How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does • Hacker News Board

Re: How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does

#31

Post by joshfraser » Tue, Jan 18, 2011, 5:43 AM UTC

cmer wrote: post #27

joshfraser wrote: post #12

We borrowed the same sign up process for http://torbit.com and are seeing the same viral results, even though our product is a lot less consumer facing than theirs. I wouldn't be surprised to see this become standard functionality for startup landing pages.

Could you explain this signup process a little bit more? I don't see anything unusual at Torbit...

After you register we give you a custom link that offers you priority access if you get your friends to register using that link.

Re: How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does

#32

Post by prawn » Tue, Jan 18, 2011, 5:51 AM UTC

joshfraser wrote: post #31

cmer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain this signup process a little bit more? I don't see anything unusual at Torbit...

After you register we give you a custom link that offers you priority access if you get your friends to register using that link.

Are you verifying the referred emails? What percentage of users are taking the bait to get earlier access?

Re: How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does

#33

Post by NiloParedes » Tue, Jan 18, 2011, 6:50 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #24

If you have to ask what hipster does, you're not hip enough to get it.

As the hispter answered the straight-faced young mid-western in my office, "What's a hipster?"

Re: How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does

#34

Post by sunbash » Thu, Jan 20, 2011, 12:02 PM UTC

So there's been a lot of talk about hipster - the super stealth startup that amassed a butt load of subscribers without revealing what it does. There's been a lot of talk about how "brilliant" a success it already is.

TOTAL BS IN MY OPINION

First of all, its just the good ol SV old boys club at work. How did the startup get prime coverage on TC their first few hours of splash page activation? guess the founding team has some great connections.

secondly, i believe only techies and irrelevant early adopters invite people to a site they have never used in return for "beta" access. 90% of the world doesn't even know what beta access is. 80% of these sign ups will never return.

What the F* does this validate?

I'll give it up for a great name and connects I would kill for, but these guys have done absolutely nothing yet as far as i am concerned. Get this shit off your homepage TMZ... i mean tech crunch.

What do you think?