

Ask HN: Rate my startup: Quirk - andrewacove

Quirk connects your social network profiles to a QR code.  Scan to connect.<p>http://www.getaquirk.com/<p>Please check it out and let me know what sucks, what works, and if you'll ever use it.<p>Thanks!
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snowmaker
Andrew, this is cool. Love the name, by the way - "Quirk" for a QR code
company is very memorable.

A few suggestions:

1) Agree with the other posters about an explanation on the home page.

2) The process by which I had to choose a permalink was confusing - why do I
need to choose a permalink before I get my quirk? It would be way more
dramatic to have the QR code pop up immediately after I FB connect. This could
also help with (1) - you could caption it "This is your personal QR code!"

3) With FB Connect, you can import not just name, but profile photo and other
public data. I'd expect you to generate a profile page at my permalink seeded
with that information.

4) Obviously, the mobile apps are pretty key. I sent the QR code to my phone
via text (I like that feature, btw). But pretty soon it will get buried in my
SMS inbox. I need a way to pull it up immediately, like a Quirk app would do.

5) I like the idea of getting conference organizers to embed quirk codes in
name cards. But before I would actually do that, I'd probably want:

a) Really good profiles at the permalinks

b) Customization / branding. It's my conference so I want to promote myself,
not getaquirk.com. Branded profiles and conference-specific quirk codes would
be key.

c) Analytics / insight into how people are using it.

Of course that's just my guess - you might talk to some conferences and go
through the exercise of selling them on the product to figure out what's truly
important to them.

(edit - formatting)

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks Jared. I really appreciate the feedback.

> permalinks

Your suggestions have convinced me to make two major changes: 1) Users will be
auto assigned a permalink and 2) users will be able to change their permalink
at any time. I think that having the QR code immediately available will
definitely have a greater impact, as you've suggested.

I had reservations about user reactions to generated permalinks (for the case
when their screenname on the connected network is taken), and about having
stale QR codes floating around after a user changes her permalink, but making
those changes improves the user experience and mitigates the first concern.
Having stale links to Twitter profiles on the web doesn't seem to have been
much of a problem, either. There will just have to be very clear, very visible
notices that the QR code has changed when a user change her permalink.

> FB Connect

Detailed profile data is available in mobile profiles, but relies on a
separate authorization step. Rather than asking for complete profile access
when the user signs up with FB, we request authorization for the individual
parts of the user's profile as they choose what to make public. The actual
authorization process is (in my mind) the worst part of the Quirk UX right
now.

That begs the question, would it be better to just ask for full profile access
directly from the start? Or will that turn users away?

> fast access to the QR code on the phone

Making the QR code easily accessible is a major component of the Quirk app.
We'll need to find a temporary solution until that's released. Perhaps
bookmark and save-to-dashboard buttons are a good step (possibly with HTML5
local store support).

> conference customization/branding and analytics

Branding conference profiles is definitely a goal. Alot of the focus has been
on the mobile experience (which is what most users will encounter if they're
scanning other people's badges) - Once the conference features are ready, the
conference organizers will be able to push content to profile pages. Branded
web(non-mobile) profiles aren't something that has been explored much yet.

Analytics of how users are connecting is potentially a huge part of the value
offering for this use case. That's a path that I'm very eager to explore now
that people can actually connect through Quirk.

> profile data

Initially, rich profiles are only presented to mobile users. It's primarily a
resources issue, and a rich web profile hasn't been built yet primarily
because there are other, likely better, places to consume that data from a
non-mobile device - the social networks themselves. The stub that's presented
now when viewing a profile on the web is mostly a stopgap, but for the moment,
traffic is heavily skewed to the web experience instead of mobile, so it
probably needs to be built out just to capture new visitors' attention.

------
photon_off
I love the concept of having an image be my GUID. In fact, I like the concept
of cute little square images being aliases for something else, and that there
exists a way to decode them. This is such a high level and useful idea that
it's bound to succeed for somebody.

