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The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

kitze.io

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Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#181

Post by jschveibinz »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #129
jschveibinz wrote: post #120

“The MVP was ready in a few days. I'm not that good of a coder, it's just a simple app.” This sentence is incredibly important. If a MVP is ready in 3 days, then how valuable can that product be? When literally everyone has access to tools that they believe can result in something marketable in only a few days, then we have achieved the time when nobody makes money from software. Thoughts?

> If a MVP is ready in 3 days, then how valuable can that product be? How long do you think it took to come up with a prototype for Tinder? A bunch of photos, a blurb of text, geolocation/distance calculation, you like or dislike a profile, and a messaging function. The slight, simple spin on grindr - showing a stack you HAD to make your way through - instead of grindr's grid - launched them into the stratosphere.

I agree. But the use of the phrase MVP in place of the phrase “initial prototype” is what I am probing. I think that the misuse of “MVP” distorts the understanding of the long and difficult process of developing and marketing a “viable” software product.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#182

Post by konschubert »

aidos wrote: post #172
konschubert wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, how do you know whether it's your product or your marketing that sucks? For example, I tried twitter ads for my product [1] and I got zero sales after spending $50. What are good marketing strategies for niche hardware products? [1] https://www.invisible-computers.com/

Yeah, your website sucks. The product looks really nice, but the landing page barely even feels like it wants me to check it out. I can barely even tell it’s a landing page. I was actually thinking about exactly this product earlier this week. I have kids and their schedule is really complicated these days - some days some of them need packed lunches, uniform is different on PE days etc etc. I want to walk into the k…

Puh, I tried so hard with that website. I don't know, design and marketing is just sooo hard for me.

Do you have a template that you think I should use?

And do you know maybe somebody who could help me build a better landing page without costing me all my life savings?

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#183

Post by bentcorner »

karterk wrote: post #22

> My app is officially dead. Most markets are large enough to accommodate several businesses. There's really no reason to stop working on something just because you find that there is already someone solving that same problem. Who knows, they will shut it down at some point, or might head upmarket or pivot to a tangential area.

Yesterday I got a voice mail from a cold call at work from some rando (I have no idea how they got my phone #), and they mentioned they work for some infrastructure tooling site. I share a name with someone higher up in the company so I occasionally get cold emails/calls from people thinking they're talking to someone with actual purchasing authority, trying to hustle some business.

Anyways out of curiosity I go to the site and it's a business that's built around a single api call that my organization uses internally. I'm simplifying a little, but I can't believe someone built a business around this thing that, to me, is incredibly simple. (I understand it's more complex than that, and we have entire teams backing the goings on behind this api call, but still). From their "who's using us" block on the landing page they look successful. It's interesting to learn how small businesses can find success in the most surprising of places.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#184

Post by cercatrova »

konschubert wrote: post #182
aidos wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, your website sucks. The product looks really nice, but the landing page barely even feels like it wants me to check it out. I can barely even tell it’s a landing page. I was actually thinking about exactly this product earlier this week. I have kids and their schedule is really complicated these days - some days some of them need packed lunches, uniform is different on PE days etc etc. I want to walk into the k…

Puh, I tried so hard with that website. I don't know, design and marketing is just sooo hard for me. Do you have a template that you think I should use? And do you know maybe somebody who could help me build a better landing page without costing me all my life savings?

Make a website with an online builder and use their templates. For example:

- Webflow: https://webflow.com/templates

- SquareSpace: https://www.squarespace.com/templates

- Shopify: https://themes.shopify.com/

I'd recommend Shopify, and a minimalist, light theme such as the one below, since your product is made of light wood.

https://themes.shopify.com/themes/craft/styles/default?surfa...

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#185

Post by cercatrova »

Perseids wrote: post #168
mwcampbell wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse if we routinely read highly critical message boards like this one. I'm currently developing a desktop app using Electron, but comments like this [1] make me wonder if I should scrap it and start over using purely Rust and/or C++. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31350035

I find it really fascinating how a completely different subset of Hackernews users answers to you than are present on other threads. As literary no sibling is voicing a dissenting opinion I feel compelled to present it: Purely from the user perspective I hate electron, because of its RAM usage. The speed argument is a straw man: Of course V8 is fast. And yes, VSCode is a very good IDE. But the problem is real world e…

> I find it really fascinating how a completely different subset of Hackernews users answers to you than are present on other threads. As literary no sibling is voicing a dissenting opinion

I suspect the difference is because they are responding from a developer's mindset, not a user's. For devs, Electron really is the easiest way to make desktop apps, especially if one already has web experience. Users who dislike Electron are generally seen as a vocal minority (how many people use Slack or VSCode vs non-Electron variants?). But then you have this vocal minority congregating on HN, which is especially focused on speed, and you get comments like the parent linked, dismissing Electron.

