The Story of My Startup. • Hacker News Board

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#21

Post by axod » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 9:51 AM UTC

ido wrote: post #12

sho wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pro account is the best idea. Stay away from advertising, IMO, it looks cheap and turns people off. Personally I absolutely hate advertising and won't use any site with it. And I doubt much would come from the book idea/affiliations. I would take it nice and slow. Wait until you have some serious users who have put a lot of time into the app. Obviously you and your friends have to catalyse that, looks like you al…

> Stay away from advertising, IMO, it looks cheap and turns people off. Personally I absolutely hate advertising and won't use any site with it. I don't like ads either, but we (who actually care enough to e.g. install ad block+) are a minority. You need money. Advertisement might help and it will only repulse a relatively small portion of the population.

I love ads. And the cash they make. I don't think they cheapen a website at all, and you'd be hard pressed to find that many websites without some form of advertising.

Try them out, and see if they work, and see if your users find them useful, or horrible.

Also do the maths - how many Pro accounts would you need to sell to make the same amount as sticking a couple of adverts up?

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#22

Post by rustartup » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:01 AM UTC

j0ncc wrote: post #7

staunch wrote: post #2

Where's the business model?

Good question. I have a few ideas that I'm going to be pursuing. - Setup a deal with flipclips.com (or someone similar) and let people purchase a branded flickbook of a period of their lives. - Maybe potential for some kind of picwing.com affiliate deal / application. - Some kind of "pro" account with more features (more picture widget output options etc). - Display advertising (yeah, know). They're a few ideas I'm t…

Keep in mind that you don't have that much time. More than one RoR bastard will know about your website soon and frankly it takes only couple of weeks of fulltime developement to produce a service like yours.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#23

Post by danw » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:13 AM UTC

I like it.

One thing: I can't find a way to delete my account in the settings panel.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#24

Post by rustartup » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:28 AM UTC

Great work, but ... looks like an example of completely missing the basics of the customer needs. Do we really need good design to start taking shots? Think about us already missing a year of pictures. Sorry for making it sound sharp.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#25

Post by swombat » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:29 AM UTC

rustartup wrote: post #22

j0ncc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. I have a few ideas that I'm going to be pursuing. - Setup a deal with flipclips.com (or someone similar) and let people purchase a branded flickbook of a period of their lives. - Maybe potential for some kind of picwing.com affiliate deal / application. - Some kind of "pro" account with more features (more picture widget output options etc). - Display advertising (yeah, know). They're a few ideas I'm t…

Keep in mind that you don't have that much time. More than one RoR bastard will know about your website soon and frankly it takes only couple of weeks of fulltime developement to produce a service like yours.

Copying stuff well is not so easy.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#26

Post by gstar » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:30 AM UTC

Thanks for sharing, very candid and interesting.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#27

Post by matthewking » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 10:42 AM UTC

Great story Jon, I really enjoyed the read and found it quite inspirational. The launch video at the end with the music was classic, especially the 404 at launch and the music running out!

Best of luck with the site, looks like a lot of hard work has gone into it.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#28

Post by rustartup » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 11:18 AM UTC

swombat wrote: post #25

rustartup wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that you don't have that much time. More than one RoR bastard will know about your website soon and frankly it takes only couple of weeks of fulltime developement to produce a service like yours.

Copying stuff well is not so easy.

Year. But its the essence of the evolution.

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#29

Post by c3o » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 11:33 AM UTC

daveambrose wrote: post #11

Kudos on the launch. Looks really great. :) Is there anyone else doing this? Just curious.

I seem to recall reading an interview with SkinnyCorp (Threadless.com) where Jake or Jeffrey said they had once built but then scrapped a similar project. While googling for that, I found http://www.flickaday.com

Re: The Story of My Startup.

#30

Post by c3o » Fri, Feb 13, 2009, 11:44 AM UTC

I'd suggest you put a sample animation of the type of result people would get on your site on the front page. I don't think the intro text "your life in pictures" explains it well enough, but if people see even just a 5 frame animation they'll immediately recognize the concept. In fact, I'd stick the picture taking app on the front page and allow them to take a first snapshot before even signing up. Having the first picture there would provide a great incentive to follow through with the sign-up.

Also, if I may, and I know from experience it's harder than it sounds: It seems your concept got way more complex over time, when you really should have launched the simplest possible version as fast as possible and worried about widgets, following, minifeeds, comments, a proper logo etc. later on. Cool that you're online now though, good luck with everything!