

Show HN: Salsa-as-a-service landing page - brandonpindulic
http://get.hombresalsa.com/hombresalsa/

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iambateman
Ok, Brandon, let me rant for a second. This isn't your fault, you're a part of
a much bigger trend. But bro, a validation test is no excuse for being hasty.

Just because you're in validation stage doesn't mean the marketing page only
deserves 2 hours. When the Lean Startup came out, Eric Ries was pushing back
against people who devote thousands of dollars and hours before they knew if a
product would work out not.

AppSumo has made it cool to test w/ quickly-conceived pages. But a minimum
viable product still needs to be _viable_.

Maybe I'm a hater. If so, sorry I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I just
think it's worth pushing for higher-quality in validation tests. A few more
hours could greatly affect your results.

For example: what are examples of brands of salsa you'll be delivering? Is
this an email newsletter, or a paid service? What if I don't like the salsa
this month? Is it crazy-wacky mango salsas or interesting tomato-based salsa?

Answering those questions might push your needle in the right direction. :)

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brandonpindulic
I appreciate the constructive criticism, and I agree with your points.

Your comments, along with a ton of others, are definitely helping. To answer
your questions this is both a newsletter and I will be selling independently
owned salsa brands, both as a monthly subscription and through an e-commerce
section. The landing page is very basic, probably too basic, but it’s serving
as a way to keep in touch with other salsa enthusiasts until I can get
everything up and running.

Again, I appreciate your comments. All feedback is important!

~~~
iambateman
Cool man! Really not trying to crush your dreams. salsa of the month has a
market somewhere. The biggest question is if you can access that market.

~~~
brandonpindulic
haha, no worries! I’m just doing this for fun anyway. It’s definitely a good
learning experience.

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adamb_
From the HN title & the actual landing page, I thought this was a satirical
commentary on "X-as-a-service" startups...

~~~
dboyd
I thought so too. My meager spanish translated the domain name into
"mansauce.com", which really doesn't sound that appealing 8).

~~~
brandonpindulic
haha! Yeah, I obviously don’t know much spanish.

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lazyant
For the 30% of people who are genetically disposed to hate cilantro/coriander,
please have an option to not have it in the salsa or skip those types of
salsas.

~~~
masonhensley
30%, really? I've only ever known one family that has the soapy taste issue
with cilantro/coriander.

(I only learned of the condition because one of the family members mentioned
above was my college roommate.)

~~~
m_ram
It looks like it's not quite 30%, but still high enough to make an opt-out
worthwhile [1]. As someone who is afflicted, I can say that it would be a
deal-breaker.

[1] [http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/cilantro-love-
hate-...](http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/cilantro-love-hate-genetic-
trait/)

~~~
lazyant
Ooops you are right, I remembered incorrectly the %

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ThomPete
I love physical companies using digital media, I really do, they are hard to
succeed with but if you do they can be great business.

But I think you need to do some more work to get this on up and running
properly.

right now it looks a little bit like a link farm page.

May I suggest the following changes.

1) Move the text out of the picture or at least have it on a background.

2) Remove the gradient from the sign up form and give it a solid color
(perhaps red?)

3) Move the sign up form outside the picture.

4) Be more disciplined with your description text.

5)Set up a facebook page and a twitter account, start collecting followers
there and show some of the feedback on your page.

6) And most importantly. Add a FAQ so that people know who you are, where you
are located, what this is all about, what they are signing up for and so on.

Best Wishes

~~~
brandonpindulic
I appreciate the feedback! The page is definitely lacking in a lot of areas,
so receiving unbiased feedback makes things a lot easier to prioritize. Again,
I appreciate you sharing some insight. I’m currently making improvements and
trying to spruce it up with my limited (non-existent) design skills :)

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kfk
Hey, I have been thinking about a similar concept, although more similar to
take away. Are you working on this alone?

~~~
brandonpindulic
That’s great! And yes I am. It’s just a side project of mine as of now. Feel
free to email me at HombreSalsa@gmail.com

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conductr
I like your approach. Assuming you are going to focus on existing salsa and
not make your own.

I had a very similar idea about a year ago. Except my idea was that user would
build their salsa by selecting ingredients and I would make/ship. Of course
this allows recipe sharing and such. The thought of food production quickly
had me shelf that idea. Your approach seems much easier to execute

~~~
brandonpindulic
Definitely. Your idea would be awesome though, just it a lot more obstacles to
get through to produce it.

