

Group-O-Matic (My Startup Launch!) - epi0Bauqu
http://www.groupomatic.com
I am launching my startup today.  All comments/questions/feedback, however harsh/cynical/insightful, will be greatly appreciated.  Short version: free site to help people form local groups for regular events.  Even shorter version: free alternative to meetup.com.  There has not been a private or public beta.  Group-O-Matic has been released with a minimum feature set I thought would be useful.  I'm coding message boards right now, to be released shortly.
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nostrademons
This is a nifty idea, one that I could see myself using _if_ it became
popular. Unfortunately, you've got a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: there
are currently no groups or events in my zip code (Boston), which means I'm not
likely to visit the site regularly. I know that others will have the same
reticence towards regular visits, so when I have an event or group, I'm more
likely to post it where people are actually watching. I know that group
starters will reason that way, and so I have no reason to keep visiting the
site. And so on. It's all game theory.

You've gotta break the cycle somehow and make this useful to small groups of
people that are already in close contact with each other. Maybe you can
convince people to organize the next news.YC meetup on it. Or maybe you can
feature in some sort of asynchronous time-shifting: let people indicate their
interests now, and then as groups and events appear, give them notification.

A couple specific comments/suggestions:

I like the design of the site. Clean, minimalist, and directs you to things
you can do with it.

It's really nifty that you go straight from search results to a "get new
results by RSS" link. But add an e-mail option too! It may seem hard to
believe, but not everybody uses RSS, _particularly_ outside of tech circles.
Keep the UI simple - just have someone enter an e-mail address and it'll email
you when a new group appears in your location.

It'd be nice to be able to filter searches/subscriptions by keyword as well.
For example, I'm interested in startup & programming groups in Boston. I'd
like to be able to say "Show me all the startup organizations in Boston", and
if there are none, I want to be able to type in my e-mail address, get
notified when new ones appear, and otherwise forget about the site.

If you do this, you might want to show off popular subscriptions (location +
keywords) on the front page. Aside from indicating that people _are_ listening
for new groups, it also could show people what interests are hottest. This
could be a good signal for which groups people may want to start.

I personally would not care all that much about message boards, at least not
until the site gets a lot of traffic. Then it'd be nifty, but not essential.

Rename the Help link to Help/Feedback or Help/Contact or just Contact to
indicate that you're receptive to suggestions.

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epi0Bauqu
Thank you for your feedback. I agree there is a major chicken and egg problem
with this site. I am working on reaching out to smaller niches as you suggest.
First I'm trying to interest political candidates for the upcoming 2008
election cycle. Their group organizers are generally spending their own money
on meetup.com, which could be used for other things, e.g. signs. And I'm sure
there are other organizers who would create supporting political groups if
they knew there was a free alternative. I just need to reach them now, somehow
:) As for news.YC meetups, to all out there, please consider it!

Yes, I need an email option! Working on it.

I'm working on doing message boards because the political people asked for it
as their users are using them on meetup.com. I'm keeping it dead simple though
(modeled after news.yc).

I will rename that Help link now. At first it was Feedback. I think you are
right that Contact is better as it is more inviting for suggestion. I am of
course receptive to suggestions!

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oditogre
About finding people to sign up...

First off, if you happen to live near a big college, maybe you could plaster
up some fliers, like, "Schedule your next party or club get-together at
groupomatic.com!" I know when I was at college, I would have appreciated
knowing where the parties were at, finding out the the school had an anime
club, etc., in some other fashion the stopping to read every flier on every
notice board I passed on the off chance something was there I'd be interested
in. Maybe you could work something out with whatever department oversees
student activities / clubs?

*Edit: Also, what about communities that are known for get togethers of most likely not necessarily wealthy people (the folks you are trying to poach from meetup)? Off the top of my head...LUGs, Demo Sceners, Furries, Flash Mobbers, Movie Fans (how cool would it be to arrange for a bunch of serious movie fans to all hit the same theater early so the place would be full of people who know better than to be obnoxious?), Gamers (LAN Parties, etc.). These types of folks often have forums with get-together sections or 'advertising' sections you could use. The draw is for cases where either a) the community is spread over many forums (they could all centralize on you for get-togethers) or b) members of multiple groups (say, gamers who are also interested in Linux).

Just my random thoughts.

