

How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/hipster-2/

======
trotsky
So TechCrunch is now promoting themselves as a critical component in the
substanceless promotion of a pre-launch website whose purpose is undetermined?

Their mothers must be very proud.

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callmeed
Images also exist for: <http://city-images.usehipster.com/boulder.jpg>
<http://city-images.usehipster.com/losangeles.jpg> <http://city-
images.usehipster.com/newyork.jpg> <http://city-
images.usehipster.com/boston.jpg> <http://city-
images.usehipster.com/miami.jpg> <http://city-
images.usehipster.com/chicago.jpg>

but not Portland or Seattle? And it's called "Hipster"? Phhhhfffttt

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fookyong
Dry testing at its best.

1) Landing page with email capture + vague promise of something cool

2) ???

3) Profit!

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have a product yet and are still
figuring things out...

EDIT: Just realised I am a hypocrite... <http://littlecosm.com> (I assure you
that there is a product behind this, though!)

~~~
daemin
Isn't that the whole point for the practice of lean startups? Where you
validate that there is a market by asking people to give their email address
before you go and start spending time and money on it.

Still feels a bit "icky" to me, but then I like the act of building stuff
itself.

~~~
fookyong
It is, although normally with a Dry Test you are a little more specific so
that you know what product the hype is or is not being validated for.

Hipster's hype simply validates that people like hype (and pictures of
cities).

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benologist
Heh one of the comments posted this link:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVu...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVuHsg4J:boulder.usehipster.com/questions/where-
is-the-best-happy-
hour+/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2Bsite:usehipster.com%2B%2522use%2Bhipster%2522&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

Which shows it to be another Q&A site.

~~~
dusing
Hmm. Hipster style Q/A for major cities. Like a Gilt/Quora. Could work

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narkee
Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by hype and bandwagon behaviour,
and not by actual content or usefulness.

~~~
dominostars
Isn't that just another way of saying, 'Illustrates how much tech adoption is
driven by marketing'?

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jdp23
"But just like the hipster tribe themselves, what Hipster does is besides the
point."

Really? It's probably going to matter one of these days ...

~~~
ianl
Don't question TechCrunch, it'll boggle your mind.

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fookyong
Turns out Hipster is Q&A for places:

<https://twitter.com/#!/yongfook/status/27198058643066880>

------
gmjosack
Once you signup it tells you to invite 3 more people and says the more people
you invite the sooner you'll get access. Not to take away from all the signups
they've received but I'm sure a good percent are people just entering fake
emails with their referral ID considering you don't even need to confirm your
signup.

~~~
narkee
It's like a pyramid scheme!

~~~
jdp23
except without any money!

------
sunbash
So there's been a lot of talk about hipster - the super stealth startup that
amassed a butt load of subscribers without revealing what it does. There's
been a lot of talk about how "brilliant" a success it already is.

TOTAL BS IN MY OPINION

First of all, its just the good ol SV old boys club at work. How did the
startup get prime coverage on TC their first few hours of splash page
activation? guess the founding team has some great connections.

secondly, i believe only techies and irrelevant early adopters invite people
to a site they have never used in return for "beta" access. 90% of the world
doesn't even know what beta access is. 80% of these sign ups will never
return.

What the F* does this validate?

I'll give it up for a great name and connects I would kill for, but these guys
have done absolutely nothing yet as far as i am concerned. Get this shit off
your homepage TMZ... i mean tech crunch.

What do you think?

------
joshfraser
We borrowed the same sign up process for <http://torbit.com> and are seeing
the same viral results, even though our product is a lot less consumer facing
than theirs.

I wouldn't be surprised to see this become standard functionality for startup
landing pages.

~~~
cmer
Could you explain this signup process a little bit more? I don't see anything
unusual at Torbit...

~~~
joshfraser
After you register we give you a custom link that offers you priority access
if you get your friends to register using that link.

~~~
prawn
Are you verifying the referred emails? What percentage of users are taking the
bait to get earlier access?

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impendia
That's a damn good picture. If they had put up an even slightly less cool
picture, the number of signups would not be so crazy.

With technology, as with everything else in life, appearance matters, and this
proves it.

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coderdude
Must... fight... the envy. Seriously though, congratulations to the people
behind it. I'd be so excited if I got that kind of response and I'd feel a lot
of pressure to not let all those interested people down.

------
brudgers
If you have to ask what hipster does, you're not hip enough to get it.

~~~
NiloParedes
As the hispter answered the straight-faced young mid-western in my office,
"What's a hipster?"

------
jw84
I wish they would graduate Alexia to cover better stories. Give her some of
those Glengerry Glen Ross leads, Michael and Erick, instead of making her
trawl through Hacker News threads.

Other than the ironic name use, what's the point of throwing 460 words on
this?

