

Ask HN: Review my startup - timae
http://www.acruw.com

======
grahamr
First impressions: I really like the overall look & feel of the site:
approachable, modern, clean, and not needlessly "web 2.0"

I have trouble knowing from your messaging who your target audience is, and
whether I'm in it. E.g. needs for someone who travels casually and who is
accruing miles towards a particular vacation would be very different for
someone who travels for a living and has dozens of accounts to keep track of.

For me, I've mostly standardized on United Mileage Plus and therefore make
sure that any reward programs I participate in are compatible with United's
program. Therefore, United's site serves as the aggregator for all my
mileage/reward programs.

I'll sign up and see how it goes.

~~~
timae
Thanks for the feedback.

I would say the ideal customer would be someone with at-least 3 programs. So
for example, if you had points with United, Marriott and American Express,
then I think you would find the site useful. However, the more programs you
have, the more useful the site becomes.

The one feature I think anyone with at-least 1 frequent flyer or hotel program
could use is the "points or pay" calculator (there's a "points or pay" link in
the tab-like menubar).

------
siong1987
Remove the valid XHTML image. It has no impact at your customers at all as
long as you make sure that the layout is correct in every possible browsers.

Anyway, nice and clean layout.

~~~
timae
done!

------
soundsop
I like the idea.

You may want to let users know on the front page which rewards programs you
support. I see that it's in the FAQ, but to see that information instantly
might be more reassuring to the user (especially, the one that isn't going to
look at the FAQ before leaving).

Personally, I would never trust your website with my reward site password (I
think that's how the site works). I'm not picking on you, I simply don't trust
any website with another website's password. This doesn't seem to be a
hindrance to sites like Facebook that ask for your Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo
password, although, unlike your site, they don't store the password (or so
they claim). I don't know how you would possibly get around this limitation or
whether you should bother trying, as you may get more users from the
convenience of storing passwords.

------
tomsaffell
As someone who has a fair few miles in each of 6 different FFPs I like the
idea, but it's probably not useful enough for me to use it. I don't find any
of the things listed in 'With acruw you can...' hard to do today (= you're not
removing pain).

Where you would be removing pain is if you could do searches for reward seat
availability for me. Like a kayak.com but for points. I would use that for
sure (searching for reward seats is real pain).

------
adamdoupe
On Firefox 1.5 on Linux (It's what they make us use at school), the "points or
pay" text extends beyond the tab.

[http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=20k3o0z&s=4](http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=20k3o0z&s=4)

But beyond that, I agree with the comments so far, excellent design and I wish
you the best of luck.

------
mikkom
Same question of always (because you are asking about startup, not website):
What is your revenue model?

~~~
timae
Right now, focusing on getting users. We do have some ads up, including:

1\. adsense

2\. affiliate marketing of airline and hotel credit cards (on your Delta
"details" page, for example, you'll find a link to sign-up for the Delta amex
card). A pretty relevant ad, given you're looking at the details of your delta
miles and you're presented with an ad that allows you to earn 25,000
additional miles for signing up (or whatever the promo is).

3\. Orbitz referrals on the "points or pay" page.

------
vaksel
your valid XHTML image doesn't seem to load

on the design note, those are some really good images...did you make them
yourselves? Also very clean overall design

Also...kudos on the short sign up page

~~~
timae
Good call on the W3C validator. The site does validate, but I think I'll take
that button off anyway (it was giving me some problems too).

Regarding the images: We got most of the icons from istockphoto (the planes,
calendars, mini charts, etc.).

------
shawndrost
Oh thankyou thankyou thankyou. I was looking for this earlier.

------
pierrefar
You have some rendering weirdness in Firefox 3.0.1 on OSX Leopard:

I've put up a screenshot: <http://cli.gs/152EXg> . Look at the first blue
rectangle's left side edge and the bottom right blue box's right edge.

Interesting idea, too :)

Pierre

------
mattmaroon
Personally I'd be worried about giving a brand new startup my OnePass creds,
considering I have a stored credit card there and you could use them to book
flights.

I like the idea a lot though. I used to travel quite a bit, and mainly stuck
to one airline due to the mileage.

------
terpua
Awesome idea and clean execution. Please add international airlines. Great for
the expat community which uses multiple airlines for different regional
destinations.

------
breck
asp? interesting. (i'm not judging at all, just curious as to your reasons for
using it)

i like the design. the messaging isn't that compelling for me however "track
your balances".

when i sign up for something i like to think "what am i going to get?"
tracking balances isn't something that i get. could it be something like "see
where you can go [with your current points]"?

that would make me want to sign up.

------
rokhayakebe
Very beautiful design. Great idea as well. I have worked for 4 years with
frequent fliers and they all experience headaches with their miles and
rewards....

------
pjharrin
I believe travelfli.com/ is going to be doing a similar thing, so make sure
you market a lot to get the market share

~~~
terpua
<http://blog.travelfli.com/>

They are talking to a lot of airlines and hotels.

------
terpua
Have a sign up button at the end of the learnmore page.

------
inrev
What does acruw mean or stands for?

~~~
there
accrue? as in accruing miles?

~~~
timae
correct.

------
eli_s
As stated already - really great looking design. The idea looks good to me
too. Are you thinking of travel based advertising for revenue?

