Ask YC: Review our new product • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#51

Post by cridal » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:01 PM UTC

Nice solution to a nagging problem. Has a lot of potential for building data transformations for reporting type applications. And it does make sense as a web app if it leads towards the path of "hosted data warehousing" or "data warehousing as a service", where a client deliberately makes a decision and is comfortable with entrusting their data to a third party in exchange for easier path toward some type of reporting/analytical capability. As a matter of fact, I would think about using/licensing it for a system I'm working on...

However, for those advanced use cases (when it's not a one-off), there is a need for saving/editing/copying/versioning of transformations. Are you guys thinking about providing such capabilities?

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#52

Post by tocomment » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:22 PM UTC

markessien wrote: post #46

tocomment wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips on how to make such an exe file?

Yes, it takes about 10 minutes using C#. Drag a web browser control to the .exe, call browserControl.navigate(url), and there, you have a native application. Use NSIS for the installer, add some license key routine, and sell your B2B copies for $299 a seat.

Plus you need to do all the stuff to set up a local server, no?

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#53

Post by eisokant » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:26 PM UTC

sh1mmer wrote: post #49

tocomment wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips on how to make such an exe file?

Adobe Air does the same thing x-plaform. The is also a mozilla project, I forget the name of, which is like Air but uglier.

Prism

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#54

Post by mattmaroon » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:33 PM UTC

Where was this 2 days ago when I was using Excel macros to reformat some data pasted from the county assessor's office? This would have saved me a good half hour.

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#55

Post by mattmaroon » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:34 PM UTC

sh1mmer wrote: post #39

Please founders put intro videos on a CDN. If I didn't have an interest in reviewing your site as part of this community, I would have left without trying a thing.

No need for a full-on CDN. Even just blip.tv or youtube or something would be great, plus then you get the occasional read from a searcher there.

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#56

Post by huhtenberg » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 6:38 PM UTC

avibryant wrote: post #3

This is largely a technology demo, but we think it's pretty neat. Curious if anyone here has thoughts about where to take this from here. And yes, using SSN as the example was probably a poor choice - the example is from http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2007/11/12/manipulating-... . Tip of the hat to LAPIS/Potluck/MassEdit from CSAIL for getting us thinking in this direction.

> where to take this from here

Your only goal should be to try and sell yourselves to Microsoft as quickly as possible.

While clever, the central idea is trivial to replicate. Try obtaining as much of a legal protection as possible. You have a year from your initial public disclosure to file a patent application. This will run you at about 10-15k, but will greatly increase your chances of a technology acquisition. If in doubt about the patent, consider the fact that once a variation of this gets into the next Excel version or a service pack, your customer base will go to zero.

Definitely drop the SaaS model, this is the worst application of it ever. Virtually all business data is confidential, copy-pasting it around random web servers is not encouraged to put it mildly.

It is a nice idea and it is certainly a neat tech demo. Your best bet in my opinion is to try and sell the actual technology bit.

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#57

Post by jmackinn » Mon, Dec 01, 2008, 7:29 PM UTC

easyfrag wrote: post #37

markessien wrote: post #22

Good idea, nice implementation, wrong medium. There is no reason this should be a web application - in a perfect world, I want something like this directly integrated into my database tool, and not have me open my browser and all that. At the same time, considering that the data work may be large, having this on a server is not too bad of an idea. What I suggest to you is this - spend a day to make a version of this…

Yes please. I work for a Canadian health care provider and I legally cannot upload the data for which I would find your tool useful.

I think this hits on a big stumbling block for the product. There are a huge number of companies that don't allow the data to be removed from their workstations or servers.

If the product could be implemented as an extension for Excel, similar to Xobni in Outlook, then there is much more potential. There is really no reason for this to be an online app.

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#58

Post by bemmu » Tue, Dec 02, 2008, 1:24 AM UTC

Anyone made one where you could provide some examples and out comes a regexp that does the changes? :)

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#59

Post by netcan » Tue, Dec 02, 2008, 5:13 AM UTC

markessien wrote: post #22

Good idea, nice implementation, wrong medium. There is no reason this should be a web application - in a perfect world, I want something like this directly integrated into my database tool, and not have me open my browser and all that. At the same time, considering that the data work may be large, having this on a server is not too bad of an idea. What I suggest to you is this - spend a day to make a version of this…

I disagree. Somewhat.

Sure this should be part of whatever spreadsheet you are using. I totally agree with that. But it's not. That's the reason someone came up with an external solution.

But why shouldn't it be a web based app? If it works just as well? If you have privacy/legality issues then OK, you need a local app. A local app may also be just as good for many other things. But why is this less suitable to the web then word processing or spreadsheets?

From there on it's just a marketing/distribution issue.

Re: Ask YC: Review our new product

#60

Post by netcan » Tue, Dec 02, 2008, 5:31 AM UTC

tomsaffell wrote: post #25

I think you're trying to solve a valid problem - i.e. allowing Excel type data to be manipulated/formatted more easily than Excel (or similar tools) currently allow. And I think you have a cool product, but... But I don't think this is a solution to that problem for most people who have that problem. My previous job involved a lot of Excel work (so I became fairly good at it) and it also involved interacting with peo…

I am probably type C. I think type C might be quite big.

The type of person who can't program a blog but can & will install a Wordpress if she can find decent instructions because blogger doesn't let her do XYZ.

The type of person who can & will use forum code but can't use html/css.

The type of person that can & will set up a hosted online shop but can't alter the code.

Basically, if the problem exists & the excel solution is not something that you would just come across in excel without knowing, it comes down to what solution you do come across.As an online app, this might have a better chance of being that.

The second thing is this: would you (A) prefer to explain to your clients (B) how to use the excel solution or send them a link to this?