

Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku - bazookaaa
http://soshiku.com

======
zacharye
First and foremost, awesome clean design. Also the copy on the homepage is
very clear and concise. I know what it is, what it does and whether or not I
might like to try it after about 10 seconds. Kudos.

Have it marked to dive in deeper later.

~~~
steveplace
Agree except the "sign up" button needs to be above the fold.

------
trevelyan
The big button on your front page says "Take A Tour". "Sign Up" is tucked way
down at the bottom and requires scrolling (it is also in the top menu bar
sure, but it isn't as visible there). I knew I didn't want to take a tour
since I figured I _got_ the service from the blurb, but wasn't sure what else
to do from the home page.

The largest button is not only the most visible activity, but it's also an
implicit suggestion to your users. Do you want people to sign up, or do you
want them to take a tour? Plant the idea in their mind with design.

Smaller notes: I have no idea how to generate that funky calendar I saw in the
tour, or to tell the system that I've completed an assignment once created.
Also - just to be picky - the header colors really don't work for me. Blue and
green and another blue, and another blue and dark grey and light grey?
Multiple borders and banners? If you aren't working with a designer, try
keeping the site simple and iterate towards a more attractive site. Design
that adds complexity works against the impression of simplicity and usability
(it communicates money). I believe your logo against a simple white background
would be more attractive to potential users than the ruckus up there now.
Simpler design would also call more attention to the content you really want
users to see.

~~~
kleneway
+1 on elevating the importance of the "Sign Up" button.

------
aneesh
If you'd have said "review my app", I would've said it's awesome. Great job.

But the moment you call it a startup, I have to ask how you make money. So,
how do you plan to make money? Students are poor, and cheap, and I'm not sure
ads would fit it even if you had the traffic.

~~~
bazookaaa
You're right, I should have used "web app" instead. There are ads (which
doesn't hurt to have), but I'm thinking of other means of monetization. Thanks
for the feedback.

~~~
orib
A suggestion and a possible monetization idea - don't sell to students. Make
schools your target. They buy a copy of your app and put it on their servers.
Make it possible for teachers to push out assignments to it.

It also makes the thing actually useful for me -- I don't want to have to
remember to add the assignments to it myself. I already know what my
assignments are and I don't have time to type them into yet another place.

~~~
aneesh
+10 if I could. This is much better than selling to students. I know a couple
startups selling to schools, and there are difficulties there too (like
actually closing the deal), but if you want to monetize, this strategy is
worth a shot.

------
breck
Very good design. You are obviously very talented.

However, I don't think your site solves the problem better than a pen and a
piece of paper.

I'm going to paraphrase a quote I read once: "the web is your hammer, and
everything looks like a nail." Every problem is not best solved via the web. I
think this may be one of those cases. But I could be wrong.

Either way, great looking site and good luck.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
Pen and paper won't text me when I have an assignment coming due...

~~~
breck
Your right. But it's very easy to carry around a to/do list, piece of paper in
your pocket and keep an eye on things. Never failed me. The drop rate of SMS's
is 2% or so on the other hand(not to mention dead batteries, lack of coverage,
silent ringers, etc.). I've also seen many businessmen at the top of their
fields using paper: a very simple, reliable and effective method.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea. It's definitely something useful. I just
think it's not a great business idea. I think you have demonstrated great
abilities, and you could put those to work on harder, more profitable
problems.

~~~
shawndrost
Failed me all the time; I would've used this in a second.

------
aston
Very nice look. A pixel level gripe, for you: Can you get rid of the blue line
fragments between the 'h' & 'i' and the 'i' & 'k' in the logo?

------
bazookaaa
Thank you for all the wonderful comments.

Zacharye, that certainly was my goal. :)

Aston, yes I'll fix that right away.

Siong, thanks for the suggestions. You can (mostly) do all of that by adding
partners to your account, and then using the discussion pane on the assignment
page. And for "peer pressure", a users' total grade does show on their public
profile.

About monetization: for now I'm focusing on just unobtrusive AdSense ads, but
I'm definitely brainstorming about the future.

Jbenz, yes it's 100% free and I plan on keeping it that way. Should I replace
"But that's just the tip of the iceberg." with "And it's totally free." with,
say, a yellow highlight?

------
siong1987
Maybe some communities features like: 1\. add someone who is in your class or
taking the same subject. 2\. discussion board. 3\. and, the evil thing: peer
pressure - you can see who has finished their homeworks but you are still
working on something else.

------
Joseph_K
Very clean interface, the app works smothly, etc.

BUT

This is not useful to me as a student if I have to enter all of my assignments
manually. If I know what to enter, why do I need to be reminded?

If there were some way to import assignments and classes from somewhere else,
then it would be very useful. I don't know how feasible that would be, but
there's no way I'd use Soshiku without that feature.

