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Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

milkshake.app

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Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#11

Post by ronilan »

This is high quality product that produces high quality media and, most importantly, it is a breeze to use (proof: https://msha.ke/ronilan/)

However, “Make Websites from a Phone” is an illusive target. I’ve had a startup circa 2013 with a somewhat similar focus. It got to a working MVP (sort of) and VC term-sheet before it imploded. All that’s left is this video (https://vimeo.com/68029789). There have been multiple other teams/products trying to crack the same nut, generally without success, or with success that is significantly smaller than what the desktop platforms (wix, strikingly etc.) have had in same time period.

The “You Only Link Once” and Instagram focus are a smart angle. Hope this one flys.

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#14

Post by PNWChris »

collistaeed wrote: post #5
greatNespresso wrote: post #2

Had a similar idea, but did not think of leveraging Insta for this, really smart ! What about the pricing for this ?

Thank you!! Pricing wise, we've been thinking to delay until we see traction. The cost of hosting the sites is fairly trivial because they are static output, which means we can let it grow for a while before introducing some kind of paid something (extra cards, or extra looks, or domains).

@paid extras: analytics! People love their likes and views, at a modest price it would be an easy sell.

PS: Super cool app and execution

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#15

Post by rubicon33 »

Honestly surprised there's a "need" for this. This is the kind of thing I would shoot down as a business idea, simply from the standpoint of - nobody needs that.

I'm obviously wrong as there are successful examples like universe out there. But boy does it show me that I'm often completely detached from the consumer in these instances.

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#16

Post by collistaeed »

ronilan wrote: post #11

This is high quality product that produces high quality media and, most importantly, it is a breeze to use (proof: https://msha.ke/ronilan/ ) However, “Make Websites from a Phone” is an illusive target. I’ve had a startup circa 2013 with a somewhat similar focus. It got to a working MVP (sort of) and VC term-sheet before it imploded. All that’s left is this video ( https://vimeo.com/68029789 ). There have been multip…

First, thank you for the kind words and actually taking the time to make a site!

You're totally right that it's not necessarily a straight forward space. Constraining any complicated job (and websites are actually quite complicated) into a space where data entry is a hassle, fine tune controls are difficult, and it's hard to see the output at the same time as doing the creation task ... eek!

That said, I'm excited about the direction the app has taken as it has good potential for simply UX.

The other company in the space that's doing a neat job (and not in your list) is Universe! They've also got a really novel take on things.

Anyhow, thanks again for giving it a whirl!!

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#17

Post by collistaeed »

rubicon33 wrote: post #15

Honestly surprised there's a "need" for this. This is the kind of thing I would shoot down as a business idea, simply from the standpoint of - nobody needs that. I'm obviously wrong as there are successful examples like universe out there. But boy does it show me that I'm often completely detached from the consumer in these instances.

Fwiw I can remember a time when I was like "Why on earth would anyone want Squarespace when they can host their own site!?"

These days I try to assume I probably don't understand! For the start of this product, we had a Design Sprint where we came up with the idea, and then brought in real Instagram users to test the idea on (with very lowfi prototypes) befor actually building!

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#18

Post by Liquidor »

From the Terms: "You must be 13 years or over to create a Milkshake account. If you are under 18 years of age, you will need the permission of a parent or legal guardian (who is at least 18 years of age) to create a Milkshake account."

Seeing that Instagram only requires the age of 13, I wonder if teens will actually bother with permission from their parents/guardians to use Milkshake. Or is this something that will only be enforced after being revealed as under 18? And why 18?

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#19

Post by collistaeed »

PNWChris wrote: post #14
collistaeed wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you!! Pricing wise, we've been thinking to delay until we see traction. The cost of hosting the sites is fairly trivial because they are static output, which means we can let it grow for a while before introducing some kind of paid something (extra cards, or extra looks, or domains).

@paid extras: analytics! People love their likes and views, at a modest price it would be an easy sell. PS: Super cool app and execution

Yes! And I think there's some interesting experimentation to be done between 'integrate Google Analytics' versus, make a really dead simple analytics / stats tool. I'm used to GA so assume people understand it, but it's actually quite a confusing thing if you step back and assume you know nothing about how the internet plumbing works :)

Re: Show HN: Milkshake – Make Websites from a Phone

#20

Post by collistaeed »

artpop wrote: post #9

I saw a talk of yours on side projects. It was pretty inspiring. Did you build this with those same principals?

Oh yay!!! I was super nervous giving that talk, but I do love side projects.

This one is a mix. I have a side project running an Instagram account so had seen first hand a lot of the needs you run into with a single link in bio, plus all the different neat linking solutions (shout out to another Australian company - Linktree!).

So when it came up in Dec that we were thinking of an angle on the website market, and our marketer suggested we think about Instagram, it all clicked.

(stoked that someone remembers that talk :)

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