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Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#21

Post by webwright »

Avalaxy wrote: post #6

I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested in yet ANOTHER todo app/website/whatever. Please come up with something innovating. Creating the millionth TODO app and calling it a 'startup' is just not going to work. We have enough of these things. There's no need for it, and it certainly shouldn't be called a business, because it simply isn't. (the same goes for the thousands of project management apps, hour tracker apps,…

Yeah, that was rude AND wrong. You have NO idea what the OPs goals are with this. It could be his first independent project ever just to get his feet wet. Even if he DOES have great ambitions for it, you don't need to be terribly innovative to win.

Build something that attacks a clear need, has clear competition, and comes at the market from a slightly different angle and you can oftentimes build a huge business just by executing well. Trello? Asana? Sprint.ly? All doing REALLY WELL. I know a couple of guys who built "twitter sentiment tools" recently. They launched into a crowded market of people doing the same thing. They're now nearly 30 people strong and are doing millions in revenue per year. In big and/or growing markets, there's nearly infinite opportunity.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#22

Post by tluyben2 »

Avalaxy wrote: post #6

I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested in yet ANOTHER todo app/website/whatever. Please come up with something innovating. Creating the millionth TODO app and calling it a 'startup' is just not going to work. We have enough of these things. There's no need for it, and it certainly shouldn't be called a business, because it simply isn't. (the same goes for the thousands of project management apps, hour tracker apps,…

You have a point, but not a very solid point looking at the past of a lot of companies. I find most of these tools lacking (for instance, I find Basecamp rather unusable and really don't like to work with it as it makes me less efficient). If I find them lacking, other people have that same feeling. I'm not saying there is a big market per se for these kind of tools, but there is a market. When tools like Jira, Basecamp, RememberTheMilk and many, many others came to the market, there were tons of them at that time as well and yet they made it big, 2 of them well over $100 million / year businesses. With Stackoverflow you could say there were enough sites 'doing the same'.

Usually even if the US is DROWNING in startups or even grown up companies doing what you want to do, you can probably make a solid, well run business in your own country if you are outside the US. In big countries there are even regions where this works.

And scratching your itch is fun and it's always good to actually FINISH something, even though you won't make money with it.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#23

Post by mgkimsal »

anil_mamede wrote: post #18
Avalaxy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think it's "unnecessarily negative". I see so many people wasting their time by working on 'ideas' that aren't even real ideas. He could have used his time better doing something actually useful. A lot of programmers have a big tunnel vision. They want to create a 'startup' no matter what, and then they come up with a 'TODO list' and waste many months of their valuable time working on it, just to be di…

> A lot of programmers have a big tunnel vision. They want to create a 'startup' no matter what But it is not the programmer's fault. Many incubators preach that everyone must have an ideia, no matter how awful it is.

No, it's still a developer's fault. Just because people say to do something doesn't mean to do it. Likewise, many other parties preach something different.

Building out a full app then testing out a hypothesis was probably a waste of time. Putting up a landing page and promoting out to his network would likely have yielded very similar results - people saying "we don't need another todo list". faster, and cheaper.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#24

Post by yakshaving »

Avalaxy wrote: post #6

I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested in yet ANOTHER todo app/website/whatever. Please come up with something innovating. Creating the millionth TODO app and calling it a 'startup' is just not going to work. We have enough of these things. There's no need for it, and it certainly shouldn't be called a business, because it simply isn't. (the same goes for the thousands of project management apps, hour tracker apps,…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IvnptQJ__U

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new.

The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends.

Last night, I experienced something new; an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, 'Anyone can cook.'

But I realize — only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

-- Anton Ego, "Ratatouille"

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#25

Post by yakshaving »

The ad-hoc thing is really nice for teams that seem to form spontanteously : Read as StartupWeekend, Hackathon, etc. But probably not for firmly established teams that have protocols and ways of working that are already formalized in project documentation and tools they've been using.

A todo list should definitely get out of your way (for the MOST part), but be intrusive enough that it helps you get the work done to be meaningfully differentiated. (just a personal opinion).

