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Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

soshiku.com

21–30 of 58 posts

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#21

Very clean interface, the app works smothly, etc. BUT This is not useful to me as a student if I have to enter all of my assignments manually. If I know what to enter, why do I need to be reminded? If there were some way to import assignments and classes from somewhere else, then it would be very useful. I don't know how feasible that would be, but there's no way I'd use Soshiku without that feature.

That's why I made it so users can add assignments via email or SMS. So when they're in class, for example, they can add it from their phone and not to have to worry about it.

i think it would be useful to have public lists of schools/class numbers that are created by users in those classes. then allow adding public assignments so anyone else in that class can just "join" the class on the site and have the list of assignments automatically shown to them. sort of like adding a public calendar to ical (btw, does your site export to ical format?)

last.fm shows you calendar events for concerts by artists you listen to. when another user adds an upcoming concert for that artist, you're automatically notified of it just by being a listener of that artist. your site would probably have these group memberships more defined, but same concept. that way you eliminate the duplication of data by 10 users in the same class entering the same assignment, and the 1 user that wasn't paying attention in class automatically gets notified of the new assignment.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#22
Awesome work. I just graduated last year or else I would be using that right now.

One suggestion would be to have the Tour be a multi page process, so there isn't so much scrolling, also I am a sucker for videos demonstrating functionality. Just something real simple showing how to do each of the different functions.

I work at a university so I will be recommending it to any students I meet. Great work.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#23
Very good design. You are obviously very talented.

However, I don't think your site solves the problem better than a pen and a piece of paper.

I'm going to paraphrase a quote I read once: "the web is your hammer, and everything looks like a nail." Every problem is not best solved via the web. I think this may be one of those cases. But I could be wrong.

Either way, great looking site and good luck.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#24
post #2

First and foremost, awesome clean design. Also the copy on the homepage is very clear and concise. I know what it is, what it does and whether or not I might like to try it after about 10 seconds. Kudos. Have it marked to dive in deeper later.

Nice work. I agree that tts refreshing to see a service where I understand what it does in 10 seconds.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#26

The big button on your front page says "Take A Tour". "Sign Up" is tucked way down at the bottom and requires scrolling (it is also in the top menu bar sure, but it isn't as visible there). I knew I didn't want to take a tour since I figured I got the service from the blurb, but wasn't sure what else to do from the home page. The largest button is not only the most visible activity, but it's also an implicit suggesti…

+1 on elevating the importance of the "Sign Up" button.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#27
If you'd have said "review my app", I would've said it's awesome. Great job.

But the moment you call it a startup, I have to ask how you make money. So, how do you plan to make money? Students are poor, and cheap, and I'm not sure ads would fit it even if you had the traffic.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#28

Very clean interface, the app works smothly, etc. BUT This is not useful to me as a student if I have to enter all of my assignments manually. If I know what to enter, why do I need to be reminded? If there were some way to import assignments and classes from somewhere else, then it would be very useful. I don't know how feasible that would be, but there's no way I'd use Soshiku without that feature.

That's why I made it so users can add assignments via email or SMS. So when they're in class, for example, they can add it from their phone and not to have to worry about it.

What did you use to implement the SMS service?

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#29
post #2

First and foremost, awesome clean design. Also the copy on the homepage is very clear and concise. I know what it is, what it does and whether or not I might like to try it after about 10 seconds. Kudos. Have it marked to dive in deeper later.

While I agree for the most part, I think it'd look better if the logo appeared directly on the darker blue background as opposed to being boxed in white with a blue outline. Otherwise, it looks great.

Re: Ask YC: Please review my first startup, Soshiku

#30
post #6

You could sell this to a school. I am taking 3 classes, which means 3 different websites and several PDFs. It would be great to have everything in one place automatically in a web page plain text format.

There are lots of more complicated tools for this (Blackboard, Moodle), but I've yet to see a super simple to the point one... interesting idea.
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