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Getting Users Is Hard

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#91

Post by armatav »

ryansam wrote: post #80
jlgaddis wrote: post #77

> If you want your friends to meet you at the bar, create an "Event". The event has a title of what the event is (e.g. "Going to the bar"). It has a description to get your friends excited (e.g. "$2 margaritas"). It has the address (e.g. "123 SomeBar St."). Lastly it has the time (e.g. "Tonight at 8pm"). As soon as you post it to the feed all of your friends get a notification that you just created a new event. They…

You mentioned one of the issues with Facebook. They built a product to connect everyone around the world with their friends online. Then added more features on to that (well I think the original facebook events has been there forever). But events was not their focus. I'm focusing only on events just for cliques of friends. I want to be the best at that and build a product that has the most value to those people.

This was exactly my excuse when I built the same app.

Take a look at this; https://www.nfx.com/post/network-effects-manual

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#92

Post by rblatz »

ryansam wrote: post #87
rblatz wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you forcing singup? Skip that, make it optional. When people are invited to an event send them a unique link tied to their email/phone number/WhatsApp or whatever. Create a long lived cookie that identifies them as that user. If someone really wants to create an account with a login and password let them, but don’t make them create yet another account to manage. Edit: Also as you build the graph out, consider…

Well there is a signup wall however it's "Sign in with Google" or "Sign in with Apple". For now it's iPhone only so by default everyone already has an account (after hitting the Apple button). Once on android I think Google is the default for that as well. Also I could use their APIs to send links to people who don't have the app.

Obviously your long term goal is to get an app on your users phone.

But today you need to build a base of users and get a network effect going. That’s going to be extremely hard. Any barriers to getting someone using your platform should be torn down. Requiring an app is a barrier. Find a way to build a web version of this to show value and get people to choose to install the app.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#93

Post by ryansam »

armatav wrote: post #90

This is like THE network effect app that just does not get traction in my book, I built one just like it a few years ago. Push a button, get people to hang out with you. Problem is that people meet up using chat, that’s the core thing you have to be better than. Better, faster, simpler or easier than WhatsApp/Messenger/iMessage/SMS/FB Events/Instagram/Snapchat. Those things have extreme network effects and you probab…

Simply I strongly believe I can do it. My friends and I have encountered this problem over 100 times in the past two years and I just think there has to be a better solution than texting or snapchat. This problem bugged my friends and I so much there has to be a market of people who want something better.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#94

Post by [deleted] »

liquidise wrote: post #64
gkoberger wrote: post #53

Wait. You're in Texas and are trying to get people to use an app that encourages them to meet in person, often in groups? During a pandemic where people are dying? I always want to be supportive of anyone building anything, but seriously... stop. Put it on ice for 6-12 months. This app sucks. Technology should be used to help people. Spend your time doing something good during the pandemic, not getting them killed.

I'm not sure i've ever read an HN comment i find as distasteful as this. The OP is building an app to help people meet, yet by their own admission have managed to attract one user. They asked a question about a common issue engineers face: onboarding and marketing. Your comment ignores nearly every shred of this substance. Instead you accuse them of "getting [users] killed"? Patently absurd. To cut them down at the k…

[deleted]

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#95

Post by avree »

ryansam wrote: post #32
pryelluw wrote: post #26

How is this better than any social network/messaging app? Why shouls I install it? Also, the timing for social apps isnt great given the ongoing pandemic. You might simply be suffering from bad timing

I live in Houston, TX. And the area I'm targeting does not have many restrictions on what you can do during the pandemic, it's almost the same as before the pandemic. But if I were to live somewhere else this would probably not be possible for me right now.

You are actively putting people's lives at risk. Saying that users are naturally irresponsible doesn't absolve you of responsibility.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#96

Post by avree »

itcrowd wrote: post #2

Cool initiative. Is it maybe that given the pandemic, many people are more wary of meeting in the first place? Your struggle might partially be explained by that?

Or maybe the other 30 commenters in this thread who've made similar apps have something to do with the fact that most users are not interested in this type of product.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#97

Post by gitgud »

gkoberger wrote: post #53

Wait. You're in Texas and are trying to get people to use an app that encourages them to meet in person, often in groups? During a pandemic where people are dying? I always want to be supportive of anyone building anything, but seriously... stop. Put it on ice for 6-12 months. This app sucks. Technology should be used to help people. Spend your time doing something good during the pandemic, not getting them killed.

