Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 44 posts

Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#1

Post by prashantdesale »

http://www.onista.com

On October 2nd we (I and two of my friends) released the Alpha version of our dreams, ideas and execution called Onista. We are extremely excited to release it in open alpha with tons of hard-work behind it. I and two of my friends completed this version in part-time (completely moonlighting) and now we feel that it is ready to get feedback from expert folks. So far we have informed only our friends/contacts so we can get feedback and iterate from there.

Onista is an auction-less social marketplace where people can buy and sell products. Onista is an amalgam of eBay, PriceLine, LendingTree, Alibaba.com, and LinkedIn. Onista allows instant price negotiation and enables buying products without searching.

Here is quick summary of Onista Features,

   1. Auction-less format
   2. Instant Real-time price negotiation resulting in Instant Gratification for consumer
   3. Buyers can buy products without searching and hunting for products using Request for Quotes and Price Quotes model like Alibaba.com
   4. Free listings for sellers
   5. Sellers get open access to qualified sales leads and targeted product placements
   6. Support for multiple payment systems (Paypal, Amazon etc..)
   7. A Social Network to build trading communities and mitigate the propensity for fraud
Please visit http://www.onista.com and enjoy the Onista Experience. To understand more about Onista, please do not forget to watch our Demo Video by clicking icon Demo Video on right-bottom corner of Onista index page. Alternatively you can also watch this video at http://www.vimeo.com/1594866

Please provide us feedback about how we should improve Onista. Any feedback is welcome. To give you an idea on what kind of feedback you can think of, (but again, any feedback will be appreciated)

  * What is your first impression of the home page and also other pages?

  * What was confusing and what was not in entire site

  * What is complicated to understand, and how we can do it better?

  * Would you use this site to buy or sell products? if no, why? what can we improve so it appeals to you? If yes, would you invite your friends to join?

  * We understand that we have lot more functionality for alpha version. Does it help or it confuses you more?
We also need your much appreciated help in spreading the word. If you find Onista useful, please let your friends know by becoming member and inviting your friends from http://www.onista.com/invite.php

If you still reading this portion (meaning Onista is little bit interesting) then please list some products to sell. Our initial goal is to get many products listed because unless there are products to sell, the site would not be very useful. If you need any help in listing products, Onista team can also help

Thank you very much in advance,

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#2

Post by rksprst »

I don't see anything different than what ebay/craigslist offers. You mention a "social marketplace" and your front page says "Leverage the power of social networks" but I don't see any features that make your site social, or where I can leverage the power of social networks.

You have a community tab where users can have events. Why would I use your site for events, why not evite, facebook, etc...? You should focus on one thing and do it well, instead of adding tons of features but neglecting your main focus. "Less is more", right?

Bugs: 1. I just did a search for "car" and got no results. Although you clearly have a car for sale on the site. 2. The captcha on the register page doesn't load an image until I click on the "Try another Image" link. 3. In the community -> Questions and Answers, a search for "sell", "selling", and "fees" returned no results (in fact, nothing returned any results).

Overall, I don't see any unique value created for the user. I'd love for you to tell me I'm wrong and point me to some features/aspects that I missed. (Maybe all the social features are still in development?).

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#4

Post by LPTS »

I only have time for feedback on the design of the front page.

It's pretty damn good. Way better then most of the stuff I see when I'm at Y combinator. I had thoughts on the right hand column.

Your order is:

sign in, then use onista to... then not a member, join, then invite friends, then demo.

I think the order:

sign in, not a member, join, then use Onista to... makes more sense, with invite your friends only showing up to logged in users. The demo video should show up like youtube vids do, instead of the clip art, and be on the left hand side, maybe where the slogans are.

Also, I think your three slogans should be saved for elevator rides with people you have 30 sec to pitch too, rather then customer facing. "Think outside auctions and classifieds Eliminate listing fees! Leverage the power of social networks" is for industry people, not your customers. The only critique here I am absolutely sure about is that you should never ever ever say "leverage the power of social networks" to your customers.

But, thats nitpicky. Your site design looks pretty damn good. I particularly like your colors. It makes my eyes feel relaxed and happy. Far better then most sites I see linked from here. Usually I'm talking about how much the design sucks and how the designer should find a new job, or there wasn't someone focused on that. You should keep your designer. Sorry I don't have more time to comment in detail. Nice work!

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#5

Post by colinplamondon »

There's no good explanation on the frontpage of why this is better than eBay, outside of no listing fees. You have infinitely less users and infinitely less items for sale.

What's the one sentence explanation of why Onista is better?

"Onista is an auction-less social marketplace where people can buy and sell products." doesn't tell me why I should care.

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#6

Post by wheels »

You need to solve the "bootstrapping" problem. That's what locks everybody else out of the auction space. You need a critical mass.

Some ideas:

- Perhaps a partnership with some sort of overstock dealers?

- Focus on one city at first? Hit up every pawn shop in town and offer to send an intern over to index their stuff?

- Some sort of trade system where people could list stuff they want to get rid of and stuff they'd like to get?

- Offer services for eBay / Craigslist with some sort of incentive to move over to your platform?

(Also, please break or remove the long preformatted lines in the article submission. They break the layout.)

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#7

Post by thorax »

Here's an interesting/free feature idea for an auction site. Maybe it won't work as well for yours, but here you go anyway:

Offer visitors a cut of the selling fee if they correctly predict what price the item will sell for. (Maybe closest without going over?)

This brings people over to a "I'm not looking, but I'll make a guess" site, but also might get you some users, friend invites, etc. In addition, it might also help buyers when they see that "230 people think this item should sell for more than $300" or somesuch.

It's basically a way for getting other people interested in a transaction they have nothing to do with. Which could get people looking, evaluating, and thinking about products even if they're not an immediate buyer.

I think momentum and traction is the key, and if sellers know they'll get exposure just with random auction watchers, that's publicity they may not get via ebay and searching.

Re: Ask YC: Feedback on our startup/application

#10

Post by thorax »

I'm sad to bring this up.

We looked into creating an innovative auction site some time ago. Unfortunately there are a lot of software patents in this area, and Priceline (and its founders) have some that you need to look into before going too crazy with this site.

Unless you've done some heavy analysis here, I recommend you do so and maybe talk to an attorney. The biggest danger here is that: any auction site has to get pretty big to make decent money and once you get big with a potential patent infringement, it can sink your entire ship if caught by surprise.

We discussed some licensing possibilities on some of these patents, and those groups didn't want to talk to someone who wasn't able to pay some very high initial licensing fees. (I.e. licensing solely via royalties or equity wasn't interesting to them.)

Maybe nothing you are doing is a direct infringement, but this is a heavily patented area. Do your research.

Post reply on HN