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Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

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Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#41

Post by brandonkm »

patio11 wrote: post #35

Do you understand why your competitors work? They've spent decades building up brands like "When you abso-fricking-lutely have to have it there by the day after tomorrow, or it's your job." There are movies about their core value proposition and brand messaging. Now after you understand how they work, do you understand which of their customers don't need to pay for that? Can you identify a group of folks currently sh…

Spot on.

The problem space being addressed is more complex than what it looks like. Customer perception of reliability is everything. Shipping companies have made their offerings as reliable as banks. There's numerous safeguards in place to protect the customer in case of an accident and you have professionals handling your valuable items.

Perhaps an ebay-like system of feedback will help eliminate some of the wariness that accompanies a total stranger delivering your package, but even then the event of loss, theft, and damage will be much higher than it is with the existing shipping companies. That alone would make it difficult to get this idea off the ground.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#42

Post by mbenjaminsmith »

Eddk wrote: post #6
marcusbooster wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or drug dealers looking for mules.

very funny:) I have considered all those things, I think they are mostly knee-jerk reactions. You could pretty much make similar arguments against any web-initiated transaction, but as has been demonstrated by the incredible success of e-commerce I think concerns about safety are mostly just that. I don't see why a drug dealer would want to risk so much by trying to use such a service, on so many levels it will make…

Why doesn't it make sense? Drug dealers spend megabucks moving drugs. A largely anonymous network of couriers with no idea what they're carrying would be ideal. They wouldn't move a ton at once, they would spread it out over many smaller shipments. Since the oversight is zero and the cost is so low it would be worth whatever extra hassle it might add. Imagine an undercover fedex that didn't ask questions. I'm sure you'd be the go-to network for a while until you got shut down.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#43

Post by herdrick »

You've got to target a different kind of customer than those players. How about if you toss out "safe secure and reliable"? You were apparently inspired by packet switching networks, so why not follow their lead: don't guarantee delivery. If you can get your prices low enough you can certainly find whole classes of customers that could accept an 80% delivery rate. Junk mailers might love you, for a start. And lots of goods are so cheap these days that some lossage would be acceptable to save a lot on shipping.

But the bigger point is to identify a particular sort of customer who you can serve.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#44

Post by colincopley »

Think you definitely need to combine it it with some social / hobby sites for it to have half a chance of being used. It can't compete as a courier company.

Start ups are actually businesses that are starting up, not software applications or websites. The way to test this is find 1 customer.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#46

Post by dmoney »

herdrick wrote: post #43

You've got to target a different kind of customer than those players. How about if you toss out "safe secure and reliable"? You were apparently inspired by packet switching networks, so why not follow their lead: don't guarantee delivery. If you can get your prices low enough you can certainly find whole classes of customers that could accept an 80% delivery rate. Junk mailers might love you, for a start. And lots of…

Junk mailers might love you

Please don't cater to junk mailers.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#47

Post by ImFatYoureFat »

TheSOB88 wrote: post #26
swah wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the payment is done after the package arrives...

Then the shipper could get ripped off.

Most of these concerns are the same as with any site that deals in blind transactions (ebay, used things on amazon, paypal in general), but these sites only require you to risk your time upfront where as in the case of this site the customer is risking something they already own with the hope of future payment. Essentially its like requiring people on ebay to send items before they receive payment.

The most basic way I can think of to deal with this imbalance is to have the shipper make a deposit up front to "insure" the item being ships. Upon arrival the shipper gets their deposit plus payment. There is probably a more elegant way to frame this so that the shipper does not feel like they are risking so much.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#48

Post by cmars232 »

mbenjaminsmith wrote: post #42
Eddk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

very funny:) I have considered all those things, I think they are mostly knee-jerk reactions. You could pretty much make similar arguments against any web-initiated transaction, but as has been demonstrated by the incredible success of e-commerce I think concerns about safety are mostly just that. I don't see why a drug dealer would want to risk so much by trying to use such a service, on so many levels it will make…

Why doesn't it make sense? Drug dealers spend megabucks moving drugs. A largely anonymous network of couriers with no idea what they're carrying would be ideal. They wouldn't move a ton at once, they would spread it out over many smaller shipments. Since the oversight is zero and the cost is so low it would be worth whatever extra hassle it might add. Imagine an undercover fedex that didn't ask questions. I'm sure yo…

I wonder if you could successfully apply an onion routing protocol to the distribution of physical objects, with an economy built-in around risk tolerance. Mundane shipping could then be subsidized by the more expensive contraband.

Distance yourself by connecting client & courier directly with a distributed P2P app (like Tor), and sell the authenticity and financial escrow services. Keep no knowledge or record of the actual transactions.

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#49

Post by Benjo »

Batsu wrote: post #11
petercooper wrote: post #3

It's safe, secure and reliable. You will seriously need to expand on these points to get customers. Looking at the idea blind, I can't see how it can be any of these things. No pretty UI stuff will be needed until it's a viable business, and addressing these three concerns strikes me as paramount.

This. I can't imagine why I'd want to give a package to a person I've never met who has no obligation to deliver the package to it's destination. If I didn't care too much about the item being shipped... I wouldn't be shipping it.

This was my reaction when I looked at airbnb. They seem to enjoy success. Any insight into why that trust model works? What makes it better than this?

Re: Ask HN: Just finished coding my new startup; need ideas for getting traction

#50

Post by kochbeck »

Hate to be another naysayer, but...

You're probably also incurring a lot of liability just by contracting the individual shipper to take an action on your behalf. Say your person is dropping a package that's just off their route to wherever they're going. They pull off the freeway, and BAM get hit by a semi. Congratulations, you're going to be the recipient of a huge lawsuit.

Easy to dismiss that as, "Well how often does that happen?" Accidents happen, on average, one per every thousand driven hours. So if you've got a thousand en route today that are taking more than an hour, you get to have this problem once a day, on average (v weak extrapolation, I know).

Some things can't be done as a lean startup. Some things cost major money before their first day (e.g. airlines, long-haul data services, auto manufacturing). You managed to pick a non-lean industry.

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