

Ask HN: Shall I continue or pivot?  - ychw

I want to hear your suggestions on whether I should continue on my startup (or project): TaggTo (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.taggto.com).<p>The original idea of &quot;TaggTo&quot; is: a platform for people to create &quot;picture product reviews&quot; (tagging product pictures). In Jan. 2013, we released first version of our app. However, there were very little downloads even after weeks. I tried my best to market it, but none of them worked. Finally we did a survey among those users who were active but stopped coming. The survey showed they stopped coming because:<p>1. most of the users don&#x27;t want to write anything;<p>2. not enough content to consume.<p>Eventually decided to drop the &quot;review&quot; feature and shifted our focus to &quot;social commerce&quot;. To make content more interesting, we pre-seeded many products, and focused mainly on Fashion and Home categories. We re-launched &quot;TaggTo v2&quot; in late Oct. 2013. This time we got more users signed up, but it&#x27;s still not significant enough to make a difference. And the worse news was, my co-founder had to quit due to family reasons. And since I had been out of job for two years, I also took a contract job since last Sept. So now I am the only person working on it, part time.<p>Now I am facing a difficult decision on whether I should continue on this project --<p>Reasons to continue:<p>1. One of the biggest problems for the current TaggTo app is it&#x27;s not engaging enough. I already have some ideas to tackle that.<p>2. We already put in a lot in the app -- we have a very solid foundation thanks to over engineering, :-D<p>3. Many people (including some angels &#x2F; VCs) are actually impressed with the quality of the app.<p>Biggest fear for continue:<p>After moving away from our &quot;picture review&quot; feature, TaggTo lost its uniqueness. I am afraid even if I am able to attract a good amount of users with the new features, TaggTo still cannot standout due to lack of uniqueness.<p>Please click here to continue (sorry can&#x27;t squeeze in 2k chars):<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.taggto.com&#x2F;ask_hn.htm
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debt
First I wouldn't put ask_hn.htm on your main domain. Secondly, the app, while
well polished, doesn't offer anything original. It looks like you sunk a big
chunk of cash and resources into the design and engineering. You should've
focused more on answering why you're doing what you're doing.

You have an app. But what does it really do? Why would I use TaggTo? When
would I use TaggTo? How does TaggTo make my life better? Does TaggTo offer me
a way to express myself creatively?

The biggest and most important question, do you have a community around TaggTo
or the ability to build a community around it?

I'd either pivot into something more community-driven or sink more funds into
marketing.

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penguinlinux
You should pitch this app to Conde Nast media. Specially their women
magazines. They would love an app like this customized with their branding.
Specially if the products advertised on their magazines also display on your
app. This will make the magazine more social in a mobile world.

~~~
ychw
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, white labeling is another area I am constantly
looking into. However, it seems hard to find the right contact to pitch. Any
idea on that?

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mindcrime
[http://www.taggto.com/ask_hn.htm](http://www.taggto.com/ask_hn.htm)

~~~
ychw
Thanks!

