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This is pretty cool. I am working with a partner to create something similar in a different vertical. What is your tech stack? What payment processor are you using? Is everything automated, from payment to payout? I imagine as an MVP, some parts are manual. Love to hear more.
Just curious, how are you handling the legality if at all :) Are "popularity contests" considered sweepstakes or lotteries?
Just curious, how are you handling the legality if at all :) Are "popularity contests" considered sweepstakes or lotteries?
something akin to 'reward points', but yeah...it's a bit of a grey area! Cadoo.io is doing a similar thing with exercise and they treat it legally as 'loyalty points' but in reality it's prizes. It's one of the big unknowns about the model to be honest - we kind of hope that it will seen more like a community finance initiative or a business cooperative.
My research has led me to this and from what you've said, you might be in the "lottery" zone despite trying to be a "sweepstakes".
https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/ten-thin...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
something akin to 'reward points', but yeah...it's a bit of a grey area! Cadoo.io is doing a similar thing with exercise and they treat it legally as 'loyalty points' but in reality it's prizes. It's one of the big unknowns about the model to be honest - we kind of hope that it will seen more like a community finance initiative or a business cooperative.
Reason I ask is I'm facing a similar issue with an app I'm launching. My research has led me to this and from what you've said, you might be in the "lottery" zone despite trying to be a "sweepstakes". https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/ten-thin...
Curious about what you're working on now, feel free to come join HackerStash and share your progress ;) haha
You built hacker news?
Seems like this might put focus in the wrong direction. Hacking for points from this community could detract from focus on client needs. IME a hacker type community will value things much different than GenPop and for sure your SAM/SOM. The sites UI is very slick.
For example, our first winner plans to spend their funds as such:
"I'll be able to pay for the CI/CD pipeline for the next billing cycle, this lets me route the amount planned for that cost into the referral program which will, hopefully, help the platform acquire more users."
Essentially by choosing this project as their winner, the community has enabled the startup to cover some of their core operational costs so they can experiment with a new marketing/sales channels. This is exactly what we were hoping HackerStash could do :)
At face value 'points' can lead to distorted incentives, but we're working hard to ensure that altruistic behaviour is most rewarded. Second to altruism is evidencing clear progress in your own project, with some big features coming in the next few weeks to support that. In fact I'd say the later is our current weakness but not for lack of attention, just we've decided we'll learn and iterate faster with more eyeballs on the product, users in the contest etc.
Thanks so much for the feedback, also glad to hear you like the UI!
Seems like this might put focus in the wrong direction. Hacking for points from this community could detract from focus on client needs. IME a hacker type community will value things much different than GenPop and for sure your SAM/SOM. The sites UI is very slick.
The general idea is that for those that wish to bootstrap their business, and/or delay time before they take investment, they're odds of success increase significantly if they're able to show consistent progress, get support from peers and earn experimental or operational capital. For example, our first winner plans to spend their funds as such: "I'll be able to pay for the CI/CD pipeline for the next billing cycle,…
Seems like this might put focus in the wrong direction. Hacking for points from this community could detract from focus on client needs. IME a hacker type community will value things much different than GenPop and for sure your SAM/SOM. The sites UI is very slick.