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Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

chompstack.com

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Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#131

Post by stevenwei »

drusenko wrote: post #104
stevenwei wrote: post #2

http://www.chompstack.com We all know how mobile unfriendly restaurant websites tend to be. Many of them are done in Flash, and don't work at all on most phones. Others force you to download PDF menus which take forever to load and have an annoying tendency to lock up my phone. The irony, of course, is that I'm most likely to be looking at restaurant websites on my phone, when I'm around town looking for an interesti…

Why don't you have a very limited free version that lets them kick the tires without paying you anything? Then, put the free version limit at 25 page views per month, or something small. Once it's all set up and running, and customers are visiting the mobile site, they'll "see the value" and be much more inclined to pay up :)

We'll definitely consider doing something like that. I'm a bit wary of the freemium model given that we're selling to businesses. I'd hate for folks to sign up for a free account and then forget about the site (usually restaurant owners don't have that much time on their hands to follow through with these things).

But offering a way to clearly prove the value of the service before they buy would definitely be useful.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#132

Post by stevenwei »

shadowsun7 wrote: post #111
stevenwei wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

> It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? It isn't. The biggest text you have up there is 'Mobile websites for Restaurants'. That might mean you do contract work for restaurants looking to create mobile websites. Which you aren't. May be interpreted both ways - I think your explanation in the post above was clearer.

Good point. I'll try to clarify the wording to make it more explicit.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#133

Post by stevenwei »

alttab wrote: post #123
stevenwei wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

Great idea, but like others said make it clear, with one sentence, what your service does (think like you're a restaurant owner who vaguely even knows what an iPhone is - just that a lot of your patrons use them in your restaurant). Also, using the location-network effect you could also help promote their establishments. Build another app that allows you to search and view your client's mobile-friendly sites and open…

Interesting idea. But that would put us in direct competition with Yelp, Urbanspoon, CitySearch, etc, which already have massive market/mind share. Why would someone care about being listed in our directory?

Additionally, all of those directories already link to the restaurant's website. Our goal is simply to make sure that when the user clicks through to the website, they can actually find what they're looking for.

Edit: That said, explaining that all these existing directories point to your website, and when your customers click through, they want to be able to find your menu (or whatever else wasn't listed in the directory) is certainly valuable.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#134

Post by stevenwei »

roel_v wrote: post #112
stevenwei wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

Agree with Spuz - it's hard to recognize the screenshots as a 'website' (as the lines between app and website are a bit blurry on mobile devices). Let's say a restaurant has a normal website, and a potential customers google's them on his phone and browses to the normal website on his phone. How is he going to get on to the mobile version? Should the restaurant set up detection and a redirect?

From a user experience perspective, an automatic redirect is the best approach, IMO.

As far as getting restaurants set up, that can be a service we provide...

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#135

Post by stevenwei »

freshfey wrote: post #118

Great site. I think you should limit your first plan a litte more. No custom stuff on the cheapest plan. And maybe a free version with one menu, just to test it out. What you could do for restaurants that are not interested, is built something quickly for them so that you can actually show them "look this is what you could do!" - actions move people more than words, in your case your product will convince the custome…

That's a good idea. Certainly showing potential restaurants what their mobile website would look like is a lot more convincing than trying to explain the benefit to them.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#136

Post by stevenwei »

barryaustin wrote: post #126

Strong idea and well executed so far. I know the pain point well. Not so sure you're appealing to the right target market. It's hard to see this within the HN echo chamber but your site still comes across as very techie. It's clear how your service will help people like us, smartphone-wielding techies, but we don't run restaurants. You should be targeting restaurant owners, executive chefs and general managers. These…

Thanks for the feedback. Our thought with the sidebars was to help educate restaurants about the growth of the mobile internet, and potential problems they might not know about on their own website that might be frustrating their customers.

I agree that framing the problem more in terms of 'you're losing customers' could work better.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#137

Post by stevenwei »

kilian wrote: post #120

This is a very interesting market, and I think your prices could work (restaurants are known to have almost no money) Regarding this line: "14% of smartphone users look for restaurants on their phones." I don't know about you, but 14% seems not worth it from a restaurants perspective. If I were you I'd say "One in seven smartphone users look for restaurants in their phone, and that number is only increasing!" Best of…

Excellent idea, thanks for the tip!

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#138

Post by stevenwei »

stevenwei wrote: post #2

http://www.chompstack.com We all know how mobile unfriendly restaurant websites tend to be. Many of them are done in Flash, and don't work at all on most phones. Others force you to download PDF menus which take forever to load and have an annoying tendency to lock up my phone. The irony, of course, is that I'm most likely to be looking at restaurant websites on my phone, when I'm around town looking for an interesti…

Update:

I just want to thank everyone for their feedback.

I've read many 'Ask HN: Rate My Startup' posts and knew you guys gave great advice, but I didn't really expect to get this much feedback and encouragement.

Thanks a lot guys!

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#140

Post by cmeranda »

doronrotem wrote: post #67

looks great. both the idea and the UI of the website and what is shown in the the demo. some of the comments like creating a website, not just a mobile site, are great too. but i wonder, what is your target for # of clients? I would think you would need at least 1000 clients at $15 a month. is that realistic? according to some results from a google query there are hundred of thousands of restaurants. i also wonder, w…

We've got a lot of numbers in our minds, that's for sure. We do believe that 1000 clients is a possibility in a landscape of potentially millions worldwide, but a lot of that depends on how much traction we can acquire in the restaurant community.
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