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Feedback on Pushboard.net

1 pointrichard___4 comments

I've created a site that is a competitor for AngelList and CofoundersLab. Neither of these sites were adequate for what I wanted: a way to discover and connect with great technical or business cofounders. AngelList because very few people are using their matchmaking feature and CofoundersLab because it is plagued with inactive users, business people trying to scam developers for free labor, and too many "wantrepreneurs" who don't really put in the effort to make their projects work (idea people).

My take on this idea was to connect people over the projects they are actually doing. I'm going to change the project form to require people to have an MVP. However, I think something's missing because although I've got a good number of signups from talented people, there is not much user engagement (posting new projects, people joining projects). My question is, Why? Isn't finding great cofounders a really difficult, unsolved problem? What do I need to change about my website/service to solve that problem?

1. In a sense, finding cofounders seems like the wrong problem. I mean the goal is to have customers and finding a cofounder is often more like checking off a box on a Ycombinator application than actually doing the hard work of building a product that someone might look at and want to team up on.

2. That's not to say that having cofounders isn't a really good idea. Running any business, nevermind a startup, is often a rollercoaster and doing it alone is going to be harder for many people to the point that it vastly increases the odds of not succeeding.

3. I don't know about Cofounderslab, but Angellist is a social network and therefore more about connecting people who are already connected in the graph with other people in the graph than about creating lots of connections for newcomers. Or to put it another way, if technical person A is connected on Angellist to investor B and investor B is connected to investor C and technical person B is connected to investor C, then Angellist facilitates hooking up A and D. And if business guy E is connected to D, then maybe D's in the mix too. But if I join and don't know anyone, Angellist is not a lonely hearts club.

4. How often does anyone look for a cofounder? Once every...how many years? That's why something like Angellist is investor driven: investors are looking for deals with a high frequency and participate in multiple deals in parallel. Investors are also where the money is and where the money is is where people who need money will tend to go.

In the end, finding cofounders is a real problem for some people, but it's not one that a website dedicated to solving it is likely to solve. Mainly because it's not a problem at a large scale, partly because it is a problem that is only solved one person at a time.

Good luck.

I think you are right that is is a small market. However I think the "recurring" usage of the site involves business opportunities and connections beyond just finding cofounders. Sure, LinkedIn sort of does this, but the problem is akin to your description of Angellist as only connecting people who are already somehow connected. There must be some way to create connections out of the blue, and more importantly target your connections better (you don't know which people on LinkedIn are interested in founding a startup at the present time).

I know that this is not the feedback you want to hear, but my first impression was meh. Below average graphic design, a dated feel, clunky ui/ux, a real dull banner and call to action. I don't want to have to sign up to see more. Show me more so I am encouraged to sign up.

And that was just with a 1 minute look over. Was a little scared to go deeper. Probably some tough love feedback, but feedback none-the-less.

You mentioned a few things about the design that I agree with but "clunky ui" doesn't make sense to me as I think as the site UI and functionality itself is very simple.

Assuming the UI is minimally usable, the main thing I'm concerned about is if the functionality of the site is what cofounders want. For example, are the questions on the "New Project" form what people care about when looking at projects. Are people too scared others will steal their ideas to create their own projects. Does the current user profile information not give enough information that users "trust" other users enough to reach out and discuss projects.

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