Keep trucking, I think this is a good tool for ad-hoc team task lists, and I'm sure you'll come up with some good use cases for that specific function.

And most importantly, don't let the nay-sayers get you down :-)

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#26

Post by j45 »

ianpri wrote: post #13

Really nice execution. I think that the core feature that is apparent when using the app (simplicity) is going to be one of the downsides of using it in a team based environment: 1)How do I know if someone on my team has completed a task, if you send out email notifications,I might as well use email. 2)How do I make the lists private to just my team? 3)How do I assign a todo or know who ticked that a todo has been do…

I see one valuable thing in being able to instantly create a list and send it out to someone.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#27

Post by tomasien »

Avalaxy wrote: post #11
localhost3000 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unnecessarily negative, belittling, and mean-spirited. has putting this person down made you feel better about yourself?

I really don't think it's "unnecessarily negative". I see so many people wasting their time by working on 'ideas' that aren't even real ideas. He could have used his time better doing something actually useful. A lot of programmers have a big tunnel vision. They want to create a 'startup' no matter what, and then they come up with a 'TODO list' and waste many months of their valuable time working on it, just to be di…

I recognize you don't think it was unnecessarily negative, you're the one who posted it. I don't know that we needed that clarified.

What you mean here is "I don't think I would use this" - you don't have to tell him his idea is awesome, but the way you put it made it seem like you are the gatekeeper of awesome and this does not qualify, so go ahead start over and move on.

As OP made clear, he's scratching an itch and finds things like basecamp overcomplex. I agree, a trillion percent. We use Phabricator and it's great, but it took literally 3 days to get it all set up. If we were just starting out, I'd love to use something lightweight like this.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#28

Post by acabal »

localhost3000 wrote: post #20
Avalaxy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't think it's "unnecessarily negative". I see so many people wasting their time by working on 'ideas' that aren't even real ideas. He could have used his time better doing something actually useful. A lot of programmers have a big tunnel vision. They want to create a 'startup' no matter what, and then they come up with a 'TODO list' and waste many months of their valuable time working on it, just to be di…

the guy asked for feedback on his product, not his life decisions. to make the leap is presumptuous, pompous, and, yes, unnecessarily negative. there are polite ways of giving negative feedback, for instance you might have said: "hey thanks for posting. looks like you've done a good job putting it together. i worry that there isn't a market for it, though, given all the competition that currently exists and people's…

To be fair, the title of the post does say "startup" which implies the goal is to make money, and the poster asks for advice on revenue streams. If he had said, "Check out my weekend project, enjoy!" that's one thing, but calling the eleventy-billionth todo list app a startup is going to get replies like the OP.

Personally I agree in sentiment, if not in tone, with the OP; there's a trillion todo list apps, finding one the poster could have worked with would have freed valuable time for developing something else. Unless of course this was an app done for learning purposes, but the poster doesn't say that.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#29

Post by darkpark »

I really like this idea, to be honest. I think that ianpri makes some solid points but then again, it seems like this project isn't supposed to have those features.

I like that it does not require a login but a suggestion: have the user create a username for themselves that could tie them to the list. This would still make it so that nobody has to login, but yet you would be able to see who completed a certain task. Just an idea.

All in all I think it looks really nice, and I enjoyed the functionality and ease of making a list and letting others contribute to it. It literally takes a few seconds from landing on the site to have a functional list I can then send off to teammates.

Good stuff.

Re: Ask HN: Review my startup, TeamDoList.com

#30

Post by hgezim »

yakshaving wrote: post #25

The ad-hoc thing is really nice for teams that seem to form spontanteously : Read as StartupWeekend, Hackathon, etc. But probably not for firmly established teams that have protocols and ways of working that are already formalized in project documentation and tools they've been using. A todo list should definitely get out of your way (for the MOST part), but be intrusive enough that it helps you get the work done to…

Thank you so much, @yakshaving!

I hadn't thought about StartupWeekend, and Hackathon, actually. Any ideas on how I might reach them to see if they could somehow encourage teams to use this?!

Does TeamDoList.com do a good job at getting out of your way? Any suggestions for improvement that would make it useful for you?

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