

Show HN: Rakable – Share links privately - start123
http://www.rakable.com/

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start123
This is the first startup that I am launching and the idea behind it is that
there is a dearth of place on the web to share link privately with friends and
family, and one often resorts to various communication channels like email,
facebook or watsapp. Rakable aims to provide a centralized place for all your
links.

Future releases will include ability to create groups, attach files etc.

Tell me what you think of Rakable. Will greatly appreciate any feedback!

~~~
smt88
I'm going to give you some tough love here. I'm doing it because others have
done it for me, and it's been some of the most useful feedback I've gotten.
Sugarcoating things does nothing for anyone.

1) Your landing page does not make it at all obvious what Rakable actually
does. I already share links privately (via SMS, email, and Facebook, mostly).
It's not that efficient, but it's usually about two clicks. I could install
plugins to my browser to make it fewer clicks, but I haven't because I just
don't care enough.

Your landing page should tell people how Rakable helps them do something
they've already been doing, but does it better.

It also needs to be very clear whether the other party must be a Rakable user
in order to receive your links. If they must, then that's a dealbreaker. 100%
of my friends are reachable via SMS and email, and close to 100% are reachable
via Facebook. If Rakable starts out reaching 0% of them, it's not usable. Even
if it gets to 90%, it's still not that usable.

2) The "dearth" that you speak of doesn't actually exist[1]. In fact, I'd say
there's a glut of services that allow you to privately share links. Many
social bookmarking services offer(ed) this feature.

In fact, "social bookmarking startup" became something of a joke a few years
ago, much like "photo-sharing app" and "daily deals with a twist" and
"Facebook killer". There were just so many pitches and so many
indistinguishable startups in those categories that they've become tropes.

Some of the entrants in those areas failed because they were poorly executed,
but some of them failed because users just don't want them that badly. Just
because a hundred million people want something doesn't mean it's a
sustainable business -- they need to want it badly enough to allow you to
monetize it. And if you're not seeing a successful [insert startup category
here], it's probably because the idea is bad or unworkable, not because no one
else has tried to do it.

The question is, what exactly does Rakable do? I'm not going to sign up just
to find out. You should tell me on the front page. Does it organize the links
I send to others, so they can log in and see all the links I've send them? Or
so that I can refer back to them? How is it different from any messaging
service?

3) It's often better to start out by piggybacking on existing channels rather
than creating your own. Have you considered creating a Gmail plugin or
Facebook app that would scour your messages and organize your links by whom
you sent them to and when you sent them?

The cost of user acquisition is just massive, so it's better to have some kind
of "secret sauce" that makes it easier for you. And when I say cost, I do mean
cost. Lots and lots of money.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking#History)

~~~
start123
Really appreciate your detailed feedback!

I agree, a lot more work has to go into the landing page. I am currently
working on it. Regarding the usefulness, I am on almost all social networks,
yet when I have to share an interesting link I email or share the links
individually on facebook, and I when I have to share the link again at a later
point of time, I have to first try to remember where I shared it and then
search for it.

I built Rakable to solve my own problem of sharing content. It allows me
share, save links with others as well as build a repository of content.

I fully agree that user acquisition is costly, which is why I am taking small
steps at a time and validating the product to understand its demand.

Thanks again!

