Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#1

Post by genystartup » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:01 PM UTC

Last Monday, I was just finishing up work on Wolfpacktales – an app that lets you break your social network into groups and have instant interactions, share files and bookmark things you find. The idea is simple, you have all these people you are friends with or connected to, you don’t discuss the same things with all of them, so by grouping them, you can say what you want to say to each group. I firmly believe that in the next year or two, rather than paying $0.25 (or whatever you pay) for a text message over phones, you’ll be texting over this app across your social network using people’s usernames.

Anyway, I wrote a post on here and it somehow found its way to the front-page. It only stayed there for 2 hours but it spent another 2 hrs on the 2nd and 3rd pages. I tracked the signups that came in on that day, and in 4 hours, there were 1536 new sign-ups from HN (directly and indirectly). Directly in the sense that they clicked on from here and signed up, and indirectly if the person signed up having been invited by someone who signed up from HN in that time. Of that number, 61% are active have have returned to the site more than 3 times and have created groups and 80% have invited people to their groups.

To any new apps/startups launching, HN is a great place to get that initial traction and the best part about it – for me atleast – is the number of criticisms, advise and feedback I got. That was much more important to me than signups.

App url: http://wolfpacktal.es

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#2

Post by suarezkop » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:03 PM UTC

clickable link: http://wolfpacktal.es

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#3

Post by hacknut13 » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:06 PM UTC

Interesting. Is this also a mobile app?

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#4

Post by suarezkop » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:09 PM UTC

I once got 231 subscribers to my newsletter from HN. But over 3 days. I agree though, HN is a great place to announce and critique your app

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#5

Post by genystartup » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:12 PM UTC

hacknut13 wrote: post #3

Interesting. Is this also a mobile app?

That's the next thing I plan to do. Presently it's only a web app.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#6

Post by messel » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:32 PM UTC

I tried it out.

Ran into some problems that hopefully you'll shake out. Surprised by the choice of web stack (.net and asp).

I didn't see an option to delete accounts, did I miss it?

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#7

Post by genystartup » Tue, May 17, 2011, 2:35 PM UTC

messel wrote: post #6

I tried it out. Ran into some problems that hopefully you'll shake out. Surprised by the choice of web stack (.net and asp). I didn't see an option to delete accounts, did I miss it?

would appreciate if you could tell me any other problems your ran into! I'm keen on any feedback. genystartup@gmail. cheers!

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#8

Post by xnerdr » Tue, May 17, 2011, 3:09 PM UTC

I'd suggest a rebranding. Get a better domain name. The core product is very good though, well done and i'll be using this again!

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#9

Post by highace » Tue, May 17, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

messel wrote: post #6

I tried it out. Ran into some problems that hopefully you'll shake out. Surprised by the choice of web stack (.net and asp). I didn't see an option to delete accounts, did I miss it?

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#10

Post by evilduck » Tue, May 17, 2011, 4:22 PM UTC

highace wrote: post #9

messel wrote: post #6

I tried it out. Ran into some problems that hopefully you'll shake out. Surprised by the choice of web stack (.net and asp). I didn't see an option to delete accounts, did I miss it?

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I usually see this view explained that due to the .Net stack's higher up front cost than free alternatives, and (debatably) higher long term cost, it's an uncommon choice for startups.

Basically, deploying a .Net site requires at minimum 1 personal license of Windows and 1 server license of Windows. Sometimes a non-free copy of Visual Studio, and usually a license for SQL Server (since many MS people use the whole stack for integration reasons). Without buying hardware, Windows hosting is also always more expensive.

Compared to a LAMP/Rails/Django style app which you could theoretically get off the ground for the hardware cost of a local PC and cheap VPS hosting.

Of course developer familiarity, your local hiring pool, initial launch scale, business partners, vendor integration, etc, etc, etc, all influence the tech choice and its impact on cost.