

Ask HN: Should I continue with my bootstrapped startup? - MattBearman

I launched BugMuncher (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bugmuncher.com) a couple of years ago when Google + launched. Some people on HN seemed more interested in G+&#x27;s feedback tool than G+ itself, they wanted this tool for their own website. BugMuncher was based on G+&#x27;s feedback tool.<p>I&#x27;ve put a lot of time into BugMuncher, going from MVP to full app, but I&#x27;m only making $200 &#x2F; month. I fear people are impressed when they first see BugMuncher, but no one <i>needs</i> this tool. I dogfood BugMuncher with my own users, even they don&#x27;t use it much.<p>I think it could have more use for reporting cross browser issues, but all screenshots are created with webkit, so it&#x27;s pretty useless for that. I&#x27;ve looked into using VM&#x27;s to create screenshots for different browsers, the only service that would work is crossbrowsertesting.com, but they&#x27;re prohibitively expensive. I&#x27;d either have to put my prices up a lot, or cut the monthly report limit by 70%<p>Which brings me to my only competitor, Usersnap - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;usersnap.com. They launched after me, but got VC funding, and use VM&#x27;s to take screenshots in the same browser&#x2F;OS as the user. Based on their pricing and report limit, I think they use crossbrowsertesting.com for screenshots, and the last time they posted a show HN, people complained 50 reports is not enough for $19 &#x2F; month.<p>I&#x27;m now wondering if BugMuncher will ever be my full time job, I&#x27;ve got other things I&#x27;d like to work on, and I&#x27;m doing well freelancing. I don&#x27;t feel like I have time for BugMuncher unless it can bring the majority of my income.<p>- Would you use BugMuncher as it is now (webkit screenshots)?
 - If not, would you use it if I used VMs to take screenshots with the correct browser, if so, would you want higher prices or lower limits?
 - Should I consider funding?
 - Should I stop, and sell BugMuncher or open source it?
======
codegeek
I looked at your site and then went to usersnap. Overall, both ideas are good
but usersnap is beating you in terms of landing page/design and most likely
sales/marketing efforts. For example, on your landing page, there is no clear
way of knowing what bugmuncher is for. Sure, I want to "Fix bugs like a boss!"
but how ? Then I realize you have a small text description "BugMuncher is the
best way to receive feedback on your website. With BugMuncher annotated
screenshots can easily be sent along with feedback reports, making it ideal
for internal use, as well as getting feedback and bug reports from your
users." Why not make this prominent ? Usersnap smartly says "Screenshot is
worth a thousand words" and we know immediately what it is about.

I would not throw in the towel yet. Functionality wise, your demo video is
pretty cool. Other than work on your landing page, you definitely need to go
out and do sales/marketing. Stop working on the product and turn your
sales/marketing hat on. Get help from someone who knows this better than you
do if possible.

~~~
MattBearman
Totally agree that the home page needs to be redesigned. I've just started
talking to a designer with a view to replace the current themeforest template
with something custom and much better.

    
    
      Stop working on the product and turn your sales/marketing hat on.
    

You're so right, I've already been planning new features to work on, even
though I know I should be marketing. I guess I'm using what I'm good at
(development) to avoid doing what I'm bad at (marketing)

I've just cleared my trello to do list of everything but 'MARKETING'

------
phantom_oracle
Have you even identified your target market yet?

It's not a bad idea, I just don't think you've gotten the other part of the
startup right yet (sales and marketing).

I don't mind helping you with your idea (to guide you in a sense). I've given
advice to a couple others before.

I think if you clearly identified your target market and then attacked them
directly, you would find some success. Also, your landing page needs to become
more "pretty".

Even though it doesn't look that bad, it kind of has the early 2000s Java web-
tool look.

~~~
MattBearman
Thanks for the feedback, I'm pretty typical as a programmer, little to no
marketing skills. I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer.

In terms of target market, I think I'm a step behind that, I'm not even sure
what BugMuncher should be used for: bug reporting on live sites, team
communication during development, are cross browser issues important?

Should it be a fully featured issue tracker (crowded market) or should it just
integrate with existing tools?

