How do you plan to pay to operate the service? How will you combat fraud?
Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#52I hugely respect that you were able to bring this idea so far; it's something I've never been able to do. This is work that's 10x better than 95% of side projects or open source work people put on their resumes. I'm always critical, so take that with a grain of salt. Your origin story reminded me a lot of Airbnb's. Your motivation is slightly different, but not surprisingly, you're playing in the very, very crowded g…
Thanks for taking the time to check it out, you got it 100% right.
> I have no idea how to market this.
This made me laugh, thanks man one more time. :)
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#53I am not sure where the app would fit.
Besides renaming "workers" to "Creators" and "employers" to "Supporters", isn't it like "services offered" on a traditional newspaper classified ad column?
(or nowadays Facebook, Craigslist or similar)
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#54> After the campaign is launched, creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm that the task has been completed, and creators would get paid. So it sounds like of like Upwork/Fiverr/etc, but with a story about why the person is trying to raise money, and an end da…
> So it sounds like of like Upwork/Fiverr/etc, but with a story about why the person is trying to raise money, and an end date/amount for their offer?
More like GoFundMe because there is a cause and Taskrabbit as people are offering services.
> And if I'm making decent money through your platform, why would I want to stop when I reach the $1000 goal (or whatever I set)?
Right now, the focus is on raising funds for a cause with a time limit. There may be option to offer services indefinitely, like TaskRabbit, in the future, but that's not something I'm thinking about right now, I have to get some users first to see if this whole idea even makes sense and iterations in any direction can always come later as the project grows, if it grows.
> If you're pushing the local angle Yes, I'm pushing the local angle, I think this platform would work best if creators and supporters know each other directly or through people they know. That way a lot of scams could also be avoided.
In case the service isn't delivered, or you're not happy, you can report it using the support system and we'll try to resolve it. If you paid with card, there will be an option to get a refund and if you selected cash payments, you would have to resolve that with the campaign creator on the spot.
And yes, you will be able to see current campaigns in your area but first I need to get some users and campaigns. :) Published campaigns are just placeholders so people could see how campaigns should work.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#55This is cool! I would ignore everyone who's repeating the same sort of standard startup advice or saying "blah blah doesn't xyz already do this". A lot of startup advice is bad / actively harmful, your thing is pretty good, and you should just do it if it's fun. Because you're on HN, you're about to get a good bump. In a few days, that bump will go down, and you might start to feel sad! Ignore this sadness and keep p…
Thanks, after so much time, I feel like I just wasted a lot of time, so some encouragement means a lot.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#56The page looks nicely designed. You could try seeding this first. There are many ways to do that, but one of the easiest would be for you to launch your own campaign using your own product, offering a service you can offer, to fund marketing budget for your site so you can help grow it and benefit more people. For example, you could help local businesses improve their landing pages or something that matches your skil…
You know, this is very nice idea, I like it a lot, thanks a lot for this.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#57As others have already mentioned, why would someone choose to use your site over a more established site like gofundme or even patreon if they wanted to tie rewards/services to donations? Who do you envision your target audience to be? Someone who is undergoing a rough patch who is too proud to go on gofundme and has time to spare to work odd jobs? Who do you envision your target audience's target to be? People who w…
My idea was to build an app for someone, as you said is undergoing a rough patch and doesn't want to ask for donations, instead they want to take situations into their own hands. And supporters should be people around them, people in their community, their friends, friends of their friends, people who have a need for their services and want to help creators at the same time. By going hyper-local, I wanted to avoid st…
To me, the hyper local goal conflicts with the availability of campaigns on the homepage.
Nonetheless, I really like the design and idea driving your creation. Good luck to you on this project but even if it doesn't pan out, with your talents you will do more things.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#58I really like the idea, actually. First, what I'd say is that a lot of people may comment here on HN with very "objective" opinions on whether it's a good or bad idea. I want to remind you that those "objective" statements are just subjective opinions, and that while those people may represent a large percentage of the population, they also might just represent a small percentage. And even if they represent a large p…
Yeah, I like this idea a lot, another user also recommended something similar. As I don't have a marketing budget right now, creating a campaign to raise funds for it makes a lot of sense and it would show people how the platform really works. Thanks a lot!
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#59I think the basic idea here is fundamentally flawed. You don't have to take my word for it. Plenty of businesses that I think are pointless shit succeed. But your hyper-local focus on people offering services to their pre-existing friends and friends of friends doesn't require software. Have you ever been part of a book club? A church? A family? Even just a private Facebook group where most of the people all know eac…
This is a very interesting feedback and yes, I agree completely, especially the part where you say that this is how communities already work. The reason why, at least in my mind, Taskwer makes sense is that it makes spreading the word easier. Let's say you want to raise $1000 for something, you will have to get in touch with your friends, it will take time to spread the word about it. What Taskwer allows you is to create a campaign, tell your story and offer services and it's all in one place, on one page which is very easy to share online so when you share it with your friends, they could support you and share it to their friends and in a couple of hours your campaign could reach quite a lot of people who wouldn't know about it otherwise. Just like GoFundMe campaigns, most donators are people who campaign creators know already. That's at least my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#60This is a really hard lesson to learn and it takes most people (myself included) many tries to learn it. From reading your post, it is super clear that you understand the lesson-- validate your idea early. But understanding the lesson and actually learning it are worlds apart. You have put a lot of time into this project, and it is not going to go anywhere. This is a tough realization. One that you naturally want to…
This is so true.
Their time hasn't been wasted so long as they've learned from it. In this case it's fair to say that technical knowledge has been gained and business knowledge as well.
As you say, it's best for them to take this knowledge and apply it on the next project. If they keep it up then they'll eventually find success.