The value I see here is the platform, not the "social networking bla bla bla"
service. In other words, I would aim to become the platform for QR-to-URL
mapping. As of now, you are a QR-to-very-specific-URL mapping service, and the
specialization you are taking (a page of my aggregated social networks) is
nice, but IMO isn't the most interesting aspect of this. It's more of a
demonstration of the usefulness of the idea as a whole.

I'm imagining a world where I see Quirks on product packaging, on product
advertisements, on business cards, coupons, promotions, and just about any
other surface where I'd otherwise encounter a cumbersome URL. The convenience?
I just point an internet-equipped digital eye at it, and I can view the
website. By cramming a URL into a Quirk, and printing that Quirk on something,
one includes a seamless path from a physical item to it's digital
representation. Of course, that pathway needs to be thoroughly tread in order
for it to be popular. I see two main obstacles. First, iPhones and other
similarly functional devices aren't quite as widespread as they will be. This
works in your favor: pretty soon everybody will have these devices and you're
service will be more valuable.

The second, where you should aim to come in, is that there needs to be _one_
place that these QRs are registered. This is the type of idea, like Twitter,
Facebook, and the ".com" TLD, the has a feedback look of pervasiveness and
usefulness. If you became _the_ place to create QR-to-URL mapping, you'd have
a stake in whatever QR (actually, just image-to-URL) evolves into down the
road and whatever it is used for.

That's my take on this idea. It seems extremely likely that there is already a
QR-to-URL mapping service available... and if there isn't there more
definitely should be. We're talking paradigm here. Those quirks you see on
product packaging? Well, it's a given there to be used with "getaquirk" (or
whichever company does this and gets lucky), just as @whatever means twitter.

If I were you, I'd put all my effort into getting your idea validated (and
vetted) and branded. Realize your biggest obstacle is not that you must become
ubiquitous for this idea to succeed , but that you must seem like you're the
service that is _going to be_ ubiquitous. Realize that anybody using your
service is investing their time and energy into the platform. Why buy a .info
domain when .com is available? You need to be the .com. You need to get
traction before all else. Get big names using this, make the "getaquirk"
viewer app on all major platforms; stake your claim.

Here's a really quick win for you: Quirks should contain some sort of inerit
branding in them. Perhaps a digitized "Q" in the upper right, or something.
This would be your "@".

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks for the comments, Sam.

I've been trying to work out the best response to this. I think that you're
correct in that there is a hole to be filled by a QR-to-URL service -
essentially a bit.ly for QR codes. Despite availability of QR codes from
existing players (Google being the most significant) and the ready
availability of both websites and libraries for producing QR codes from URLs
(and any other text), branding will play a big role in making them take off.
ScanLife is certainly a player in this space: <http://us.scanlife.com/> . They
have QR codes on the Inception movie posters as part of the advertising
campaign, as well. But anyone can do it. And given that ZXing is an open
source scanning library, anyone can build the apps.

It may be shortsighted, but that's not the business I want to build. Scanning
a QR code to follow a business is something I actually want - something that
came directly out of a need in my own life - and it's the connections
themselves that are interesting to me. QR codes are really only the beginning
of what I want Quirk to be - I just think they're a good place to start.

That said, you're not the only person to suggest that Quirk should provide a
tool for converting URLs to barcodes, even just as a promotion for Quirk
itself. And if that turns into the biggest aspect of Quirk, then so be it. So,
I guess we'll see.

Thanks again for your comment - definitely made me think (thus the slow
response).

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zooey
I think you must insert what are the benefits for people to use it. Just a
phrase. Why I have to use it? What is in it for me?

Your homepage it's too "obscure".

~~~
andrewacove
Sorry for taking too long to comment on this. You were the first to point out
that the homepage is lacking, and that is now very clearly the consensus.

Thanks for taking the time to look at Quirk. I've been putting a lot of effort
into figuring out the right message to send, and how to present it. Hopefully
that'll appear soon, and moreover, hopefully it will get more people past the
front page and into the signup process.

