

Show HN: My Start-up for managing roommates - rschmukler
http://goodmate.co

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dotBen
I guess I'm going to sound like a Debbie Downer* but this feels like a great
example of when talented software engineers have too small a universe of
personally experienced problems, and end up building solutions for things that
don't really need to be solved.

Dealing with roommates is no doubt a venerable problem to solve, but is there
really a 'market' here that people will pay to address? There are so many
lucrative and important issues out there, solving roommate management seems
way down the list in terms of building a viable business. I base that last bit
on the fact the OP describes this as a "startup" not a project.

I would emplor the OP to get out into the world more and find better problems
to solve.

* = I use the term "debbie downer" after the recent HN post about searching for the weird terms people use in their comments. Debbie Downer was one of them.

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rschmukler
I appreciate the feedback! We are still playing with the idea of how viable
this is as an actual business. For me this gave me an opportunity to escape
from the more standard tasks of freelance development and a chance to
implement all the new toys (MongoDB, Backbone, CoffeeScript, Bootstrap, etc.).
That being said, I think there are some interesting ways that this could
become quite profitable. If not, it's still a great way to put my name to
something when applying to incubators on other ideas

~~~
178
I agree there may be no 'market' making money from students who have to live
together, but the problem of 'shared ownerships' applies to much more people
(even incubators themselves!).

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pdufour
Maybe adding some screenshots of the app could help people sign up.

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rschmukler
Good idea. Will add something to the home page.

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p_sherman
Please add another type of login.

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parvinsingh
I would rather say, a 45- 60 secs max, video with a screenplay, would be just
awesome. If you can tell the pain of whiteboarding the tasks, or roomies
arguing over the tasks, and then the advantage of using GoodMate. This is a
pretty simple idea, but a damn needy one.

Cheers!!

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urthos
Splitwise (<http://splitwise.com>) also has a roommate bill-tracking tool, of
which I'm the co-founder. We have Android and iPhone apps that sync with the
cloud, and you don't need to connect with Facebook to sign up. Doesn't do
chores or to-dos though, if that's something you want in your roommate site.

Let me know if you'd like to meet sometime @rschmulker, I'm based in Cambridge
MA and Providence RI. You can reach me at hello@splitwise.com.

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ezl
Nice work. I like the logo and its a great idea. This space seems to be
getting crowded, I feel like I've seen a few apps in this vein recently, most
notably RentShare (<http://rentshare.com>), which a few of my friends in NYC
use.

My biggest question to you (and anyone else here): What's your strategy for
differentiating yourself from others in the market?

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rschmukler
One thing we are looking into is building a sort of roommate resume. We have
data on how much you borrow from friends, how long you take to pay back, how
often you do and don't do your chores, etc...

I find as I am transitioning out of college, I am about to move again to a new
place and now I'll need to find new roommates. I personally would pay a fee to
have access to good roommates to choose from, especially if its backed up by
some sort of tangible history (badges, analytics, etc.) There's also a lot of
opportunity here to make a game out of something not fun. Game mechanics are
perhaps a bit over done, but none the less, it could be fun to compete against
roommates for the title of best roommate. Hell, we could even incorporate
something where all the roommates take a pool ($10 each for example) and the
roommate with the highest points at the end of the month gets it.

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code_pockets
I'm not sure if this is a product that will become profitable soon. I am quite
sure that you did learn from building it (and you did a good job!), so that
may be worth more in the long-run than what this may end up being worth.

It takes guts to launch, more to show them on HN, and even more to keep
launching until you strike gold (but you still keep on launching...)

The best of luck!

=)

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rschmukler
Thanks for the praise!

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rschmukler
Would love any and all feedback. Ideas, features, UX problems. Whatever you
guys have I'd love to hear!

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aeeeee
i doubt this audience is going to be receptive to a site that requires a
facebook login. it's probable you have other demographics in mind though.

~~~
rschmukler
Yeah, the facebook authentication is kind of a double edged sword. We want it
because it will make it easy for users to invite their roommates, and more
importantly, it allows us to have the concept of an "identity" to tie actions
to. Going forward this could let us create a sort of roommate-resume tied to
your identity.

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wdewind
Instead make it really easy for one roommate to create everyone's accounts,
then you reduce the conversion requirement to just 1 person (though you do
slightly increase the friction on that one person you radically decrease it on
the others).

