

Poll on Hacker News Brand Awareness - ashishk
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/03/hacker-news-brand-awareness.html

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davi
The reason certain users or companies 'break through' to me on HN (i.e.
achieve a long term identity in my brain) is because they change my model of
how the world works.

Two examples -- Posterous and Mixergy. Mixergy has gotten lots of visibility
on HN lately, Posterous maybe not quite as much (though maybe I just haven't
paid as much attention to Posterous lately). But both changed my model of the
world in some way. Posterous, for making me think more about email as the
least-common-denominator social network publishing platform, and the value of
tapping into that, and the technical issues involved with doing so; Mixergy,
for the content of the interviews, but also for the _format_ \-- I think a
Mixergy-style site on ambitious young neuroscientists could be really
interesting, and good for my field as a whole.

Posterous and Mixergy changed how I think about things, and because of that,
I'll probably remember both for as long as I live.

This is a different model of brand awareness from the one that is implicit in
the poll results linked to here -- that brand awareness is some function of
the number of times a brand gets posted per unit time and the popularity of
the post. For me, that's just _visibility_ \-- but _stickyness_ comes down to,
"Did this change my model of the world?"

And that's the value I get from the better posts on HN, the better New Yorker
articles, etc.

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shafqat
Shafqat here from NewsCred, one of the startups included in the poll.
Interesting results - I'm not surprised only 8% had heard of us. Our consumer
site (www.newscred.com) has gotten decent traction and press, but nothing out
of this world.

Our main business (<http://platform.newscred.com>) has no publicity or
marketing attached to it. We've just been heads down, working away on the
product and iterating with customers using typical customer development
strategies. With that said, it's a sizeable business and growing. And some
stage, we need to turn the marketing machine on.

But the real question I debate internally is "how important is brand
recognition." Obviously it's priceless for the Cokes or Nikes of the world.
But for a startup that has a clear path to customer acquisition, has figured
out its ARPU and is having success with sales, how much focus should be spent
on 'brand-building?'

Thoughts?

~~~
colinplamondon
The point of having a business is making money, and if having brand awareness
on Hacker News doesn't make you money, why bother? For a company like Directed
Edge, though, having brand awareness on HN can bring in a ton of money, since
developers on Hacker News will read about them, check them out, and sign up as
paying customers.

Just depends on the business.

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ambition
I'm not sure that the brand awareness of these cases is related to the company
naming. For example, I think Bingo Card Creator is well-known mostly because
everyone here loves patio11.

~~~
davidw
I think in part it's the... well, "absurdity" (?) of bingo cards, of all
things, being successful. Something like wheels' Directed Edge is very cool
technology and sort of the classic hacker startup. Bingo cards, on the other
hand, just seems like this left-field thing, so it sticks in your head a bit
more, paradoxically. When you read about something like DE, you kind of nod
your head and say yeah, that's pretty cool, and admire it. When you read
'bingo cards' for the first time the reaction is more like "say what?!".

Not to take anything away from patio11 of course - he's a bright guy and
always full of good advice. It's just that he sticks out more by not fitting
the mold.

~~~
detst
It's interested that you look at it this way because I don't. I've always
looked for product ideas like his that can bring in some nice cash but aren't
going to make you rich. They are everywhere.

Before the wife, kids and mortgage show up, this seems to me to be the way to
do it. Don't shoot for the fences. Look for the ideas that can get you enough
cash in your pocket to move on to the next idea where you can shoot for the
fences. You'll have the stability of the first income and the experience it
brought.

(Hopefully this doesn't seem like I'm taking away from what Patrick has done
but I think it's clear that this idea isn't making him a millionaire.)

~~~
patio11
I'm still getting over the shock of being a tens-of-thousandsaire, believe me.
There is nothing like being in business as a training tool for being in
business, though. I don't think there is any grad school which will teach you,
e.g., how to run an AdWords campaign or how to think about SEO, but these are
fairly generalizable skills that I get to keep even if catastrophe strikes the
teaching bingo market tomorrow.

Plus, as opposed to grad schools, businesses pay _you_ while you learn. (This
has always been my excuse for being a Japanese salaryman instead of going to
grad school for Japanese.)

------
RK
I recognize Mixergy, but don't recall what they do.

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clistctrl
In my opinion duck duck go is a prominent "brand" on HN for a single simple
reason. It's (now forgive my language) but a ballsy startup for a really
simple reason. Your competition is Google!!!... and not just a company who
happens to be owned by Google, you're competing with Google in their primary
business. You're also doing it by yourself, and to top it off you're getting
results!! I'll read anything about it, because its essentially like watching
the Boston Red Socks play some little league team from Milwaukee... the twist
though, is the game is almost tied, and the Boston Red Socks aren't throwing
the game. Its plain exciting!

~~~
jrockway
FWIW, I hadn't heard about Duck Duck Go until this article. And I think I
spend a fair amount of time on HN...

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bugs
You probably just gaze through the headlines about it because to be honest
Duck Duck Go isn't very eye grabbing, but there are plenty of articles about
it and most of the duck duck go blog postings seem to make it to the front
page and there are plenty of comments about it.

~~~
jrockway
Possible. I do tend to skip most startup-related content, because I really
don't care. But I have still managed to hear about Bingo Card Creator,
Mixergy, and Mibbit.

~~~
shafqat
Interesting, if you skip the startup content, which content do you prefer?
(Not being snarky, honest question).

