HN Office Hours with Michael Seibel and Aaron Harris

We've had around 2.8k signups so far (launched in October). We have about 200 users active per day. I just checked and 89 of them have been active in all previous 5 days. We have a few outspoken believers in the concept (< 10). We just solicited feedback from our base and got only 20 responses, so probably could do better there.

We've built a bug reporting tool that captures a screencast along with the network traffic, which leverages WebRTC and a browser extension, capturing bugs in real time. ( http://www.bugreplay.com ).

1) We have a good number of qualified leads that are interested in beta testing our product. Does it make more sense roll out our beta in small batches at a time, to get more feedback from a smaller number of vocal qualified leads, or to cast a wider net during the beta process? What were some of the best beta rollouts you've seen and why did they go as well as they did?

2) What's some of the most interesting uses of WebRTC you guys are seeing now, and are there any pitfalls you folks have seen with the technology that you would advise us to look out for?

One experiment involves offering a subscription service to online premium study notes. We measure number of subscribers, downloads, and revenue. Students who subscribe typically keep and use the subscription until they finish school: the biggest problem is the very low conversion rate in the first place. We know that students want study notes, because they download free notes from our site all the time, but very few are willing/able to pay. This is a recurring theme for us: we get enormous interest when offering something for free (whether notes or seminars), and get complaints as soon as a price tag is attached.

We reached the point a couple of years ago where we realised we had largely captured the maximum potential user base in our home state, which left two obvious strategies: growing revenue (in that state) and/or growing the user base (in other states). From that point our core metric has been revenue, with a view to further growth once we had nailed the model. Our primary revenue source has been advertising (from universities and colleges and others), as that seemed to give the greatest return for the fewest complaints. It grew very quickly from zero, but has stagnated in recent years as advertisers developed a preference for programmatic platforms. That shift has prompted the present search for a new business model. Meanwhile, the community itself continues to thrive.

1) Initially, we sold "pastries for catering" to very small size start ups in our area. With the money we generated from the sales, we built the first prototypes that we used to deliver the pastries we promised.

And when we delivered to these small companies, we explained to the employees (who really liked the pastries they had) how they can do it at home. We closed our first (3) sales like that.

2) Then, we spent a lot of time wandering around Costco and Safeway's "baking" department with baked samples to pitch everyone we see passing by (when they eat the samples, we tell them they can do exactly the same at home). It wasn't effective because we haven't closed anyone though everyone said "it's a great idea, I'll definitely try".

3) Same for the neighbors: we literally went to all our neighbors with the same strategy. But still no sales (though they eaten all the samples). We also put some flyers in the mailboxes of people who weren't at home and somebody sent us an email to tell us it is forbidden and he'd sue us... and even even signed "welcome to america"

4) Then we started hustling our colleagues, friends, family. We sent direct emails, called them or even visited them. This way, we closed almost all our sales (15).

5) We also started reaching out bloggers. Now, we are super-limited because we can't deliver out of the bay area (I'm literally driving myself and delivering each kit by hand). So we pitched the top 66 bloggers in the Bay Area who are talking about baking. 16 replied, 10 of them showed some interests, we delivered to 5 bloggers and one of them published an article (we never asked for it): dessertfirstgirl.com/2016/01/pastrynow-raspberry-tart.html This didn't drive any sales yet.

Finally, we have also given about 20 kits "for free". We typically don't like to do that. And none of the "free user" have ever ordered. We spend a lot of time with every user to discuss and the number one "issue" they find is: "it's too expensive".

And that's a huge problem because literally none of them complains about the kit. They all say "it's incredible, I don't bake at all and the outcome is exactly like the picture" BUT, still, the price seems to be a blocker.

That's why we can't decide if our unique value proposition is too low or if we haven't successfully communicated our value to our users.

M.

to be honest Cory the last thing we have thought about so far is fees.

In all likelihood we'll slash current fees and get down to the nuts and bolts of what makes our customers tick, we'll re-think our lending practices and try to find risk-averse loans that make sense for us and our customers and allow us to continue to be a stable bank while becoming something the average customer is proud to work with