~~~
bazookaaa
That's why I made it so users can add assignments via email or SMS. So when
they're in class, for example, they can add it from their phone and not to
have to worry about it.

~~~
aneesh
What did you use to implement the SMS service?

~~~
bazookaaa
I'm just using an email gateway now, so carriers are limited. Hopefully that
will change in the future.

~~~
aneesh
Have you seen textmarks.com?

------
railsjedi
Good looking app. Stands out as distinct and memorable.

The name is a bit obscure and hard to remember. Might hurt word of mouth
(which could be a big deal on campuses).

I'd recommend getting rid of the adwords. Highly doubtful that they'll make
you much money, and its a big distraction.

An alternative monetization approach would be to search for keywords on
peoples pages and have a sidebar that recommends books (on amazon affiliates)
based on the keywords on their notebooks. Call it a book recommender. Fairly
easy to parse out keywords and query recommendation on amazon, and you could
even run this as a cron job nightly. Here's a good libary:
<http://www.caliban.org/ruby/ruby-aws/>

Nice move focusing on email, sms, and facebook integration. This is the key
features that will keep people using your app. More than any fancy html
management interface. May be worth looking at iPhone/mobile interface and
meebo support for chatting with partners.

Just a few random thoughts. Hope they are helpful.

------
yan
Hah! I had the same idea in college, and even registered a domain name
(ssure.com, as in pre.ssure.com). I was going to revolve it around the idea of
assignments and work amounting to 'pressure' on you, and your job was to
complete stuff and reduce this pressure.

Seems that this is implemented very well. Will check it out in a deeper
fashion soonish.

------
bigthboy
I think its a very good concept and, from my personal research with my own
start-up, an industry with a lot of potential for growth. The question is,
what is it that will seperate you out specifically from the rest of these CMS
and similar systems? I'm not just talking about Blackboard or other enterprise
only systems, there are a growing amount of these free/open-source systems.
Also, how do you expect to reach your audience. The internet is big and even
advertising about it on the side of Facebook or some other place isn't going
to get that many people. (Most of the time students aren't going to opt to go
out of there way to setup something like this.)

------
asmosoinio
The layout fails on Google Chrome. It shows the "Simple Assignment Tracking"
etc. chapters each on separate vertical space, and "Partner Up" goes below
"Sign up" and "Take the Tour"-buttons.

Yes, I blame Chrome and not your site.

Update: I find the images on <http://soshiku.com/tour> a bit too big -- the
page is really big right now (i.e. lots of pixels). Lots to scroll even on a
1920x1200 resolution.

An me nagging about such small detail proves that you overall design works for
me!

