

Our Startup can help other Startups build an MVP - jayjohnson

We&#x27;re a startup that can help you get to your MVP faster by handling your back end for you. We streamline new feature development via a new type of REST API. We&#x27;re trying to improve and expand our technology, but need real world use cases to do this. By working with your startup directly, we&#x27;ll be able to do that while providing personal customization and functionality that you need to grow your business. We want to hear your feedback and how we can build features even faster.<p>Just on a personal note, I was a senior consultant at Red Hat building enterprise solutions before this.  I know what it takes and we made our platform to help other startups that are in the same boat as us. Contact us if you&#x27;re interested:
managers@flowstacks.com<p>Here’s our startup to check us out: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;flowstacks.com&#x2F;
======
phantom_oracle
Interesting tool.

I'd use it, but perhaps I should first help you fix a couple of things.

1) Go into beta. You need testers first. Give them the stuff for free.

2) Don't link me to documentation to learn more. Create simple, easy-to-ingest
screencasts/videos/pictures that I can quickly understand how the software can
help me.

3) Build stuff with it. Time is a major sell point for developers who are
tired of spending 40 minutes getting some package to work before actually
writing code. Show me how I can build Twitter in 30 minutes and you have a
winner.

4) Don't only focus on startups. A lot of other companies like APIs these
days. Showcase the versatility of your product to big corps/medium-sized
enterprise/NPOs/etc on how they can easily get their APIs to be accessed on
multiple platforms.

5) Make it easy to get my data in and out. Nobody likes a lock-in these days,
so make things more "open".

6) Understand that this is a crowded marketplace. There's a ton of variants
around, with Parse/FireBase/etc all competing in a market that feels a bit
crowded to me.

7) Target frontend hipsters/lovers of all thing JS. I may sound coy saying it
here on HN, but deep down, that is how they are identified as a niche, so
target them.

Hope that helps.

~~~
sycren
I agree with all your points and I would like to add a few of my own on
marketing.

8) Make your signup simple, only ask for email address & password. Why would
you need a username & email address? Both are unique identifiers for a login.

9) Change your website design. a) Go to
[https://wrapbootstrap.com/](https://wrapbootstrap.com/) and look for a
product theme perhaps like -
[http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB02N6L1H](http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB02N6L1H)

b) Take out the slider and instead either alternate features like -
[http://www.lostmy.name/](http://www.lostmy.name/) or create separate pages
for the content. Separate pages can help out better for SEO.

c) The copy for why I should use your software answers what it is? You haven't
attacked any pain points or said how much easier you would make it. You have
only mentioned that it would be easier and scale but this isn't a proper
answer. The best way to do this is to create a narrative or story around the
product.

d) Bear in mind that h1...h6 tags are used for SEO which you don't seem to
have. Check out - [http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/headers/](http://www.hobo-
web.co.uk/headers/) And only use one h1 tag per page as per Google's
recommendations.

e) managers@flowstacks.com seems like it might come across as pretentious if
you're marketing to developers and startups although it might work well for
enterprise customers. Perhaps you should go for hello@flowstacks.com for
general queries and you already have support@flowstocks.com for support.

f) Flesh out your about page a bit more, I want to know who you are and why
you are doing this, history and motivations. You could add testimonials to
either this page or the homepage. Testimonials at this early point could come
from your beta users.

g) Your navigation at the top is broken on your blog page. A home button is
added and the sign in / sign up buttons disappear.

h) Minor but the community button on the documentation page goes back to the
homepage. Broken?

~~~
jayjohnson
This is good feedback with great solutions. We are novice on all things
marketing and advertising. Would you be interested in jumping on a
hangout/skype to discuss more with us?

Jay

~~~
phantom_oracle
Are you asking me or sycren or us both?

~~~
jayjohnson
We are interested in figuring what to build/how to market this and both of you
have had great feedback for us.

I was reading your post on
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7321013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7321013)
and that sounds like it's spot on what we are looking to do right now.

Are you looking to build something still? If so here's my email:
jay@flowstacks.com let's get started!

~~~
phantom_oracle
I've got a couple of ideas I'd like to dabble with using APIs.

I will sign up in the next few days to give the platform a test.

I won't mind sharing feedback to help you guys grow, but remember that my
actual use of the platform should not be a sole feedback tool, as you'll need
consensus among a vast amount of testers to gauge the use of the software.

Also, remember not to listen to the users every need. Some are too specific to
implement and will bring no value to the product itself.

