Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#41

Post by katherinehague » Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 6:50 PM UTC

Have you guys ever heard of Sprouter? They are basically in the exact same problem space. They were able to get a huge amount of traction in the entrepreneurial community. However they are currently facing financial difficulties after not being able to monetize the concept despite about three years work and multiple iterations. I think that you guys probably need to take a hard look at what your business model would be if you were to continue the project, and what value you would really be providing an potential acquirers.

I went and took a quick look at your site. While I won't pretend to know your user base, the value proposition and messaging doesn't seem to be that strong. The site starts with > "Ridden by evil entrepreneurs and people who follow their dreams.We know, that's wierd. You were warned."

Despite the obvious typo, its not very clear to me what you do. I know word of mouth might be what has brought you traction thus far, but apart from that I couldn't imagine myself signing up if I just landed on that page.

There is certainly merit to the idea of bringing entrepreneurial people together, but you aren't without significant competition, and you aren't in a space that has yet discovered a viable business model. I'd take a long hard look at your overall strategy and market approach before investing heavily in the same direction.

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#42

Post by kingsidharth » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 5:13 PM UTC

wsdom wrote: post #35

I would say find a way to integrate with with large social networks. Facebook and LinkedIn both have API's you might be able to use to help regain traction and maintain certain aspects of your site. Like the idea and its potential after looking at your site. But the name is strange. I cant even tell if I am saying it right.. Might want to work on that also. But I would would keep going with it or open source it... On…

Hmm that's one direction that we must try out! Thanks

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#43

Post by kingsidharth » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 5:14 PM UTC

hernan7 wrote: post #34

Number 3 looks interesting. Maybe become a cloud-based competitor to VBulletin. (Make sure that transitioning from the old forum to the new one is as painless as possible, though. Forum members usually hate any changes to their forums.)

Transition part never thought about but very important yeah!

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#44

Post by kingsidharth » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 5:15 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #31

> Just where you could share ideas, ask question and mark progress of your startup in mile-stones and all. But does it actually offer that, or is it just a generic forum UX? Frankly, I think the latter market is pretty well covered by cheaper, full featured and easy to host (PHP) alternatives. There's no point in going after that. I think what SO (and possibly Quora, I'm not there yet) has shown is that you can succe…

PHP Forums, you and I can get away with those. Not my mum or my aunt who wants one for her blog readers. FaaS is for people who find WordPress too geeky.

Not sure about the later part, there is nothing special about Besperk.

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#45

Post by tarekayna » Wed, Oct 05, 2011, 8:05 AM UTC

2- Before asking if anyone is interested, are you interested? Is this something that excites you?

3/4- I think it all comes down to this: do you still have the passion and the drive to do this? Do you still believe the in the mission? If yes then continue doing it. If not, there is no shame in calling it off and moving on to something else that keeps you up late and gets you up early

Re: Ask HN: We dreamed, we shipped, we are stuck

#46

Post by adivik2000 » Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 6:28 AM UTC

aymeric wrote: post #3

adivik2000 wrote: post #2

Well document and Open Source it.

Why should he do that? Could you detail your answer a bit?

I've used Besperk back in their early beta stage and was impressed with the design and thought they'd be something like Disqus someday. But then, what Besperk focuses on is a discussion on a nice looking website. I have facebook, google+ and convore(for private discussions) to do that already. So, why use this when all the folks are out there on other networks? Again, coming back to the point. Besperk looks neat. Say if @KindSidharth sells Besperk to a company and think they've done a good job, the product is gonna go nowhere as many companies look for features that simplifies stuff and empowers them at the same time. Say this is a product X that they would be using. When someone showcases product Y to the company, there is a high probability that the company 'will' go for Y. Cuz its better. I would suggest Open Sourcing the product as "Evolution of Design happens only when its copied" as quoted by @KingSidharth himself to me once. There is a high chance that 'I' could use some of the design elements of Besperk on the next product we're building cuz it looks nice and I can showcase it to a broader audience. Looking at me, there could be several others who could use the code that is Open Sourced and there you go. Good looking forms and websites! That's my view.