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How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

needwant.com

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Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#11

Post by j0ncc »

mangeletti wrote: post #10

You can already do this with the Moleskine Smart Notebook, except you don't have to mail your private notebook to a 3rd party company for scanning - you can scan them directly into Evernote with the free Evernote app. tl;dr The exact same thing exists by Moleskine at http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/evernote/

This is actually the pain point we were trying to solve with mod. Each time we'd fill up a notebook we'd manually take pictures of every page and save it to evernote. If you've ever done this you'll know...

- It takes FOREVER.

- Pictures are blurry / out of focus / misaligned

- There's a limit to the number of pictures you can attached to a note in evernote so each notebook ends up needing to be spread between a few different evernote "notes".

- Evernote really isn't designed to consume this kind of content. (We have an app designed specifically for this: http://app.modnotebooks.com/demo)

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#12

Post by not_that_noob »

mangeletti wrote: post #10

You can already do this with the Moleskine Smart Notebook, except you don't have to mail your private notebook to a 3rd party company for scanning - you can scan them directly into Evernote with the free Evernote app. tl;dr The exact same thing exists by Moleskine at http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/evernote/

Not even close. tl;dr: read what you're posting before you post it.

From the Moleskine webpage: "Write, sketch, or draw in the specially designed Evernote Notebook by Moleskine. Take a photo of any page in this Moleskine notebook with the Evernote Page Camera and it instantly becomes digital so that you can save it, search it and share it with the world."

In other words, painful as hell. Mod is an elegant and well-designed solution to this issue.

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#13

Post by not_that_noob »

j0ncc wrote: post #11
mangeletti wrote: post #10

You can already do this with the Moleskine Smart Notebook, except you don't have to mail your private notebook to a 3rd party company for scanning - you can scan them directly into Evernote with the free Evernote app. tl;dr The exact same thing exists by Moleskine at http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/evernote/

This is actually the pain point we were trying to solve with mod. Each time we'd fill up a notebook we'd manually take pictures of every page and save it to evernote. If you've ever done this you'll know... - It takes FOREVER. - Pictures are blurry / out of focus / misaligned - There's a limit to the number of pictures you can attached to a note in evernote so each notebook ends up needing to be spread between a few…

Nice job guys. Really well thought out and well designed. You guys are top notch.

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#14

Post by fatbat »

I never knew Mod was Draft until I read this linked article. http://needwant.com/p/cancelled-kickstarter-campaign-funded-...

While reading that I was wondering, and not accusing Mod team here but just a thought, what is stopping people from using Kickstarter this way (to gauge demand) deliberately? Launch a campaign and yank when it is successful to pursue larger profits?

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#15

Post by kaplejon »

j0ncc wrote: post #11
mangeletti wrote: post #10

You can already do this with the Moleskine Smart Notebook, except you don't have to mail your private notebook to a 3rd party company for scanning - you can scan them directly into Evernote with the free Evernote app. tl;dr The exact same thing exists by Moleskine at http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/evernote/

This is actually the pain point we were trying to solve with mod. Each time we'd fill up a notebook we'd manually take pictures of every page and save it to evernote. If you've ever done this you'll know... - It takes FOREVER. - Pictures are blurry / out of focus / misaligned - There's a limit to the number of pictures you can attached to a note in evernote so each notebook ends up needing to be spread between a few…

Hey Jon, really appreciate you posting about these pain points. I have been trying to get behind your notebooks since the launch last week, but as a user of the Moleskine notebooks I'm just not seeing the value add you guys are promoting. Hopefully you can help me see through my own myopia.

My workflow usually takes me through a few pages of a notebook, which I then scan immediately afterwards into an Evernote note, specific to whatever I was just working on. I often recap with dictation, and possibly add some new thoughts, but I'm never adding more than a few scanned pages at a time. So for me, it never feels like it takes "forever", nor do I have issues with image limits.

I guess, for me, and probably for many other people, we have felt like the real-time nature and benefit is lost. Maybe I don't fill notebooks as quickly as the next guy, but by the time I do, I usually don't have any need to search through most of my earliest pages. By sending the notebook away once it is full, the scanning seems to add limited additional value to me. And barring physical destruction of the notebooks, the archival value of being able to ship the whole notebook for scanning feels a bit forced to me.

Plus, I write primarily in script, and the OCR works just fine, so I don't feel the images are necessarily blurry/out of focus either.

I understand you have many users already on-board with the idea. And that's great. I'm not trying to say your product or concept is invaluable. You're a project I want to support, I just can't personally get behind you with my current perspective. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why someone with my perspective might want to switch to your notebooks.

Thank you.

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#16

Post by jonathanjaeger »

fatbat wrote: post #14

I never knew Mod was Draft until I read this linked article. http://needwant.com/p/cancelled-kickstarter-campaign-funded-... While reading that I was wondering, and not accusing Mod team here but just a thought, what is stopping people from using Kickstarter this way (to gauge demand) deliberately? Launch a campaign and yank when it is successful to pursue larger profits?

I think you're undervaluing everything that Kickstarter adds in terms of a platform (collecting payments, notifications, social sharing, brand awareness for the platform itself that breeds trust, etc.). Kickstarter takes a small 5% percent of the total successfully raised.

For a documentary film or artist recording an album, it wouldn't make sense to yank your project and try to crowdfund on your own. In the case of Mod/Draft it was an MVP and they're shaping the offering differently -- notice that they were thinking of relaunching the Kickstarter.

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#17

Post by frade33 »

The only problem i see, the personal paper notebook I have, has 'confidential - do not open' written on its front cover. And on a second thought, is scanning a notebook a technological maneuver in our times? I am sorry for a little harsh review, but I was expecting something modern and exciting when I thought these notebooks can be stored in the cloud, at least not manual scanning of pages.

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#18

Post by j0ncc »

kaplejon wrote: post #15
j0ncc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually the pain point we were trying to solve with mod. Each time we'd fill up a notebook we'd manually take pictures of every page and save it to evernote. If you've ever done this you'll know... - It takes FOREVER. - Pictures are blurry / out of focus / misaligned - There's a limit to the number of pictures you can attached to a note in evernote so each notebook ends up needing to be spread between a few…

Hey Jon, really appreciate you posting about these pain points. I have been trying to get behind your notebooks since the launch last week, but as a user of the Moleskine notebooks I'm just not seeing the value add you guys are promoting. Hopefully you can help me see through my own myopia. My workflow usually takes me through a few pages of a notebook, which I then scan immediately afterwards into an Evernote note,…

Hey!

Really appreciate the feedback.

For me the value is in knowing everything is backed up and saved. I very rarely actually need access to my old notes and sketches from previous notebooks but there’s a lot of sentimental value there for me.

If a note I take is actually time sensitive or needs to be referenced soon, I still have the physical notebook to reference.

I have (low quality photos of) sketches of old ideas that later become companies. The notebooks themselves are long gone but I love that I still have some kind of digital backup.

I’d eventually like to get the price of mod notebooks down so they’re on par with other notebooks that don’t have the digitizing bundled in (it’s already pretty close).

Re: How We Built and Launched Mod For $22,450

#19

Post by nitrogen »

mangeletti wrote: post #10

You can already do this with the Moleskine Smart Notebook, except you don't have to mail your private notebook to a 3rd party company for scanning - you can scan them directly into Evernote with the free Evernote app. tl;dr The exact same thing exists by Moleskine at http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/evernote/

What is the difference between an ordinary Moleskine and the Evernote Moleskine? I couldn't figure it out from that product page.
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