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Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

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Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#31

Post by FameofLight »

technology wrote: post #29

Hi I have 2 questions: 1) If you are being overwhelmed by the amount of books you are being suggested by mentors, entrepreneurs and others, how do you tackle this information overload so that you only read and implement the ones which would have the most impact in your life ? 2) What would you do if you had recent failure and now you don't have enough clarity about goals, life direction and the skills you wanna learn…

For second problem, I would advice you, encourage you to go finish the undergrad if possible. If its not possible, don't worry its not the end of the world.

When I don't know what are my goals and dreams, I help others to accomplish there dreams and goals, that's really a great starting point. Go help some startup use your skills to further their goals and nourish your skills.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#32

Post by leslyn »

Hi Mike,

Although I'm nervous about asking, I'm going to bravely step out on the line and ask your thoughts about the design of our startup http://www.uencounter.me. From the look of your own artwork - you obviously have a good eye and while our site is more colorful and different in aesthetic, its clear your opinion and experience is valued. Constructive comments are always welcome.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#33

Post by FameofLight »

ohashi wrote: post #28

I am looking for more creative no/low cost marketing ideas to promote my gift inspiration site (giftlizard.com) before christmas rolls around. I'd love to hear ideas/suggestions you ma have (or anyone else reading this may have).

The best marketing is from word of mouth, do your friends want to use it, would they recommend to there friends.

Would a stranger using it will recommend it for gift giving to their friends.

On holiday season, people are looking for great gifting ideas, can you provide them with good ideas by providing a simple choice form ( no more than 3-4 objective questions).

Can you advertise in local bill board and ask your friends in other cities to get the print out and stick on bill board they can?

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#34

Post by FameofLight »

daniellicht wrote: post #15
Saqi10 wrote: post #5

I commented before but guess it hasn't showed up, so I'll comment again lol. I need an idea for an Individual Project Proposal. Details: Studying Business Information Systems -- this is Database oriented at the moment but also includes Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence next year. I'm also becoming interested in programming and web scripting although the idea of a web site was not approved by my tut…

Why don't you start with a problem you or someone you know faces and then work backwards to an idea to solve that problem. I find people often build things because they are possible and interesting but unless you solve a problem they don't add a lot of value and therefore don't get used.

I think thats really simple and excellent piece of advice. I think we as human are very good at ignoring simple things.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#35

Post by FameofLight »

leslyn wrote: post #32

Hi Mike, Although I'm nervous about asking, I'm going to bravely step out on the line and ask your thoughts about the design of our startup http://www.uencounter.me . From the look of your own artwork - you obviously have a good eye and while our site is more colorful and different in aesthetic, its clear your opinion and experience is valued. Constructive comments are always welcome.

I think a really great idea !

About design * Give feedback button is really hidden, I think in general call for action button should be clearly visible, they very mixed with other buttons in your design. Give to some stranger and see how he sees your site, the first thing he will try to find something to do and if he doesn't find the right place to click the only person at loss is you.

* The light color over white is really bad combination until you want to hide that thing.The text "Map your life experiences and rediscover your past!" is invisible. Can you good contrast ratio over here.

* Can you put a register button at top also, will be good boost not to find the register everywhere else in page, or simply make it first thing visible on page.

* The color pattern ( the transistion from blue to white where you have orange slowly fading ) doesn't look good. ( Personal Opinion )

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#36

Post by leslyn »

FameofLight wrote: post #35
leslyn wrote: post #32

Hi Mike, Although I'm nervous about asking, I'm going to bravely step out on the line and ask your thoughts about the design of our startup http://www.uencounter.me . From the look of your own artwork - you obviously have a good eye and while our site is more colorful and different in aesthetic, its clear your opinion and experience is valued. Constructive comments are always welcome.

I think a really great idea ! About design * Give feedback button is really hidden, I think in general call for action button should be clearly visible, they very mixed with other buttons in your design. Give to some stranger and see how he sees your site, the first thing he will try to find something to do and if he doesn't find the right place to click the only person at loss is you. * The light color over white is…

Thanks on all accounts! Willing to take comments from anyone else since I stepped out and asked!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#37

Post by helen842000 »

Hi,

I love these helpful offers. :)

I'd like to add to the generosity and offer a few things.

