I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is. • Hacker News Board

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#101

Post by ahmadss » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

Congrats on the launch. I have some feedback, but a random question for you first - did you work at Deloitte in their S&O practice?

Now for the feedback - assuming your audience is a non-tech WordPress user, I'm suggesting that you do A|B testing on the use of "Native App". From experience talking to clients on the marketing team or communications team, most don't know the difference or meaning of "native app". To them, an app is an app is an app - native or not.

The key question that these folks care about is "will my app have a custom icon that represents my brand", "can i submit to the app store", and "will my customer see this icon on their iPhone once they download it?".

So, my hypothesis is that if you strip "native app" from your copy (all of your copy) and just focus "custom app", "custom icons", "app store submission", "WordPress to iPhone", your target audience won't miss a beat and won't blink at "native app".

If you end up testing this out doing A/B tests or user research, I'd love to hear the results.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#102

Post by sidcool » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

Wish you all the very best. Make sure you scale up today, as I am going to pitch for you wherever my reach is.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#103

Post by sidcool » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:34 PM UTC

Bad signs, it's slowing down. It's taking more than 20 seconds for me to load. Scale it up, scale it up fast, buy more processing power from your host

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#104

Post by underwater » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:35 PM UTC

I don't want to knock your product, because I know site owners will love it, but does anyone actually like and use these simple apps that wrap a website?

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#105

Post by unfletch » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

dan1234 wrote: post #94

Have you run this past Apple with regards to their App Store approval policy? I'd be worried about clause 2.12: "2.12 Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected"

I think the "web sites bundled as apps" is speaking more of an app that consists only of a webkit view which loads some web site. A single-site browser app.

There's a service called Tapatalk that does something very similar to what Appifier does, but for forums, and has a number of generated "native forum apps" in the App Store.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#106

Post by giis » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

nice work,pretty useful for bloggers,I believe.All the best for your startup.Btw,How long did it take to launch this startup after you left your previous job?

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#107

Post by glanch » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

chris123 wrote: post #36

Nice demo video, although I am not sold on the idea people want or need to consume blogs natively on their phones. But, hey, hat tip for testing the idea in real time :)

Fortunately for OP, it doesn't matter if people want or need to consume blogs natively on their phones. It matters if business owners want to be able to tell people that their business has an iPhone app. And they do.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#108

Post by barce » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

How is this app different one WPTouch which also turns your WordPress into something iPhone friendly: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/ I know you turn the site into a native app, but WPTouch works just fine with HTML and CSS. Is there something I'm missing?

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#109

Post by eli » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

barce wrote: post #108

How is this app different one WPTouch which also turns your WordPress into something iPhone friendly: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/ I know you turn the site into a native app, but WPTouch works just fine with HTML and CSS. Is there something I'm missing?

WPTouch doesn't put you in the app store, it just makes your site usable from a mobile browser.

Re: I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup. Here it is.

#110

Post by larrys » Wed, Jan 11, 2012, 5:55 PM UTC

traftonesler wrote: post #69

larrys wrote: post #30

You need to move this site to a host that can handle the load today. I'm getting timeouts and finally got the home page to load. I can't get any of the other pages to load either.

Trying to reach you via e-mail -- www.wpengine.com can help with your site. We specialize in high traffic!

You should add to your marketing more info about how you are good in handling traffic and most importantly why. In a way that will make sense with both tech and non tech types. (Non tech has no idea what aws is or a cdn is for example). I've looked at your site a few times (even right now) and that isn't the thing that stuck in my mind from your marketing. The takeaway for me was "expert at WP" not necessarily "expert handling of traffic and here's why". I'm not saying it's not mentioned. I just think that point has to be driven home better.