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Show HN: I built a thing

boxcarsurgery.com

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Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#31

Post by jasim »

bstar77 wrote: post #25

I love the fact that you solved a specific pain point and can potentially help others, but I'm not sure this is something that would be worth $10/month for most people. This is also a pretty trivial app to build with the twilio/tropo APIs, so it's not an earth shattering product. Can you set it up to use the same number, but validate accounts with access numbers? That way you only pay for 1 number and could possibly…

> This is also a pretty trivial app to build with the twilio/tropo APIs, so it's not an earth shattering product.

There would be people who might pay for not having to bother to write the code (and maintain it, and maybe innovate on it) for this. You never know.

"it's trivial to write" does not mean people won't pay for it. Things are more complex than that.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#32

Post by romain_dardour »

You found a bad user experience for you (a problem) You built an e-doorman (a product)

Now think about the problem an solution in terms of Product and market

Is the market who you think it is ? (I.E. who will buy this ? people, buzzer system makers or building owners ?)

Then think about what would be the product that would allow your market to solve the problem. Might not be the one you built exactly.

A product is only successful if it solves a problem for a market. Both problem and market are mandatory.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#33

Post by lancewiggs »

You've done the easy bit. The hard bit is how to make money. Selling to the apartment owning/building/management industry will be very difficult. The product needs to be a lot more refined. The marketing materials just so. The team selling experienced in the industry. And so on.

Some fights are worth having. If you can find a sidekick who relishes the sales battle then sobeit.

Else consider open sourcing what you've done and move to the next problem.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#35

Post by josscrowcroft »

I'd suggest manually taking on the first few dozen customers by word of mouth, as many as possible, then using that as evidence of a quantifiable need - after that point, contacting letting agents who may be able to use it as a neat selling point?

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#36

Post by ssebro »

Check out how Lockitron is marketing their product - yours can deliver similar value, except to residents of apartment complexes. https://lockitron.com/preorder

I would first figure out the size of the market, then pick a price point (informed by the size of the market + the pain solved by your solution), then a marketing strategy (target either building management or individuals).

While most people on HN are telling you to market to the apartment complexes, I think you might want to market towards individuals, since they are the ones who feel the pain that you alleviate. You can target apartment complexes if you alleviate some pain that they have (maybe having your system is something they can include in marketing materials, which will get them more occupants/better occupancy).

The best thing about targeting individuals is that you may be able to get them to market for you (see dropbox), and that they will cross pollinate your solution to new apartment complexes when they move.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#37

Post by ssebro »

dglassan wrote: post #12

You shouldn't be marketing this towards consumers. If you and your friend had this problem with the apartment gate then I'm sure more people at your apartment have to deal with it also. Why don't you talk to your apartment complex and see if they'd be interested to use it as a service for their tenants? You should be marketing this towards apartment complex properties, not consumers living in apartment complexes.

It's usually easier to sell to someone who's experiencing a pain than it is to an upstream provider. In other words, if it was a big enough issue that you built something to fix it, and your apartment complex hasn't fixed it themselves, you probably aren't going to suddenly convince them to buy in (since they don't see the pain, or don't care).

Sell pain killers to people in pain.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#38

Post by xlance »

dglassan wrote: post #12

You shouldn't be marketing this towards consumers. If you and your friend had this problem with the apartment gate then I'm sure more people at your apartment have to deal with it also. Why don't you talk to your apartment complex and see if they'd be interested to use it as a service for their tenants? You should be marketing this towards apartment complex properties, not consumers living in apartment complexes.

Or even better, the distributor of the system itself.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#39

Post by Terretta »

AlexeyMK wrote: post #19
zacharydanger wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoops. I'll definitely add the pricing to the home page. It's 10$/month or 100$/year. For the longest time, the homepage was Rails' index.html. It was so hard for me to bang out those few paragraphs.

If the best alternative to using your app is a free Google Voice number in your area code (and not $20/month to Time Warner), I don't think $10/month is something I would pay. I'd either find a way to make the pricing work, or (as suggested above) find a way to sell to apartment complexes at large.

Exactly. SkypeIn with local area code is (if you get it on sale) only $30 a year. That's what I use.

Nice thing about that is I've let the UPS guy in while I was in Rome, and didn't have to pay long distance.

Re: Show HN: I built a thing

#40

Post by ssebro »

ssebro wrote: post #37
dglassan wrote: post #12

You shouldn't be marketing this towards consumers. If you and your friend had this problem with the apartment gate then I'm sure more people at your apartment have to deal with it also. Why don't you talk to your apartment complex and see if they'd be interested to use it as a service for their tenants? You should be marketing this towards apartment complex properties, not consumers living in apartment complexes.

It's usually easier to sell to someone who's experiencing a pain than it is to an upstream provider. In other words, if it was a big enough issue that you built something to fix it, and your apartment complex hasn't fixed it themselves, you probably aren't going to suddenly convince them to buy in (since they don't see the pain, or don't care). Sell pain killers to people in pain.

Actually, I take some of this back. If the upstream provider can make significant profits by selling this as an add on, then you're in business.
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