- Detailed user feedback on your site/startup/app - A resume re-write (I used to be a technical resume writer) - Discuss your ideas/startup options on Skype, brainstorm some possibilities.

I'm happy to help in anyway I can! I'm my user name on gmail.com

Thanks all - Happy Holidays!

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#38

Post by QJ »

I need some help and advice with my product. My company (www.pyronyx.com) has recently launched our iPhone app, iQila (www.iqila.com). We envision this app to help people find and share interior design tips and ideas and post questions or get advice from professional interior designers. The app in the current version allows you to take images and post them along with your question. Other users can then comment on your post or share it on Facebook. We have another version coming up with more sharing options and better camera/image UI and layout.

There are a few problems I know are there and I don't have concrete ways to solve: 1. Getting the message across. I find it difficult to explain the idea to people. It's not complicated at all but I think my choice of words is not correct and people don't understand the idea of the app if I email it to them, or through the app store. We've got about 300 downloads in the past week but only a handful of people have used the app. What do you think after reading the website and app store descriptions? How can I improve it? How can I convert those downloads to users?

2. How do I get professionals to use the app? We plan on having professional profiles where people can search for designers in their areas. That is for a future release, and for that to work, I need to introduce the app to professionals in the field who would want to use the app in the first place to market themselves, answer questions, post ideas etc.. I look up professional interior designers online and personally them on twitter and through email but I'm not seeing ANY feedback. I think I'm lost and need help in targeting and finding the correct users, partners.

3. Any general advice on the product. We've built the app and the web backend such that we can change it for other domains and add and remove features. Initially, we thought of a framework we can provide other companies so that they can have their own similar apps. Although we aren't going that route yet, we ourselves can change directions easily, if need be.

About the company: We are just 2 developers with full time jobs and a shoestring budget.

Re: Ask HN: Can I help you be more awesome today? (No strings.)

#39

Post by tomordonez »

achompas wrote: post #2

I love these things and have wanted to participate for a while, so I'll ask you (Mike) something and offer other HNers my services. Mike, what do you think about the technology scene in south Florida? I'd like to move back home at some point, and I fear returning to a tech-barren wasteland. It's clear that SFla isn't some tech desert, since you're in SFla and I hear about a lot of events from you. Still, my friends a…

Hey Alex, I lived in Miami for 7 years and moved to Chicago 4 years ago. I recently organized CodeRetreatMiami.com and a lot of people showed up.

This was unexpected for me. I thought 4 people would registered and 22 people showed up and stayed all day.

My objective with the event was to start paying my dues back to Miami and bring back what I have learned from the tech scene in Chicago.

I contacted a few of the leaders of the local meetups and got good responses from most of them. I also contacted 2 guys that seemed to have been putting a lot into the community and surprisingly both blew me off.

I have been comparing the tech communities of Boston, Austin, Chicago, SF and Miami. People from SF have said that one of the most important key in the startup community is collaboration. By that he meant that you would be able to contact anybody from the tech community no matter how high their position is and most of the times they would be able to give you some time to talk to you.

The same is happening here in Chicago. I could call anybody to ask for advice and they would actually find time for you to meet you. Nobody (so far) is trying to rip off your idea, instead they want to hear your problem and see how they can help.

There are a lot of meetups here and usually a lot of people show up. The meetup with the most attendance is the Lean Startup. On average they get 200 people to a meetup and they come from all over the city and the suburbs. Some people even drive up to an hour and a half to get to those meetups. And not only this but also other tech meetups like Ruby, Android, Drupal. Which means that distance is not important even if we have good transportation system.

The same happens with Austin. You have to drive everywhere just like Miami. Austin has a scene because real state is cheap, a couple of big tech companies are there and there is a college in the middle of downtown.

I would say that even when people say that the problem with Miami is the distances, I would say is not a problem comparing the same to Chicago and Austin.

I would say that the challenges are people communicating with each other, encouraging people to go to events and evangelize an attitude of collaboration.

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