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Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

coordinatr.com

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Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#61

Post by run4yourlives »

drm237 wrote: post #33
run4yourlives wrote: post #25

I see in the FAQ you guys compare yourselves to email. I was thinking your real comparison is the phone. I'm not sure why I would use this service instead of just phoning someone. Perhaps I'm not the target market though. Otherwise, good luck to you. It looks like you put a lot of hard work into this.

Have you ever said to someone "a bunch of us are heading to _____ for _____. You should come."? This is the kind of situation we're targeting. If you can easily inform everyone you want to at once, we've shaved a good bit of time off of your phone calls.

That's just it though... rare is the time when I want to inform "everyone I want to" to come out for drinks in a casual setting.

One or two people max is the norm for a casual get together. Again, I think this is where I'm not in the target market... as you get older, your desire for large groups of people wains.

:-)

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#62

Post by jmorin007 »

dusklight wrote: post #54

1. Your name is so 2006. By choosing this name you immediately set yourself up as an also-ran instead of an innovator. 2. The first thing you did was ask me for e-mail and password. You did not give me a chance to try out your service. You did not give me a chance to see what it's about. You were unable to get me to type in my e-mail. 3. Your site is all about people and social events -- why are you using business-sp…

Some people like the name because it actually relates to what we're doing. Some people don't. If you have a better idea, we would love to hear some suggestions!

I understand your concern about micro-events but micro-blogs seem to be pretty popular, so we're thinking this is a good way to describe the area we're targeting.

For your number 5, there aren't a lot of people using events sites right now. Evite is by far the most popular, but no one is going to use it if they're going to a happy hour tonight, thus we are attempting to increase the valueAddFromNewSystem through exercises like this (user feedback) while minimizing the painOfSwitchingToNewSystem by simplifying registration and streamlining the process to get up and running.

It might also be applicable to add in an additional variable, which is painFromOldSystem. Attempting to perform a task while being hindered by banner adds and a confusing interface may go so far as to drive a person to a new site/service. While we obviously have no control over that, that variable is rampant in this market segment, so we like to factor it in to our decision making process.

Good point about the FAQ. We were attempting to have a light hearted, entertaining FAQ, but it isn't coming across that way to most people. Definitely looks like some revisions are in the future.

Thanks again for the recommendations!

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#63

Post by drm237 »

Prrometheus wrote: post #60
drm237 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow...thanks...that's really embarrassing...

Ha, I’m sorry. The name annoyed me too. However, keep in mind that the average web user probably has only heard of one “noun+r” website: Flickr. If you can withstand the heckling from the in-crowd, you probably don’t need to change your name, unless you think up something awesome.

Don't be sorry, I thought your post was funny. It's good to see a sense of humor when providing the feedback. I was going for the same humor but apparently it's not coming across that way...

We do face challenges from this domain name and we're still open to possibly using another. If anyone does come up with something they think is better, please post it!

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#64

Post by drm237 »

run4yourlives wrote: post #61
drm237 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever said to someone "a bunch of us are heading to _____ for _____. You should come."? This is the kind of situation we're targeting. If you can easily inform everyone you want to at once, we've shaved a good bit of time off of your phone calls.

That's just it though... rare is the time when I want to inform "everyone I want to" to come out for drinks in a casual setting. One or two people max is the norm for a casual get together. Again, I think this is where I'm not in the target market... as you get older, your desire for large groups of people wains. :-)

Good to know. Are there ever times when the phone is inconvenient to use? For example if you're at work, are you free to call your friends and arrange a get together or is that frowned upon?

I'm not trying to convince you to use our site! I'm really interested in your demographic and if there's any value we can add to a situation like yours. Thanks again for your feedback.

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#65

Post by run4yourlives »

drm237 wrote: post #64
run4yourlives wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just it though... rare is the time when I want to inform "everyone I want to" to come out for drinks in a casual setting. One or two people max is the norm for a casual get together. Again, I think this is where I'm not in the target market... as you get older, your desire for large groups of people wains. :-)

Good to know. Are there ever times when the phone is inconvenient to use? For example if you're at work, are you free to call your friends and arrange a get together or is that frowned upon? I'm not trying to convince you to use our site! I'm really interested in your demographic and if there's any value we can add to a situation like yours. Thanks again for your feedback.

