

Ask HN: Don't signup, Just review the Startup product - kylecsteele

Would love to get feedback on our new startup. Launching MVP soon. Good, bad, brutal or whatever, just comment.<p>www.doccaster.com
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LarryMade
I had to strip of the www for it to work, need to fix your url or your
webserver settings.

I like the animation, good points to get my interest. the background was odd,
throwing stuff in the air in an empty field? think about that. How about
something like a lightbulb over your ipad or something saying doccaster
"sharing" or something - with a bunch of lightbulbs over disperse folks in a
crowded room?

So you have to have your potential clients load up some app in order to
access. Then it is limited by time and range... I guess that is a good thing
if it is paid conference materials that you want stricter control over
distribution...

So I take it you would have to create some sort of flyer or brochure on how
potential clients can setup and sign into doccaster in order for them to
access your stuff then? (cue the cute animation of people grabbing your flyer
and throwing it in the trashcan) Will it work on my Linux laptop? or my
Blackberry? etc. requiring an app will be limiting.

Document presentation/management is a great thing, but I think you have put in
a few stumbling blocks to "gotta have it" adoption. I think you would get
better results with a web portal where accounts are accessed like
www.doccaster.com/mybizdocs which presents a graphical brochure rack to click
and choose documents. Distributors could put that address on a card with
friendly easy to read type "the Iludium Q35 Space Modulator:
www.doccaster.com/q35info" five words and an address (maybe a graphic of it on
the back of the card) just enough not to loose the attention of an ADHD
executive.

But then again, you don't have the geographic control... but would you via a
laptop either?

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kylecsteele
Thank Larrys for the feedback. The product video was modeled off other web 2.0
intro videos (Dropbox 2min, Linkedin 2:35min) and was designed to provide
first time users with an overview. We tried to create the stumbling blocks in
the beginning b recreating events that commonly take place in the sharing of
documents that the viewer would relate too. Probably, could have done better.
Ultimately, we hope the video sparks interest by showing people the advantage
of using our system over traditional document distribution methods. Thanks
again.

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relaunched
Your video needs to be between 30-60 seconds...MAX

Your phrasing, "Broadcast any document into your location" doesn't explain
what you do. I'm probably slower than the average hacker news reader, but that
being said, I don't get it...especially after watching the video (which
explained it to me). Something like, "Location-based document sharing" is a
very functional explanation, but lacks lacks creativity. But, you get the
point. A one-liner has to be both easy to remember AND something that when I
repeat it to a friend, they get it too.

As another commenter insinuated, generally, the product applies to a lot of
people, only a very small percentage of the time. I highly recommend you
target carefully. Maybe the convention audience (thought probably not), or
college recruiters. Be something specifically important to someone first and
grow from there.

Caution: this has been done with QR codes. Check out why others that have
tried solving this problem a different way have been or weren't successful.

Find out, as early as possible, how much people would be willing to pay for
something like this.

Best of luck,

~~~
kylecsteele
Cool and thank you very much! Our vertical is the convention/ conference
space. We live in Orlando which is a large convention market and have been
tide to the space for a while which is the reason why the product was
developed.

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verelo
Hm...i would love to provide more valuable feedback, but the page doesn't load
for me.

Firefox says "The connection to the server was reset while the page was
loading."

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verelo
Ok now it loads.

1\. So its a bit like google buzz for documents?

2\. I get the pain point...i have always printed too many or not enough, and i
hate seeing that go into the bin either way...

3\. The site is ok, but i just don't feel interested enough to signup.

4\. I suspect i would want to signup, if i currently needed to use something
like this, right now i don't. Maybe this is something to consider when you're
thinking about customer acquisition.

~~~
AznHisoka
Same here, I get the pain point but am not motivated to try it... maybe I'm
just not target audience.

~~~
kylecsteele
I understand. Not a everyday tool at all. Only good for events, conventions
and meetings.

