

We are 2 Italians, in Treasure Island, and we are launching CoffeeStrap. - mahesh_rm
http://blog.coffeestrap.com/2012/02/16/we-are-excited-to-announce-that-coffeestrap-is-up-and-running/

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calinet6
I can't find a link from your Blog to your Product—it should be the most
prominent thing on the page. Most common mistake around, no worries :)

Otherwise, looks cool.

~~~
mahesh_rm
Ouch! :)

Thank you, a second click on the header logo [Coffeestrap /blog] when on blog
main page will bring you to www.coffeestrap.com, but we probably need to make
it more intuitive!

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nailer
I've read the page but still don't understand what this is.

~~~
mahesh_rm
Hi, we match you for one-to-one Coffees with people speaking different
languages, on the basis of your age, gender, and location. Not random
languages, but the languages you want to actually want or need to learn,
practice, or not forget.

~~~
nailer
I think a lot of the communication problems come from your name. coffee is the
short name of a programming language. And bootstrap programs are things used
to start something. It sounds like a programming thing, even though it isn't.

~~~
nailer
Some help with your English (my mother's an English teacher, I've been a
professional writer, and I live in the UK):

"We help you learn foreign languages by setting up one-to-one meetings with
native speakers of languages you'd like to learn."

~~~
brianchu
I would shorten that to just: "We help you learn foreign languages by setting
up one-to-one meetings with native speakers."

I'd also strongly consider _testing_ a question-answer type headline.
Something like:

"Want to practice a foreign language?" Second line: "We'll set up face-to-face
meetings with native speakers."

~~~
melvinram
Another possibility:

Want to practice a foreign language?

Meet native speakers for coffee and practice one-on-one.

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grannyg00se
What the hell are those gender symbols? I chose the one that looked like it
didn't have fallopian tubes. Also anticipated a male-first bias and that
confirmed the selection. But wow, how about something more common?

~~~
alemhnan
ok, after that comment (and the others about that) we:

\- laughed quite a bit; \- decided to change the gender symbols;

Totally right.

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danso
So did anyone else think this referred to something involving CoffeeScript and
Twitter Bootstrap?

~~~
mahesh_rm
It is amazing, we were not expecting such an extraordinary response! Thank you
to everybody is writing us with feedback, suggestions, and encouraging words,
we are going to answer shortly to all of you!

Sorry for the confusion with coffeescript and twitter bootstrap as well: we
though it would be a nice name for a tool allowing you to bootstrap your
language in front of a coffee. I think this misunderstanding is probably going
to be very HN specific, though! :)

We also apologize for our English inaccuracies, we are getting better
everyday, but I guess we need to eat some dogfood and go out ASAP for some
coffeestraps..

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bdittmer
This is not related to your business at all, but what is it like living (and
working?) on Treasure Island? Are there restaurants, bars, etc? It seems like
such a weird place being a former military base. Admittedly the only time I've
been is for the yearly music festival.

~~~
alemhnan
It's actually a wonderful place. Nice and calm. There is one grocery store,
one small pub (or as you want to call it) and an avenue centre. A lot of
lawns.

Whenever you want the busy mood of the city in 15-25 minutes you are the
Transbay terminal by bus (24/7).

~~~
jfb
It always seemed to me to be cold as hell, with a view worth a billion dollars
once or twice a quarter -- how does that correlate with your experience?

~~~
mahesh_rm
We think it is just a calm great spot if you are full inside the development
of your product and, like us, you do not need too many amenities, but rather
to focus and take a nice walk/run along seaside from time to time. And San
Francisco is literally 10 minutes bus, running 24/7. I wouldn't say it is the
right place to settle down, but it's in our opinion an environment totally
suitable for lean product bootstrap.

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dalanmiller
The gender symbols are very confusing, I've never seen the ones provided
before to represent gender?

Aren't these the universal gender symbols?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_symbol>

~~~
dalanmiller
Ahhh looked at the HTML and inferred from there but it should be a little more
obvious?

