

BetaCandy: Idea to Launch in Under 24 Hours - ericingram
http://collaborable.com/blog/betacandy-open-signup-now

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jerrell
Really interesting idea.

One issue I was conscious of while reading the description: I'm not sure the
intersection between the early adopter cohorts for different markets would be
very large. There is a certain mindset involved, sure, but people need to also
be passionate enough about the subject or pain point to bother with bleeding
edge products.

If you try to just sign up as many people as possible who self-identify with
the early adopter mindset, it may take a while before you have broad enough
coverage of interests in that audience for it to be useful to startups outside
the core "tech for techies" market.

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mikecarlucci
It might take a while to get the right audience but it could be like the App
Store for small/new developers who could never get any sizable audience at all
to really explore a project in process.

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sachinag
Ha, awesome! Nice to see all sorts of ideas around this space pop up. Love
that companies have to give the subscribers something special to be featured.

(We submitted AlphaList, which doesn't do promotions and asks the e-mail list
subscribers to give the founder feedback, ten days ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140672> )

If y'all need any help or have any questions, just let me know.

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jschuur
Your incentive driven approach seems to overcomplicate what you're trying to
solve. You're creating a commitment and operational overhead for a new service
where it's not really needed.

If I'm an early adopter, it's because I already love trying out new stuff. No
need to give me candy, just tell me where the van is.

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ericingram
I understand your point, but an unsweetened offer quickly becomes another tech
blog/feed, another e-mail you ignore because it's like every other beta intro.

I believe sweet offers give subscribers a reason to pay attention to the
entrepreneurs product, beyond what you'd get at a typical tech blog.

Thanks for your feedback!

~~~
jschuur
I think early adopters are smarter than that. They don't need to be lured in
with the offer of free stuff. The very reason they're early adopters is
because they grasp the potential for a new service and how it fits into their
lifestyle. Not because of a superficial offer of freebies.

Companies that are confident about their quality products at an early stage
don't need to bait beta testers with free stuff to lure them in.

In fact, I think you're going to skew the kind of user who would sign up based
on getting free stuff in the wrong direction.

No doubt, you could get _more_ users if you offer free stuff, but at this
early point, companies want the _right_ kind of users, not quantity.

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rmah
Umm... what does it do?

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ericingram
Entrepreneurs sometimes have trouble getting a new product into the hands of
its most important target: early adopters.

It's an e-mail list, open signup for now, but invite-only soon, of picky early
adopters. People that are usually the type to play with beta products (good
ones, great ones).

Entrepreneurs create a killer offer to attract these early adopters (BetaCandy
subscribers) and the "best" will be sent to this list. Hand picked, no spam.

Think of it like a shortcut for the famous "email signup splash page". If we
grow a quality list of true early adopters, keep the offers relevant and
awesome, it should work out well for both startups and subscribers.

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sunsu
One weekness of this is that it won't work well (at least in the beginning)
for startups whose products are focused more towards businesses.

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ericingram
So far, most of the signups identify themselves as entrepreneurs. That means
business products may fare well.

As things go, we'll come up with clever ways of segmenting and targeting the
list, to maximize impact for entrepreneurs and relevance for subscribers.

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alanfalcon
I'd have liked the opportunity to self identify with multiple options as I'm
sure others here would as well.

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alanfalcon
Now I want this kind of list for iOS apps. Suggestions?

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ericingram
Have a particular iOS app/maker in mind? I want to approach the best, and get
the best offers for our subscribers.

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ericingram
Currently at about 50 subscribers (double opt in).

~~~
ericingram
150

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kiriappeee
I signed up. The confirmation mail hasn't arrived after nearly 20 minutes :S

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ericingram
Ouch, it's a campaign monitor list, so delivery is up to their system
(campaignmonitor.com). When it closes to invite only, we'll use our own system
to manage invites and emails.

You can subscribe multiple times and it should re-send the confirmation.

