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Drive By posted:I'm sorry, but I can't agree with this. I don't care for Lean and think quality of iteration trumps speed of iteration. Experiments should be driven by hypothesis drastic enough to change your whole business, and that takes strong intuitions, time to think and a lot of industry-specific knowledge. No one strikes gold at random, you learn to dig in the right places. You are not a lottery ticket. If you don't know enough about your industry to make educated guesses about the future just shut the whole thing down right now. I completely agree with all of what you said there. I guess we're in the lucky position to have a lot of strong intuitions, since we're pretty immersed into the industry and surrounded by a very vibrant community within it, so we're only limited by our own speed of execution. Random experiments make no sense, no arguing there. Drive By posted:I wouldn't though, you're doing something right if you have sales. If something's connecting with people, you need to amplify the effect, broaden your reach and make sure it's scalable when it needs to scale. I think our problem is that we eventually discovered that schools have no money unless you're in bed with the right folks at district level (see Pearson, News Corp, Apple) and so our model needs to be seriously reconsidered. A couple of grand here and there requiring dozens and dozens of hours and in-person meetings is insane, and the people with cash are not reachable with a bottom-up approach. Time to charge them parents  What's interesting is that NOBODY has yet figured out a way to make this work, and there are hundreds of companies all trying to chip away at the puzzle from different directions. It's one of those situations where it's stupid and doesn't work, until it suddly does, and then in retrospect it was obvious it would have worked. Anyway, edtech woes. Next time I'm doing a porn site, I promise.Drive By posted:6 months is a shitload of time, are you kidding me? Also, no one half clever goes to or cares about demo days. Optimize for the long term, not for a stupid deadline. At the most you can use Demo Day as a PR tool if you have a shiny number or a new release. I'm pretty sure if you were in YC you'd not skip your demo day because you're too cool for school. Obviously you shouldn't stray from building a real business as you're approaching demo day, but you'd be foolish not to leverage the attention you're getting IF your company is ready to enter fundraising mode by then. There are numerous cases of people sucking at demo day and still raising a major round 6 months later. Still no point in throwing away a perfectly good opportunity. In any case, feel free to PM me with your schedule if you want to hang out I'm in SOMA with the rest of the cargo cult.
DreadCthulhu fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Sep 22, 2013 |
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Sep 22, 2013 07:35
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You're in *that accelerator* with a startup *in that space*? I don't think you had disclosed that previously in this thread, sure you don't want to edit that out? I'm sorry, I might have misspoke about demo day. What I meant is that good investors get to know you in other situations, so you shouldn't pressure yourself with the thought that it's make or break. In my experience, a demo day feels much more like a celebration of what you've been through in the accelerator. Of course, if you're playing in that league you're 100% right in trying to get big numbers for demo day, but I still think it should pretty much be for PR only. I'll PM you when I get to SOMA, hanging out with someone other than my cofounder and our landlord sounds great
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Sep 23, 2013 18:49
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We're not actually in YC, I was posing that question hypothetically, so no worries.
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Sep 23, 2013 19:57
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So I just accepted a job as as PM at a start-up out of a comfy corporate gig. Feels like a bit of leap of faith, but not too much. Anything an LA native should know about moving to SF (where I assume most of you guys are)?
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Sep 23, 2013 22:44
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In general selling to government entities as a startup is usually a bad idea. The money may be good, but the amount of babysitting and specialist knowledge needed isn't worth it when you need to grow quickly. For something education related, rich parents and smaller private schools will be better low-hanging fruit.
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Sep 24, 2013 08:19
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Konstantin posted:In general selling to government entities as a startup is usually a bad idea. The money may be good, but the amount of babysitting and specialist knowledge needed isn't worth it when you need to grow quickly. What do you think of this situation if you have an ally on the inside, who maybe won't agitate for you but can at least give solid guidance, about process, timelines, what to expect, what to do next that sort of stuff?
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Sep 24, 2013 09:59
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I'm trying to figure out how to make a nice, short and sweet front-page product video along the lines of what Dropbox used a few years ago. Their video was pretty DIY, but still good enough not to give off the ultra-amateur vibe. I have no experience in that area and would be ok with spending a little bit on contracting this out. Does anybody have a good experience with studios making such videos? Ideally super dirt-cheap and not too fancy, just good enough. Perhaps tools out there that can help an artistic imbecile like me slap something together in no time?
