Great concept, feels very original, great attractive web design, also a positive for the environment and community to be promoting more gardening and locally-grown plants -- all around full of win! Good luck!
I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
81–90 of 251 posts
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for checking it out! a) I know, I've actually got the illustrator working on some illustrations for that page. That page is 1st on my list for some design love. b) Ah, interesting. So, you choose whether you want tomatoes or cucumbers, but we pick the right variety of cucumbers for your climate. I'll think about making that clearer. c) Yea, that's a great idea! Definitely targetting first time gardeners. I don…
As for option c just raise the price until you're willing to do it. :-) Or find a place nearby that stocks everything you need and pay a neighborhood kid to run down and buy whatever you need whenever an order like that comes in. The buyer is purchasing your expertise to pick the right stuff.
I pick one millllion dolllars.
Seriously though, the bottleneck right now is my attention, not funding. Although I'll think about it some more when I'm doing my next planning session. :)
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#83This is a really cool idea, and I would totally be a user if only I had a yard. A few small things I'd change: a) If I click the 'Get Started' button without entering a zip code, it says 'Oops! Something went wrong.' I understand what is actually going on here, but if I weren't a developer I'd probably think the site was broken. b) I want to view pretty pictures of what my seeds will grow into! c) Re: asking people t…
I agree to an extent, but knowing people are rooting for you can sometimes help with the working your ass off bit.
Also, a few kind words do a lot to calm the "oh shit I just pushed the button" jitters.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#84What's so scary? The worst that can happen is nobody uses it. Even in that case, you'll probably still learn something about programming, and might learn a bit about product development. If you put effort into it, it will be a good experience even if it doesn't take off. And if it does, so much the better.
The worst case scenario I keep imagining is getting a lot of bad press with key social media folks (blogs, twitterers, etc) and then having my chances for good press be dried up even after I fix the bugs.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#85You make some political sensitive comments on your personal blog linked directly from your product site (affirmative action). I personally would not buy from you having read those as I disagree with your position.
It seems like putting out stuff like that while your trying to build a brand is risky, while some/many of your target may agree, I can see some not e.g. Libertarian types who believe in self reliance i.e. your own garden, but not affirmative action.
Up to you, personally I think why take the risk?
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#86Oh man, this is cool. Very neat. Congrats.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#87I like it the idea a lot. But, you could really do with some performance optimization on that first screen. I think you'll loose a lot of people waiting for their zipcode lookup. If you can't find a way to make that quicker (e.g. caching popular zip codes) you should at least put some good visual interstitials in.
IP geolocation / HTML5's location API could be an option too.
ah, cool idea. Hadn't thought of that.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#88I don't know if this is a good thing, but my wife thought I was signing up for a facebook game when she was looking over my shoulder. Probably the logo and the planting mentions caused her to think that. Other than that she and I both love the idea of the site. Good luck and congrats.
Great idea and great website. I'm nearing the launch of my own MVP so I appreciate the fear that accompanies a launch.
That being said I do agree with profgubler. If I didnt' stumble upon your site via Hacker News I might just assume it's a Farmville competitor and click away.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#89FANTASTIC!!! I just planted half my garden last week. Going to do the other half next week. I will use this and recommend to a few others on my garden project...its my first time ;)
I think your pricing segments make sense.
Recommended quick fixes:
1 - first email I received has the "Plant xyz" list. Great, but maybe also include a link in the email that takes me back to my http://sproutrobot.com/; page so I get this same info and also the related instruction links 2 - from the email header it looks like your using gmail directly for SMTP. If so, you'll hit a limit soon on daily sends at 500(?). I've been using sendgrid and critsend for these type of email...both are easy to setup and both are reasonably priced for a startup.
Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The small garden is a balance between feasibility and ambition for the novice gardener. In other words, I'm just emphasizing the plan that makes me money. :)
> In other words, I'm just emphasizing the plan that makes me money. :) If you truly want to make money, emphasize the plan that makes me happy enough to share your site with everyone I meet.
Good point, good point. I'm redesigning the plans page this week so I'll definitely give this some thought. Thanks for the feedback.