
Ask HN: Should I scrap my MVP? - fjabre
I've just released my MVP at gosharepad.com - contact centered email for Gmail + Google Apps (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2511363)<p>It's been 3 hours now and I've only receieved 3 upvotes. I find it ironic that the community I've contributed to over the last 2 years (having given feedback to countless Ask HN articles) that I've only received 1 comment on my own Ask HN post that wasn't my own.<p>Just makes me wonder if I've done something terribly wrong here or just something so uninteresting that nobody cares - even worse IMHO.<p>At least technically I feel like it's an accomplishment. We essentially built a web-based mail client centered around your contacts using Membase and Flask which should scale nicely.. big deal if you can't get users though right?<p>And I feel like I did enough market research to determine that there was a gaping hole in the current contact management setup that Google has.<p>So again I ask. Should I go back to the drawing board? I just don't want to keep putting resources into an idea that is flawed in the first place.<p>I would really love some honest feedback on this - negative or otherwise.
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Osiris
It appears you've put a lot of hard work into the site, and the videos
certainly make it look nice. I think now you'll need to focus on marketing.
People have posted a lot of suggestions here that could help.

I found in my small venture that word-of-mouth is hugely important, so try to
find ways to get enough users to get the word out there.

You may try other payment options, like a discount for 1-year over month to
month, and a free trial that doesn't require a credit card. You may also want
to solicit a "beta testers" group that would get the product for free in
return for feedback. Getting real people using the site could generate a lot
of ideas you might not have thought of.

Good luck and don't give up yet.

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andrewstuart
Errr, giving up after 3 hours seems a little early. If you really believe in
your product it will probably take years to build it up.

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fjabre
Thanks Andrew. I agree. However if I can't even garnish more than a few votes
from this community I really do want to go back to the drawing board and
figure if I did something really wrong or I just need to redesign my landing
page - feedback I was hoping for when posting it here in the first place.

~~~
benologist
HN is always going to be very hit and miss and increasingly miss as it gets
more popular itself.

Don't let yourself believe that getting a popular submission here or a writeup
on TechCrunch or whatever is a _requirement_ for startups - it doesn't mean
you've made it and it likely won't give you that precious first group of
users. All it is is a nice little bonus that along the way will likely be
overshadowed by much, much more important achievements.

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wehriam
I didn't see your original post - you may need to ask friends and associates
to help with an initial bump.

Reading the first few sentences of the original post I learned SharePad
integrates with Google apps, allows unlimited contacts, and helps me stay
organized.

I don't have a limit on how many people I can contact and am organized. From
your description SharePad solves problems that I don't have so I'm not prone
to comment on it.

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djb_hackernews
HN is hit or miss, especially mornings. If you post something, and you are a
nobody your submissions quickly fall to page 2, which is game over.

A good way to get upvotes is to ask friends. When I post something I'll
usually link to it in #startups or the HN meetup group I am a member of and
ask for some upvotes (if worthy, of course)

but you can see from my submission history, I've built several apps, posted
them to HN, and gotten nothing. Don't let it stop you.

The other thing to keep in mind is if this is a bootstrapped project, that
doesn't have major name brand funding or drama, you'll need to cram it down
peoples throats. If you are ready to give up after 3 hours, I'm not sure you
are ready for the work it'll take to bootstrap traction...

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tgrass
Uh...I can't even test it and you want my credit card on a site that doesn't
look trustworthy???

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fjabre
Thanks for the feedback.

Simply use the promo code 'HNFREE' on the signup page and you don't have to
enter any CC info.

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darkxanthos
The problem may not be your product but the use of video. I can't quickly skim
video. Needless to say I still don't even know what your product is as a
result.

~~~
fjabre
Thanks for the feedback. Looks like the theme I'm getting here is that my
landing page and message need a lot of work.

~~~
rhizome
I would recommend not trying to be "aw shucks" and just laying out the info.
There's an element in the video of the blog posts that always crop up after a
popular AskHN. You know, like "how do I find people to network with?" followed
by 3-10 days of "23 ways to make new business contacts" HN submissions (if you
peruse /new, that is). The thing that unites most of the blog posts I'm
casting aspersions upon is that they purport to be about something, or a list
of things, but they wind up weaving those things throughout an ersatz
narrative ("Once upon a time in the dark days of CompuServe...") that obscures
the clarity you'd think they'd be trying to give to a list of 23 closely
related things. I dunno, maybe that's just me.

In short, stop telling me why I'm going to use it, your recommendation engine
isn't that good yet. Also, your FAQ doesn't contain any FAQs, so you should
rename it "About" or something like that.

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louislouis
The video is too small on the front page, double the size. Also list all the
benefits of sharepad on the front page, what can it do for users etc.

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rhizome
Squeaky-wheel method, sure.

 _We essentially built a web-based mail client centered around..._

So when you talk about mail clients, you aren't including _reading_ email,
right? It's mentioned nowhere, including anywhere in your video.

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fjabre
Good point. Yes you can definitely read/write emails with it. It is
practically a drop in replacement for Gmail.

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akavi
While it's slick, I'm don't think you're quite providing enough value to
justify 4 bucks a month.

I'd definitely use it if it was free, but I'm not sure what seems to me to be
a nicer email client is worth paying for.

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keeptrying
Doing customer development is am art in of it's own.

How many people did you meet with who were willing to buy it?

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phlux
I _NEVER_ get responses to my Ask HN questions -- at least not that many.

I think most people browse the main page - and things shift off the new page
far too fast.

I suggest trying to get the sluts over at TechCrunch to do a review.

Try using wording like "Hey TC guys, I'd love to give you free exclusive
access to my project to get your feedback" etc...

Entice them with wording that makes them feel exclusive and cool.

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pavel_lishin
Try not to refer to them as sluts when you send off the e-mail, though.

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brudgers
Are you suggesting they get paid?

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georgieporgie
"email, centered around your contacts," sounds like just regular email to me.
I don't really 'get' it.

I thought the video could use work overall. There was some hesitation, some
intermittent, rapid-fire talking, and so on.

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AmberShah
I have to agree here. Personally it is too buzz-wordy for me and I wouldn't
really be interested. Can you find like one or two solution statements in
regular, even overly-simple, words? Tell me one thing I could do that I can't
do now or would be easier. If it's a big enough problem I will do it, but
otherwise shifting my email setup is just an annoyance I'd rather avoid.

