Ask HN: Feedback on our startup (LabApp.com) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Feedback on our startup (LabApp.com)

19 pointsthesyndicate10 comments

Hey HN, I’ve been working with an active HackerNews member on LabApp for the past several months. We are building a marketplace for research and university software. Right now, distribution and commercialization of software from university labs is difficult due to university licensing restrictions and the lack of a centralized marketplace. Thus, a lot of software is being re-built each time it is needed for a specific research application.

This is a huge waste of developers’ time and valuable research dollars.

We are partnering with leading universities (Cornell, Columbia, Yale and others) to enable this marketplace. Software creators can distribute any software with applications (in any field) for free, or set their own price and we’ll handle the e-commerce and distribute the revenue.

http://www.labapp.com

We just launched in beta, and I’d love to hear feedback from the HN community! Here are some elements of the site that won’t be visible now, but are on our plates:

- Detailed analytics for sellers and tech transfer officers

- Search

- Categories (e.g., genomics, neuroscience, etc.)

- Some static content (e.g., “Learn More”)

Also, if you have anything that you’d like to distribute via LabApp, don’t hesitate to upload it.

"Browse the LabApp Catalog" needs to be much more prominent - perhaps make it look more like a button? Overall I really like the idea though. After working in research labs for the past few years this service is sorely needed

Agreed with making browse a button, I would also consider moving it above software consumers heading.

And create a button for creators to sign up and move that above the software creators heading.

I think it looks great, but needs louder call to actions.

Looks pretty sharp. When building a homepage for marketplace-type sites, it can be really difficult to effectively connect with both your buyer and seller audiences at the same time. I think you guys nailed it.

I'm sure this is already on your todo list, but a friendlier login would make the checkout process much smoother. It's jarring to click the button to download software and then get directed to a page that simply says "You need to log in."

The button to download software is confusing -- the button text seems to default to the license name. Looks like you're planning to offer software under multiple licenses, but the button text should still contain a verb. Maybe "Download [license]" or "Purchase [license]".

With all the attention Apple's App marketplace gets, it's surprising that there aren't more marketplaces for traditional software. Seems like a big opportunity.

Click it. http://www.labapp.com

Definitely will keep an eye. Since you're gonna have marketplace, you might as well have existing products out there as well.

Also, use your blog wisely by showcasing new products and some product screen shots. The same goes for your product lineup - screen shots! Think Apple App Store ;-)

Also, don't neglect SaaS side of things.

I'm going to start asking this in every HN review request: what's it written in and how well is the technology working for you?

Python, Django, MySQL. So far we have been able to build and release features pretty quickly because of the ease of development Django offers. Our original stack was PHP and we decided to move off to speed up development.

Looks cool. I'd suggest putting some screenshots on the app pages, to make them more inviting.

May I ask who designed the site? I really like it. Very clean and simple.

Oh, I'm bookmarking this for sure.

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