The dev point of view is more prevalent in this thread because the linked article is all about how a dev failed to ship an app because they thought it wasn't good enough, which is exactly the problem Electron solves, even if it's worse for the user.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#186

Post by cercatrova »

SamBam wrote: post #37
rob74 wrote: post #31

Er, nice story, really entertaining to read, but I think it would benefit from actually mentioning the "competitor" app that he ended up paying money for. I mean, he won't ship his own app anymore, so no harm done in mentioning it, right?

I could see that distracting from the main point. Then it becomes "Why were you solving that problem?" "Why did you insult their app, it's really great!" "The author's right, no one should use app X." It's not the point of the story.

Agreed, you see it all the time on HN, commentors bikeshedding insignificant parts of an article. I'm glad the author didn't put in the competitor in the article.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#187

Post by cercatrova »

alin23 wrote: post #71

If you want to get paid, projects will need a lot of non-coding work after coding the basic features: presentation website, payment/licensing, contact forms, ProductHunt/HN launch, copy text (have you ever tried to fit what your product solves in two short sentences?) One good strategy I found accidentally through Lunar ( https://lunar.fyi ) is to launch for free, prioritizing the contact form, and letting people kno…

Lunar is a great app! I've been using it along with Vivid.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#188

Post by konschubert »

cercatrova wrote: post #184
konschubert wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Puh, I tried so hard with that website. I don't know, design and marketing is just sooo hard for me. Do you have a template that you think I should use? And do you know maybe somebody who could help me build a better landing page without costing me all my life savings?

Make a website with an online builder and use their templates. For example: - Webflow: https://webflow.com/templates - SquareSpace: https://www.squarespace.com/templates - Shopify: https://themes.shopify.com/ I'd recommend Shopify, and a minimalist, light theme such as the one below, since your product is made of light wood. https://themes.shopify.com/themes/craft/styles/default?surfa...

I already use shopify for the shop page, https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale...

But I’ve been wary of using it for the whole website since I didn’t want my whole page structure and content coupled to shopify.

And I didn’t want it all to feel like a shopify store.

But maybe that was a bad priority and I should just get over it.

Thanks for the tip with the theme, btw

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#189

Post by texasviking »

Hits me in the feels.

In 2011 I had an idea for a ceramic coffee mug with a threaded base. then build a screw on base with heating element, battery, and QI charger. Screw the base on, set it on a QI charge pad... voila "always hot coffee". When you're done for the day, unscrew the base, put the mug in the dishwasher. Rinse, repeat.

For a year I researched getting a prototype built, castings, etc. Finally decided to just abandon it. Just drink coffee faster and it won't get cold.

Now I have 2 Ember mugs and an Ember travel thermos. Still can't dishwash it, but dang it's useful.

Re: The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)

#190

Post by aidos »

konschubert wrote: post #182
aidos wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, your website sucks. The product looks really nice, but the landing page barely even feels like it wants me to check it out. I can barely even tell it’s a landing page. I was actually thinking about exactly this product earlier this week. I have kids and their schedule is really complicated these days - some days some of them need packed lunches, uniform is different on PE days etc etc. I want to walk into the k…

Puh, I tried so hard with that website. I don't know, design and marketing is just sooo hard for me. Do you have a template that you think I should use? And do you know maybe somebody who could help me build a better landing page without costing me all my life savings?

Sorry, didn’t want to poo poo the whole thing. Don’t get down about it! This is an opportunity to rework the site so it works for you.

As sibling comment says, use a website builder instead. Something like shopify will have everything you need (though I’m not massively familiar with it myself).

Another suggestion I have is to focus on the target audience. I skimmed the doc you linked to about uploading images (couldn’t find any extra docs on the site at a glance btw) and it felt geek heavy in terminology.

The shots of the device look nice, but there’s an app for managing it? Is it easy to use? If I buy this device would my wife ever use it or is it too complicated?

Are you actually making these devices yourself? If I were hand making these my starting point would be to sell to friends so I could iterate on the whole thing. There are a lot of people on here talking about ads and marketing but honestly, hustle is how you get started.

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