No. The phone is always convenient. More so than the internet. (And I have a laptop and work online all day)

I'd see value in maybe an sms service that could hold all my buddies numbers... that might be worth exploring... so I could, say, sms your site with "drinks after work @ cheers" and it would forward that to the "Drinking Buddies" list.

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#66

Post by jmorin007 »

run4yourlives wrote: post #65
drm237 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good to know. Are there ever times when the phone is inconvenient to use? For example if you're at work, are you free to call your friends and arrange a get together or is that frowned upon? I'm not trying to convince you to use our site! I'm really interested in your demographic and if there's any value we can add to a situation like yours. Thanks again for your feedback.

No. The phone is always convenient. More so than the internet. (And I have a laptop and work online all day) I'd see value in maybe an sms service that could hold all my buddies numbers... that might be worth exploring... so I could, say, sms your site with "drinks after work @ cheers" and it would forward that to the "Drinking Buddies" list.

That functionality is actually very close to being released. We'll keep you posted on when it's available for use. Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#67

Post by dzohrob »

jmorin007 wrote: post #39
dzohrob wrote: post #29

I'll briefly preface my comments with the fact that when I've submitted sites to YC in the past, people have tended to focus on superficial things (IMHO). Maybe because it's easier to do that in a short span of time. You've got a nice start, so take all of my comments with a grain of salt, of course: - The front page is generally boring (screenshot? at least a photo of happy people?). I think other people have touche…

You bring up some very good points, most of which we have been concerned with and have been debating about as well. Quick Question: - In terms of too much text, are you referring to the about us and FAQ pages? Or was that an "across the board" comment? We're taking the approach of a little goes a long way. A lot of sites inundate you with content and functionality...they give you a pneumatic nailer when all you neede…

I was speaking in general terms, but the specific thing that brought that to my attention was the welcome notification -- the yellow box filled with "stuff you can/should do" after you sign up. My hunch is that it would be intimidating to new users -- there's too much text and perhaps too much ambiguity as to what's the next step.

It sounds like you guys have a good attitude for improving the site -- my only other suggestion is to log every single action users take, and base your product changes on such data, not on hunches like the one I offered above. :)

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#68

Post by curi »

you bash email (which i like, don't see what's wrong with it) but i didn't see how you notify my friends instead of by emailing them.

personally, i'm only really available by AIM and email. maybe the target audience includes cell phone users and you send text messages or something? it should say how you contact ppl near the top of the FAQ.

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#69

Post by jmorin007 »

dzohrob wrote: post #67
jmorin007 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You bring up some very good points, most of which we have been concerned with and have been debating about as well. Quick Question: - In terms of too much text, are you referring to the about us and FAQ pages? Or was that an "across the board" comment? We're taking the approach of a little goes a long way. A lot of sites inundate you with content and functionality...they give you a pneumatic nailer when all you neede…

I was speaking in general terms, but the specific thing that brought that to my attention was the welcome notification -- the yellow box filled with "stuff you can/should do" after you sign up. My hunch is that it would be intimidating to new users -- there's too much text and perhaps too much ambiguity as to what's the next step. It sounds like you guys have a good attitude for improving the site -- my only other su…

Completely agree about too much wording. Eliminate half of the words on the page, and then cut the remainder in half again, right?

We're trying to walk the fine line between an intimidating amount of words and not having enough content to accurately convey what we want to say. The welcome and all other wordy areas could definitely use another once over.

Thanks for the response!

Re: Asking for Feedback on Our Startup: Coordinatr.com

#70

Post by jmorin007 »

curi wrote: post #68

you bash email (which i like, don't see what's wrong with it) but i didn't see how you notify my friends instead of by emailing them. personally, i'm only really available by AIM and email. maybe the target audience includes cell phone users and you send text messages or something? it should say how you contact ppl near the top of the FAQ.

Our intention is not to really bash email, but say that it is not the be all and end all for coordinating individuals. It's a great tool to use in conjunction with other means of communication for conveying our message, which in this case is event information. We should probably emphasize all avenues of communication that we support. Thanks!
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