

Ask HN: Review my startup: Storage Room - A CMS for Mobile Apps - sashthebash

I am an iPhone developer and frequently had to include some dynamically loaded content into different apps. Content like a tip of the day, store locations of a retail chain, cocktail recipes etc.<p>I think this always is way too much effort. I either have to create a small web application myself to manage and serve the content in JSON/XML or configure a large open source CMS to do this (which is a pain). And I have to host and maintain those systems, which costs time and money.<p>My hosted solution is cheaper, flexible and allows developers to configure many different data sets. Editors can manage the content for these data sets and you can then easily load that content into your mobile apps with JSON. You could also load the JSON into your website with JSONP or into a desktop app, but this is currently not the focus.<p>Basically a CMS for non-HTML applications. What do you think of this idea? Would you use it? Is there a market for this? Thanks so much for your feedback.<p>http://storageroomapp.com
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jonschwartz
I like the concept and it seems like it would make it easier to get an app
going.

One criticism I have is not so much about the concept but the signup page. On
your signup page you have that mini f.a.q. I think around a couple of those
questions sound like they're coming from a skeptic. Your signup page shouldn't
focus at all on the negative and I would probably even move the faq to a
different screen all together. That screen is about funneling people into the
service, not answering their questions.

Questions I think you can get rid of:

"Why isn't StorageRoom free?" -I have to pay for it, so should you, Jerk. The
world isn't free.

"How does the 30 Day trial work?" \- It's a 30 trial. You don't have to pay
till you've been using it for a month. Haven't you ever seen an infomercial?
Are you even smart enough to write code?

"What browsers work with StorageRoom?" \- StorageRoom is a modern web app and,
if you're planning on giving me money, you should trust that I put the time in
to test on more than one browser. This isn't 1996 anymore you can't get away
with "Optimized for Netscape Navigator 2.5 and later on and 800x600
resolution"... c'mon, seriously?

"Do I get a 30 day free trial if I upgrade?" \- No, you cheap bastard! You
already know what the service is like. You don't need to figure out if you
like it or not. If you decide you need to increase your capabilities, that's
on you.

\--------

Sorry for the snark (well, not really... well, maybe a little.) You shouldn't
be trying to argue an imaginary skeptic. You should be trying to tell us why
your awesome product is so awesome.

Good luck!

~~~
notahacker
This is good advice. Any FAQ on the signup page ought to be encouraging
actions more than trying to scare them off e.g. "Can I use my Storageroom
account for client projects" "Can I manage all my webapps under one plan?"

If you are asking questions on browser support I'd think the most important
one would be to clarify that it's not iPhone/Android specific

You probably also need to think more about your target audience - is it more
of a WordPress for mobile data (in which case the focus should be on ease of
use) or a Rails/Django for mobile data (in which case RESTful JSON API
probably is a key selling point)? As you're potentially appealing to both
groups possibly separate tours for different use cases would work "StorageRoom
for Publishers: content creation for non-programmers", "StorageRoom for
Developers: develop in your preferred language and we'll handle the backend
for you"

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Udo
I didn't like the fact that the screenshots are deliberately blurred. You
should obfuscate the relevant input fields only, or better yet just fill them
with non-sensitive data (if that was the reasoning behind the blur).
Otherwise, cool app, nice site! :-)

~~~
sashthebash
The screenshots are from an unfinished ugly prototype. I thought I blur them,
otherwise ppl would have seen them and said they look terrible. Before I
finalize the application I wanted to get some feedback first.

It probably was the wrong choice, I will post the original screenshots with
the next deploy.

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jlambert1
My company — workhabit — has been building the same services for Drupal (which
is one of the major platforms we do). We have a full iOS SDK we call DiOS
(Drupal iOS), which basically allows you to plug Drupal as data services into
any iOS application.

Of course it's Open Source: <http://github.com/workhabitinc/drupal-ios-sdk>

We're going to be adding some white label applications and "officially"
releasing it later in November with a new site launch (as well as an Android
followup), but it's definitely another approach to this. We wanted to do
something to connect the HUGE open source system Drupal to the _colossal_ iOS
and Android markets, and after a few months work, here it is.

Hopefully it could be a useful alternative for those of you interested. We
also have a testkit here which makes it easy to debug your sites:
<http://github.com/workhabitinc/drupal-ios-sdk-example>

Love some feedback from HN about it.

To the original poster, I think it's a good idea. There are a lot of
competitors out there, and there is a lot of momentum in the space to connect
up mobile apps and web to things. I would definitely test-market and see if
there is interest. Personally, I think your idea may have merit — there is a
giant demand for data services on phones, and anything that makes it easier
would be great. I would encourage you to look at models where you could drop
the "whole kit and kaboodle" because I think data services are going to
commoditize extremely quickly.