I kind of feel like I'm throwing features at the wall to see what sticks :)

In terms of my current user base, it's mostly people using it for bug reports
on live sites, but I feel in that use case, cross browser issues are important
:s

I agree the website definitely needs redoing, I bought that on themeforest,
gonna work with a designer to make something a lot better.

~~~
phantom_oracle
Well any advice I give will be open for everyone to see (competitors included)
and limited to the 2000 chars provided by HN.

If you'd like to discuss things privately, use
[http://boun.cr](http://boun.cr) to hide your email and we can discuss things
via email thereafter.

Otherwise, as you've mentioned about your current market, it seems like the
market is pushing your tool towards the live-site part of it.

Maybe I should try evaluating your product also. I need to "play" with it to
understand how I would interpret its use in the role of a customer.

------
toumhi
From my experience advising other SaaS product owners, this is unfortunately a
tough but common spot to be in. You have a product, a few customers, but not
enough and don't know how to grow it.

Of course, like others have said, you could change your landing page and your
pricing and a few relatively important things, but in my opinion these are
just surface things and you need to first ask yourself a few questions:

\- do you really understand your customers? What keeps them up at night? What
do they look for? Do they look for solutions on Internet? Do they buy things?
etc.

\- go into full focus on your ideal customer. Describe it precisely. Look into
personas.

\- now, how can your product fix one problem for your ideal customer? Make it
real, not vague statements everyone can say yes to (fix bugs like a boss,
imho, is not the root of the problem)

As far as I understand, you need to shift your mindset from focusing on your
product to focusing on your customers. Go interview them, get on the phone
with them, look at them using your software, get a feel of why they don't use
it or stop using it...

Lately, I've written several blog posts on this topic if you like, you will
find it here: saasfoundry.io/blog

~~~
MattBearman
Thanks for the great advice, I've been considering this a lot. I'm currently
working on a whole new landing page that will focus more on the customer and
what they gain from BugMuncher.

I'll definitely check out your blog.

------
ra00l
Don't give up! You have a lot to improve on your website, marketing & UX.

Here's what I think: 1\. I only saw the "Feedback" widget AFTER seing the
movie. Either make it bigger or point a big arrow on it. 2\. I'd love if I
could adnotate highlights with some text. 3\. Your prices are too close
together, so the cheapest one still seems expensive. Try testing with 2x price
for Start up and 10x for enterprise.

BTW, I am using [http://www.criticue.com](http://www.criticue.com) to get
feedback on my websites, you can use that too.

Good luck with the project!

------
bentona
This might seem insignificant, but it's a good example of how you could
improve your marketing with little tweaks.

On your pricing page, the 'Personal' plan has one check mark and three red
"X"s. Why have the Xs at all? It's not that your personal plan is bad, it's
just that the other plans are better. It makes me feel like I shouldn't be
clicking "Start Free Trial", because it's right below three symbols of
negativity.

------
fdorfbauer
My name is Florian, I'm one of the co-founders and CEO of
[https://usersnap.com](https://usersnap.com) Since we're competitors, I won't
add specific advice. However I'd like to encourage you to stay in business as
I'm absolutely convinced that the market we're in is big enough and that the
idea behind the products we're building is a great idea.

------
vsergiu
The app is not that bad,but don't get your hopes up just yet. You really need
to work on your sales and marketing and measure everything from engagement to
what each user does within your app. Also my feedback is that the prices are
high compared to other competitors that offer more features.

~~~
MattBearman
Thanks for the reply. I have wondered about my prices, yet I seem to get less
signups now BugMuncher starts at $15 than when it only had one plan for $19 :s

Out of interest, how do you think it should be priced, and what do you
consider my competitors?

------
hackThePlanet13
I'm one of that poor guys who has to work with IE and I have to detect IE
issues, so for me it's very important that when I'm using a tool like
bugmuncher that I get what the user sees!

------
penguinlinux
Don't throw the towel yet, You can sell the technology behind your site. You
can package the whole thing and sell it so that people with big software QA
shops can use this on their own sites.

~~~
MattBearman
I've started down this road a few times, with some fairly high profile
companies, but it's never come to anything. Probably because I have zero
experience selling enterprise software.

------
sogen
I'd focus Bugmunches on a very important piece of that is buried: Send
feedback reports directly to GitHub, Trello and others

~~~
sogen
I'd also add many screenshots of what it does. Don't talk about what it does,
show it. Check sites like mixpanel and intercom to see how they present stuff.

Also, make the video shorter and more entertaining (check crazyegg video)

~~~
MattBearman
Thanks for the feedback. Updating the homepage is now top priority, as it
seems to be the most common advice here. I'll be sure to make the third party
integrations more prominent.

------
jwheeler79
it might be something as simple as the name, BugMuncher, which is unappealing
IMO. Munching doesn't have a positive connotation, and munching bugs really
sounds bad. you might take a weekend to do some rebranding and push through
with another round of seo

