

Ask HN: Review my startup, tasskr.com - dan335

Hi everyone!  I made a list maker app and would like your feedback.  A few months ago I went looking online for a todo list to help me get things done.  I eventually decided to write my own and learn rails (and put things off even more).  Tasskr is a simple list maker with due dates, time estimates, recurring tasks, reminders and graphs.  I'm hoping it could be profitable.<p>http://tasskr.com
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euroclydon
If you're really serious about making money on it, then you should do the
following:

1) Add a couple more features that are geared around integration with people's
workflow, like phone reminders, and maybe some ability to, oh, I don't know,
send a grocery list to a husband, or a parts list to a delivery guy.

2) Research, research, research, where people are spending money on the
internet for something like this. You'll find the usual suspects, like
Basecamp, and you'll want to avoid being like that. Instead, you'll want to
find underserved markets niches, dozens of them.

3) Once you've identified the markets, build a list of them, and outline the
contents of a landing page for each niche. Do this on the computer, so that
you can programmatically create all these landing pages and capture some of
the long tail traffic.

4) This should really be #1, but get someone to start paying, anyone. This
will force you to scratch someone's itch who has money. Make whatever changes
they need so that the service is valuable to them. You really need to find one
person out there, who's saying "I wish I had an online task list that met my
needs! If I only did, I could make $X more this week/month/year."

~~~
dan335
So go after business users. Do you think they are more likely to pay for an
app like this?

~~~
crasshopper
Because "business users" = dumb, lots of $, willing to pay for anything,
right?

Sorry to snark, it just bugs me when people assume that because you slap a
"for business" or "pro version" onto something, that business users will want
to use it. Businesses like saving money just as much or _more_ than people.

If there's not a compelling profit purpose, businesses won't buy it.

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jckay
Aren't there a ton of apps that do this, or something very similar. I did a
Google search and found a pretty solid top 25 list
[http://www.solutionwatch.com/450/25-to-do-lists-to-stay-
prod...](http://www.solutionwatch.com/450/25-to-do-lists-to-stay-productive/)

I am just curious how this one stands out?

~~~
dan335
Months ago I went through that list and couldn't find one I liked. Half are
not todo lists, a lot of them are downloadable which I didn't want and most
were way too complicated. The few that had the features I wanted were too
complicated. Do you use one of those?

~~~
mathgladiator
That's why you will do well since people will try it.

It's also why you are doomed as they will try something else.

I wish you luck in getting a stable customer base to launch something bigger.
You could use this product to start building pagerank and your brand. Look at
<http://www.6wunderkinder.com/> for ideas on how they are doing it.

------
gadders
I'm more of a pencil and paper guy, but at first glance it looks very nice.

A couple of quick thoughts:

1) You might want to make it clearer which features are in the basic model and
which are in the "Pro" version on the landing page

2) I'd maybe change the wording around the "More Features" section. Maybe I'm
being hyper-critical, but it sounds more like "here's my project, what do you
think?" rather than "Here is my professional piece of software that is being
actively developed and having new features added daily".

Maybe something like:

"Taskrr is under active development, with new features being added on a
daily/weekly basis. Please feel free to suggest new features via [feedback
form link?]. You can see our current roadmap here [link to dogfooded dev
roadmap using Taskrr!]"

Hope that helps.

Mark

~~~
dan335
Yeah that helps, thanks.

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maxbrown
I really like: the up-front-and-center screenshot of what the interface looks
like, before I even sign up.

Personally, not a fan: forcing me to Sign Up before I get to see any more
information. Why only one page? I looked around briefly for a pricing page,
About, or FAQ. Couldn't find any. Maybe it's intentional - that's a different
discussion I suppose.

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orlandop
Looks great! Like the theme and after a couple of minutes trying it, I can see
its uniqueness.

Do you mind mentioning what gems you are using? The hide/unhide of the child
tasks looks good, and also like the dragging to reorganize.

~~~
dan335
Sure, here are the gems.

nested_set, devise, jquery-rails, dynamic_form, chronic, chronic_duration,
easy_dates, lazy_high_charts, recaptcha, rspreedly, redcloth, delayed_job,
workless

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shiftpgdn
I'd like to see something to trank time spent on a task. Perhaps in 15 minute
increments?

~~~
dan335
That's on the long list of things I'd like to add. If you have suggestions on
best way to implement let me know.

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sagacity
Clickable:

<http://tasskr.com>

