

Ask HN: Review my startup - gilmanyu

Hey guys. A friend and I are building a small web app and we would love to get some feedback. Are we providing enough value for the users? Is there enough information on the homepage for people to sign up?<p>Here's the page, would enjoy your feedback! http://flexdayapp.com<p>Regards from Gilman
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canibanoglu
I think the idea is a good one but having never worked in a company before
(still in school), I can't say if companies need something like this. Even if
they do, how does your product differentiate itself from the solutions already
in use by these companies? A side by side comparison could be a good idea
here.

As attheodo said, I think screenshots are a must. It lets your potential
customers see what they're going to get.

The website could use a little bit more work. I'm not a designer by any
stretch by personally speaking, I like information grouped up based on
context. What do I mean by that? The main body of the page is about what your
application does but there's a big arrow that points to pricing and plans
which is in the main body as well. I would consider adding a navigation bar
and place pricing and plans there along with some other links.

Speaking of other links, consider adding an about page which lets your
potential customers know who they're dealing with.

You could consider giving out beta access or free access for a limited amount
of time so you can see how your potential customers use your application and
get valuable feedback from them. This will also help you build up a user base
which can turn into customers when the app launches for real.

And while this may be a small issue or perhaps one that is strictly related to
my browser (Safari), the header "Track employees with..." seems to be farther
left than the line above Copyright stuff. For some reason this really disturbs
me, I instinctively expect them to be lined up. If this was intended please
ignore this.

Speaking of the copyright footer, there's a funny character before (c).

Hope this helps and good luck with your application :)

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gilmanyu
Thanks your valuable feedback! really appreciate it!

Yes, understand your point and totally agree with you. One of the reasons why
we put such a big arrow in the body was that we wanna see whether people would
even hit the pricing button even they only saw a few lines of the product so
it serves a little validation purpose for us to understand whether people
would be interested in paying for such service but ya we definitely gonna try
navigation bar and add more tabs as A/B testing!

In terms of the alignment problem in Safari, we are fixing it right now and
should be good to go but thanks so much for pointing out!

Really appreciate you guys even took time to read and make comment. you guys
rock!

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Peroni
Point 2 isn't particularly clear. Is there a market for a product aimed
managing vacation time for employees? What price range had you in mind?

Also agree with the screenshot comment.

Some copy amendments:

#1 Should read: Collect vacation requests

#2 Should read: Adding new staff or changing the approval structure

Sign up page. Should read: We are working hard adding the final touches to
Flexday.

Overall, I'd need a lot more info to peak my interest.

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gilmanyu
I am actually doing some research works inluding online survey and interview
and we found that many SME (10 - 60 employees) still haven't established a
internal vacation tracking system due to high cost implementation. We also
spot that SME from creative industry or tech startup are interested in
building one as long as it's affordable.

In terms of price range, we are still testing the market reaction and trying
to talk to those who signed up. But I guess we probably gonna charge per
number of employees.

Totally agree and screenshots will be on soon! Thx so much for your feedback!

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Peroni
You may have established that not many SME's have a system but have you
established that they need one?

I'm part of a management team that oversee's approximately 100 people and
managing vacation time is insanely low on my priority list simply because is
incredibly straightforward and requires little time or effort.

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nos4A2
Hmm, generally a corporation would seek payroll integration with attendance
info (since they are linked, and why would anyone bother entering employee
details multiple times).. Just my 2c, after all no one ever knows the market
:) Best of Luck!

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gilmanyu
Thanks for the valuable inputs and this is true!

we are trying to cater those SME who haven't got their internal system in
place so this service could serve as their company internal HR platform to
effectively facilitate internal communication between HR and employee. Does it
make sense tho?

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Mitchella
Simple and smart idea. I believe that if you stick with the simplistic layout
that your landing pages have for the whole app you'll make a lot of managers
lives a lot easier. Something else to consider down the road is integration
with whatever systems for employee time tracking and management they may be
using currently. This may require a little research into which are the most
popular and which allow for open integration into their applications/software.

I wish you the best of luck.

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manishsharan
Who is your target market ? There are several types of businesses with varying
sizes and in-house /vendor/homegrown solutions for Time management. You should
pick one and focus your message at that. Otherwise your target customer will
bounce off your page.

Also, you need integration with Payroll solutions (like ADP ). Call up your
friends in HR and hit them up on how they do it now. I know from experience
that payroll integration for vacation system is an absolute must.

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attheodo
Definitely add some screenshots if you have any

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gilmanyu
Yes sir and should be on soon!

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BPm
Nice, actually few months ago, my ex supervisor asked me to implement this,
but I didn't have time. Good luck!

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codegeek
clickable <http://flexdayapp.com>

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cup
My monitor is set up for portrait style viewing (as opposed to the more
typical landscape style). This works for most websites but with yours it
doesnt and i have to scroll right to see everything on the page. Thats just
the first problem.

From another superficial point, I don't really your choice of font. It makes
the charachters look a bit broken up and uneven and bothers my eyes.

Lastly, you need to put some more information there. Its so sparse, I don't
understand what you're providing me with beyond a very basic big picture view.

That aside, the website is clean and the idea is promising, best of luck to
you.

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gilmanyu
Thanks for pointing it out. haven't tested on portrait view and will see how I
can align it better.

I am trying different fonts to see which one works better and definitely will
put up some screenshots once the product is ready!