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pacofvf
If you are looking for recipes look at this list:
[http://www.gustausted.com/2010/07/34-salsas-mexicanas-
receta...](http://www.gustausted.com/2010/07/34-salsas-mexicanas-recetas.html)
it's in Spanish though. My favorites: 'Salsa Borracha', and 'Salsa de
ajonjolí'

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brianbreslin
Some constructive feedback: 1\. Maybe offer a few price points? \- i.e. select
how much salsa you want $10/month?$20? 2\. Will shipping glass containers with
liquid be costly/dangerous/risky? 3\. Did you try any google adwords?

The HN audience probably has a inherent bias TOWARDS saas
services/subscription models.

~~~
brandonpindulic
All great advice.

I’m still working through the price points, and I’ll probably offer an
e-commcerce section as well.

Shipping the salsa isn’t much of a problem. The brands I’ve been talking to
have their methods down pat and it hasn’t been a problem thus far

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bovermyer
First, your landing page needs the attention that others have mentioned.

Second, I LOVE this idea. Kind of like Graze, but for salsa. Actually, yes, do
that - make Graze for salsa. Give us options. Let us choose to Hate or Love
certain ingredients/keywords.

~~~
brandonpindulic
yes it does, big time!

And I appreciate the kind words. There’s so many great salsas out there yet it
seems they’re so hard to find.

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pnathan
Cool idea.

I don't have any sense of your service area (SF? West Coast? US? Global?),
price points, or your food handling reliability.

All of those datapoints are important for me to even ask myself if I'd buy.

~~~
brandonpindulic
All great questions. As for now I’m focusing just in the US, but depending on
demand I may expand.

I’m working with existing salsa brands, mainly independently owned brands who
will take care of the shipping.

I’m really just doing this for fun to share great salsas and help out some
existing small businesses. We’ll see where it goes from there

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solaris152000
Great idea, will you ship to the UK?

What did you make the landing page with?

~~~
brandonpindulic
I made the landing page with Unbounce.com

I’ve been getting a lot of interest from the UK, so I’m thinking I should work
with some UK salsa brands as well. At this point it remains to be seen if I
will ship to the UK, but I definitely will work on it, so I’m hopeful.

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tannerj
You should update the copy right info at the bottom of the page. It was kind
of jarring when I saw that it wasn't changed from the default text from the
template.

~~~
brandonpindulic
will do! This was my first landing page so I really appreciate the feedback :)

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home_brewer
I have a similar service except beer-as-a-service.
[http://homebrewster.com](http://homebrewster.com) I would love some feedback

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brandonpindulic
That’s awesome! Since you get a new beer kit every month, doesn’t it take at
least a month to brew the beer?

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home_brewer
It does take about a month to brew beer. The kits I will be offering will take
about 3 weeks.

~~~
brandonpindulic
Sounds good to me. I think it’s a cool idea and I’m going to check it out more

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eb0la
For just one second I thought it was a dance partner as a service for women.
Mmmmmm that _should work_ :-D

~~~
brandonpindulic
Ha! I could see that working. Salsa dancers might get a lot of hate (like my
landing page) but they sure as hell get a lot of women. Take your pick!

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stevewilhelm
How do you like the unbounce.com service so far? Would you recommend it?

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brandonpindulic
It seems to be a good service. I need to improve my page a lot more, but
that’s not Unbounce’s fault. They seem to be a good service and their customer
service is very friendly, so yes, I’d recommend them.

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wrongc0ntinent
Much better!

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disdev
Share your email address?

~~~
brandonpindulic
hombresalsa@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

