Launching a product in just 3652 days • Hacker News Board

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#21

Post by shubhamjain » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 4:38 AM UTC

The point in the article that deserves more attention is how creating a landing page was the most useful tool for the author. Sometimes I feel, before writing the first line of code of the project, the more important thing to do is to create a landing page and market it to the concerned audience.

This solves three problems -

1) You won't build something people don't need.

2) You get into touch with people who actually want to use your product and you can steer your idea into a more clear direction.

3) The leads motivate you (as it did with author).

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#22

Post by atmosx » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 4:51 AM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #21

The point in the article that deserves more attention is how creating a landing page was the most useful tool for the author. Sometimes I feel, before writing the first line of code of the project, the more important thing to do is to create a landing page and market it to the concerned audience. This solves three problems - 1) You won't build something people don't need. 2) You get into touch with people who actuall…

That is smart. It never crossed my mind, but it's actually a good idea.

UPDATE: op writes "Fast forward to today: I launched Stage to the public. I’m still embarrassed, because there a lot of things missing and it has some rough edges here and there."

That's the main reason I (and many others) never thought of even launching a landing page for our side-projects (that never get completed). I'm kinda embarrassed, because instead on being happy for what I've done, I feel bad for what I didn't but could have done (if I had put more time and effort, if I was a better designer, etc.).

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#23

Post by pyrrhotech » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 5:24 AM UTC

hbhakhra wrote: post #3

I think this is something much of the HN crowd can relate to, starting projects and not completing. Great work on finally launching a product. Hopefully I can get to the other side of the tunnel. My goal for this year is to just bring in $1 from something outside my full-time job and hope that snowballs into more motivation and a growing business.

I've never made $1 from anything other than my full time job though I've tried several times. It's much harder than it looks... Then again even lots of successful consumer startups took half a decade or more before they made their first $1 as well

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#24

Post by benediktdeicke » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:26 AM UTC

Oh wow! My post made it on Hacker News!

Thanks so much for the nice comments. I'm glad my story inspired some of you :)

If you have specific questions about anything or would like some more details about any part of the story, please let me know. I'll happily answer them.

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#25

Post by brobinson » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:33 AM UTC

shubhamjain wrote: post #21

The point in the article that deserves more attention is how creating a landing page was the most useful tool for the author. Sometimes I feel, before writing the first line of code of the project, the more important thing to do is to create a landing page and market it to the concerned audience. This solves three problems - 1) You won't build something people don't need. 2) You get into touch with people who actuall…

The "idea/market validation" landing page + $100 advertising budget is a key concept from the "Start Small, Stay Small" book the author mentioned. It's saved me from wasting time/money a few times so far, and I'm sure it will continue to do so in the future!

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#26

Post by bbrazil » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 6:57 AM UTC

brobinson wrote: post #25

shubhamjain wrote: post #21

The point in the article that deserves more attention is how creating a landing page was the most useful tool for the author. Sometimes I feel, before writing the first line of code of the project, the more important thing to do is to create a landing page and market it to the concerned audience. This solves three problems - 1) You won't build something people don't need. 2) You get into touch with people who actuall…

The "idea/market validation" landing page + $100 advertising budget is a key concept from the "Start Small, Stay Small" book the author mentioned. It's saved me from wasting time/money a few times so far, and I'm sure it will continue to do so in the future!

Since starting my own business recently I've been doing a lot of networking at various tech/entrepreneur events. It continues to amaze me just how many people with an idea, or even several months into building product, have yet to talk to a potential customer.

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#27

Post by roel_v » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:03 AM UTC

benediktdeicke wrote: post #24

Oh wow! My post made it on Hacker News! Thanks so much for the nice comments. I'm glad my story inspired some of you :) If you have specific questions about anything or would like some more details about any part of the story, please let me know. I'll happily answer them.

Do you do your own design, do you work with someone or do your customers work with a designer?

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#28

Post by benediktdeicke » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:05 AM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #27

benediktdeicke wrote: post #24

Oh wow! My post made it on Hacker News! Thanks so much for the nice comments. I'm glad my story inspired some of you :) If you have specific questions about anything or would like some more details about any part of the story, please let me know. I'll happily answer them.

Do you do your own design, do you work with someone or do your customers work with a designer?

Yes :) I do some of the design on my own (like the UI), work with a designer (the marketing website) and my customers usually work with a designer for their website design.

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#29

Post by roel_v » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:05 AM UTC

aytekin wrote: post #15

Complete rewrites are bad. An approach we follow is to rewrite a small section of our product and release that to our users. With React, we can separate everything (repo, tests, architecture) from the core product but still integrate the new version within the app. It is like replacing the parts in a car one by one until you have a completely new car.

If it's written with React it's at most 2 years old - sure anything is easy to replace within such a young product.

Re: Launching a product in just 3652 days

#30

Post by medikoo » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:26 AM UTC

Product makes great impression. Still I have a slight problem with pricing scheme. If for a band 5GB is not enough, and needs e.g. 10GB instead, it needs to put out 120€ per month more. That sounds hostile.

It would be probably better if pricing scheme is more modular, and pure hosting capacity aspects are priced reasonably.

Additionally option of yearly licenses with hosting on side of a client would be a big plus