

Please Review our startup – Venux.com - Venux

Hey guys,<p>We are looking for some feedback on our website and products. Do you understand the message based on the information on the website? Would you want to download the products when first viewing the site?<p>If you have downloaded our products, what is your initial impression?
======
elyrly
The landing page is nicely designed with clear flow for the user to grasp the
product (wordy at times).

_[http://venux.com/products/connect/download](http://venux.com/products/connect/download)
(only displays the Windows Icon which gave me the initial thought it was PC
only until i noticed the compatibility statement)

_Even though the site is inviting i don't trust the information i will store
using the service. This may come with brand awareness.

*About Us page- I would like to learn more about the teams background

Good luck on the adventure.

~~~
Venux
Thank you for the feedback.

Would it make more sense to you if on the download page, we added icons for
Mac and Linux without download buttons with text like "coming soon" or
"unavailable"?

~~~
elyrly
I feel any indicator that shows the product is coming soon will relay the
message to users to follow-up (ie email notification when mac/linux is
release).

~~~
Venux
Thanks again for your suggestion.

------
trcollinson
The web site seems very solid to me. The design is good, clean, very
professional.

Your message isn't nearly as clear. I understand you encrypt data and somehow
make sharing, or keeping, my data more secure. But I don't see to what end. I
don't get a clear sense of what MY problem is and then how you are solving it.

So let's say I like to video chat online with my college bound son using
Google Hangouts. I am also security and privacy conscious. How do I go from
downloading your software to having a chat with my son? By the way, there is
not a chance in hell I am going to download your software, hand you my account
information, and get my son to do the same thing BEFORE you describe to me how
the software works and what benefit I am getting. Give me a simple "walk
through" of what you want me to do and why this is going to make my life
better and maybe I will. Something like:

Google Hangouts are insecure -> government officials/naughty hacker people
watch you while you chat on Google Hangouts -> You love privacy and want
security -> Downloading Venux is easy -> connect with Venux to Google hangouts
makes hangsouts secure! -> Venux secures you and blocks out government
officials/naughty hackers!

You also make some sensational claims about your security. Mathematically
impossible? How do I know? Have you been peer reviewed? Have you been audited?
Can I look at how you implement the algorithms? Or should I just hand you my
credit card and believe? I am not trying to sound difficult, I just want you
to think about how you talk about your product.

There is a TON of data on your front page and frankly I get lost in all of it
and it doesn't really tell me anything I want to know in order to decide if I
want to actually download your software. It would take me a while to critique
the entire experience. I would suggest simplifying the entire page and giving
me a simple path to realizing I have a problem and then showing me that you
are the solution.

Edit: One other thing I guess I would like to point out is you could, and
probably should, niche this thing. For example, look at Tarsnap[0]. The
website design won't win awards. They aren't attempting to market to every
person in the world who could use an online backup. I believe it takes a high
level of technical prowess to use their product. Yet, they have a very very
profitable niche. I am not comparing your product to theirs (though I guess
they both have a security component). What I am saying is pretty web site
designs don't sell products. Finding the right customer and then making sure
that customer knows about you sells products.

[0] [http://www.tarsnap.com/](http://www.tarsnap.com/)

~~~
Venux
Hello trcollinson,

First of all, thank you very much for thoughtful input as well as your
suggestions, we are considering much of what you have said.

"The web site seems very solid to me. The design is good, clean, very
professional." Thank you very much!

"Your message isn't nearly as clear. I understand you encrypt data and somehow
make sharing, or keeping, my data more secure. But I don't see to what end. I
don't get a clear sense of what MY problem is and then how you are solving
it." We will improve the message on our website based on your other
suggestions. Once again, thank you!

"So let's say I like to video chat online with my college bound son using
Google Hangouts. I am also security and privacy conscious. How do I go from
downloading your software to having a chat with my son?" It’s very simple
actually, download, install and register. The entire process takes less than a
minute and required only once.

"By the way, there is not a chance in hell I am going to download your
software, hand you my account information, and get my son to do the same
thing" That's the thing. You DON'T provide us with anything. Communication
features such as chat/video/audio calls are free. As for providing us with any
information, in order to use our software you only need to provide username
and the password which is not submitted anywhere nor stored in any databases.
Your credentials (username + password combination) is transcoded (one-way hash
functions involved) and your profile created/accessed based on this transcoded
information. Your credentials also calculate 8 (digits/numbers) PIN that you
can provide to your son (or get his PIN) and by using this PIN (which is
unique to your credentials only) you can become friends/contacts with anyone.

