

Ask HN: what's stopping you from launching? - evancaine

hearing about Paul Bucheit's first version of gmail always makes me realise how much of a perfectionist I'm being.<p>what's stopping you from releasing a demo/beta right now? For me, it's the design.
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fjabre
Yep. Same here: design.

Well that and we've spent so much time on the main app that we don't have a
workable login yet - our login process is akin to 37signals where we subdomain
the account i.e. yourcompany.domain.com so it's not that straight forward.

So for us it's literally too early to release since no one could sign up.

One thing we could do is have a signup with an email for news of our pending
release... but we're still fine tuning exactly what message we want to release
with.

This may be a huge mistake on our part but only time will tell. I'll be sure
to share our experience releasing 'late', good or bad, with the HN community.

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dan_sim
Why the subdomain? Can someone explain why a lot of app are doing it?
Personally, I avoid using an app that uses a subdomain.

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fjabre
It's the easiest way for us to direct them to their own VM and database.

It also seems to work pretty well for all the 37signals apps and and few
others that segment this way.

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dan_sim
Ok, if you have a special case for your app and it uses virtual machines and
things like that, I would understand.

But, talking about them, why 37signals are doing it? They have "normal" web
applications that don't require that kind of separation to be efficient.

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BigCanOfTuna
I'm actually concerned about the graphic design of my startup. There is a pay-
for-service component to it, and I have this feeling that if it doesn't look
professional, no one will trust it. Anyone think that is a valid concern?

~~~
fjabre
It is a valid concern. Credibility is important for a startup. It also depends
on what you're offering.

If it's something remarkable then it won't matter as much. People will just
want it and might look past things like design to get it.

Usually though when people are opening up their wallets they want to make sure
the service is credible and the overall design is the first thing that helps
them make this distinction, followed by a blog, founding team descriptions,
press mentions etc...

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mooders
Two things - the design is, well, okay but extremely simple.. It just doesn't
have that _finished_ look about it.

And the app itself is incredibly simple, which makes me second guess myself as
to whether it is too simplistic that users won't pay the few bucks I intend to
charge for it. I keep telling myself that they pay for value, not the number
of lines of code...

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leeskye
Is it useful? I love Fried's point about your product being useful.
Useful>Innovative.

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auston
I agree with pretty much everyone else - design is KEY.

Hiring someone like MetaLab seems unrealistic to bootstrapper's - doing it
yourself usually leaves a lack confidence (at least for me).

But I don't think you should let design hold you back, if it's useful, people
will use it, THEN you can invest your real time / effort / money into making
it look better.

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cmars232
A worthwhile idea. After trying a few projects, I've come to realize that it's
going to have to be something I care enough about to sacrifice my time and
energy for and sell without feeling fake.

I really have no clue what that is. All I want is cash money really.

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falsestprophet
from your profile: _My dream is to make a big chunk of fk you money without
having to do marketing or sales._

Web commerce doesn't sound like the way to go for you. You want to be a Wall
Streeter.

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vgurgov
Can 100% understand this feeling and this is how I fight with this - just
release this damn thing!

Not even restricting alfa beta invite only users, just do whatever you can,
get feedback and keep improving it! Design never can be perfect - even getting
best designers workin on my site i still keep finding issues with it. Its just
endless process, and most of your client(not timewasters but client) really
dont give it that much attention as you do!

Remember you will loose few clients today but you will learn on you mistakes
today also. JUST DO IT!

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Tawheed
fear of failure. once you get it out there, it will be the true test.

~~~
dpcan
Initially I thought "failure" as well. But it turns out, I could care less
about "failing", it's my fear of PROBLEMS that stop me from launching.

I have a lot of stuff in my life to take care of already. If launching a
product means more problems and little extra money, I definitely
procrastinate.

Here are just a few problems I worry about before launch (just off the top of
my head):

1) Connection problems that aren't even something I can personally fix
(client-side)

2) Feature requests. Tweak requests. People that don't understand that the app
isn't a CUSTOM program and wonder why they can't get what they want even
though they are paying for it.