~~~
zooey
Hey, you're welcome :)

Maybe one day you'll do the same for me.

Let us know when you have changed your message/brand.

------
canterburry
Andrew,

First off, it was very cool to chat the other night at the night owls. Very
much appreciated your thoughts on connecting to different APIs.

I do agree with the other reviewers that the purpose and uses for this product
need to become more obvious. I would suggest including some brief illustrative
use cases on the front page for people to start salivating over what cool
things they can now do that they couldn't before. Having to read the FAQ via
"What's Quirk" should not be the primary way visitors learn about your
product.

Also, for the dramatic effect of getting your Quirk, why not actually generate
it right on the front page with a subtext of "make this Quirk do...." with
options for people to chose from? I think that would also help communicate the
use of the product better.

Also, why can't I just paste a link (any link to anywhere) that I want my
quirk to go to? You could make it a pass-through your site and probably find
business models for that as well (I am making the assumption that the Quirk
embeds the link back to your site specifically but could go anywhere).

"Link your social network accounts" makes me believe I will get a Quirk that
takes people to my actual Facebook profile rather than a Quirk profile.

Smaller Things:

Once logged in, when I click you logo, it doesn't take me back to your front
page as I would typically expect.

When I chose to log in via Facebook and then subsequently denied your oauth
request, i just get an error page on your site.

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks for the comments, cool meeting you too.

It's definitely apparent that pointing users at the FAQ was a lazy and
ineffective move. I'm working on making the front page a much better
introduction to Quirk.

We're not generating Quirks pre-signup (e.g., on the front page as you've
suggested) because we think it's better for the encoded URLs to have each
user's vanity URL, rather than a random key. This'd be a cool thing to add via
Facebook's Instant Personalization, though.

I agree that a good utility for encoding URLs in QR codes is a viable product.
Sites and libraries exist for doing so, though none have any real mindshare.
If the QR code flood is coming, a bit.ly for QRs is probably going to be a
very useful tool. That said, it's not the product I want to build right now.

Thanks for pointing out that error. I'll fix that ASAP; the home page too
(right now logged in users are automatically redirected to their account views
from the home page).

------
pedalpete
The first test I give any 'Rate my start-up' is to go to the homepage without
reading the submitters post.

The question I ask my self is 'do I know what this is and how I'd use it just
by looking at the homepage?'.

Unfortunately, your description isn't on the homepage. "see, scan, connect"
may mean something to you, but it doesn't mean anything to me.

On the homepage, I get that the barcode has something to do with app scanning,
but it doesn't tell me much more. What do I get if I scan the image? What am I
supposed to get? Do I want it?

Your 'faqs' page isn't a whole lot better. I'd suggest getting something on
that homepage which is a quick "we're making the world a better place by..."

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks for the feedback. I've struggled over a number of iterations to come up
with a concise description for the homepage. So far, I've either come up short
(as it is now), or needed way too much text to get the message across.

I've been taking the approach of trying to get new visitors to try the
service, without requiring an in depth explanation first. The demo page,
<http://www.getaquirk.com/demo> , which I should probably give a prominent
link from the home page, is my attempt at that.

I'm starting to wonder whether it can be explained clearly with a good
graphic. I'll be exploring wording options and potential visuals today to try
to deliver the message more effectively.

I'm concerned that the FAQ page isn't effective at getting the message across.
I would have thought that, in the least, the first question
<http://www.getaquirk.com/faq#what-is-quirk> would explain what the app
actually does. Is the FAQ page just the wrong place to be delivering that
message? (I've been debating that over the last few days).