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Sep 25, 2013 01:19
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DreadCthulhu posted:I'm trying to figure out how to make a nice, short and sweet front-page product video along the lines of what Dropbox used a few years ago. Their video was pretty DIY, but still good enough not to give off the ultra-amateur vibe. I have no experience in that area and would be ok with spending a little bit on contracting this out. You might want to check out http://fiverr.com/. My father has had great luck with people on there doing incredible videos and voice over work for a few bucks.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:26
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unixbeard posted:What do you think of this situation if you have an ally on the inside, who maybe won't agitate for you but can at least give solid guidance, about process, timelines, what to expect, what to do next that sort of stuff? If this account is one of many, you can take the inevitable delays without worrying about the future of the company, and it's worth it to spend the time needed to follow their process, then go for it. If you're in a position where you NEED that check to arrive on time to pay critical business expenses, then stay far away.
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Sep 25, 2013 06:34
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Konstantin posted:If this account is one of many, you can take the inevitable delays without worrying about the future of the company, and it's worth it to spend the time needed to follow their process, then go for it. If you're in a position where you NEED that check to arrive on time to pay critical business expenses, then stay far away. Seconding this. The company I work for has a several deals with governments (state, local, and federal) and almost all take forever for us to get paid due to tons of hoops you have to jump through to follow their required procedures. Knowing someone won't make those procedures go away unless they find some gray area work-around that I can almost guarantee someone will catch onto eventually then you'll be in the same boat as everyone else.
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Sep 26, 2013 19:47
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Anyone have suggestions for terms and conditions? My app is now in closed beta. I need to hire a lawyer for company formation purposes anyway, but if there's boilerplate or adaptable T&C's I'd love to know more.
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Nov 4, 2013 02:26
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My meeting with <Big 5 defense contractor> got postponed til next week, but it was for valid reasons. Could be a serious break for us.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:07
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I have two businesses I've built as a hobby, and I'd like to spend this winter marketing them as best I can. I would absolutely love any advice from fellow entrepreneurs. The first is a product based business called QuikCallus (https://www.quikcallus.com), which is a non-toxic glue used to create calluses for musicians and the like. I started out with adwords, which was successful in the sense that I made back the money I put into it and no more. I eventually ran out of stock which means its not sustainable going forward. I've halted ads and sell about 1 bottle a day - but I'd love to get the product into stores, I'm just not sure where to start. The second is a service based business called Tracktacular (https://www.tracktacular.com), which I had built for myself initially to track and log various things in one place with a simple interface (tasks, goals, dreams, games, etc). I have a handful of regular users and I started a blog as one way of marketing, although I had put it on hold for a while. I'd love to market this better but its inherently difficult to market a service that is an aggregate of many smaller services. Again I'd appreciate any advice, either with marketing strategy or where I should spend more of my time and energy.
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Nov 23, 2013 00:21
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FateFree posted:The first is a product based business called QuikCallus (https://www.quikcallus.com), which is a non-toxic glue used to create calluses for musicians and the like. I started out with adwords, which was successful in the sense that I made back the money I put into it and no more. I eventually ran out of stock which means its not sustainable going forward. I've halted ads and sell about 1 bottle a day - but I'd love to get the product into stores, I'm just not sure where to start. Based on what you've wrote, I have a suggestion for each: -For QuikCallus, you can probably lower your costs and turn this into a profitable business. You clearly have a market there if you were able to stock out. I'd suggest three things to try, if it's financially feasible: 1. Order a larger amount of your product to lower your unit cost. 2. Improve your Adwords performance to target a lower CPC. There's almost always room to optimize entire campaigns or even specific keywords. 3. If you're getting lots of hits (say, tens of thousands a month), use A/B testing to improve your conversion rate, thereby lowering your cost per user acquisition. -Is Tracktacular always the same service, despite the various use cases? This sounds like a case for masses of small SEO niches like what patio11 does with Bingo Card Creator. Look at your analytics logs to find keywords that are leading users to you, then hire freelancers to cheaply create a unique landing page for each keyword. Outsource as many keyword/landing-page combos as possible to create yourself a long tail of users where you're almost never competing on SEO.
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Nov 23, 2013 01:26
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FateFree posted:I have two businesses I've built as a hobby, and I'd like to spend this winter marketing them as best I can. I would absolutely love any advice from fellow entrepreneurs. FWIW, when I tried to visit your site, WoT popped up claiming your site was known/listed as 'untrustworthy', may want to look into that. (WoT is Web of Trust IIRC, it's a browser extension).
