

Ask YC:Sleep.FM (my startup) seeks UI designer - ryanspahn

I see that I can not post in the job section not being a part of Y.  Forgive me If I have formatted this post incorrectly.<p>My name is Ryan Spahn and I am seeking a UI designer/consultant for my startup ( http://Sleep.FM ).<p>If UI design (HTML, CSS and Photoshop expert) is your specialty it would be great to hear from you!<p>This would be a work for hire.  If interested
in learning more please contact me at
ryanspahn@comcast.net (links to your work are appreciated).<p>Thanks, Ryan
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russ
I'm also looking to hire a UI designer for my _Jump to Conclusions Mat_. Any
takers?

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ryanspahn
My post here was not asking for feedback. I already heard from you guys in
this regards. Thanks...most of it was helpful!

I was politely asking if any UI designers are available and interested.

If not cool.. I just thought I'd reach out to fellow entreprenuers/designers &
coders.

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rms
But what does it say that the reaction you get here, from your peers, is so
harshly negative?

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randallsquared
Not much, necessarily. What if the guy(s) behind myspace had asked for
feedback in a hacker forum in 2002? It's not clear to me that many would have
recognized it as a huge moneymaker.

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NSX2
Exactly ... I know I'm going to lose all 9 of my karma points for this, but:
Michael Dell is successful in business and throughout 98, 99, and 2000
maintained that Steve Jobs should just "give up" and "stop deluding
shareholders". Good thing Steve Jobs is in the habit of listening to
unsolicited advice. So now that the whole world knows that even the opinions
of rich, successful people can be totally off and worthless, what makes you
naysayers think anybody cares what you think about their startup prospects?
For all you know this guy's invented an algorithm to download terabits of
video in seconds and is using this "social alarm" thing as a ruse ...

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mattmaroon
That logic is bad because Jobs and Dell were sorta competitors. This guy has
well-meaning noncompetitors telling him to switch directions, which is a much
different thing.

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NSX2
Not really; in both cases you have people who don't know what they're talking
about giving unsolicited advice the value of which nobody knows a priori ...

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rms
Ryan, the other idea you talked about here, bringing internet radio to cell
phones, is much better than this... I just don't think there is much potential
here and I don't like seeing you spend money on it.

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mattmaroon
His target audience for this one seems to be people who meet the following
criteria: 1.) Don't have a cell phone 2.) Sleep with a computer on in their
room 3.) Want to let others wake them up, but not enough to just sleep near
their phone.

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wmeredith
I love UI design and I am a Photoshop/css pro.

stuff I made: webdevelopersfieldguide.com (currently the top story ;-P)
poptakeout.com <\--mobile safari web-app. stanleymusic.com

contact me through wademeredith.com if you'd like.

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mikesabat
Ripping on someone's idea in this type of forum is a clear sign that you are
an asshole. Period.

But for all of those that hate this concept, notice that Seth Godin posted the
same idea on his blog, twice.

[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/09/alarm-
clocks...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/09/alarm-clocks.html)
[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2003/10/todays_free_...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2003/10/todays_free_ide.html)

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rms
Seth Godin's improved alarm clock has nothing in common with sleep.fm, except
they both have to do with alarm clocks.

Sleep.fm is an alarm clock where your friends can send you wake-ups with
messages at any time they choose.

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paul9290
I would never want to allow someone the power to wake me up when they want to.
That would be so annoying!

The only difference from a regular boring alarm clock to Sleep.FM's Social
Alarm Clock, is the tone that wakes you. You set the clock and when it goes
off your alarm message(s) is the tone that wakes you. Whether it's Happy
Birthday, wake up old lady dont forget to take your medicine, the meeting has
moved to a different location, good morning girlfriend/boyfriend/best friend i
wanted to share this new song with you( you hear it), hey X i'll meet you for
breakfast at denny's before work, im sorry i wont be in the carpool today,
dont take i95 huge traffic jam, it's snowing go back to bed, etc, etc....

I wonder rms did you happen to view a promo vid of ours? Knowing that is
helpful...