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arcticfox
Hopefully you guys can get enough people to sign up to reach usefulness! I
signed up. Seattle. :) FYI - Facebook login didn't work for me. Let me know if
you can't repro it and I'll send details.

~~~
alemhnan
Really thank you! I'm on you error right now! Trying to figuring out now what
went wrong!

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bradleyjoyce
I absolutely love this idea. As I've traveled to different places I've learned
how amazing it is to people able to speak to people in their own, native
language.

It breaks down barriers between cultures, ideologies and preconceived notions
and makes us all just humans.

As an American, it pains me that so many people in the US don't or aren't able
to travel to foreign countries and don't make the effort to learn other
languages.

For me, it's been a life-changing experience.

~~~
mahesh_rm
Hi Bradley, this has been true for us as well, and this is exactly the spirit
through which we are building CoffeeStrap!

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TheRubyist
Your site contains ridiculous TL;DR; "Legal" section but i cannot easily find
"change your languages" options, there is a "reset password" link but it
directs into webpage that doesn't contain any styles. Picking languages or
gender is very unintuitive. I really love your idea, i would like to see this
page going viral, but in current state it's hard to pass friend a link without
wasting few minutes for explaining what it's actually about.

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shuzchen
If there's a feature you know isn't working ("apply with twitter"), why have
it up there in the first place? At least, please have it so that clicking on
it leaves my form fields intact. I know I spent only 20 seconds filling it out
but that was annoying.

~~~
alemhnan
Dho. Sorry about that. We built CoffeeStrap in 4 weeks and we do not have
tested extensively everything. Totally our mistake!

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thebigkick
The entire concept and execution seems a little underdeveloped.

The language on the front page is confusing and the website's navigation is
different on at least three different pages.

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simonebrunozzi
It seems like a simple but nice idea. Good luck! I just signed up :)

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ehamberg
Love the idea, but I miss Indonesian in the list of languages. :-)

Oh, and other have pointed out already: the gender symbols make very little
sense.

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FreshCode
I thought this would be CoffeeScripted scripts for Bootstrap. I also struggled
to get to the home page. Some testimonials would go a long way.

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kvirani
It seems like a cool idea. I can see it turning into a dating service... The
language barriers can make things sexier ;)

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ymn_ayk
Google login didn't work for me. The page says that I've logged but nothing
happens. No Turkish? Good luck

~~~
alemhnan
Wonderful suggestion the Turkish one. As soon as the wave of HN fade we are
going to deploy the fixes and add the new language.

For the Google login, the login process has still some problems here and
there. After the login we don't have, yet, a page explaining what to expect
next. That why nothing happens.

We are already working on that, next deploy we will hopefully be ok.

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ThePowerOfPouet
Please fix the French translation: "Joindre à la communauté" -> "Rejoindre la
communauté".

~~~
alemhnan
Thank you! I'm going to do that right now!

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pestaa
Nice service, no love for Hungarians. Can you please add it?

~~~
alemhnan
Sure thing! In a bit it will be there!

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dinkumthinkum
OK, cool.

A few questions. What in the world is this? What would I do with this? How do
I do whatever it is I can do with this? I feel like this sounds like it could
be something that sounds cool but I'm completely lost at this point. Something
about cultures, or something, right?

~~~
mahesh_rm
Hi, it boils down in fact to something very simple: we message you matching
you up for real world coffees with other CoffeeStrappers who are compatible
with you on the basis of your spoken and practice languages, your location,
your gender, your age, and your interests, when you both are available. The
rest of the infrastructure is only accessory, and its function is to making
this match possible, accurate, and safe.

~~~
thebigkick
I admire you guys hanging your balls out there.

With that said I'd say you should really look into a content specialist.

So far you have a language based company/service that is having trouble
communicating the general concept.

Wish the best.