3) Credit card payment processing problems. Denied cards, expired cards,
overdraft cards, PayPal, Auth.net, 2co, etc. The problem of what to do with
accounts when someone isn't paying or when someone says they are trying to
pay, or will pay, but don't pay... blah blah blah. PROBLEMS!!!

4) Meetings and Training. The app can be STUPID SIMPLE, but there are still
those corporate people that want a training session, or a conference call,
white papers, or a live meeting to discuss the benefits of our app. Seriously.
Pay $20-$100 and just find out. If you are thinking about my app that much,
it's probably not for you.

4) Monitoring backups, restores, server problems, data center problems,
storage space, vps, dedicated servers, s3, e3, cloud, load problems, twitter
api, facebook connect, etc, etc, etc

Problems, problems, problems, problems.

Maybe this isn't an issue when you have VC, but in the bootstrapping world,
failure doesn't matter as much as PROBLEMS do.

~~~
symptic
These still exist in the "VC world," and then there are added constraints as
well, such as expectations and pressure on yourself not to let other people
down. Bootstrapping is simple; just get the fucking work done. Pardon my
french, but that's what it comes down to. People find it easy to let
themselves down, so when they do it's not a big deal, but letting a guy (or
gal) down who took the time, effort, and money to put into your company will
make you try that little bit more.

Find the motivation to get these small un-sexy tasks out of the way and then
focus on growth. it doesn't matter how or where you find the motivation, just
get your work done. Now I don't mean work 15 hours a day. Just stop wasting
time when you are working. Come up with systems that optimize your time. And
feel free to outsource. If you're familiar with economics, there is an
opportunity cost to everything; odds are it costs you less in the long run to
pay someone to keep up with your servers' status or to fulfill customer
support so you can focus on what you are truly skilled at.

~~~
dpcan
I was saying that I wonder if the reason VC funded companies don't launch is
also because of possible "problems". Back when I worked at a "funded" company,
we didn't launch because the programming team was never finished with
anything.

As for just getting my f __ __ __work done?? Are you serious? As a
bootstrapped company, I already work all day on my company that MAKES money,
then I have the side-project. The reason the side-project doesn't launch is
because of the upcoming problems it creates.

Get the work done? Again. Seriously?

These are problems that come back daily or weekly, problems that don't just
"get fixed", problems that recur endlessly and you have to stay on top of
them. If you are working full time at your one business, developing constantly
for the side-project you launched, THEN have to add the customer support
problems, systems problems, live code bugs, etc..... THAT is why I don't
launch.

