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Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

contrast.app

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Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#141

Post by donkeyd »

Pick-A-Hill2019 wrote: post #132

" But guess what, they had no idea how to use our tool or integrate it within their workflow. And to be honest, nor did we. " Uhmm, think I spotted their problem right there. If they (as the creators) couldn't figure out how it would fit in to a prospective customers' workflow then that is both an incredibly difficult proposition to sell and also an incredible waste of time for the customers that did decide to try it…

It doesn't have to be a waste of time. The thing is, you don't need to have all the answers if you just pick a potential customer and work with them. We had this exact same issue and we helped them integrate the product, while also learning about their processes, which helped us sell the product later. This is an investment however, it doesn't make you any money and that customer will probably be a net loss in the short term and you need to accept that.

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#143

Post by donkeyd »

k__ wrote: post #125

This. People will buy what they understand. Who can blame them? Your real bleeding edge tech company is outnumbered by snake oil companies 1:1000.

That's bull. People bought the iPhone in spite of 'it has no physical keyboard', 'it has no copy paste', 'there's no place to put a stylus', et cetera. If people don't understand the product, you need to sell it in a way that they do understand. That's why marketing is still an expertise and not a side gig in most successful companies.

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#144

Post by nailer »

> As designers and engineers, we knew of a rather niche problem: if your company has a design system, it's practically impossible to know the adoption rate of those components in your product.

Why would having design consistency prevent you from understanding whether users are using a given feature?

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#145

Post by donkeyd »

NickNaraghi wrote: post #99
fuddle wrote: post #40

Looking at their homepage it's very hard to understand what they actually provide.

My understanding: I want the components in my design system (e.g. Figma) to match the components in my front-end codebase (e.g. React) exactly, this tool helps me understand the current diff between the two. From what I can see, the paradigm of component-based design has been growing in popularity since the tools like Figma have been improving rapidly. In that case, it's a product for a niche and growing audience. I…

> My understanding: I want the components in my design system (e.g. Figma) to match the components in my front-end codebase (e.g. React) exactly, this tool helps me understand the current diff between the two.

This is what should be at the top of the the main page of their website if it's correct. Because endlessly scrolling hoping to find out what problem a product solves isn't a good way to sell a product.

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#146

Post by fbelzile »

warent wrote: post #78
vincnetas wrote: post #46

Has any of commenters read the article? Looks like everyone talks about using bleeding edge tech in startup and how its bad, but this article is about building a bleeding edge product and how difficult is to sell such product (probably because everyone know that using bleeding edge products is dangerous :) )

Not even about bleeding edge products. It's a lengthy article about the pitfalls of entering a market with no market validation, which the author slapped lipstick on and gave this sexy title.

I agree. Look at the landing page [0].

First off, they hijack your scroll wheel and present you with some Apple-esque website that is very slow and doesn't work properly. > "Remote, component-driven, and obsessed with speed." I think not.

Second, they show zero screenshots of the service or what the benefits are to using it. > "Handoff reimagined." Yea, okay... Nice slogan, now show me before I move on!

No wonder they're having issues convincing new customers. They think they're selling a space ship when really they only need to improve their website copy.

[0] https://www.contrast.app/

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#147

Post by nailer »

rikroots wrote: post #136
vincnetas wrote: post #46

Has any of commenters read the article? Looks like everyone talks about using bleeding edge tech in startup and how its bad, but this article is about building a bleeding edge product and how difficult is to sell such product (probably because everyone know that using bleeding edge products is dangerous :) )

I read the article before coming to read the HN response to it. I haven't read beyond your top-of-the-thread comment. The article resonated deeply with me, because I know just how the author feels. I, too, have developed a software product that attempts to address a key failing in one of the (more under-utilized) DOM elements we have at our disposal when building websites. I can see the problem, and some of the solut…

> I, too, have developed a software product that attempts to address a key failing in one of the (more under-utilized) DOM elements we have at our disposal when building websites

Link?

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#148

Post by duckmysick »

names_are_hard wrote: post #124
mrtksn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes me wonder, why people insist on having a headline AND an article in 2020? It only creates a confusion when most people don't bother reading articles when the headline is strong enough to inflict a response. It has become a tool to say something and deny saying it.

That got me thinking of an idea for a startup: let's build a service that allows people to broadcast headlines with no content (since no one reads the articles anyway), and then other people can reply to the headlines. To make sure that authors stick to the rules, we'll limit the length of each headline to 140 characters. Side benefit: users can post their headlines via a single SMS message.

Let's build a service that allows people to broadcast headlines with no content and then generate the content based on the comments or the responses.

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#149

Post by names_are_hard »

names_are_hard wrote: post #124
mrtksn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes me wonder, why people insist on having a headline AND an article in 2020? It only creates a confusion when most people don't bother reading articles when the headline is strong enough to inflict a response. It has become a tool to say something and deny saying it.

That got me thinking of an idea for a startup: let's build a service that allows people to broadcast headlines with no content (since no one reads the articles anyway), and then other people can reply to the headlines. To make sure that authors stick to the rules, we'll limit the length of each headline to 140 characters. Side benefit: users can post their headlines via a single SMS message.

In case it wasn't clear, this was tongue-in-cheek. This service exists, it's called Twitter.

Re: Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup

#150

Post by exdsq »

einpoklum wrote: post #112
meowface wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or pivot to "we're a blockchain-based database". And when that fails, "we're a blockchain stored in a database". After that, you'll have to get creative with the neologisms: "we're the first ever datachain backed by a Baseblock".

Hasn't the blockchain hype subsided a little by now?

Thankfully yes. I work in the space and we're starting to see projects/products roll out, without the high number of scams we saw in 2017/18. Hopefully by the next time the hype-train starts there's something there to be hyped about!
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