I think it would greatly benefit the HN community if you write up a lessons learned and share it.
How long did you guys work on it (post-launch marketing/promotion time) before deciding to pack up?
Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#12I think your site has to be worth something on Sitepoint.
Most definitely. Looks like there are hundreds of products actively on sale there Right Now.
If you got that far without marketing, finding someone who's got those marketing skills and will but is looking for something pre-built to start from and expand upon will be fairly trivial, those people exist, lots of them in fact.
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#13I think your site has to be worth something on Sitepoint.
Most definitely. Looks like there are hundreds of products actively on sale there Right Now. If you got that far without marketing, finding someone who's got those marketing skills and will but is looking for something pre-built to start from and expand upon will be fairly trivial, those people exist, lots of them in fact.
Come to think of it, you could pull a minor publicity stunt (and attract more buyers) by simply putting Onista up for sale on... Onista.
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#14Some questions:
- Would you turn the service over to other people?
- How many would you ask?
- Would the service be easily translatable?
- The video about how it works doesn't work. I would like to see some more information about the inner workings of the system.
- Is the code easy to pick up and go on, or does it demand a lot of study?
- Do you have manuals/documentation about the inner workings?
I have been thinking about creating such a site like this, but in Esperanto (I know, small market BUT a lot of people from a lot of places who know a lot of languages). We do have a great working of a non-auction working marketplace ("Marktplaats") in the Netherlands (now bought by eBay) and as I am good with languages (I speak 9 languages to several extents by now) I would love to have such a service in an international fashion, and eBay just doesn't fit for me (for one instance, it's waaaaay to messy).
I have to warn you however, I'm 20 years old and have more ideas than money, so don't trust I will do everything you will profit from. It's just that I like the idea of the site as I see it now because of personal preferences, and I would love to make it something great if I get the chance :).
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most definitely. Looks like there are hundreds of products actively on sale there Right Now. If you got that far without marketing, finding someone who's got those marketing skills and will but is looking for something pre-built to start from and expand upon will be fairly trivial, those people exist, lots of them in fact.
Come to think of it, you could pull a minor publicity stunt (and attract more buyers) by simply putting Onista up for sale on... Onista.
Thanks, Talking to Partners and see how we can sell it.
We never sold sites in past and coded most of this ourselves, so were not sure if it is worth anything.
But yes, Seems like we should at least give it a try.
Need to find out how we can transfer domain names as well.
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#16Some questions: - Would you turn the service over to other people? - How many would you ask? - Would the service be easily translatable? - The video about how it works doesn't work. I would like to see some more information about the inner workings of the system. - Is the code easy to pick up and go on, or does it demand a lot of study? - Do you have manuals/documentation about the inner workings? I have been thinkin…
Video is also available at http://www.vimeo.com/1594866
Let me what inner workings of the system ud like to know. App is on PHP, MySQL. Most of the JS/CSS is coded by ourselves.
Documentation, there is some and there is PRD as well that explains how things are supposed to work.
About it being easily translatable, I don't know because we never thought of outside US market while developing it. So seriously I don't know. I assume there will be work.
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#17I remember you telling me about Onista at the YC offices back at Startup School '07.
Yep, I remember we discussed Onista and Sormpulse. Hope all is going well at your end.
Thanks for asking. We're still going. We are at a critical point where we need to go from seasonally-popular to popular year round. Have the plan, now just need to execute.
Re: Ask YC: Advice on shutting down startup
#18Some questions: - Would you turn the service over to other people? - How many would you ask? - Would the service be easily translatable? - The video about how it works doesn't work. I would like to see some more information about the inner workings of the system. - Is the code easy to pick up and go on, or does it demand a lot of study? - Do you have manuals/documentation about the inner workings? I have been thinkin…
Video is also available at http://www.vimeo.com/1594866 Let me what inner workings of the system ud like to know. App is on PHP, MySQL. Most of the JS/CSS is coded by ourselves. Documentation, there is some and there is PRD as well that explains how things are supposed to work. About it being easily translatable, I don't know because we never thought of outside US market while developing it. So seriously I don't know…
There are certainly points I see you could improve on, but generally I like the things I see in the video (but the video really is a bit too long, and not best quality; a Getting Started link would have worked much better I think...). I think I can make it translatable, although it will take some time and it won't be worth to quit a job and get it running (more of a side task).
Completely aside of that, I'm based in the Netherlands so just taking it over and running on probably won't do it, it will more be like a great codebase to start with. Talking about that, you could think of making it OpenSource for small community needs; I think many people would be keen to jump on that and improve things a lot.
I have added my LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to my HN profile, so you will be able to contact me personally if you like.