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derefr
> I would never want to allow someone the power to wake me up when they want
> to. That would be so annoying!

It's like having... a spouse! THE HORROR. (Seriously, I can imagine the use
for people that specifically need to get someone else out of bed--it's like a
pager that's really, really loud. But again, that's all it is--an Internet-to-
audio-pager gateway.)

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ryanspahn
So how many times has the sound of your alarm clock informed you of something
pertinent to your day, made you laugh or allowed you to remotely share a
moment with someone close to you? It hasn't...

For those who want to continue to wake up to just some meaningless noise can
continue to do so... But, hey it's the 21st century and now through Sleep.FM
we can wake up to personal pieces of communication from those closet to us or
those we allow!

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mattmaroon
I hope the salary is high, because that's still the worst startup idea I've
ever seen. You should hire an idea designer.

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rokhayakebe
that's mean. And quite frankly it is very low for anyone to attack people in
such a manner. If you cannot say something that adds value maybe you can save
the keystrokes to promoting your gambling site.

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davidw
It was pretty direct, and I think I might have chosen a softer way of saying
it, but I don't like the idea much myself, either. Telling someone you respect
the truth "adds value" in my opinion.

Who knows though, maybe Ryan will be able to repurpose it into something cool
with just a little bit of effort, and come out ahead. I hope so.

What I think I would say to Ryan if I were talking about it over a beer, and
trying to be a bit humorous about it, is that it really reminds me of
something Kramer from Seinfeld would be trying to sell Jerry and Elaine on.
"But Jerry, it's great, it's an alarm clock _and_ it's social!". Later in the
episode Kramer would be walking around in an obviously sleep deprived state.

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ryanspahn
Why would Kramer be walking around in a sleep deprived state?

Maybe I need to be more direct, as it looks like readers get the impression
that your friends have the power to randomly wake you up with their messages?
That is not the case and I dont want to use an alarm clock that allowed people
to wake me up to messages when they want to. Uggh, that would stink, I want to
sleep until the time on my alarm clock goes off!

What's different here is the sound of your alarm clock. INstead of just
hearing only a buzzer you hear some sorta of buzzer and then audio messages
left from those you allow. THis is only heard after the alarm time you set
passes... same principle as a normal alarm clock.

If this is clear to you cool ... though I dont understand your statement,
"Kramer would be sleep deprived"

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davidw
Well, it's Seinfeld, so it would have been hacked or otherwise malfunctioned
to make the show entertaining. "Jerry, these kids won't leave me alone!" or
"Jerry, this woman keeps leavin' me messages, and I get all wowwowah". Didn't
mean to cast aspersions on how it actually works.

Maybe you should aim higher or broader...take the ability to leave messages
for people and do something with that? I just don't find the idea very
compelling - it's too narrow feeling. If I want to hear a friend, I want to
hear from them whenever it is, not just in the morning. And if I want a fancy
alarm clock thing, I simply want one that I can load ogg or mp3 files in.
Messages from people might be loaded or automatically pulled in, but for me
that's just not a central feature. Another thing that sort of limits its
appeal is that you have to have your computer in your room with you, and on.
Mine has an option to automatically wake up, but it's a fiddly bios thing that
most people aren't going to want to use, and most people don't like sleeping
with the things on, either - they're noisy.

So, beyond what I don't like, I wonder how you could take what you've created
and tweak it to appeal to other audiences, or be useful in other ways? If
you've got good tech behind it, perhaps it's just a matter of trying out a few
other niches - maybe something else is what it's really destined to be.

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wumi
It's sad to say that in the span of 31 comments, Wade Meredith was the only UI
designer that offered a hand.

Ryan's post: "I am seeking a UI designer/consultant for my startup" that no
one wanted to answer.

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utnick
what do you mean by 'work for hire'?

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ryanspahn
Dude thanks for your passionate opinion!

LoL

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curi
Dude, please locate the reply button. Threaded comments win.

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fake
sleep.fm seeks expert failer

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NSX2
Methinks you protest too much ...

~~~
fake
not sure what you mean

