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Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

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Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#71

Post by m4nu »

sdernley wrote: post #30
m4nu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My target market is small (2~10 employees) web agencies. I worked for such companies and build that app to address the pains they have with the feedback loop. So far I have mostly been doing cold mailing to very targeted market and made some promotion through listing site (betalist, reddit). I had about 300 users out of this. The type of feedback I got so far sounds like: "Great app will save me lot of time!!" yet af…

Have you spoke to those users that stopped using the site. Seems like they're you're biggest chance to find what's wrong. You can get as many users as you want, but if you can't keep hold of them then you'll still have problems. Find out why they started, then find out why they stopped. Maybe it wasn't right for them in the first place, in which case you can focus on the people it is right for. Maybe there's somethin…

I did do send them personalised email - in which I actually poured way to much time - and I am usually getting or not answers or "I'll use it soon" type of answers. " Will continue putting more energy down that path tho. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#72

Post by m4nu »

twunde wrote: post #58
sdernley wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you spoke to those users that stopped using the site. Seems like they're you're biggest chance to find what's wrong. You can get as many users as you want, but if you can't keep hold of them then you'll still have problems. Find out why they started, then find out why they stopped. Maybe it wasn't right for them in the first place, in which case you can focus on the people it is right for. Maybe there's somethin…

I've seen several strategies like this to improve startups/sideprojects Keep statistics on people who have: signed up but not set up your product The best way to do this is to send a personal email to the users. You should be able to get some real feedback and if you're responsive to their suggestions get some customers for life

Thanks, as mentioned above I am trying this but not getting so much success with it so far. I probably need to crunch bigger numbers to get significant results.

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#73

Post by m4nu »

mushishi wrote: post #24

I wanted to give you feedback that there is no feedback mechanism on the right side of the page but ironically you don't give the user opportunity to apply your product to your own site.

Yes, unfortunately a "public" version of the widget would mean a serious refactor (which is btw on the list of potential pivots).

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#74

Post by m4nu »

penguat wrote: post #69

1) What does it do? 2) It's not on your site. Where can I see it in action on all sides? what does the widget look like? 3) will it even work in my local development environment? 4) what does it cost? Can I persuade my manager to buy it?

1- Let everyone involved in the site creation (Clients, PM, devs ) communicate right on the live site by using "sticky note" 2- It can't be use on a public site without major refactor 3- Yes it will. I have a "Mirror" feature plan so that you can even mirror issue from "stage" site to you dev 4- Still unknown yet. Probably will have a free plan with some restriction, but the "small agency" tier would be around 29/mo

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#75

Post by m4nu »

glimmung wrote: post #64

The tutorial project that you get to once you sign up - or maybe a video of it - needs to be front and centre before the sign-up. I wasn't clear before I got to that, but now I've seen that I'm motivated to dig deeper...

Cool, thanks. That is helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#76

Post by m4nu »

neilellis wrote: post #68

Looks like a great feedback widget like http://bugherd.com/ to me Be patient and KEEP AT IT: listen, learn, fix - repeat I found this helpful - http://www.appsumo.com/copywriting-checklist-special/ - simple, concise and well explained guide to website copy. Good luck, work, listen, learn and be patient :-) Oh and take HN with a pinch of salt :-)

It addresses the same issue but with a completely different approach.

Thanks for the perspective. I will keep at it. Cheers

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#77

Post by m4nu »

donkeyd wrote: post #67

I've seen a stratup take beta user metrics and offer their most active users the first year free. If you give out 10 free years of service to your most active users and promoters this might actually give them the motivation to start using the product. Also, once they've used the product for a year they probably won't stop when they have to start paying and by then they've given you the feedback you need. They might a…

Well I'd give life long use to the right beta users willing to give me serious feedback. It's the very least I could do. I am currently trying that approach with cold mailing but not getting a whole lot of attention with that (actually none at all)

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#78

Post by donkeyd »

m4nu wrote: post #77
donkeyd wrote: post #67

I've seen a stratup take beta user metrics and offer their most active users the first year free. If you give out 10 free years of service to your most active users and promoters this might actually give them the motivation to start using the product. Also, once they've used the product for a year they probably won't stop when they have to start paying and by then they've given you the feedback you need. They might a…

Well I'd give life long use to the right beta users willing to give me serious feedback. It's the very least I could do. I am currently trying that approach with cold mailing but not getting a whole lot of attention with that (actually none at all)

Try changing the message or try a cold-call, give you the chance to get instant feedback on why people don't use the product.

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#79

Post by penguat »

m4nu wrote: post #74
penguat wrote: post #69

1) What does it do? 2) It's not on your site. Where can I see it in action on all sides? what does the widget look like? 3) will it even work in my local development environment? 4) what does it cost? Can I persuade my manager to buy it?

1- Let everyone involved in the site creation (Clients, PM, devs ) communicate right on the live site by using "sticky note" 2- It can't be use on a public site without major refactor 3- Yes it will. I have a "Mirror" feature plan so that you can even mirror issue from "stage" site to you dev 4- Still unknown yet. Probably will have a free plan with some restriction, but the "small agency" tier would be around 29/mo

With 3, it complained that it didn't find the widget on my development site - which left me really confused.

A production-capable version would be extremely useful to our team, even with minimal feedback - we're in a public beta of a new version of our site, and we're using A/B tools which would allow us to get that sort of feedback from a number of our users without being overwhelmed.

We might only want to use it for 4 months, while a beta runs. A one-off payment of up to £100 (GBP) would be reasonably easy, if we chose to use it.

What's keeping it from production?

Re: Ask HN: Everyone loves my startup concept, why is no one using it?

#80

Post by m4nu »

DavidPP wrote: post #39

I'm using bugherd and would like to have the feedback part only as I don't need the bug tracking part (already using another tool for that). So I'm definitively in your potential client list, but no demo on your website mean that I would probably have skipped it completely without creating an account.

Oh well I would love to hear feedback from you. As mentioned somewhere else in that bunch of comment I am more than willing to give away long term free use for any one willing to give this a serious try and share the experience with me.

The registration process is very small (basically one more field than a sign-in) and you can delete your account anytime if you are not satisfied. Once logged in you will see a tutorial that highlights the main features of Nota in under a minutes.

Will work on a screen cast of the app first very soon.

Thanks for sharing

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