
Show HN: 6 days until broke/homeless: here is my hack - oliv__
https://www.askjemima.com
======
oliv__
Hi HN, my name is Olivier, I’m a 22 yo entrepreneur with a failing startup. I
have 6 days left until I go broke, have to leave the city and end my
bootstrapped company.

So I came up with this crazy website to raise funds to help me survive:
AskJemima.com is a witty virtual psychic that will text you a personalized
answer to any question you ask for 99c.

Help out a fellow hacker and ask a question!

------
iqonik
What is your other business? Why is it failing?

I appreciate you're trying to hang on in there, but it might be better to cut
your losses and move on to the next thing.

~~~
oliv__
It's Skyler[0]: it's a fashion weather app. We are bootstrapped and can't
raise money so we have to shut down at the end of the month... :(

[0]
[https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829](https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829)

~~~
chillingeffect
I think these (and the pepper thing?!) are all good lessons for you if you're
able to learn from them. The key things I missing from your portfolio are: A.
The Elusive Obvious B. Communication of Value. Those are your blind spots.
Nail those and with your other qualities you'll be successful. I hope this
feedback is useful to you:

A. The Elusive Obvious: What is a "fashion weather app?" It's obvious to you,
but not enough other people. The Elusive Obvious is a common problem and the
good thing is: it's relatively easy to correct. Just use the "elevator pitch"
or "grandparent description" techniques. Say "It shows you attractive people
in cool clothes automatically dressed for the weather forecast so you know
what to wear that day."

B. Value: You have to tell everyone who hasn't bought your app why to spend
five minutes, 99 cents, 1.6 MB, learning and using your apps instead of doing
other things we already love like making a stir fry and letting the chips fall
where they may w/r/t weather: How much will we get back for our expenditure?
Tell a story, will it save us time? Lead to better social results? Save us
money? Change our mood, make us laugh, validate our clothes choices? Lead with
emotion.

You can't count on your customers to hang out in 45-minute brainstorming
sessions ideating all the reasons they should use your program. You've got to
tell them point-blank.

(And now I'm off to do the most important thing which is to apply all these
critiques to myself. Good luck, Oliv__)

------
mpeg
This is pretty racist, "mon".

~~~
justwannasing
Nowadays, everything is considered racist.

EDIT: See what I mean?

~~~
mpeg
Cultural appropriation is always uncomfortable in the first place. For
example, see the media storm over Kylie Jenner's hairstyle [0]

[0] [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-
appro...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-
appropriation-it_b_7800126.html)

~~~
nxttuesday
Consider it a pull request I think callsyfing it as racist is fair, isn't
"mon" slang from Jamaica, a nation in which 59%[1] have mixed
ancestry?[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica)

