

Ask HN: Please review my Minimum Viable Product - Yuffizi - ABrandt-2

For the past month or so I have been working on a new startup dubbed Yuffizi. This site will be an online marketplace for artists to sell art, and for anyone else to buy it. As with any business, this is at its heart an experiment. I am testing concepts such as Eric Ries's MVP and Steve Blank's  customer development model. Additionally, I will be testing my own theory about total openness in business development. My designs, business plans, and more will all be published on the Yuffizi blog.<p>(Note: I am a "business guy". Not a programmer, nor a designer. I can, however, take constructive criticism. Bring it on.)
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dxjones
I think there needs to be more on the site to draw interest.

Tell a story: Liz is an executive with a new office. She's in the market for
an abstract acrylic for that blank wall.

Jake is a digital artist whose colourful and intricate work is visually
engaging.

When this site connects Liz and Jake, Art Happens.

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ABrandt-2
Clickable link: <http://yuffizi.co.cc>

(MVP = cheap as possible = free domain/hosting) I will run it on something
meatier when necessary.

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dxjones
oops, as of Thu June 4 8pm EDT, the main page displays the same content
_twice_

did you duplicate your HTML or PHP?

I am using Firefox, Mac OSX, ... if it matters.

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ABrandt-2
thats strange, theres only a slight formatting problem when I view the site in
FF on my girlfriends Macbook. I suppose I'll have to play around with it some
more then...

As for telling a story, I agree that would be an interesting way to connect
with (potential) buyers. "Hmmm, that wall at the end of the hallway does look
a little plain..."

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gojomo
Hate to be 'that guy' who cites chapter and verse of PG, but before Viaweb
there was Artix, which is now the leading example in an essay entitled, "Why
Smart People Have Dumb Ideas":

<http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html>

Times changes, and certainly with each year more categories could make sense
for web sales... but art is still a uniquely hard market to automate... for
the reasons PG mentions and others.

Are art buyers frustrated with current options, and artists eager for a new
outlet?

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ABrandt-2
That is precisely what my preliminary research has led me to conclude. There
are thousands of artists fresh out of school that lack the proper skills to
sell their product. What makes this situation unique, however, is that today
these artists don't know a world without the internet. Just as they
instinctively turn to Google for their research, they also use the search
engine to find a source of income.

Like I stated before, Yuffizi is, above all else, an experiment. Based on the
opinions of various art consultants and curators, I have formed the hypothesis
that the industry is ripe for a web solution that can closely mimic a real-
world gallery.

