Ask HN - rate my startup idea
replybutton.com
Ask HN - rate my startup idea
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#2I am still working on the back-end to the system but in the meantime I really want to get some feedback from you guys. I have been building the system in my spare time and have now got to the point where I need some extra motivation to see it through to completion. Honest comments appreciated!
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#3Do you have people using it yet? Do you have paying customers? If not, why not?
Asking people here might get you useful info, but getting the target audience to use it would yield better results. To some extent there's probably overlap between HN readers and your audience, but I bet there's a lot of non-overlap (underlap?)
Have you tried getting feedback from people via something like http://fivesecondtest.com/ ?
Conceptually as an idea it's got some merit (this was one of the project areas I was looking at for February). But I'm not your target audience :)
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#4I think it makes more sense to focus it on industries where looks or verbal communication skills matter a lot, such as teaching, modeling, selling, etc.
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#5Do you have people using it yet? Do you have paying customers? If not, why not? Asking people here might get you useful info, but getting the target audience to use it would yield better results. To some extent there's probably overlap between HN readers and your audience, but I bet there's a lot of non-overlap (underlap?) Have you tried getting feedback from people via something like http://fivesecondtest.com/ ? Con…
Right.
It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to solicit users. Finding potential customers is as easy as opening Craigslist. Granted, getting one of them to bite may be tough, but if none of them do, that's probably the feedback you need. This concept should work well as a bootstrapped, iterative start-up. All you need is one business who will use your product to get responses from their Craigslist ad.
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#6"then you what a pain it can be " - *know
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#7Well, from a candidate's point of view, I think it might be slightly annoying to be told "Hi, we're interested in your CV, but not quite interested enough to actually talk to you. Why don't you take the time to record a video of yourself, and then maybe we'll watch some of it!"
From an employer's point of view, it's hard to see what I'm going to get out of this that I can't get more quickly by picking up the phone and talking to the person for ten minutes.
But maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective. For filling, say, software engineering jobs it may not be all that useful, but for retail jobs in particular it could save a lot of time. Is this person clean and presentable and well-spoken and generally capable of holding a conversation? Well then, this person is 80% of the way to being a good retail employee!
So this is where I'd target it. Besides, if you can land just one medium-sized retail chain you'll already be making a shirtload of money.
Oh, one other thing: I don't like the name. If you were a potential employee and were told to make a video on "replybutton" then the name might confuse you.
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#8It looks promising.
How it works link is broken at the top of the page http://replybutton.com/features.html
Does Replybutton have a capital letter? Some mixture of cases used.
Probably don't need the links to each question on the FAQ page.
FAQ? - Does each interview I buy in the packs have to contain the same questions? Can they be for different jobs?
Make the logo in the top left link to home.
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#9The general concept seems to be ContactMe (http://contactme.com/) with videos.
My only question is... I got my first webcam earlier this year. I know a lot of people who don't have one. Do you think this could be a potential block in the road adoption?
Re: Ask HN - rate my startup idea
#10might be worth chatting with a lawyer on this - I know that pictures on CVs in the US are frowned upon due the the discrimination they may cause (age, gender, race, etc); how do you ensure you mitigate this risk when passing a video of someone around the office?