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Ask HN: Review my startup: Conflict-free, multi-master file replication

synctus.com

20 pointsrlpb22 comments

I assume you're targeting the middle market, because enterprises went through a "replication and caching" craze (they called it "WAN Acceleration") about 4 years ago. Riverbed mostly won, but there are a bunch of other companies in the space too. They all have roughly the same appliance you do, but they transparently support a bunch of protocols and applications, too.

If that's what you're doing, I see the value: you're the Drobo to Riverbed's NetApp.

I'd worry a bit that your typical customers --- law firms, doctors offices --- aren't going to understand what you have up there. You need to do the "Feature/Function/Benefit" exercise (what it is, how it works, how it makes money for your customer), and then write your copy based on the benefits, not the details of how you sync. Your "benefits" section is still too technical, where it isn't, it's too fuzzy.

For me, the biggest win to something like this would be not having to have employees dick around with VPNs. You get one connection set up, not 50, and everyone has access to the same files.

> If that's what you're doing, I see the value: you're the Drobo to Riverbed's NetApp.

You've got me exactly.

> Your "benefits" section is still too technical, where it isn't, it's too fuzzy.

I agree - I've been struggling a lot with the copy. When I try and make it less technical it ends up being fuzzy. I'm interested in hiring a copywriter if I can get any good recommendations.

> I agree - I've been struggling a lot with the copy.

Separate the technical and non-technical out into separate pages. The technical stuff can then get as technical as you want.

Not being a graphic designer, I can't explain why the site doesn't say to me, "company that's established enough to trust with my data," but...

That being said, this is a great thing to offer as an appliance. I think that someone who's savvy enough to look for this, though, would probably not want to buy until you have a clearer story about how to do backups. Can I, e.g. install Mozy or equivalent, on the theory that your customer is looking to get rid of sysadmin headaches?

> Not being a graphic designer, I can't explain why the site doesn't say to me, "company that's established enough to trust with my data," but...

I kinda get that feeling too. Maybe use more blue text/background instead of red (blue is a more corporate colour), and make the site look a bit more busy -- it looks kinda simple at the moment which I guess appeals more to techies than corporate types. Disclaimer: IANA graphic designer either.

> until you have a clearer story about how to do backups

Thanks, I'll work on making it clearer, and review the design too.

From the point of view of a single office, the device is just a NAS, so any backup solution that can back up a NAS will work - including Mozy and traditional stuff like Veritas.

As a geek, I slightly balked at the claim on the Locking and Coherence page that it's "the first file replication system" to keep files coherent via locks, since I think of stuff like AFS as doing that. But looking at your product comparison page, it's true if you think of "file replication system" as more application-level sync stuff like Dropbox.

Somewhat separately, do you care at all about selling to companies that might otherwise consider a more heavyweight solution like setting up an NFS volume that everyone mounts? You have a clear ease-of-use-and-maintenance win, but it'd require separate marketing to a different kind of audience so as not to confuse people who don't even know what that is.

JungleDisk + S3 will lock network shares at the file level.

In theory, you could accomplish offline access in JD with syncing, but I don't yet trust their sync features for anything critical.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this. I can't find a reference to this anywhere, though. Amusingly, Googling brought me back to your post! Any pointers, please?

The way file locking works is that if one person is reading a file, others can't read it as well. I can imagine situations where this would be a hassle -- there ought to be a mechanism where people can get read-only access to data that is otherwise locked.

Yes - you can. Admittedly this information is buried at the bottom of the Tech page. There's a hidden share which gives you read-only access while ignoring locks.

I would also suggest that when you have the boxes installed at a customer's site, it may be an opportunity to sell more stuff to them, by adding functionality to the boxes. For example, a customer might want VPN and if they are happy with the Synctus boxes, might want it to go through them. Or perhaps a corporate wiki, replicated through all sites in the organisation. Or accessing some or all the shared files by ftp or http. Or a revision control system -- you getb the idea.

I'd actually recommend against this. I think he should focus on being the best at what he does, otherwise he might risk catching featuritis and sucking at everything instead of being awesome at one thing.

It sounds like a good product, but I do not believe you have addressed the marketing aspects of it adequately:

1) Too geeky language - rather tell a story Company XYZ solved a problem by...

2) Design needs work

3) Call for action on landing page missing

4) Let the Customer touch the product (Tour/demo/video)

5) Put all technical details in white papers - the IT guys will try and rip them apart.

Who are most likely to be your Customers?

> 1) Too geeky language - rather tell a story Company XYZ solved a problem by...

The page given is the technical detail. The front page of the site http://www.synctus.com/ is less geeky.

> 1) Too geeky language - rather tell a story Company XYZ solved a problem by...

Do you mean the "Tech" site or the rest of the site? I linked directly to the Tech page which is intended for geeks because I figured that HN readers would want to read that first. I'm not using it as a landing page for any other purpose. Or do I need to make the other sections less geeky too?

> 5) Put all technical details in white papers - the IT guys will try and rip them apart.

Do you mean more technical detail than I have, or to move my Tech section into white papers? I intended to put all the technical information in multiple HTML hyperlinked pages rather than as PDF downloads. Is this what you mean - would PDF downloads be better?

I'll work on the rest - thanks!

> Who are most likely to be your Customers?

I'm aiming at small businesses with little or no in-house technical knowledge. However, I'm thinking about splitting marketing between them and technical people who can advise them.

> I intended to put all the technical information in multiple HTML hyperlinked pages rather than as PDF downloads. Is this what you mean - would PDF downloads be better?

I personally prefer HTML to PDF. YMMV.

Sorry, I missed the front page! Yes I mean more technical details, people purchasing complex technology like lots of information. PDF will work better. (you can have both HTML + PDF)

I thought you targeting small businesses use real examples. What would be the benefit for example to a small Architectural firm working in three Cities. Why is it better than just storing documents up in the Cloud and using ftp etc... Use a story it is the number one rule of copyrighting. Better use a professional copyrighter.

The copy seems to assume that users will be running Windows PCs. It doesn't anywhere say whether it worksd with Linux and Macs. It probably ought to. Most multi-site organisations probably use 2 or all 3 of these operating systems these days.

I think it looks great and, if it does what you say it will, it's a great product at a great price. The only suggestion that I would have would be a demo vid.

> it's a great product at a great price

I agree. There are very large numbers of people who use computers and find them a complete pain in the arse. This includes most non-technical people using office computers. Most of these people would love a product that "just works" without hassle. And most IT managers would love a product that doesn't need to be continually cossetted my expensive sys admins for it to continue working.

http://www.synctus.com

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