This looks very nice, this is something me and my college friends have been looking to do, challenge each other in weight loss. Maybe you should look into doing some marketing towards college students? Motivate them to get rid of that freshman 15.
Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
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Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#22I found a video of this that helps show the site a bit better for those who have not signed up yet.
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#23Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#24At a glance, I like it. Hard to compete with Traineo and SparkPeople though. Maybe if you carved off different niches of weight loss with sub-micro sites, with things like "losing the baby weight" or "people over 400 pounds" etc. You might want to jump on the Tim Ferriss "Four Hour Body" bandwagon and milk related topics like the kettlebell swing. I had a related idea that I doubt I'll develop. Sort of a cross betwee…
A few people have mentioned the idea of getting friends to 'bet' or 'pledge' money or prizes to help you out.. a recurring theme! thanks
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#25You are on something. I really like it. Read "4 hour body" by Tim Ferriss and build a lot of the site around the buzz of this book. Communicate stronger in "Fat loss" and less "Weight loss" Also introduce "TI" (total inches - sum of body measures) Also introduce Bodyfat % and auto calculate the actual fatloss.
Thanks,
We have had a lot of people request the ability to add in other measurements than weight. It is one of the most requested items.
The problem is keeping it simple as it would seem like a mistake to move too much in the direction of dailyburn et al. People like that it is simple.
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#26This looks very nice, this is something me and my college friends have been looking to do, challenge each other in weight loss. Maybe you should look into doing some marketing towards college students? Motivate them to get rid of that freshman 15.
Great, add me if you sign up :-)
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#27You can spell 'Recipes' correctly at the bottom of the page
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#28You are on something. I really like it. Read "4 hour body" by Tim Ferriss and build a lot of the site around the buzz of this book. Communicate stronger in "Fat loss" and less "Weight loss" Also introduce "TI" (total inches - sum of body measures) Also introduce Bodyfat % and auto calculate the actual fatloss.
Thanks, We have had a lot of people request the ability to add in other measurements than weight. It is one of the most requested items. The problem is keeping it simple as it would seem like a mistake to move too much in the direction of dailyburn et al. People like that it is simple.
I agree, that is the one feature I really need.
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#29I'd like to see an example of the site (example account, video, etc) before having to join. Just previewing the 1 page doesn't compel me.
Re: Ask HN: Review My Startup: Skinnyo - Weight loss challenge community
#30RE: "sustainable growth" Consider what features you might need in order to keep current members as long term members. The problem with the focus on weight loss is that people will fall into one of two categories: 1) Yo-yo dieters who will keep coming back to lose the weight again or 2) People who make real changes to their lives, lose the weight and keep it off. Your current configuration most likely has long term ap…
I agree with Mz that the most likely long term users aren't necessarily success stories. I think it's reasonable to expect that you're going to have significant churn.
When someone stops using the site regularly after achieving their goal, though, they are still very valuable to you. Find a way to follow up with those folks each 6 or 12 months and you can hopefully gather data to prove that your model works. The people that have been the most successful may very well want to talk about it.
Being able to say "5000 people have used Skinnyo to meet their weight goals and kept the weight off for 12 months" in big letters on the front page could help your conversion rate, and may even help current members stick with it.