterous. I don't see a USP.

It's also achingly slow.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Very helpful feedback. Thanks!

~~~
kno
How can that feedback be helpful to you? he is just saying your service should
not exist. I think instead of bending down and take it and being nice you
should prove him wrong by arguing the WHY USE of your product.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
I hate to disagree. I dont think he means the servive simply shouldn't exist.
From most of the feedback 'Im getting here, indicates I need to convey my
message/usp more clearly. Very few are complaining about the service, after
what they are seeing on signing-up.

PS. Our USP is 'Create a complete personal website'. Sprred is more than a
blog, it's your blog+photostream+videostream.

~~~
kno
I have learned something over few years building tools for my startup and
friends. You should identify constructive feedbacks and the one designed to
tell everyone: stay away from this product. You should make an effort to
respond vigorously to the latter so it does not suck out all the oxygen out of
your product existence.

Your response here tells everyone: yeah his right you should come back when I
have made the magic work according to this guy. What you don’t know is that
the guy will criticize you anyway because he is actually criticizing your
existence. My take is you should not let that happen.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Here, I agree with you :) Some criticize just to do so. Hell we wont be
changing our pivot, it just the 'message' that needs the work.

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hajrice
I like the idea of having a central placeholder for all my information online,
but I think you came in a bit late. Here are my thoughts after 2 minutes of
using your service.

* Name: I would seriously consider renaming. Sprred is a bit hard to remember...think about the average Joe. Spread? Spred? Spread? etc. Your competitors are on you at that(Posterous, Tumblr, ...)

* Design: I like the overall look and feel, it's pretty user friendly and the registration is a very quick and easy process. Perhaps add a 1-->2-->3 step slider instead of just changing the text. Something like "1) Register your blog in 5 seconds; 2) Email us; 3) There is no step 3, we take care of the rest". +1 on design.

* Concept: I've seen a lot of these websites, and when I see Yet Another ... I always think to myself "oh this is going to suck." Reason being is that you dont really show me how you're different from the rest. Give me a good reason, solve my problem, do it better than Posterous and I'll be your user.

* Suggestions? The app seems a bit slow for me. * When I first login, I get a billion of actions, simplify it for me so that I dont have to both AutoPost on Facebook/Twitter..heck, I dont even know what autopost is. Tell me how it's awesome and why I should use it. * The form on the right where it says "Enter your full name" is bad UX. It'd be much better if it were focused right on me(perhaps on the left, underneath the "Welcome to Sprred").

Oh and congrats on launching it, it's all about itterations, take the feedback
you get from people, parse it and iterate. Good luck!

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Great Suggestion! Thanks for your time and energy!

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hopeless
I think I'm going to make it my job to ask the following question every time
someone announces their "startup" or "business" on HN:

 _Where's the money?_

Seriously, if it's a startup _business_ then their must be an expected revenue
stream. If not just saying this as a pedant but as a consumer it's something I
consider whenever I'm about to invest time/content in a new site. If there's
no business then there's not much chance you'll be around in a year and all my
investment will be wasted. It's one reason I pay for sites like Smugmug
instead of choosing free alternatives.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Well, it wont stay free for long. Paid themes, extra storage and premium
features are coming soon.

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swatermasysk
Overall it does look nice and kind of feels like a mix of Tumblr and
Posterous.

Not sure if you asking for advice, so feel free to ignore.

IMO, it feels like you are trying to hard to compete on features. For me, a
better approach (ie, one that would pull me away from the other services)
would be to focus on usability and simplicity.

Examples:

Uploads - Why not just one screen? (note: Upload Text definitely tripped me up
since my first though was "I have to upload a file")

Tags/Future post dates - not features folks really need (IMO of course :)

After Posting - I would expect to see my content right away. Instead I have to
click around to find it

Viewing my Sprred - Not sure why there is a home and blog tab. Feels like
there should be a single tab

Name - I will never be able to say check me out on Sprred out loud without
spelling it.

Apologies if this this overly negative. It is generally easier to pick out
things you don't like.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks for the feedback! I learned a thing or two :)

If you are asking why two tabs 'home' and 'blog', so Sprred is not just a
blog, its your blog + photostream + videostream. And we also plan to add
updates from Sprred you follow under home tab

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desigooner
The slideshow on the left talking about the selling points doesn't work for
me. That means that I have to wait to know what they are and yet, I don't know
how long I have to wait before I know them all. I'd assume most users are not
that patient.

Also, the 3 boxes at the bottom could be a little higher so that I have
everything visible at a glance on 1 single page.

You'd be better off having a select list of features that really define your
product and have a find out more link that explains them a bit more in detail
on a following page. Also, a nice demo page would go a long way.