The reason I don't launch is because the "problems" create a whole new "job"
for me that I just don't have time to handle.

~~~
symptic
As I said, there are means to overcome these maintenance problems; outsourcing
the work being just one of them.

There seems to be a fair amount of cognitive dissonance going on here, and it
seems to stem from the fact you feel overwhelmed and I am suggesting that more
can be done. This dissonance is probably part of why your response is as
aggressive as it is.

Get off HN and do the customer support. Skip that trip to the bar and get that
next bug fixed. I know and am surprised from my own personal experiences at
how much time we spend on small unproductive things. Personally, I think they
are essential to being happy, but there can be stints where neglecting
happiness and relaxation has a greater payoff; where doing the work and
getting the customer support done will give you enough cash flow to hire
someone to do it for you.

There is this little voice in everyone's head, saying that the extra work is
too hard, that it'll be better not to stick it through. It's like there is a
constant battle with yourself on what level of self-dominion you can achieve;
meaning, your ability to actually get yourself to do what you want to do. It's
running that 5th mile when you've run 4 and want to call it a day. It's coming
home from work and putting in 2-3 hours into your side project when you just
want to lay down and watch TV. How hard is it really to dig in and get it
done?

I say what I do not to be critical of you--I don't know who you are, and I
have no conflict with you personally--but because I know how sticky that
emotion is. Feeling like that extra work isn't worth my time; I've been there.
What it takes is doing small tasks, one at a time, to build momentum. Taking
the trash out leads to cleaning your desk, which leads to writing up a short
brief about things, and eventually, you're flying through and getting task
after task done (not just work-related things) and you are 100% confident in
your ability to say, "okay, so today I'm going to do X, Y, and Z," and at the
end of the day you will have done those things.

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levirosol
Lack of functionality was holding me back. Then it was no mechanism for
feedback. I'm still thin on functionality and copy, but I have a feedback
mechanism now.

www.SportsLeeg.com

Getting over the "first release" hurdle is tough. So many "what if"'s remain.
Once it's out though, motivation goes through the roof to keep things running
tight and releasing often. I find myself releasing 3-4 times a week now. Even
for small stuff.

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christonog
I'm having trouble discerning what the meaning of "launching" is when most
people talk about it. Is it as simple as deploying something to a production
server? Or trying to get one more feature in that initial release? Either way,
there is no excuse for soft launching now if you have any working code.

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symptic
School for me.

There seem to be a lot of mentions of 'design' though. Honestly, it doesn't
matter how good or bad your product is. Get -something- out there for other
people to use. Run a private beta of just 5-10 people at first who are willing
to critique everything to the ground. Then your design will fall into place
rather than trying to be "smart" about it initially.

There is a difference between pretty design and converting design, and then
there is a small group of designers capable of providing converting designs
that are pretty. Your website need not be pretty to convert well though.

My $.02.

PS: No offense to PG and this wonderful community, but getting off the
internet would probably help a lot of us more than it would hurt.

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lwhi
I think graphic design should be thought of as graphical engineering .. in the
sense that a good graphic designer is always trying to find the very best way
to approach a problem.

Poor design isn't down to having bad aesthetic taste or lack of artistic skill
- it's down to a lack of clarity in purpose.

Good design is clear thinking made visual... to be able to achieve this,
clear-thinking needs to be built into the processes and workflows of
applications from the get-go.

Too often, I think a lot of people see graphic design as a skin that can be
slotted onto a second rate product to make it sing - and imo, this isn't the
case.

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vessenes
Re-brand, user login system, some items that probably aren't critical but at
least one person on the team feels 'has to be there'.

This makes me want to release an alpha today. Okay, maybe tomorrow.

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weaksauce
Here's a link to the video if you haven't seen it yet:

[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-
buc...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-buchheit-on-
why-he-sold-to-facebook/)

I couldn't find it on justin.tv

Edit: Oops that's not the full video. Does anyone have the full video?

~~~
bemmu
I'm looking for it too. That part seems to be missing from justin.tv.

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megaduck
Plain old incompleteness. There's a number of bits where either the interface
or the backend component aren't finished yet. Unfortunately, they're not
optional.

The launch will be soon, though. We've got a big roadmap, but that's not going
to stop us from launching the moment the app does something (anything!)
useful.

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cmelbye
Ease of use problems. Users have to upload SSL certificates, and Ruby's
OpenSSL library is lacking in features and it's missing a lot of
documentation, which is hindering efforts to handle different types of
certificates and verification. Might give a message queue + a Python script a
try...

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neurotech1
My Biggest issue is that when you take the leap from "side project" to start-
up, there has to be reasonable confidence that the idea is unique enough to
make it as a startup.

Somehow I wont be building a search engine this week :)

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kloncks
Simple for me. I am not done yet...

Sorry if that was too inappropriate for a serious topic.

What stopped me in the past was always the design/look of the site.

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prabodh
I am working on something for which similar products exists in the market
place...So making my product beat the existing alternatives is taking time for
me

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yan
For me, it's getting over the attrition of not starting what I really want to
work on.

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wlievens
A name for my game!

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justlearning
oddly enough for me - losing interest in the project. Once it's out there, I
want to work on something else.

