

Ask HN: Review my startup, sharedstatus.com - dralison

Our site URL: http://sharedstatus.com<p>First off, a couple of data points: I originally launched SharedStatus in 2009. The product wasn’t ready, had a complex feature set and a pricing and trial model that got me several hundred users but few paying customers. I acquired a new partner, we rebuilt the application from the ground up and I’ve embraced the freemium model. We just launched it at the beginning of February.<p>From a funding standpoint we are self-funded and hope to keep it that way. I’ve had success in the past as a startup founder, hit an equity event and have the luxury of pursuing this on my own terms.<p>I recognize that people look at our product and say “Oh, so you’re like Basecamp / Yammer / etc”—this is just where we landed. There are others doing what we are doing but we all have a slightly different take on it. I suffer no delusions of grandeur of becoming “Facebook for IT” or anything like that; I just want to have a product that solves a defined need that my partner and I are passionate about, acquire as many customers as I can to build a sustainable business and have a valuable service.<p>Other than general feedback on the site and/or product, I would love to hear some HN feedback on our freemium offering. I really want to encourage people to start out—and in some cases continue to use—the free version. The goal is to market (without being obnoxious) our paid models to them with increased capacities and features.<p>Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide on SharedStatus.
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sebastianhoitz
I really like the website. There could be a bit more eye-catching elements on
the front page, but besides that everything looks really clean.

But I have to agree - you should definately put up a section "What makes us
different". When I was browsing around on your webpage all I thought was "What
makes this different to Basecamp??"

So you don't necessarily make a comparison page, but highlight what you do
better with your product than other project management software.

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ubertags
Looks nice. The first thing I looked for is how your application's PoV is
different from Basecamp's. Leading with a comparison would quickly let me know
whether I'm interested without having to figure it out myself. I did sign up
and it looks solid. Best of luck!

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dralison
Thanks - really appreciate you taking a look at it. I've always been reluctant
to draw direct comparisons with other products. As a consumer when I see that
happen it always feels like a completely biased point of view.

Definitely something to think about. Perhaps in a "Why SharedStatus" section.

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ubertags
If you do it right, it may not feel like you're making a biased statement or
sales pitch, but rather conveying your product's orientation and/or what made
you create SharedStatus in the first place. Presumably it was because you
thought other proj mgmt apps haven't gotten it quite right yet. THAT's the
piece I was looking for...

~~~
petervandijck
Same here. Looks nice, but why would I even investigate further or try it out,
if you're not strongly selling me on how you're different.

It's a crowded market. For me, you need to tell me on the homepage how you're
different.

"Never do another status report" is aimed at people doing status reports.
That's not me :)

"Organizing your team" does sound interesting to me, that's what I want.

"SharedStatus is an online tool for helping you collaborate with your team
members, assign tasks to people, keep projects focused and up to date and
provide on demand status reports that can be presented to your management team
or clients." -> that's bad writing. Let's start at the beginning:
"SharedStatus is an online tool", yes we know, "for helping you collaborate
with your team members", passive voice not good. Replace that entire sentence
with "Collaborate with your team". You're saying the same. And now that it's
shorter, you may realize that you're not saying much. "Keep projects focused
and up to date and ", right, this sentence is really starting to ramble ("and
and and"). Etc.

So my first step would be to really rewrite the sales pages and focus on why I
would try you out. You have to convince me you're not just another basecamp.
And explain me how and why. Lots of writing :)

Good luck!

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dralison
Great feedback - thanks!

One of the ways we wanted to approach this space was to address the pain point
of status reports; people spend time putting them together, then waste a lot
of time sitting in meetings reviewing them. I still feel it's a space, though
it may not appeal to everyone. Rather than be one of N "project management"
tools, we were hoping to become synonymous with helping eliminate the status
report / meeting mindset.

~~~
petervandijck
ok then you should market to those people. Can't help you there, I don't do
status reports, luckily.

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JonLim
Clickable: <http://sharedstatus.com>

Looks like an interesting PM tool, will have to check it out a little later
during my off hours. Thanks for sharing!

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aDemoUzer
suggestion: make the mac-photo be clickable. It could end up playing the video
itself or take the user to a page with more screenshots of your system.

Update: just noticed that it changes when I mouse over the "share tasks" and
such links. Not very intuitive for me that I should put my mouse over them and
they are somehow connected to the monitor-section.

suggestion: "Project was successfully created" should auto-close after 5
seconds, since it is that type of message.

~~~
dralison
Great suggestions - thanks!

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dralison
I've received some outstanding feedback, both here, on the IRC #Startups
channel and via email. I really appreciate you folks helping us improve our
product!