------
rakkhi
The good: [+] really like the minimalist interface, very clean [+] easy to
signup and start using

The bad: [+] On Firefox 3.6, Windows XP (work computer) I can't see the upload
button for photos [+] link upload sucessfull, text and photos no. Didn't have
a video.

Overall: Nice site but who would use it? Are you targeting bloggers? Tumblr
and even Blogger provide me a lot more e.g. do you even support HTML tags and
java script?

What is your competitive advantage? Why would I use this over the multitude of
other products with better features? How would you monitize this?

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks for the feedback!

I'll look into the bugs you mentioned.

The advantage is, it helps you create a complete profile with full-fledged
Photostream, Videostream and profile info, unlike tumblr and blogger.

~~~
petervandijck
What do you mean by "Complete profile"? What is that?

~~~
kuldeep_kap
If you look at my Sprred - <http://kuldeep.sprred.com>, you'll get the brief
idea and also see how its different than tumblr/blogger

~~~
rakkhi
I don't really get this, other than being layed out in a nice minimalist way I
can do all this on any blogging site. If it is social networking I can do all
of it on Facebook - why would I use your site?

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Can you put-up flickr like photostream, vimeo-like videstream on your personal
website ie. your blogger. Does blogger provide better support for your photos
and videos?

As you mentioned facebook is for different audience. The comparison doesn't
count.

~~~
rakkhi
Not sure what you mean as a stream ... is do you mean like Flikr? well Flikr
does that pretty well for me: <http://www.flikr.com/rakkhi>

Blogger, Posturous, Tumblr all can had video and photos. If I want a "stream"
can I can add a gadget for that:

e.g. [http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2009/03/simple-flickr-
photostre...](http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2009/03/simple-flickr-photostream-
widget-for.html)

[http://google.about.com/od/youtube/ss/embed-share-YouTube-
vi...](http://google.about.com/od/youtube/ss/embed-share-YouTube-videos_3.htm)

You sound like a smart guy and a skilled developer I would seriously think
again. Have a read of this: [https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-startup-
ideas-that-persi...](https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-startup-ideas-that-
persistently-fail)

Or don't and I wish you the best of luck

------
sullichin
I like the interface. I agree that "The easiest way to share your entire
content" is an awkward sentence. Also, I would suggest making the "Blog +
Photostream + Videostream" bit more prominent on the homepage because it's
probably the fastest way to explain what the site is, yet it's not the first
thing I see on the welcome page by a long shot. Nitpicking here, but I also
don't really like how the "red" in Sprred is red in the logo. The site is very
clean but the logo could be better.

Seems like a cool service.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks! I agree with most of what you want to say. I think you got the point
with our service.

------
kuldeep_kap
Heres my Sprred - <http://kuldeep.sprred.com>. you can also see how its
different than tumblr/blogger

~~~
rubypay
I really like the look of your Sprred, however it's not loading very quickly.
What language and hosting setup are you running?

~~~
arethuza
Painfully slow here too - Firefox 3.6.9 (Firebug installed).

[The pages seem OK-ish but the images are very slow]

~~~
kuldeep_kap
These are really hamster-powered, whatever we could afford :)

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roryokane
I think the front page needs a link to a sample blog-stream-whatever-it-is.
All I can guess from the front page is that Sprred is like Posterous (which I
don’t use), but with supposedly better support for pictures and video.
Alternatively, an overview video like someone else mentioned would work too.
Even a screenshot of a sample site would help.

~~~
kuldeep_kap
I think you are got how its different from Posterous.

Now, we are definitely putting up a sample site!

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danlove
Based purely upon the homepage, I can't tell what the product is other than
the fact it seems a "me too" product, essentially an amalgamation of other
services. Having a link to an example profile may help explain the product
better. Maybe get rid of the fading tag lines, add in some images of the
service and a better description.

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brosephius
the "slideshow" of changing descriptive text is (in my opinion) a poor design.
when I first saw the page it seemed very bare and I couldn't really figure out
what this thing is, and then a few seconds later I noticed the text changed. I
don't want to sit and wait for the transitions to read about the service, nor
do I need meaningless statements like "create a complete profile!". instead,
put in some concise but descriptive copy explaining the service and it's
advantages so I know what it is right away.

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hsarvell
Well at least for me it was quite obvious what the site is all about without
much effort. Good luck!

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks. This helps :)

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js123b
How long did it take you to build?

~~~
kuldeep_kap
Well, this is our second product. First one was redanyway.com. We've been
working independently since more than two years.

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tkahn6
The landing page reminds me of <http://zombo.com/>

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Ben_Dean
14

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kuldeep_kap
Sorry, if it sounds like a dumb question. What is 14?

~~~
roryokane
You asked people to “rate your startup”, so I think that 14 was his jokey
numerical rating.