"BEFORE you describe to me how the software works" Well, not sure how deep you
wish to go into implementation, but the high-level architecture is; Network:
Venux forms Peer-to-Peer decentralized overlay network on top of the Internet.
The network topology is similar to Gnutella, Freenet and other p2p networks
which are formed on supernode/leaf (although in our network it is called
router/peer) nodes. Venux "Routers" are elected automatically among Venux
"peers" based on multiple criteria. Their job is to route synchronization
information, coordinate "peers" for NAT (Network Address Translation)
traversal, sometimes route audio/video calls via RTP (Real-Time Protocol)
tunnels when peers are behind strict firewalls. Audio/video calls are
transmitted using SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol)

Storage: All information within Venux Network is stored by peers in small (3kb
to 40kb) .PGP files. They are all looking likes this;

85C6 A2C6 7E93 3911 7952 2171 0656 85F8 8C08 A0D5 5F35 62A4 807A 4862 0F52
87DF F154 E2EF.pgp 889B 61EA BB94 7B77 5E02 3179 DDF6 3A0E 8669 29A0 0A1A 23D5
3EB4 8DEE 2408 04E3.pgp These files maybe your profile, avatar of one of your
contacts, etc. Venux uses PGP for validation purposes as well as for anonymity
by the use of PGP ascii-armor.

Profile: UniversalID (or UID) is a JSON object that stores contacts public
keys, login credentials to remote services such as DropBox and so on. UID is
always in sync (at least it tries to be) with all of its copies that are
stored locally (and any other computer/device you use to login into Venux) as
well as within your contacts.

"and what benefit I am getting. Give me a simple "walk through" of what you
want me to do and why this is going to make my life better and maybe I will.
Something like: Google Hangouts are insecure -> government officials/naughty
hacker people watch you while you chat on Google Hangouts -> You love privacy
and want security -> Downloading Venux is easy -> connect with Venux to Google
hangouts makes hangouts secure! -> Venux secures you and blocks out government
officials/naughty hackers!" The overall benefit is simple. You have a single
profile (you may have many profiles if you wish, they are all free) that
allows you to login from anywhere on the planet, access your encrypted/raw
data from various services, communicate with your contacts, access your remote
computers/devices, share your files from work computers with any of your
contacts from home, all of it without worrying about privacy and anonymity.

"You also make some sensational claims about your security. Mathematically
impossible? How do I know?" Pretty much all modern strong cryptographic
algorithms are mathematically impossible to break. Assuming you don't have a
key, the only option you have is a brute-force attack which has nothing to do
with mathematics. Given the synergy effect of our implementation (where
algorithm to encrypt the data is chosen based on user credentials), even
brute-force attack is pretty useless. Given another point where all .PGP files
all look alike without any outside references, you don't really know either if
you’re attacking the profile or somebody's avatar. The biggest issue in any
security system is a key management, not cryptography, which in Venux is
pretty much automatic.

"Have you been peer reviewed?" Many of the algorithms we use are peer-
reviewed.

"Have you been audited?" Most system components are audited since they have
been used in other security products. As for Venux, no, we haven't been
audited but hope to do that soon.

"Can I look at how you implement the algorithms?" You will have a chance to
review entire code base once we'll go open-source.

"Or should I just hand you my credit card and believe?" We don't need your
credit card if you are not satisfied with our product(s).

"I am not trying to sound difficult, I just want you to think about how you
talk about your product." Yes, thank you very much, your input is very
valuable to us!

"There is a TON of data on your front page and frankly I get lost in all of it
and it doesn't really tell me anything I want to know in order to decide if I
want to actually download your software. It would take me a while to critique
the entire experience. I would suggest simplifying the entire page and giving
me a simple path to realizing I have a problem and then showing me that you
are the solution. Edit: One other thing I guess I would like to point out is
you could, and probably should, niche this thing. For example, look at
Tarsnap[0]. The website design won't win awards. They aren't attempting to
market to every person in the world who could use an online backup. I believe
it takes a high level of technical prowess to use their product. Yet, they
have a very very profitable niche. I am not comparing your product to theirs
(though I guess they both have a security component). What I am saying is
pretty web site designs don't sell products. Finding the right customer and
then making sure that customer knows about you sells products."

We are working to improve that as we speak :)

------
adventured
You need to give a very, very specific use case right off the bat.

Security, computing, privacy. Simplify everything. Be in control of your data.
Communicate freely. Mathematically impossible to break.

What are you talking about? So much text, and you don't even provide one
actual direct strike example use among all of that buzzwording.

Pick your top one or two use cases, be specific, and sell yourself for that
immediately near the top of the intro on the homepage. Right now it comes
across as so vague as to not mean anything specific. Products are about
solving narrow, specific problems; the wider you cast the net the harder it's
going to be to get the traction you want.

~~~
Venux
Thank you for your feedback. This is useful information to us.

