

How I Got My First 2000 Beta Users - pmjoyce
http://startupbynumbers.posterous.com/how-i-got-my-first-2000-beta-users

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wccrawford
For those that don't want to read it:

He posted on Hacker News and got up to #2 on the front page and got a lot of
good suggestions. He then got mentioned on TechCrunch in the first paragraph
of an article. He had to shut down invites due to technical issues.

Honestly, this seems pretty standard for getting those 2 things, only 1 of
which was his doing.

He is very thankful to the HN community, though.

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pmjoyce
Just to be clear, I haven't shut down invites due to technical issues. I want
to implement a couple of changes before the next cohort arrives as I've had
some user retention issues (the subject of my next post). These are being
worked on and tested now so hopefully it won't be too long before I can start
letting more people in.

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davcro
Your's truly just applied to be a beta user. The product looks awesome. I
would love to try it with my app.

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zackattack
I think that you have a really exciting idea on your hands. I can't wait until
the product matures and you can offer some case studies of cool widget
dashboards that people have assembled. That way, I can just copy their setups
instead of having to wrap my brain around a new technology. Once that kind of
thing is ready, I would love to receive an email blast about it on your
newsletter. Thanks!

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pmjoyce
Great idea re the case studies. The aim is to make the dashboard as easy to
use as possible and use standard connectors to many services (authenticated
via OAuth where that option exists) and have a "reverse API" to allow you to
upload your custom data straight on to your status board also. I have a way to
go to properly explain the potential benefits.