> "I always want to be supportive of anyone building anything, but seriously... stop. Put it on ice for 6-12 months. This app sucks."

Although true, this is unnecessarily harsh. An app to meet up with friends, doesn't imply that it will be ignoring social distancing and mask recommendations... Or kill people

Imagine someone telling you; "seriously stop... This app sucks", personally I think this attitude is pretty damaging to the community and will make others less likely to ask questions about their projects...

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#98

Post by varbhat »

Lionga wrote: post #20
fiftyacorn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding a real problem is hard

I can tell you hundreds of real problems in a minute. It is just that millions of people tried to find solutions and have failed. Thus they are extremly hard problems. The things is finding a real problem that you can actually solve.

Can you please list and tell? Thanks in advance.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#99

Post by withinboredom »

ryansam wrote: post #62
RL_Quine wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their responses in this thread make them out to be pretty uncaring. It’s not illegal to go out, I’m not suggesting people do by giving them a means to facilitate it, I’m not responsible! At some point you just have to admit you don’t care about the well-being of anybody.

I do care a lot actually as this pandemic's risk is personal to me. But because of where I live the people are not responding they way they are in different states. It's not like the pandemic happened and all the sudden I had this idea. I had this idea before the pandemic, started working on it before the pandemic. Then the pandemic happened. As I have mentioned I don't want people using this app unless they already…

I know exactly how you feel since I'm in a similar boat. I'd suggest targeting other English speaking app stores (It's not in my country's app store though my language is English). Other countries are dealing with this very differently, for example, we can gather here but you can only have so many guests in your house at a time.

I would ignore the US app store, just because of the polarization and politicization of the virus.

Re: Getting Users Is Hard

#100

Post by Jugurtha »

ryansam wrote: post #51
Jugurtha wrote: post #43

Some things to think about - not necessarily true, but just a brain dump: > I'm building a mobile app to create and share social events with your friends. A social event would be going to the bar, house party, or meeting up for coffee. You can fill out a simple form (event name, description, date, time) and post to a feed for your friends to see. Your friends can notify you they're going by pressing the "attend" butt…

These are a lot of the challenges I know I'm going to have to figure out. I'm screenshotting this because it's actually a really good explanation of what I need to be working on. I just launched and I couldn't cover all these problems right away in my MVP, but I plan to cover all of them in the future. Thanks!

You don't need to cover all of these problems either in MVP or later.

What is the "dance" that leads to a great "event"? Broadcasting location is a feature of all services. Broadcasting the right event to the right people is something that is not a feature of any as far as I can tell.

So, what is the social dance? Doesn't it go like "I'm going to bar X, who shall I call/text? If I text Y, then I won't text X because they get into heated debates and derail the evening. Plus, Y is usually busy this time of day". Or you're with someone "Let's have a drink. [other person]: this is Z's neighborhood, mind if I text him to tag along? He's cool[you don't know Z, but your friend vouches for him]"

Isn't paying attention to these details that leads to a good event?

The event (vibe, time, place, optional description, people) must fit. And then you can tweak these levers: if I set a vibe and I don't care about time and place, which people will I invite?

If I set a list of people, which combinations of vibe, time, and place would be good?

What am I optimizing for? Good time, or number of "attendees"? Is it destined for a context where I know the attendees, or am I just throwing a big party and everyone is welcome, as long as they are in the circle of people I trust.

This needs to be super, super simple to set up. As simple as texting someone.

Maybe a simple use case is for events that are happening right now, then refine to scheduled events. Cold start:

I click on the app. I enter a description "Going for drinks at Foo" in the field. The app displays list of contacts to invite. I check three or four. Hit send. It sends them a text message (they don't need to have the app) with a signature "Sent with Social Dance" or "Sent with Inner Circle", or let's be douchey "Sent with innrcl".

What the hell is Social Dance?

The application then remembers that context (vibe, time of day, "drinks", Foo [place], people you invited, location) for subsequent recommendations.

You train your application like that so it'll recommend you set up events.

Later, you can have a map with different possibilities "Watch tonight's game at the Foo Bar" or "Listen to X playing live at Tak the Bar". Click, it'll prefill a list of people to invite. You check it, if it looks good, you go for it.

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