Comment by allanmacgregor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by allanmacgregor | Hacker News Reader

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Other than the many issues that other people have posted in this thread and reddit.com here are my 2 cents.

You need a clear differentiator especially if you want to justify the high markup that your products have. Right now, the business model seems to capitalize on the domain name and target new users that are unaware of the average price of the nootropics on sites like ceretropic.com, powdercity.com or nootropicsdepot.com

All of them have unique differentiators be it price, quality or unique variants of the products. I don't see anything worth paying a premium on your site.

By your admission you are essentially using ceretropic labs as a drop shipper; so is the same product and the same quality with a higher markup.

Why should I give you my money? And before you answer with `we don't care if you buy from ceretropic.com or powdercity.com they are good guys.` Stop and think you are starting a business, and you should have a clear answer for that if not then you are wasting your time, money and energy; setting yourself for failure.

I'd say our differentiator is clear information, guidance, and trustworthiness. (for the latter Jamesbeam had some strong but fair critique, so we need to work on that.)

And yeah, having those as differentiators won't be of value to long-term nootropics users, but it could be to new users. There's also value in having a product that looks good. (Honestly do let me know if you disagree with this paragraph, I'd like to test and verify my beliefs in this area)

Trying to compete with ceretropic on quality or customer service seems pointless: they're seen as perfect. It's hard to beat that — partnering with them like this seems like a much better plan. So yeah, I agree that we need a differentiator, but I feel that we do have one?

I've read your reddit threat and this one now and I'd like to let you know my somewhat knee jerk opinion. You say that you need a differentiator but that you feel you have one. For one, i think that if information is indeed your only differtiator (nd's jars look good enough) then nootropics might be the wrong market. most people getting into nootropics do so because they have already read a lot and tend to be better informed, thus degrading that differentiator significantly. People who dont know much about nootropics will be hesitant to try them at such high prices and even if they do once, you won't necessarily get repeat businesses out of them.

the venture you are starting should be validated with a good study beforehand as you are essentially trying to sell information repeatedly to folks who know googleing well. As you can see with amazon, which is in a business similar to yours, customers care most about price and then about convenience and security (refunds etc). the information amazon provides about the products they sell is shit at best and the website does not look good either. furthermore, nootropics cannot be tried easily and then be refunded, as many need eg two weeks of consistent use to be able to feel a difference.

in my opinion, approach your businesses not as a startup but rather as a shop would. define the customers, their needs, do interviews and then decide if it is worth getting into

* nod * I see what you're getting at. We do have a "nootropics sampler pack" on the road map, which would make things more accessible to new users, but that doesn't address all concerns you mention.

As for Amazon... I'd think they're closer to Powder City? The focus on low cost seems to match, anyway. I'm not sure if the your model of priorities of customers applies to literally everyone — we're not trying to capture the entire nootropics market at this point, as that would seem doomed to fail.

Your final advice sounds very much like the lean startup approach — and I will readily admit that we've not been very lean, and that a lean approach would have been better. But yeah, better to gather info now than not at all.

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