

Our Story: 1 Year in the life of a startup - gsaines
http://www.skritter.com/history

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eplanit
Your team is quite talented, and that is to be commended.

It's just sad that we're in such a deeply narcissistic society where self-
glamorization is now so normal that nobody even notices it.

I learned nothing from your posting about much of anything except how cool and
groovy you think you are. Granted, you are talented -- but that's not the
point you should emphasize. In the end, it's not about you. But, is that maybe
what you _do_ want it to be about?

All this said, I see you as victims of the society and times. You grew up in a
world that values Fame and Attention more than anything else. It's important
to note that despite that, you studied hard, learned much, and have applied it
well. The last sentence and the first are what counts: Great job on a clearly
very useful technology.

~~~
mcav
I didn't read it as self-glamorization. The writing was satirical, but not
narcissistic in my opinion. If this article was supposed to describe their
product, your concern over its content is valid. It seemed to be more about
recounting their story rather than the product, which isn't inherently bad.

------
gsaines
We started building an application to help students of Chinese better learn
and remember their characters 12 months ago. This is the story of what we've
been doing in the interim, some of the trials we've faced, the fun we've had
along the way, and where we're headed in the next few months. It's a longer
post, so feel free to skim. Hopefully we kept enough quirky details about our
lives to keep people interested! If you have any questions, I'll be checking
back here regularly.

------
trefn
I studied Mandarin for a few months, and this looks like a really cool
service. Not sure if it would have a negative impact on handwriting - the
repetition is really key.

I have to say that the writing style aggravated me. "We were but swaddled
babes, greenhorns looking about ourselves at the vast and splendiferous plain
of entrepreneurial possibility that lay before us." - this sounds like you are
poking fun at yourselves, which is cool - but I don't think you are. Which
makes it not cool.

This would largely be solved by toning down the thesaurus usage, I think. You
used a lot of cool sounding words instead of their simpler, clearer
alternatives.

Anyway, that's just me. I do think the product looks pretty awesome though. I
wrote a few characters on the demo, and it went really well. It seems like
someone who has zero knowledge of chinese wouldn't be able to use the demo at
all, though.

~~~
gsaines
Hey trefn, sorry about the flowery language. I've always thought that high
Victorian prose sounded humorously formal and stiff, so whenever I'm writing
for fun, I use that style.

The lack of a tutorial is something we haven't overlooked, it's just not done
yet. You're right that people that don't know Chinese wouldn't be able to use
it though, which is a fairly substantial problem. We need to fix that soon.

Thanks for checking it out!

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MicahWedemeyer
I'm definitely interested, but the tone put me off a bit. It's simply a little
too conversational for my taste.

Still, that's just my $0.02, and I am grateful for others sharing their early
stage stories.

~~~
gsaines
It seems that you and trefn both reacted similarly. I didn't really take into
account a specific audience when I was writing it and I actually only posted
it to HN as an afterthought, never thinking it'd hit the front page. Next time
I post, I'll try to make it more to-the-point.

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rick888
I am very interested.

I studied mandarin a couple of years ago in college and used flashcards. Your
site would have come in handy.

I am going to make an account today!

------
emmett
Your product is great, I wish I'd had it when I was studying Chinese in
college. It's a great refresher now too.

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phatboyslim
Love the idea, how do you intend to generate revenue? Didn't notice anything
mentioned in the article.

~~~
phatboyslim
Nevermind - I just noticed the monthly pricing model. My apologies. Would be
curious, if you don't mind sharing, what % of users convert to paid
subscribers.

~~~
gsaines
I wouldn't mind discussing it. Right now our conversion rates are fairly low,
even considering our space: around 1-2%. That could be due to a lot of bad
design we have on the front and try it pages, and the lack of a tutorial. All
those things are the front burner, but it's just taking time. I think if we
tweak it, we can substantially increase the conversion rate and our revenue.
Right now its a sustainable business model though, which is great news for us
because now our biggest concern is to boost revenue.