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gordonguthrie
I think I have worked out what your app does:

* developer builds an iPhone app

* end-user provides some content for that app

* developer doesn't want the hassle of updating the app

* end user has an online editor to edit the content

\- app updates itself

* developer sits on beach sipping daquiris <\-- THE BENEFITS

If that is the case then the front-page should show it in the picture:

* a user with their phone

* a developer with the app

* the end-user customer with their CMS editor

If this is a correct description of the app then YOUR CUSTOMER is the
developer and the tour page should then heavily feature Daquiris, instead of
regular expressions. Getting high from regular expressions is about as lame as
smoking dried banana skins :)

~~~
sashthebash
Replace "end user" with "a member of your team that edits the content" and
your description is correct.

I don't know if the developer will then be sipping daquiris at the beach if he
doesn't have to take care about managing the content himself, but he will have
more time for more important work :).

~~~
gordonguthrie
Why not end-user? They hate dealing with your for changes more than you hate
dealing with them...

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aristidb
I'm a hypothetical iPhone App developer. Catch my attention and interest: You
need something concrete to catch me and have me say "Yes! This solves a
problem that is annoying me already." I don't think that is sufficiently
communicated on your website.

Why should I trust you? You're just a tiny business, and will probably go
bankrupt any minute. Can you calm me down? Or do you want to avoid waking
sleeping dogs?

You say you offer a very nice data entry solution like a CMS, and a nice REST
API. That sounds interesting, but if I haven't overcome my fears from above,
can you maybe separate them and have them access a database that I let Amazon
run for me?

(This is a summary of a discussion on the #startups IRC channel.)

~~~
sashthebash
Separating the application itself from the database is an interesting idea.
But then you would still need to host a database yourself somewhere. If you
don't trust me you must also be afraid of me messing up your own database with
my solution (My solution would need write access).

A lot of mobile application developers are probably not experts in server
management and backups. It is not their priority and core competence. They
want to build great applications quickly.

My solution gives them an easy to use CMS with a REST API for a low monthly
cost, and they don't have to care about backing up data themselves. If they
don't fully trust me, they can export their data from the CMS regularly
themselves, so in a worst case scenario they still have their content.

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petervandijck
I think that's a great idea. From here on, it will come down to marketing.

You may want to offer a self-hosted version as well (sell it), to allay fears
that one day you'll go away.

Why are the screenshots blurry?

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sashthebash
Thanks for the feedback.

I blurred the screenshots as they didn't look nice. I just have an ugly
prototype so far. I wanted to ask for more feedback and validate the market
more before spending more time on making the system nicer.

Currently you cannot sign up. You can only enter your email in a list and get
notified when the product launches.

~~~
petervandijck
Cool. Still, I wouldn't blur them. I think this is a difficult market to be
in. Think back to all the hosted CMS's in the past. If there is really demand,
there will be a free solution that you run yourself.

~~~
sashthebash
A free self-hosted solution is definitely competition. But many people will
probably still think it is convenient to use a hosted service and pay for it.

It's the same with Gmail, salesforce, 37signals products and many other
services. There are almost always free open-source alternatives, but not
everybody wants to deal with installation, hosting and maintenance of those
solutions.

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sashthebash
Clickable: <http://storageroomapp.com>

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n9com
this is very interesting. there is definitely demand for this - our corporate
clients are always asking for a way to easily update the iPad apps we create
for them. email us: hello - [@] - fiplab . com

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nmaio
37signals is flattered [said with a SMILE : ), everyone!]

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rb2k_
Honestly, this looks a little bit like CouchDB + x to me

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sashthebash
It's MongoDB, not CouchDB. And imho the benefit is that you don't have to host
it yourself and you don't have to write the "x", the nice interface to manage
all that data.

Because it is great to have the data in your database, but how do you or
better an editor change it (I think hackers don't like editing content all day
long and editors don't like to enter content in something like phpmyadmin).

~~~
rb2k_
I said couchDB because it also uses REST and already has an web-based
administration interface with "futon"

~~~
sashthebash
Thanks for the reply. I didn't know futon. It seems to be something like a
phpmyadmin for CouchDB, isn't it?

Futon/phpmyadmin are great for entering or checking data as a developer or
system administrator, but I think they are too complicated and technical for
the average non-techie to manage content. That's why I built my solution.

Or can you configure Futon to have a really simple interface and also force it
to only allow entry for specific keys in a document?

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gte910h
It's an alternative to a backend GAE app or Heroku.