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Nov 23, 2013 01:56
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FateFree posted:The first is a product based business called QuikCallus (https://www.quikcallus.com), which is a non-toxic glue used to create calluses for musicians and the like. I started out with adwords, which was successful in the sense that I made back the money I put into it and no more. I eventually ran out of stock which means its not sustainable going forward. I've halted ads and sell about 1 bottle a day - but I'd love to get the product into stores, I'm just not sure where to start. What kind of work have you done to get the product to rank organically? What keywords are you targeting?
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Nov 23, 2013 03:10
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FateFree posted:The first is a product based business called QuikCallus (https://www.quikcallus.com), which is a non-toxic glue used to create calluses for musicians and the like. I started out with adwords, which was successful in the sense that I made back the money I put into it and no more. I eventually ran out of stock which means its not sustainable going forward. I've halted ads and sell about 1 bottle a day - but I'd love to get the product into stores, I'm just not sure where to start.
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Nov 23, 2013 04:01
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Thanks for the replies everyone. For QuikCallus I'll have better margins for my next shipment, I just need to scale down the cost of adwords or ideally eliminate it completely. I had focused on keywords like guitar finger pain, guitar callus etc. I tried to work those keywords into the home page for organic results. I don't know why WoT is flagging the site, I have a valid SSL cert and everything.. As for the local stores, whats a good general strategy? Bring them a few free samples? Do I follow up with them afterwards and ask them to restock if it was successful? Do I try to get it in one of those product books for store owners?
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Nov 23, 2013 12:51
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I recently co-founded a startup. We're looking for initial funding now, and would love to get some feedback on what we're doing right/wrong with our approach. Our app, Locket, let's you browse & build secure geo-fenced data bubbles in physical places and specific times. For extra privacy, our embedded server "Mantle" plugs directly into local networks to share Data Bubbles – even works without an internet connection. Our site: http://interfacefoundry.com
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Mar 13, 2014 16:42
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I think what would really help for you is a video showing a user actually experiencing a Locket "data bubble". Or even just showing some of the examples first, before introducing a lot of new jargon (and then having to immediately explaining it all ). The idea is pretty neat, btw!
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Mar 13, 2014 16:49
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A couple questions I think a potential user would have: Will "Mantle" be able to handle heavy user loads? I can see this being useful for larger events/conventions, but those often have hundreds to thousands of people in a confined space. Can it handle that many concurrent connections? Any way to upscale it for something really huge, like a stadium full of people with smartphones? Can I use this engine myself? Will I need to hire a programmer? If I do need to hire a programmer, how is this cheaper or better then just getting a custom app?
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Mar 18, 2014 04:29
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Sagacity posted:I can get someone to draft this for me of course, but I was wondering if anyone has a good recommendation for T&C "templates" that I could customize. Rocket Lawyer US Free Online Privacy Policy Free Online Terms & Conditions EDIT: lol 1 page back was 6 months ago 
Kerris fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 14:56
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Still useful, thanks I'm based in The Netherlands so I'm not sure if all of this applies, but with some Googling there seem to be some companies that provide a RocketLawyer-type service over here as well.
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Mar 19, 2014 11:48
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I have worked at several startups, although I am now at a very large company. 3 of the businesses I started are still in operation, however I have no current ownership stake and never got rich. I am very well paid, but sit at my desk all day thinking about new ideas I would like to do. Currently I see the shift in software from desktop to mobile and feel like I am missing out on an enormous opportunity by working at a large non-tech company. I am not sure how I am going to make the shift.
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Mar 24, 2014 00:00
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toben posted:
Well, you actually have a great opportunity right there: If you're a tech guy working in a non-tech industry, you're in a privileged position to disrupt it. For instance, http://www.asseta.com is a YComb startup that was founded by guys sick of the way their industry operated, who decided to push it into the 21st century. Don't fall in love with mobile, either. It's a technology and it's probably an inescapable part of any solution you come up with, but unless you're already at the forefront of smartphone use that's not a great way to start a business. Instead, look at anachronism and friction points in your industry and work flow, and think what the shape of a ten times better solution would be.
