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Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

chompstack.com

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Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#111
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built ChompStack to make it easier for restaurants to create mobile friendly versions of their websites. This is the most important piece of information that is missing from your site. As a restraint owner looking at your site I'm thinking "What is this, an app, or a service or what?" and "how will my customers find my restaurant on their phone with this service?". Given that most restaurants that you are targeting…

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

> It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website?

It isn't. The biggest text you have up there is 'Mobile websites for Restaurants'. That might mean you do contract work for restaurants looking to create mobile websites. Which you aren't. May be interpreted both ways - I think your explanation in the post above was clearer.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#112
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built ChompStack to make it easier for restaurants to create mobile friendly versions of their websites. This is the most important piece of information that is missing from your site. As a restraint owner looking at your site I'm thinking "What is this, an app, or a service or what?" and "how will my customers find my restaurant on their phone with this service?". Given that most restaurants that you are targeting…

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

Agree with Spuz - it's hard to recognize the screenshots as a 'website' (as the lines between app and website are a bit blurry on mobile devices). Let's say a restaurant has a normal website, and a potential customers google's them on his phone and browses to the normal website on his phone. How is he going to get on to the mobile version? Should the restaurant set up detection and a redirect?

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#113
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built ChompStack to make it easier for restaurants to create mobile friendly versions of their websites. This is the most important piece of information that is missing from your site. As a restraint owner looking at your site I'm thinking "What is this, an app, or a service or what?" and "how will my customers find my restaurant on their phone with this service?". Given that most restaurants that you are targeting…

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website? In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website. I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from the…

I got the message that you were offering to create mobile sites for restaurants, but maybe it's because I'm already used to the idea. I think you may be overestimating how many people have and understand smartphones, though. According to slide 62 of the Morgan Stanley “The Mobile Internet Report Setup” you link on the front page, there's only a 25% percent penetration (est 40% by the end of the year). After a quick skim through the presentation, I don't see your 42% anywhere, but perhaps I don't know what I'm looking for.

Anyways, the point is that you're not marketing to the smartphone users. You're marketing to people that probably don't have a smartphone, and may not know how people would use one to discover their site. Showing the different paths in a video or chart would be a good idea. Better might be to set something up with an existing customer with a horrible, flash-filled, pdf-menu'd main site. Get them to agree to let you post a video of what it was like before they got you, and how unusable the site is, even if you somehow get a direct link to the pdf menu.

Disclaimer: I'm not a businessperson or a restaurant owner.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#114

http://www.chompstack.com We all know how mobile unfriendly restaurant websites tend to be. Many of them are done in Flash, and don't work at all on most phones. Others force you to download PDF menus which take forever to load and have an annoying tendency to lock up my phone. The irony, of course, is that I'm most likely to be looking at restaurant websites on my phone, when I'm around town looking for an interesti…

These things are annoying on a PC too. When I go to a restaurant website, I'm looking for some combination of location, hours, menu and specials. Cool visual design is a nice touch, but animations and sounds are just annoying.

Suggestion: expand your service to provide good desktop sites in addition to your mobile sites.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#116
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I'd remove the drop shadow from the phones, though. It clutters up the design. The simple shadow immediately beneath the phones is plenty.

Hmmm, good idea, maybe I'll change that.

It'd be neat (if feasible) to have a demo of the mobile site ensconced in an iPhone.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#117
Nice idea, execution, and such. Congratulations and good luck!

Two things, though: if I were a restaurant owner, the burger in your logo would probably irritate me. After all, few restaurant owners see themselves in the fast food business, I assume.

Second, if you want to go international, ChompStack is probably a bad name. The "Globish dictionary" doesn't contain the words chomp and stack.

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#118
Great site. I think you should limit your first plan a litte more. No custom stuff on the cheapest plan. And maybe a free version with one menu, just to test it out.

What you could do for restaurants that are not interested, is built something quickly for them so that you can actually show them "look this is what you could do!" - actions move people more than words, in your case your product will convince the customers more directly!

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#119
post #117

Nice idea, execution, and such. Congratulations and good luck! Two things, though: if I were a restaurant owner, the burger in your logo would probably irritate me. After all, few restaurant owners see themselves in the fast food business, I assume. Second, if you want to go international, ChompStack is probably a bad name. The "Globish dictionary" doesn't contain the words chomp and stack.

I second your first point! Something like a fork and a phone would be great as a logo!

Re: Rate my startup: ChompStack, a mobile website builder for restaurants

#120
This is a very interesting market, and I think your prices could work (restaurants are known to have almost no money)

Regarding this line: "14% of smartphone users look for restaurants on their phones." I don't know about you, but 14% seems not worth it from a restaurants perspective. If I were you I'd say "One in seven smartphone users look for restaurants in their phone, and that number is only increasing!"

Best of luck, your features page looks great.

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