

Optimizely (YC W10) brings data-driven Web design to the masses - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/05/17/hunting-hippos-optimizelys-testing-tools-bring-data-driven-web-design-to-the-masses/

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drndown2007
Nothing against Optimizely (I'll go see what it is after I post), but man I'm
getting tired of the cutsey -ly names. This is one fad I wish would fade away.

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Zakuzaa
What's wrong with -ly names?

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bartonfink
They do remind me of Ned Flanders - "okely dokely doo!" just a bit. I doubt
that's a widespread association but it's what jumps in my mind first.

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jbenz
We got a call from <http://hiconversion.co/> recently. They wanted to sell us
on their conversion optimizer software. Their site talks a lot about "Real
Time ROI" and "IT-Free Use", but no where on the site do they actually
describe what they do. I emailed the rep this question and he basically
wouldn't tell us. He would only say "I can explain it with a demo." We were
curious to see how it worked, so we said yes. Then we had to schedule a time,
call up GoToMeeting, enter the passcode, and listen to a 30 minute
presentation.

He was a nice enough guy, but my god, all HiConversion had to do was exactly
what Optimizely did: put a 4 minute video on their homepage (which I am seeing
for the first time today).

The WYSIWYG editing in both systems is pretty similar. The main difference is
that I got a quick and easy understanding after four minutes on Optimizely's
site.

P.S. The price is significantly better at Optimizely. 30 Day Free Trial and
$400/month vs $3,000/month. We'll check out that free trial version at least.

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dsiroker
Thanks, glad you like the demo video!

The inspiration for Optimizely came out of similar frustrations when I was the
Director of Analytics during the Obama campaign. We went through a long drawn-
out sales process with Omniture Test & Target when all we really wanted was a
short demo of the product. Hopefully we've done a good job of building a
product that is easy to use and understand so we can avoid doing a 30 minute
presentation to explain how it works. We're building the product I WISH we had
back during the campaign.

We're actually thinking of putting together a series of short videos
showcasing different features of the product similar to how Splunk does this:
<http://www.splunk.com/videos>

Is this something you'd be interested in?

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nhangen
I'm a happy paying user. Really dig the site. A few ideas for UI enhancements,
but I think this is a great and easy way to quickly test site changes without
having to dig into the code or Google Analytics, which makes the process
incredibly difficult.

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dsiroker
Hi Nathan, glad you dig our site! We're honored to have you as a paying
customer. If you have any UI suggestions for the product we'd be glad to hear
them. You can email us directly at hello@optimizely.com

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IanMikutel
Love what Optimizely is doing, keep up the great works guys! I think the A/B
testing market is one that'll keep growing for a long time, and tools that
make it easier to do will be the catalyst.

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dsiroker
Thanks Ian! Are you interested in joining us? We are actively hiring:
<http://jobs.optimizely.com/>

