

Quick Launch Page w/ a cute owl doodle - ayusaf

Yesterday my Co-founder and I hacked together a quick launch page for our new startup service: http://superowl.me/<p>It was quick, fun and we decided to say what it is rather than be enigmatic at this stage.<p>I drew a doodle of our mascot - The Super Owl and I think his scribbly appearance will take us through to the alpha testing phase without need for too much time spent on branding etc.<p>I'm curious as to how much money and time startups spend in the very early days of branding.<p>On another note or comment I should say... we (the Super Owl team) are very psyched about making audio as cool and sexy as video has become.<p>That's all folks.... I'm always keen to get constructive feedback :)
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auganov
Can you find a better expression than audio story? Just something odd about
it.

Google trends seems to agree.
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=audio+story&ctab=0&ge...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=audio+story&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)
It doesn't seem to be a word used a lot in the West.

It's so very trivial I know, just forget it if there's no better expression
than that.

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ayusaf
Yes, I do know what you mean. We have actually ummed and ahhed about this
quite a lot. We don't like the word podcasts as they can mean video or audio
and also it seems to scare some people away. Audio programme is perhaps a bit
dry... just audio is too vague. Broadcast? Radio?

Audio story is the only expression that defined the kind of content we will
feature - it always has a story and it's audio!...

However, I am open to a good alternative... I haven't managed to come up with
one as yet.

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auganov
A hard call. Actually audio story is not the main problem, those paragraphs
are confusing.

The header is pretty clear "audio stories, every week, to enjoy on every
commute". Enough to guess what the audio story is. I get to the first
paragraph, "audio service", "sync", perhaps it's something else?. Then I get
"audio programmes from independent DIY audio makers" sounds like sophisticated
something. Third one finally clarifies it, somewhat.

Even after reading all of it again carefully now I have no clear idea on what
the app might look like.

I'd say make it dumb, cut straight to the chase.

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ayusaf
Thanks for the feedback :)

We will keep iterating it and making it simpler and clearer. This is a first
pass to explaining what Super Owl is. It is an iPhone app with a service
attached to it (the editorial service) and I think it is important to say this
because we are not selling an app in isolation.

Not really sure about what you mean when you say: "audio programmes from
independent DIY audio makers" sounds like sophisticated something.

Did you find this sentence confusing or do you think it sounds unnecessarily
sophisticated? The intention is to give potential listeners an understanding
that the content comes from independent makers as well as larger more well
known broadcasters.

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auganov
Just whenever I see a word/expression that stands out I tend to assume it's
something I might not know. "audio story", "audio programme" and "audio maker"
are all such expressions so bunched together it gives that sophisticated vibe.

So your selling point is "We pick the best content and get it to you", right?
But then again the selection is supposed to be wide both in terms of
categories and time-length. Do you have any good ideas on how you reconcile
top quality and wide range? Say my commute is 30 mins and I'm mainly into
business/success story kind of things. Am I going to have something to listen
to everyday?

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ayusaf
"We pick the best content and get it to you" - that's right! We have an
editorial team for quality filtering and we're starting with content that
would appeal to a certain type of person rather than categories or genres. In
the same way that TED Talks may appeal to a certain type of person rather than
someone who is looking for content on a niche category. Later, when we have
more resources we'll look in to categories and if they may be of use.

I worked on another startup in the same space and one of the main reasons that
we stopped was because analytics showed that our users liked having good
things to listen to rather than personalising, browsing by category or by
mood. Creating a trusted channel and things that make listening easy (as in
when you're rushing out in the morning to work) is the focus for now.

I'm going to have to now go and make stuff!... a tiny team means lots of work
and less time on HN ;)

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AngeloAnolin
Just after I read this and I went to another site (<http://smarterer.com/>)
and I got reminded of your owl doodle.

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ayusaf
Perhaps the Super Owl will grow up to be as smart as this owl too :)

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taphangum
clickable: <http://superowl.me/> nice design btw. :).

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ayusaf
thanks :)

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tudorizer
Looks sweet.

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ayusaf
ta :)

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keke_ta
pretty cool.

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ayusaf
cheers :)

