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Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

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Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#1

Post by xtnzt19 »

This is my first time submitting to hacker news. I'm 21, turning 22 on June, and based on the Philippines. I have recently quit my job as a web developer last October 2012 to build my startup - Droolify, a content sharing service/catalog that lets people discover, share, and talk about "droolify-ing" things. I spent the last hellish 6 months building the web application, with no income, and my family stressing me up as they don't understand what I am doing to my life, and pushing me to get a job and be employed. Life is hard here.

I launched the site on April 10, 2013, rigged with Facebook's open graph so the site can get more exposure. I gained a couple of signups on the first week and about 5-8 active users daily. They were in my circle of friends, and some were friends of my friends. I thought that I would reach about 50-100 active users on its first two weeks, but my expectations were wrong. It kept on the ground with 0-2 active users.

I don't know if the idea was wrong. Right now I'm planning to rewrite the code from scratch ( Switch to a different web app framework to accomplish more features; Remove the responsive design; Add more features esp. realtime functionalities with nodejs; and so on... )

I don't want to lose hope and really seeking for guidance.

http://www.droolify.com

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#3

Post by oakaz »

Just switch to another idea. Implement it quickly. Observe the reactions and make a new plan. You need to iterate the ideas. Rewriting is a mistake. Of course you can implement it much better but the risk will be double next time. There are dozens of new ideas.

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#4

Post by xtnzt19 »

aantix wrote: post #2

Why would you rewrite from scratch? Sounds like you're just stalling from getting to the root issue. Why not try some other marketing approaches?

Thanks for the reply. Well the main reason for the rewrite was that I wanted to switch to a different web application framework so I could accomplish features that I can't with the current framework I'm using. And also to clean up the code, and write more efficient unit tests. Though I'm just planning through it.

Yes, though I really don't have any idea how to REALLY market a website. The only idea I know of was spreading it through Facebook open graph, but it still wasn't enough. I'm thinking of ads, and more ads, but I don't have the money for it.

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#5

Post by manuletroll »

xtnzt19 wrote: post #4
aantix wrote: post #2

Why would you rewrite from scratch? Sounds like you're just stalling from getting to the root issue. Why not try some other marketing approaches?

Thanks for the reply. Well the main reason for the rewrite was that I wanted to switch to a different web application framework so I could accomplish features that I can't with the current framework I'm using. And also to clean up the code, and write more efficient unit tests. Though I'm just planning through it. Yes, though I really don't have any idea how to REALLY market a website. The only idea I know of was spre…

What framework are you using? What are the features you can't implement with it?

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#6

Post by xtnzt19 »

oakaz wrote: post #3

Just switch to another idea. Implement it quickly. Observe the reactions and make a new plan. You need to iterate the ideas. Rewriting is a mistake. Of course you can implement it much better but the risk will be double next time. There are dozens of new ideas.

So are you saying that the idea is a no-good? :( Could you elaborate why the risk will be doubled? Though I'm just planning on rewriting, my real problem is to build a user base and make the website known and used.

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#7

Post by xtnzt19 »

manuletroll wrote: post #5
xtnzt19 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply. Well the main reason for the rewrite was that I wanted to switch to a different web application framework so I could accomplish features that I can't with the current framework I'm using. And also to clean up the code, and write more efficient unit tests. Though I'm just planning through it. Yes, though I really don't have any idea how to REALLY market a website. The only idea I know of was spre…

What framework are you using? What are the features you can't implement with it?

I don't know if it would be ethical for me to tell of the framework I'm using. What I can say is that it's quite new and collaborators of it are small unlike that of Yii, Zend, and Symfony. (I'm using PHP) Unit testing, database ORM, model validation, etc. are hard to make use of on this framework I'm using, as these functionalities of it are lacking features

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#8

Post by oakaz »

xtnzt19 wrote: post #6
oakaz wrote: post #3

Just switch to another idea. Implement it quickly. Observe the reactions and make a new plan. You need to iterate the ideas. Rewriting is a mistake. Of course you can implement it much better but the risk will be double next time. There are dozens of new ideas.

So are you saying that the idea is a no-good? :( Could you elaborate why the risk will be doubled? Though I'm just planning on rewriting, my real problem is to build a user base and make the website known and used.

I'm not saying the idea is good or bad. I say, just move on. Don't repeat yourself. Do new things. Don't get stuck. Don't get upset. Move on.

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#9

Post by manuletroll »

xtnzt19 wrote: post #7
manuletroll wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What framework are you using? What are the features you can't implement with it?

I don't know if it would be ethical for me to tell of the framework I'm using. What I can say is that it's quite new and collaborators of it are small unlike that of Yii, Zend, and Symfony. (I'm using PHP) Unit testing, database ORM, model validation, etc. are hard to make use of on this framework I'm using, as these functionalities of it are lacking features

Well in any case I have a hard time imagining that the framework you're using is really the cause of your main problem, the lack of users.

Re: Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

#10

Post by xtnzt19 »

manuletroll wrote: post #9
xtnzt19 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it would be ethical for me to tell of the framework I'm using. What I can say is that it's quite new and collaborators of it are small unlike that of Yii, Zend, and Symfony. (I'm using PHP) Unit testing, database ORM, model validation, etc. are hard to make use of on this framework I'm using, as these functionalities of it are lacking features

Well in any case I have a hard time imagining that the framework you're using is really the cause of your main problem, the lack of users.

Sorry, but I didn't say nor even think that it's the cause of my main problem.
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