What is the business model for Dendron? Is Dendron pursuing a paid feature for easily publishing your wiki?
Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
21–30 of 89 posts
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#22Yey another note taking app! And YC no less! Not at all like previous YC-backed note taking app https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26565629 Or any note taking app ever.. Seriously, is that the biggest thing bothering developers? Is this what you got into computing for? The best use for your AWS experience? The digital equivalent of making an ashtray in pottery class.
I thought that was to-do apps?
But the one you are making a comparison with is not really relevant: that's Apple-only it seems, and that, in itself, is enough incentive to look out for more.
Ultimately, market can decide which are needed and which aren't. As for investors like YC, they usually bet into multiple products — while YC might have a better hit rate than some other investors, there are likely still more failed investments than successful ones (by count). The important bit for YC is what the monetary equation is at the end.
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#23Previous HN threads, if anyone wants to follow the history: Show HN: Dendron – fast open-source note-taking in VSCode - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26491764 - March 2021 (84 comments) Show HN: Dendron – A Hierarchical Tool for Thought - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24898373 - Oct 2020 (168 comments) Show HN: Dendron – open-source, local first, anti-roam note-taking tool - https://news.ycombinator.com…
Thanks Dan for the extra context!
In terms of what's changed since the last post - we have done a soft product pivot from note-taking for everyone to knowledge management for developers. This is because we found that non-developers struggled with a lot of development basics unrelated to Dendron (eg. navigating vscode, git, etc) which made us realize we still had more work to do to make Dendron intuitive for everyone.
On a product side, we have also released a brand new publishing platform based on ReactJs and NextJS that developers can use to generate their static sites based on their Dendron notes.
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#24Thanks I have been using Dendron for writing a D&D campaign. It was really useful to organize places, npcs and plot lines
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#25What is the business model for Dendron? Is Dendron pursuing a paid feature for easily publishing your wiki?
Our beachhead market is to compete with tools like confluence to be the knowledge base for technical teams.
To that end, we're building a managed backend for Dendron that will make it possible to sync your notes with teammates, provide a web ui, access control, private notes, and other team features.
More details in our public handbook -> https://handbook.dendron.so/notes/f6d9bc09-04b7-4a02-a6aa-a2...
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#26Thanks I have been using Dendron for writing a D&D campaign. It was really useful to organize places, npcs and plot lines
Happy to hear!
We actually have quite a number of D&D players using Dendron. was thinking of organizing something for world builders inside our discord. Let me know if you would be interested :)
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#27Yey another note taking app! And YC no less! Not at all like previous YC-backed note taking app https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26565629 Or any note taking app ever.. Seriously, is that the biggest thing bothering developers? Is this what you got into computing for? The best use for your AWS experience? The digital equivalent of making an ashtray in pottery class.
I thought that was to-do apps? But the one you are making a comparison with is not really relevant: that's Apple-only it seems, and that, in itself, is enough incentive to look out for more. Ultimately, market can decide which are needed and which aren't. As for investors like YC, they usually bet into multiple products — while YC might have a better hit rate than some other investors, there are likely still more fai…
I think there's now a blurred line between todo app and knowledge management, especially as tools like notion (and for that matter Dendron), are making it more viable to manage todos within your knowledge base.
As for YC, I remember seeing at least two other note taking companies within our winter batch. At AWS, the mentality for new services is to "let 1000 flowers bloom" (and see which one's make it). Something similar is happening in the note taking space right now
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#28So a quick glance makes it seem fairly similar to Obsidian... as the docs note, it's built on top of VS Code vs Obsidian which is standalone... What are some reasons Obsidian users would want to switch?
You're right - Dendron has a lot of similarities with Obsidian. A lot of our users come from people looking for open source obsidian alternatives. Our main differentiator is our focus on structure - we let users create their own taxonomies using "Dendron schemas" which they can use to both document and change their note hierarchies over time. A big focus in Dendron: how do you continue working with your knowledge bas…
Considering you are YC backed, are there any plans for monetisations that you would be willing to share? Because (as another comment said) notes apps are dime a dozen, and there doesn't seem much that differntiates you from Obsidian (which already has a revenue stream)
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#29Interesting idea I'll try to use this in a team setup.
Quick remark about the site, I expected the site's tool presentation to be an actual video, with sound about the app and most importantly fullscreen capabilities. I can barely see the video's text on mobile (bigger font also needed). But no auto play if there's sound please. Congrats
Re: Launch HN: Dendron (YC W21) – Structured note-taking for developers and teams
#30Interesting idea I'll try to use this in a team setup. Quick remark about the site, I expected the site's tool presentation to be an actual video, with sound about the app and most importantly fullscreen capabilities. I can barely see the video's text on mobile (bigger font also needed). But no auto play if there's sound please. Congrats
Awesome! We have a dedicated teams support channel on Discord, if you ping me after you join or email me (kevinlin@dendron), I'll be sure to add you to it!
It terms of the presentation - thanks for the tip. We have a backlog item to swap it out with a higher res video