
Crunchfund VC - Brajeshwar
http://crunchfund.vc/
======
kloncks
Creator of the page over here.

Woke up to a really nice surprise here, especially having made this page two
months ago. Submitting it to HN wasn't my plan; someone else randomly found
the page and did that. Yes, indeed, it's Kout.me...if you care more, here's a
short description:

Kout is a dead-simple eCommerce platform that enables anyone, anywhere to be a
merchant across any platform with ease, elegance and simplicity. We make it
fast & easy to both sell items and collect money online and do this by
generating a simple one-page checkout that corresponds to a unique URL. We're
also doing really cool things with dynamic pricing, payments, as well as
social & mobile commerce.

Ah. I love HN.

~~~
ricardobeat
I'd like to ask a few questions, if you don't mind:

1\. why don't you mention kout.me on the page?

2\. how does your product differ from every payment processor that already
provides a link for a single product checkout?

hope your stunt goes ok :)

~~~
kloncks
I'm not sure why I veiled it a bit. I suppose it doesn't matter now and I made
this some time back...

We're not a payments processor. What we are is very simple selling (payments
included; part of the simplicity) that enables you to sell across any number
of different platforms, like Facebook, WordPress blogs, Twitter, Craigslist
(with checkout implementation), emails, etc etc. The only reason we deal with
payments is that it's a crappy experience for the end-user to handle payment
gateways and merchant accounts on their own. We get you up and running in
seconds/minutes, not hours/weeks. There's not a lot of ways to sell cross-
platform with ease, elegance and simplicity.

Does that make sense?

~~~
ricardobeat
What I mean is that Google Checkout, PayPal and Authorize.NET offer
essentially the same service. Here in Brazil all the major gateways
(PagSeguro, MoIP, Pagamento Digital, PayPal) also offer very simple HTML "buy
now" buttons with a streamlined payment process. Being a gateway you don't
need to signup anywhere else either. If your focus is on improving the UX and
sign-up process, that's laudable, but there's a shit ton of competition!

------
monosc
It's msg from <http://www.kout.me/>

(found it in css image link to www.ihany.com which is about kout.me, main
image is also from kout :)

~~~
omarchowdhury
And you signed up just to post that. Mmmkay.

~~~
monosc
That's right.

------
kmfrk
I think it's a clever and bold move that fits the target demographic of
Michael Arrington. :)

If it weren't Arrington, I might find it a little skeezy, but .vc domains
aren't that desirable anyway.

------
devan
Original founder here, took the prototype of Kout from a dorm room in the UK
to SF in about 3 months (Stereotypical dropping out start up story) - so im
emotionally inclined to defend product related posts ha.

Anyway.

Just wanted to cover a few points people have mentioned...

\---

We merge in the ecommerce platform with the payment processor. We really just
process payments so we can control the whole experience, but if you have your
own gateway you can just plug the api keys in. Most ecommerce platforms
require you to go signup with a 3rd party payment gateway, and the quick hack
for most people is to go with paypal.

Our focus is really on the ecommerce side. eJunkies lame. 1shoppingcart's
lame. Yeah a few others have poped up this year (quixly & gumroad) they just
really validate the need. If you don't need a fully fledged frontend store
your options are pretty limited.

We're not targeting big head merchants (shopify style merchants). We're
targeting micro merchants, the long tail of ecommerce; think the blogger who's
still using ejunkie and paypal to sell online, or the kickstarter style
sellers who just have one product and need a quick simple way to sell it.
www.mmfixed.com - is a prime example for a merchant we are targeting.

That's pretty much the current MVP. We've been live with around 200 merchants
for just over a month, and we've processed a few k, again in the first month.
We have a couple thousand on a waiting list, but waiting lists never convert
at 100% :(.

And yeah. This is just initial build (mvp), our "linked based selling" app
wont disrupt the industry, but what we want to build and our vision will...
Well, it gets us up in the morning, which is the important thing, so we'll see
how everything plays out.

shoot any questions or whatever to devan [at] kout.me

D.

~~~
ericingram
Don't feel like you have to defend your product to anyone.

At this stage, it doesn't matter how similar or different you are from
competitors, outside of the effect it will have on real customers. There's
plenty of room for more e-commerce platforms and I'm sure you'll make money.

Good luck!

~~~
devan
Thanks! Just really wanted to add a bit context.

------
mathattack
While I won't comment on the product or company, the pitch was very well
played. For a few hours (tops!) of effort they can guarantee a famous VC will
look at them. Crunchbase should graciously take the meeting. Even if they
don't, they will look at the product. Very good PR move. If they don't bite,
then blame the product. :-)

Edited to fix a typo.

------
Zakuzaa
A different kind of domain squatting.

~~~
tatsuke95
Yeah.

Product aside, I'll give the guy credit for an innovative pitch mechanism.
That said, I can't help but detect a _bit_ of sleaziness there.

~~~
kloncks
Keep in mind I had nothing to do with the submission to hn. My original plan
was to randomly have the CrunchFund folks stumble onto the page themselves.

------
khalidmbajwa
It just makes my day when i see something this out-of-the-box. PG must be so
proud ! Talk about hacking a non-computer system in style !

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nateberkopec
"An e-commerce version of Square." So, Square. Or Square in a year from now.

