
Show HN: DocTemple – My first SaaS startup after 6 months of solo development - jeandesuis
https://doctempleapp.com
======
jeandesuis
Hello HN,

I’m Jan, creator of DocTemple.

The idea came from doing much more advanced version for one of my customers
where he needed a tool to fill repetitive templates with data from the
database. Employee enters database id and based on the data it filled it
accordingly (with loops and conditional statements within document).

After working on it I was like „Wait a minute, there has to be more companies
that are underserved in that specific area of filling templates manually.” So
I created a completely new app based on the same idea - to let people fill
thousands of templates in minutes instead of hours. And to let them do it in
simple fashion. I truly hope I achieved that.

After long 6 months of developing my own product (there where months that I
had only 2 days to work on it because day job and life + never implemented
payments before) and making sure everything works as I wanted I can finally
say it’s ready to show it to the world.

For sure the biggest challenge here will be to find the companies that
actually need it.

I hope you will like this little tool! If anything you can reach me out here
and on the chat on the site as well.

Thanks and looking forward to your thoughts and feedback!

------
luckylion
Nice work!

I believe you should make the video visible, many people prefer a short intro,
and the link isn't that large. Also, I'm not sure whether you intended to have
it play the music or that was what you were listening to while recording the
screen cast, it was a bit confusing to me.

It's similar to Word's serial letters, only that it produces individual files,
right? Maybe you can put that into simple sentence and why it's better than
using serial letters. How does it prevent (common) errors? A short "don't you
hate it when ... happens? We've got you covered by doing ...." or something
similar will make it easier for people to understand the value, as if you're
telling a co-worker about this new cool thing that solves/improves something
you've both been working with.

Since data will be uploaded (which likely will include PII), especially in a
corporate context, you might want to put more emphasis on being GDPR
compliant, and offer an automated way to sign a data processing agreement so
users can stay compliant as well.

It made me remember the first time I used the serial letter system to print a
mailing and I somehow managed to edit some fields and turn them into text, so
I ended up with "Dear {firstname} {lastname}", but only noticed it when I
picked up the 500 pages from the printing shop.

~~~
jeandesuis
Thanks!

Yes, I was struggling with decision to make video more visible (under the
headline) and I realized that on mobile then it would show in that order: \-
headline \- video \- actual product

From what you are saying it might be actually better to do it like this. Will
test that for sure. Also, the background music thing - it's little
embarassing, but I originally put video without music and after I while I was
like "Hmmm, it's seems a bit dull without music" so I added one from YouTube
music library. Seems like that wasn't my best idea so far :D Should I take
that music down?

Using Word so many years I must say I never really used serial letters, but
yes - turns out to be the same idea behind it. Very good point about conveying
value more clear - need to incorporate these as well.

Regarding GDPR compliance - actually files never even leave one's machine. It
all happens in the browser (one reason is that doing it on the server was as
fast so no point sending it over) so because of that I THINK (must check
though) it's already GDPR compliant (because beside emails that are kept on
Google Firebase I keep no data).

~~~
luckylion
Music is fine, but something less niche might work better - it was almost in
sync with the music I was listening to, but might be off-putting to people who
aren't into electronic music. Maybe there's some elevator music that fits
better - and a spoken message helps understand the concept, especially for
normal people who aren't power users or developers.

GDPR-compliance sounds good when it all happens offline in the browser. I'd
definitely make that a selling point. Everyone is on their toes about it, if
you can take away the worry of "Where is that company located? Where are their
servers? Do I need to run this by our data protection lawyers?", you've
removed a lot of barriers.

~~~
jeandesuis
I didn't expect it to be such a big thing. I will definitely implement these
today. Need to think now how to put it nicely together on the site.

"Where is company located?" \- well, formally in Poland, but server-wise it's
all Google so what should I say here? Or it doesn't matter when it's all
offline?

And just for the record, I really appreciate your valuable inputs!

~~~
luckylion
You're welcome.

I'd definitely mention Poland, since "made in EU" is a big bonus for everyone
in the EU (both for privacy and for billing/payments). If the data isn't
uploaded, the servers don't matter for that part. They're relevant regarding
you user's personal data (e.g. their IP), but if their CSV doesn't touch the
server, that's ideal from a privacy perspective. You'll still need to put your
use of Google into your privacy information, but that's a formality and very
few people (especially in a company setting) care about their own PII being
stored on your server - it's other peoples' PII that they get in trouble for.

At least for enterprise customers, you might also need to be more transparent
about yourself, i.e. "Who's offering this service". You'll need to have it for
billing anyways, and will also require it in your privacy notice ("who's
responsible, who can I contact about my data").