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tyohn
I like it. It's fairly clean and simple. Did you consider making it more Web
2.0ish? I am guessing that you'll add more search features ~ like search via
activity or suchlike? When you click on location maybe open a new window so I
don't have to use my back button. I think it would be cool to use Google's
Maps API and have a "pin" where the groups are located. And one more thing ~
maybe a link to "learn more" and then give details about Group-O-Matic.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Thanks. You mean colors, icons, and buttons aren't enough to be called Web
2.0? Just kidding--I hear you. I am looking for ways to make it more fun (a
proxy for Web 2.0?) while keeping it simple.

Yes, I figured I'd hold off on search by term until there were a bit more
groups, but it is definitely on the list.

I've been messing around with the Google Maps API, an am in fact using it
presently to geocode cities outside the US. I like the pin idea. That would
give it a more fun feel certainly.

I'm conflicted about the opening public group pages in a new window.
Originally, I had it like that but I wonder if it confuses people who are used
to using the back button. Jury is still out.

I certainly should have a learn more cool with screen shots, huh :)

Thanks for the suggestions!

~~~
tyohn
As far as the open new window ~ I meant once you clicked on a group and are
viewing the ABOUT GROUP box; if you click on location it opens up Google maps
in the current window. I thought maybe the location should open in a new
window. Just a thought :)

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Oh I thought you meant something else. Right, that makes sense. Changed.

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alex_c
I like the design. It's refreshing to see a startup that's not
gradienty/shiny/stripy. :)

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epi0Bauqu
To anyone near King of Prussia, PA, I created an Internet Startup Hackathon
Club: <http://www.groupomatic.com/haqsm3vj>

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epi0Bauqu
I am launching my startup today. All comments/questions/feedback, however
harsh/cynical/insightful, will be greatly appreciated. Short version: free
site to help people form local groups for regular events. Even shorter
version: free alternative to meetup.com. There has not been a private or
public beta. Group-O-Matic has been released with a minimum feature set I
thought would be useful. I'm coding message boards right now, to be released
shortly.

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nreece
Just curious, how is it different/better than say MeetUp.com?

~~~
epi0Bauqu
The big difference is that it is free for group organizers. Meetup.com charges
group organizers a significant monthly fee:
<http://www.meetup.com/help/organize/#org_cost> I wrote a post about the
implications of getting rid of this fee here:
[http://groupomatic.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/why-we-dont-
char...](http://groupomatic.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/why-we-dont-charge-group-
organizers/)

Other than that, I am trying to be simpler, more private, and add features
that lead to events actually happening. I made a few departures from the
meetup.com feature set already. First and foremost, I made a group scheduling
feature where members help select the best date for an event. (I believe
meetup doesn't have this, but I could be wrong.) Organizers can also email
specific members, like those who haven't yet RSVPd or provided feedback.

Second, I allow the username space to be group specific. This is a subtle, but
important, difference imo. This allows for each group to have a "Mike," "Joe,"
etc., i.e. it lets people use the handles on-line that they are using off-line
within their local groups. It works seamlessly to the user as they just
provide a handle for each group they join, which will probably be the same
name each time.

Third, everything is private by default: email addresses, profiles, etc.
Members can send private member and group messages that get emailed but don't
display addresses. Replies forward through us seamlessly. On meetup I was put
off with the fact that my name and profile information was almost immediately
indexed by Google and available to the public. Maybe no one else cares about
this, but I do.

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blored
Start offering free groups to everyone and anyone you know. Hopefully within a
couple of months it'll get some natural traction. Good luck.

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comforteagle
Good itch I wanted scratched. I started a group.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
Thanks! Keep 'em coming!

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mdakin
Nice work! I had not associated you with your username here until now.

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epi0Bauqu
Hey, thanks! I didn't know you were on here either. I need to pay closer
attention... Yeah, when possible, I have been choosing pseudo-random usernames
(via pwgen) so that my accounts aren't obviously tied to me if I later decide
to leave services and they don't have good removal functionality. As you may
have guessed, this has happened before :)

~~~
mdakin
I understand. A lot of services tend to make too much information public by
default. And I think you're correct that meetup is too public. This factor
hinders adoption of social services beyond the young and the extroverted.

When I see you I will show you what I've been working on.

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rokhayakebe
Good. Simple and straight fwd. You will see a 15% growth once you add other
features (maybe Gmap, Google calendar syncrho, etc...) and you will see a 90%
growth once you read and apply this [http://particletree.com/features/the-
importance-of-design-in...](http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-
of-design-in-business/)

