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I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

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Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#142
Great job on the homepage.

Simple "How it works", a low barrier way to get started, and nothing else. Exactly how it should be!

I'll tweet it to my friends for you. You may have thought of this already, but you might try experimenting with a monthly plan to show some smaller numbers (although I see some benefits to going only yearly with this model to). Great job!

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#143
post #106

This is a very cool idea! The graphics look extremely good. One little thing you can fix: when I clicked on the "Sign Up" link, I received an SSL certificate alert in the browser. This might prevent people from proceeding further. Good luck :)

I saw this too, and in chrome it's a pretty scary sign. It definitely makes me not want to put in my credit card info, which is that last thing a startup needs!

A really cool idea though, best of luck to you!

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#145

Very nice, Erik! I put in an NYC zip code, so a "Small garden" won't work for me. Patio/rooftop would. Maybe something that accounts for urban/suburban/rural? In fact, urban gardening is a nice niche and people here like having things packaged and served up for them. Might be an opportunity. :)

Yes, I heart urban gardening. :) Definitely something we want to support, going forward.

Yeah, this is something I definitely want. I don't have a yard, but seeds for a few things that I could grow in pots on the patio would be awesome!

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#146
Very nice concept and idea. The design is simple and efficient.

Small comments :

1. Living in Europe, the US "zip code" is bit restrictive. In other words, will you make a version for European users?

2. It would a nice idea to extend a bit to the "heritage" and open-pollinated varieties when choosing the vegetables/seeds.

3. When planting in a garden, you have to rotate the culture at a specific interval (depending of the species). Maybe a small info box where you can enter the location in your garden (like area A,B,C,D) and when the reminder is coming is informing the users where the vegetables where previously located.

4. There is also some interesting benefit to use companion planting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants).

5. Some people are gardening and planting following the "moon phases". I don't follow the approach but that could be an option in your reminder email.

Good luck for your work and startup.

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#147

Thought you might find this interesting. When you have a baby, various stores encourage you to sign up for monthly emails. Because the store knows the date of birth, they can send accurate developmental updates. e.g. "Your baby is X months old. You may notice she is starting to pay more attention to the world and is able to hold up her own head..." (etc). This is fascinating for the parent due to the timeliness of th…

Yeah, that's definitely where I'd like to head. It's a little more complicated because it's more like having 12 babies of 12 different species that were born at 12 different times, but yeah. On it. :)

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#148

I signed up for a free account, and now I can't figure out how to upgrade to a paying account. You may want to add a big button that says "Upgrade Your Account." The price seems very high. Your small garden plan, for example, costs $40 and includes six varieties that will fill an 8' bed. For $50, I can get a "Garden in a can" with 16 varieties that will fill a bed the size of two basketball courts: http://beprepared.…

It's launch day, so there's room for changes in the pricing. I'm planning to just run tests to figure out what is an effective price point.

But I haven't made any conversions yet, and I should be able to make at least SOME at these price points, so I am planning to focus on that.

Re: I just launched my bootstrapped startup. Pray for me.

#150

FANTASTIC!!! 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 thi…

That's a good idea, the link back to the site. I am planning to switch to HTML emails with the links actually in the email, but that would be a good intermediate step.

And I didn't realize gmail had a limit. Thanks for the heads up. :)

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