Shutting down a side project, my experience • Hacker News Board

Re: Shutting down a side project, my experience

#21

Post by bmle » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 1:36 AM UTC

lsc wrote: post #17

bmle wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We actually never modified the codebase to handle business assets. We were in the discovery phase to find out if we can repurpose the code. When we shut it down, it was still a product for managing personal assets.

So, I'm interested in making a play in a similar market (small companies/individuals) Well, "making a play" sounds more ambitious than I am. Mostly, I need it for me. But, like most people, I think that if I need it, others might, too. My angle is focused more on locating the item than valuing it, (and I have the basics of a barcode inventory system) but I'm also wanting to add valuation (well, and 'where is the invo…

We consulted a few small companies. I'm not sure I'd categorize the companies as startups hoping to be acquired. They had been around for a while and made money. I think many companies lease machines so the need to track those assets didn't exist.

We were in the middle of working on an iOS app for users to scan stuff around their house and we'd lookup those items to add to our inventory list. When we decided to pivot, we wanted to use that scanning functionality to scan asset tags. Obviously, we didn't pursue it any further but we were heading in that direction.

Re: Shutting down a side project, my experience

#22

Post by lsc » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 4:50 AM UTC

bmle wrote: post #21

lsc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I'm interested in making a play in a similar market (small companies/individuals) Well, "making a play" sounds more ambitious than I am. Mostly, I need it for me. But, like most people, I think that if I need it, others might, too. My angle is focused more on locating the item than valuing it, (and I have the basics of a barcode inventory system) but I'm also wanting to add valuation (well, and 'where is the invo…

We consulted a few small companies. I'm not sure I'd categorize the companies as startups hoping to be acquired. They had been around for a while and made money. I think many companies lease machines so the need to track those assets didn't exist. We were in the middle of working on an iOS app for users to scan stuff around their house and we'd lookup those items to add to our inventory list. When we decided to pivot…

>I think many companies lease machines so the need to track those assets didn't exist.

Hm. Well, it's possible I'm imagining my own need here. I mean, all accounting work is a hedge against an audit and the resulting tax debt, and it's possible that it's acceptable to just handwave your small assets.

But yeah. In my experience? small, single owner businesses don't lease, 'cause it is both more expensive and less flexible than ownership. I mean, obviously, if you are a short-term business, leasing is great, as you get the stuff up front, and you only have to pay for it if you don't go out of business meanwhile... but it's generally a bad choice for the long-term slog kind of businesses I'm talking about.

>We were in the middle of working on an iOS app for users to scan stuff around their house and we'd lookup those items to add to our inventory list. When we decided to pivot, we wanted to use that scanning functionality to scan asset tags. Obviously, we didn't pursue it any further but we were heading in that direction.

The problem most of these apps have is that they use the built-in camera... which is way too slow. You need something like 250ms (certainly under 500ms) item scan ->recognition times, which usually the camera barcode decoder app thingie can't do at all. It does better with 2d barcodes; much better, but probably still not good enough.

Re: Shutting down a side project, my experience

#23

Post by ChuckMcM » Mon, Mar 04, 2013, 10:29 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #7

>We were creating a solution for which there was no problem. As a lawyer I have always had a similar idea in mind for a '"mint" for assets." I know you tried to pivot and already made the always difficult decision to shut down, but your UI looks great and please consider the following: Let me just sell you on the market first, there are about 40 million US citizens 65+, 2.5 million US citizens die every year, and 55%…

This was exactly what I was thinking, also for insurance purposes. Another 'hook' here would be that you partner with a homeowners insurance company which can give more accurate home owners insurance rates based on what someone actually has, and it helps in making a claim. I do the cheezy thing and basically walk around with an HD video camera every couple of years and film what is on the shelves and in the drawers. If nothing else it helps refresh your memory.

Re: Shutting down a side project, my experience

#24

Post by bmle » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 1:48 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #23

will_brown wrote: post #7

>We were creating a solution for which there was no problem. As a lawyer I have always had a similar idea in mind for a '"mint" for assets." I know you tried to pivot and already made the always difficult decision to shut down, but your UI looks great and please consider the following: Let me just sell you on the market first, there are about 40 million US citizens 65+, 2.5 million US citizens die every year, and 55%…

This was exactly what I was thinking, also for insurance purposes. Another 'hook' here would be that you partner with a homeowners insurance company which can give more accurate home owners insurance rates based on what someone actually has, and it helps in making a claim. I do the cheezy thing and basically walk around with an HD video camera every couple of years and film what is on the shelves and in the drawers.…

We actually talked to a few insurance people and the consensus was that insurance company didn't want something like it. It's not in their interest for you to make claims. Our response from users was basically that it was valuable whenever they needed to make claims or inventory to buy insurance but otherwise wouldn't use it often. That was key for us. As a free service, we didn't see a way to monetize if users didn't come back.