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Mar 25, 2014 11:26
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Sup guys, Figured I'd jump in here. Just started working for a Y-Combinator (W14) backed company called Ambition. Was founded in Jan 2013 by three of my old fraternity brothers (3rd attempt at launching a startup) and it's just really starting to take off--I'm in charge of all of our marketing efforts at the moment. Basically, we do enterprise data analytics/gamification software sales. Our product takes your company's employees' productivity data, then measures and scores that data, like they are fantasy football players. We put the employees on teams that compete against one another each week. Here's a couple links to give y'all some more insight. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/06/04/ambition-systems-raises-2m-for-new-ways-to-gamify-sales/ http://www.logisticsbusinessit.com/tech/article.aspx?tid=24&aid=708 http://ambition.com Down to field any questions about what we've (or really, they've) done to get this far, and also solicit input about best practices for our marketing efforts going forward.
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Jun 16, 2014 15:37
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CraigMcDermott posted:Sup guys, Are the founders programmers? How did they go about creating the product? What happened with their first two ventures?
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Jun 16, 2014 18:02
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CraigMcDermott posted:Down to field any questions about what we've (or really, they've) done to get this far, and also solicit input about best practices for our marketing efforts going forward. As a programmer, I'm usually very wary of things like this. Perhaps it's only meant for sales people who's results can be evaluated more deterministically, but this just shouts to me as something some business guy can use to justify not giving someone a raise or firing someone. "Your Ambition score isn't high enough! Looks like you've been slacking on the job, Julie Programmer." Also the idea of pitting employees against each other seems a bit at odds with how employees should work. I don't think good teams should be constantly competing with one another - shouldn't they be working to boost everyone else up? quote:Now your X employees can compete against your Y employees and you see who the best overall performers are. And then what? The losers are fired? Made to feel like poo poo? Don't get bonuses or raises? Gamification is fine for games and silly apps to get people to use them more, I suppose, but when it can start to affect your actual livelihood I'm a lot more suspicious of it. Is abuse something the founders have addressed? Do you use Ambition within the company? How do you use it to measure much softer skills like programming, or project management? The more I read the landing page the more and more this absolutely rubs me the wrong way.
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Jun 16, 2014 18:34
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CraigMcDermott posted:Sup guys, I apologize for not making a very productive comment, but this is why people think YCombinator is a joke.
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Jun 16, 2014 19:09
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CraigMcDermott posted:Sup guys,
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Jun 16, 2014 19:43
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CraigMcDermott posted:Down to field any questions about what we've (or really, they've) done to get this far, and also solicit input about best practices for our marketing efforts going forward. Since your product is based around providing extrinsic motivation for performance which is known to quash intrinsic motivation, how is it that you aren't getting your customers on a treadmill that they'll never be able to get off?
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Jun 16, 2014 20:51
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quote:
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Jun 16, 2014 21:34
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Glad to see that three white men have come up with a way to make work as competitive as fantasy football, that sure will help everybody be more productive and happy.
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Jun 16, 2014 22:02
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musclecoder posted:Do you use Ambition within the company? This was going to be my question.
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Jun 17, 2014 00:51
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I agree, unless there is rock-solid academic research from neutral parties that says this will increase productivity and morale, I'd write it off as a gimmick. Case studies don't count, anyone can exaggerate the value of anything in a case study, especially if it's written or paid for by someone who benefits from the case study being positive. I suppose it is a tool that might work with the right management team, but any manager smart enough to use this tool effectively probably doesn't have much of a problem motivating his employees, and any incompetent manager that uses this tool will probably misuse it and make the problem worse.
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Jun 17, 2014 03:12
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moana posted:Glad to see that three white men have come up with a way to make work as competitive as fantasy football, that sure will help everybody be more productive and happy. I understand the "you get what you measure" concept but this seems to be a way to make everyone hate each other at an office. Perhaps in some situations, call centers etc maybe, and if the base line performance expectations were clear, but again a piece of me just sees this a a way to turn an office into a factory.
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Jun 17, 2014 14:11
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I would love a website where people's productivity is measured so that, when I'm above a certain productivity threshold, I can take the rest of the day off. The focus on more more more in business is a real morale drainer.
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Jun 17, 2014 16:07
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I'm meeting with some angel investors in a few weeks from Domi ventures. I have typed up an executive summary, but I kinda think it sucks. Does anyone want to critique it for me? I can sent you free candy.
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Jun 17, 2014 16:48
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CraigMcDermott posted:Sup guys, The concept makes me raise an eyebrow, but more power to you if you're getting investors & making money. Capitalism at work!
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Jun 17, 2014 17:41
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Leroy Diplowski posted:I'm meeting with some angel investors in a few weeks from Domi ventures. I have typed up an executive summary, but I kinda think it sucks. Does anyone want to critique it for me? I can sent you free candy. Check your PMs,
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Jun 17, 2014 18:32
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