~~~
bazookaaa
Thanks for the feedback. I'll make the tour multi-page. Strange that it
doesn't work in Chrome but works fine in Safari. Sure wish I had a PC so I can
debug in both Chrome and IE!

~~~
asmosoinio
I suggest: <http://www.crossbrowsertesting.com/>

Gives full access to virtual machines with different versions of Windows and
different browsers. I tried it, bought some credits and loved it.

------
mjr578
Awesome work. I just graduated last year or else I would be using that right
now.

One suggestion would be to have the Tour be a multi page process, so there
isn't so much scrolling, also I am a sucker for videos demonstrating
functionality. Just something real simple showing how to do each of the
different functions.

I work at a university so I will be recommending it to any students I meet.
Great work.

------
qaexl
I like the marketing material you have on the site to explain the different
features. It looks patterned off of 37Signals, but hey, it works. I'm curious
to what going up to random college students on campus and demoing the site to
them on the spot would bring to you.

How are you planning to monetize this? Hitting up the PTA or college groups?

------
trickjarrett
Excellent design. Good implementation. Expand it to work projects or find a
way to make it appeal to freelancers. Etc. :)

~~~
jcapote
I think he'd be better off staying focused in the market he's in; there is
already a TON of these for freelancers/work projects.

------
rnesh
As a college student, I thank you.

However, one thing I would personally change is a small usability issue I
noticed on the Courses page. I would like to be able to add a course, and not
have to navigate back to Home to be able to add a new assignment. I think it
would just really clarify things a bit better.

------
mihasya
Is everything a startup now? Every time someone makes an application, it's a
fucking startup...

The design is nice, but it looks like a secret love affair with 37signals
products. I guess some might say that's a plus...

I'll also echo the comment that I'm not sure this is particularly
useful/needed.

~~~
greyman
In my opinion, it can be called startup because if it will really take off, it
will basically require constant maintenance, because the users will always bug
with something. In that sense it's a business/startup.

------
Raphael
You could sell this to a school. I am taking 3 classes, which means 3
different websites and several PDFs. It would be great to have everything in
one place automatically in a web page plain text format.

~~~
apgwoz
There are lots of more complicated tools for this (Blackboard, Moodle), but
I've yet to see a super simple to the point one... interesting idea.

~~~
tialys
Blackboard is HIDEOUS and bloated. I'd love to see someone dethrone them.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
Students, teachers, administrations, and IT departments agree! Blackboard is a
monstrosity!

------
LogicHoleFlaw
Does the name "Soshiku" have a meaning? It sounds very Japanese to me but I'm
drawing a blank on an exact meaning. My conjugation is pretty weak these days.

~~~
bazookaaa
Sort of. It's derived from the word "soshiki" which means "organization" (I
hope it's the verb kind of organization). I saw the word a long time ago, and
in my head somewhere along the way, before I made the site, I turned it into
"soshiku". I do like that better.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
JDIC to the rescue! First given definition of "soshiki" (そしき) [組織]

組織 【そしき】 (n,vs) (1) organization; (2) structure; construction; (3) tissue; (4)
system;

(1) 役員評議会が組織されて新提案を協議した。 An executive council was formed to discuss the new
proposal.

Looks like そしき is a nominative word which can be used as part of a compound
verb, as in 組織する [to form an organization]. (soshiki-sarete in the example
given is in the tense "was-formed / was-organized").

I love variety in both human and computer languages.

Digressions aside, I like the name. And the site itself looks fantastic. Good
luck!

------
tok9
I closed the browser as soon as I noticed the logo. Sorry...I cant bring
myself to look at another clone web 2.0 logo.

Good luck with the site though.

------
jbenz
I take it the service is free? Slip the word "free" into the homepage content
somewhere.

Great design. It look professional because it's so simple.

------
felideon
Very cool. It's useful, nice and neat. I wish I had something like this in
college.

I'll definitely use it when (if?) I start a Masters degree.

------
amackera
Fantastic, clean design. I'm adding courses now, I'll let you know how it goes
by the end of the term, heh.

------
colinplamondon
Great design, forwarded the link to my little brother.

How do you make money? Book sales?

------
ryanspahn
Nice design that provides immediate comprehension.

Understood it in a few seconds!

------
known
Excellent.