~~~
ivankirigin
What square does is make merchant services much better for brick & mortar.
They might move online, but I doubt they would defocus within a year. The
underserved offline market is too big

~~~
xborns
I don't think they are making it that much better. They are making it nice
looking.

They charge a ridiculous rate? 2.75% for swiped and 3.5% for virtual terminal.
That is more than double what typical rates go for swiped and cnp
transactions.

So the more volume you do the more you lose to them, for what, a fancy card
swiper? I get it maybe if you are a small mobile vendor at a place with no
connectivity, but once you have a brick and mortar I think you are probably
better off doing a regular setup since those percentages eat into your
margins.

~~~
ivankirigin
Have you ever processed credit cards? That they have a single rate is a
feature. Confusing rates is one of the myriad of problems that are
intentionally created by merchant service companies.

The ease of extracting money is also an excellent feature.

My bet if that you've used neither square nor tried to accept credit cards for
your business.

------
faramarz
I like that this isn't just an attention grab. You have already been validated
by another group.. so getting a call from Arrington's crew is almost
guaranteed, me thinks

Nicely done!

~~~
kloncks
Thanks :)

------
troymc
It's a creative way to get their attention, no question about that.

The business idea is in a highly competitive space, with some businesses that
have been around for over a decade. (pg co-founded one of them in 1995.)

That said, it might be workable if they specialize in making e-commerce sites
for a specific under-served niche with specialized needs?

I see a new trend in naming web services:

chipmunk --> hipmunk

checkout --> kout

~~~
kloncks
An even nerdier bonus of the name, our one-page checkout urls:
<https://chec.kout.me/DHjPci>

~~~
jcampbell1
That page has some bugs/usability issues:

\- Labels below the input are going to be a mess. I made the same mistake
because I copied wufoo, but moving them to the top cut the time to fill out
the form, and the number of errors significantly. Just trust me on this one.

\- County/State/Province should be State/Province. (County and country look
the same, and only the UK uses county in shopping carts, but it is
unnecessary.)

\- I am getting a mixed content warning: I see a <img src="/">, which loads
<https://chec.kout.me/> which redirects to <http://kout.me/> which causes the
mixed content warning". You need to fix the code so when there is no flag, it
loads something like "blank.gif" through https.

\- The credit card expiry year is way too long. I think the official limit is
4 years, but double check that.

\- the security code question mark doesn't seem to do anything and you should
be aware that the code is on the front of Amex cards, though pretty much
everyone knows by now.

Hope that is useful.

------
someone13
Perhaps it's just me, but this story has disappeared and doesn't show up at
all any more. Was it removed from HN for some reason?

~~~
kloncks
I don't understand why either.

~~~
someone13
Well, if it makes you feel any better - I thought the idea was really cool ^_^

Please post a follow-up, if you can!

------
leebossio
This. Is. Brilliant.

~~~
schraeds
Except for the fact that Mike is no longer a part of TechCrunch or CrunchFund.

~~~
n8agrin
I thought Mike was still part of CrunchFund:
<http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/crunchfund>

Regardless, great hustle. Love seeing people willing to stick their neck out.

------
deepkut
How would you say your service differs from Stripe? I love Stripe, so I'm
always closed minded when it comes to competitors. Hit me!

~~~
devan
Stripe's beautiful.

I covered it in a comment above. We're an ecommerce platform for micro
merchants, we just handle payments (for those who want us to) so we can
provide a seamless experience.

Here's the reply.

"We merge in the ecommerce platform with the payment processor. We really just
process payments so we can control the whole experience, but if you have your
own gateway you can just plug the api keys in. Most ecommerce platforms
require you to go signup with a 3rd party payment gateway, and the quick hack
for most people is to go with paypal. Our focus is really on the ecommerce
side. eJunkies lame. 1shoppingcart's lame. Yeah a few others have poped up
this year (quixly & gumroad) they just really validate the need. If you don't
need a fully fledged frontend store your options are pretty limited."

------
sylvinus
You're re-defining eCommerce? Sure.

~~~
noinput
Impressively un-called for remark. I don't know the man, nor do I know much
about kout (hence his private beta), but give the man a chance to make a
difference in the space.

~~~
rhizome
_give the man a chance to make a difference in the space_

What space, asking for an introduction? There is no product on that page
besides this.

~~~
noinput
Congratulations on missing the point.

~~~
rhizome
I may have (intentionally) missed the "I has a product" point, but I believe
the point of the post is public exposure, and critiques are a part of that.

I have to say, getting money from Angel (and others) and still having to do
this for an introduction might be a story in itself about the relative utility
of incubators & VCs beyond cash.

------
stc043
props to the stunt. that's a never-seen-before way to grab attention :) hope
you get funded by crunchfund.

------
taylorbuley
Arrington once ran Pool.com

He'll just let the domain drop

------
ronreiter
Brilliant!

------
dangerboysteve
so you invented a shopping cart. Why the fuck are you not funded!

~~~
devan
Much more to it than that, it's a pretty old landing page.

Most of our beta testers agree.