Thanks!

~~~
pedalpete
If the description is too long, I suspect you may be focusing too much on the
how it work.

I think the initial 'what or why' is both more important, and should be
shorter.

For example facebook would say 'we make it easy to be in the loop with your
friends. Google would be 'we help you find the info you're looking for'.

You might be in the neighbourhood of 'we connect your virtual and physical
worlds'. or something like that. Unfortnately, I don't even understand it to
that level, so I can't really help. But don't get into how. If people care,
they'll look deeper into how.

Check out simon sinek's "start with why"
[http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi...](http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html)

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks for the link. That's a great presentation.

Distilling Quirk into something simple has been a challenge since the start,
especially overcoming the novelty (for most people) of QR codes, and
emphasizing its use in connecting businesses and customers, without
disregarding connections between individuals. That's not to say it can't be
done - it's just something we need to focus on.

I'll be giving alot of thought to the 'why' instead of the 'what,' as I go
forward. That's a great approach.

~~~
pedalpete
Good points. My take on it would be that the QR code is a technical feature
that people don't need to know about until they are interested.

Email wasn't sold by 'you can send smtp messages to people and businesses'. It
really helps to try to put things in context of comparing it to an activity
that people currently do, and how it makes it better or different.

Cirque de Soleil is a circus without animals.

An iPhone is a phone, a web browser, and an ipod.

An iPod is like a walkman for mp3.

etc. etc. best of luck

------
exline
Agree, great name for the product. I'm starting to see traction around QR
Codes. Your timing might be very good.

The value proposition is not very clear. Why would I use your product, what is
the _benefit_ of using it. It appears that your business model is to target
conferences, is that correct? Will it always be free to everyone else?

One minor issue, on the FAQ page, it says: "A Quirk is a type of QR code, a
two-dimensional barcode represented by a pattern of black and white squares
(like the one at the top of the page)." But there is no a QR code on the to of
the page.

~~~
andrewacove
Thanks for the comments.

I've been working on condensing the value proposition, especially given the
comments here.

As an individual, scanning a QR code once is a faster way to connect than
typing a person's or business's name into a search box and wading through
results [and repeating across multiple networks]. The premise is that
connections are good, and the easier they are to make, the more you'll
connect.

Building on that, for businesses, the easier it is for a customer to connect
to you, the more likely they'll connect (though I'd love to back this up with
some research data). Hopefully, a prominently placed QR code (e.g, on a door,
menu, or advertisement) will be a strong visual cue to a customer to connect
(since the business can't actively initiate the connection).

All of the core service will always be free. Creating QR codes, linking
accounts, downloading apps etc. We think we can generate value from the
connection graph without selling the graph itself. The goal is _not_ to farm
and exploit the network.

Conferences started out as a good way to seed viral/network-effect growth ...
and QR codes on badges are conveniently effective for connecting in that
environment. We can provide additional value to conferences by providing
analysis and custom content, and that's certainly something we'll look to
monetize.

Thanks for pointing out that bug. It's an artifact of an earlier layout for
the FAQ page.

Great feedback, thank you.

------
ronnier
Clickable <http://www.getaquirk.com/>

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jesusabdullah
Looks neat, though I don't have a smartphone. Someday maybe, huh?

I guess my question (and I find myself asking this question of pretty much any
free service) is: If it's a startup and it's free, how are you going to make
money off it?

~~~
andrewacove
One of the benefits of Quirk is that only one party involved in the connection
needs to have a smart phone. In other words, you can set up a profile and
download your QR code (and store it as a picture on a less-featured phone, or
have it on a business card), and contacts you make can scan your code to
connect. You can follow up on that connection later from the web interface.

We're going to have data about the types of businesses you connect to, and
eventually where you're making those connections. We think that's data that
can be monetized. In the case of specific communities making concentrated
connections (like conferences), that data can be honed into valuable insights
into the community, and hopefully the organizers of those communities will
find high value in those insights.

Hopefully, there's a business to be built among nurturing customer relations,
fostering communities, and analyzing the social graph.

