

Farewell Kera - dmarinoc
http://blog.kera.io/post/48285525794/farewell-kera

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tzaman
I actually tried Kera for our product (<https://codeable.io>) and even had a
Skype conversation with one of the founders, but I knew having a walkthrough
guide (their product) was just a band-aid for poor UX, and as such, just a
temporary solution, not really worth paying for in the long term, especially
when it was easy to use one of the open source solutions and adapt them (like
Zurb Joyride) to our needs.

Nevertheless I wish the Kera team good luck on their next venture!

~~~
smoyer
I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum ... I'd never heard of Kera and after
reading the obituary, I wanted to know what it was. Unfortunately, they've
simultaneously put a "black ribbon" on the project's web page, making it
impossible to navigate to any meaningful description.

Would someone mind "clueing me in"?

~~~
mnicole
I tried it out quite a few months ago, so I am only speaking to the initial
version, but you created a timeline of JS events (tooltips, other
tutorial/intro elements) with synced voiceovers (if you wanted) and it would
show up on the user's end with a video player-esque UI so they could navigate
the experience.

The front-end was clean & simple, and I really liked it in theory (I disagree
with the notion that any app that needs a walkthrough is broken by design),
but the version I tried's backend wasn't created for people who couldn't sink
some time into the JS and would have benefitted greatly from a more user-
friendly approach.

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camwest
Hey folks. I'm a Kera cofounder.

We believe in the Lean Startup. Probably more than most. We launched three
separate tutorial products trying to find something that people picked up
easily while still giving great results. We basically ran out of time and had
to scale our team back to just the three cofounders.

We are still kicking the can trying to get traction (albeit in a different
direction).

If anyone wants more details about why we shut down the producg I'd be more
than happy to share. It's fundamentally a CAC being higher than LTV type
issue.

~~~
Maciek416
Hey Cameron, it's sad to see Kera shut down, there were some really neat ideas
in there. On the other hand, I'm pleased to see that you guys have seen an
idea through until it either succeeded or failed. There are too many long-
running projects in Toronto, ideas on never ending life support, never allowed
to succeed nor fail, kept alive by either consulting or government support. I
think if we took bigger risks and cycled through a variety of ideas faster
(even if they fail fast), we might have a better chance at attracting more
money to this city. Getting clueful investors here is very difficult, as I'm
sure you have learned.

I would love to see you guys write more about your story. Good luck with your
next idea.

~~~
rahilsondhi
Curious, what are some Toronto startups you think are on never ending life
support?

~~~
maxcameron
That's dangerous ground Rahil - you should post an "Ask HN" instead of turning
this into a shit-talk-a-thon.

~~~
rahilsondhi
You're right, oversight on my part.

All the best with your next venture Max.

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Kiro
What did the service do?

~~~
jdleesmiller
They provided web site tutorials (like Zurb Joyride) with voiceover. IIRC
they'd set it up based on your script for a fairly low fee, and then there was
a subscription fee for keeping it going.

Sorry to hear that it didn't work out!

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ivzar
I had the privilege of spending some time with Max and John, two of Kera.io's
cofounders during SXSW this year. They are two of the most personable and
generous founders I have ever met (must be the whole Canada thing!). These
guys have both the technical chops and the hustle to be huge, and I am
positive that this is merely a bump in the road for them. They are going to be
unstoppable with one of their next ventures, fate just didn't have Kera.io in
its cards.

Best of luck to the both of you, you guys are gonna kill it.

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Lucent
The Demo link at the top of ptable.com is still powered by Kera's first
generation demo software. It's a shame to lose it, but it seems their target
demographic was more sales-oriented sites that would find high monetary value
in people converting. That wasn't me.

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noeltock
I think it's unfortunate. We had used the service for the Clickbank Powered
platform and users loved it. I didn't see much value in the product they
pivoted into, but the initial one was superb. Here's to hoping they open
source it...

~~~
maxcameron
Hey Noel,

Thanks for the kind words - you were one of our earliest adopters, and I'm
sorry we couldn't make it work out. There's a few people who have reached out
that are interested in the technology, so we'll have to wait and see about
open sourcing it.

Best of luck with Happy Tables and give my best to the folks over at
ClickBank!

~~~
lostsock
Another early adopter here, sad to see you go.

We got a little worried when you pivoted as we felt that it would be just as
much work to embed the Kera solution as it would to roll your own goal
tracking solution with much tighter integration with the base website.

We would Would love to see you open source the v1 product though, really felt
that solved a much harder problem.

~~~
noeltock
Even if it's not open, could sell the self-hosted for a yearly license,
definitely a good way to continue getting revenue on it.

~~~
maxcameron
Yes, we've received a few inquiries about that.

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tpsc
It is a pity. I didn't manage to try it out but Kera really stood out in terms
of design.

~~~
uxwtf
I agree in design terms Kera was nicer than competitors. Wanted to test your
service. Next time. Good luck with your next project!

