My first attempt of making web startup | Hacker News Reader

My first attempt of making web startup

inspection2.com

15 pointsgrigy29 comments

I don't think I would take the time to input things about my car. (not to say that is a general case, as I'm sure there are people who care about their cars more) But even in my case if the oil change or tune up place i went to gave me a url for my car's history and an email alert for next oil change/maintenance, it would make me more loyal to that place. even better if they shared history like on your site. I dunno, that may be an angle that would work with me in particular.

I think this especially helps with older cars. For example my truck has 110K miles on it and I just had some major work done (timing belt and new radiator). As life goes on, I need an easy place to remember what I did so some scammy mechanic doesn't try to lay one on me.

Old car owners and car enthusiasts - this is our primary target.

It'd be cool if I could just text in the things that I get done on my car. Example: #OilChange at Jiffy Lube on 3/1/1 at 75,000 Miles; and then I could get a reminder text 3 months down the road about how it's time for me to get another oil change...you could also have a local car company sponsor that reminder. Good luck!

You should have a field for adding "where i repaired my car?? which shop and location?"(maybe with map or link).This would be very useful for search. people who wants to do a repair or buy a part at certain budget and at certain location can search for it and find a link to the shop so they can do it for their car. it would be nice if you collect all the list of car service shops so it would be easy for people to add it to their notes.You can build a comprehensive car maintenance service. Good luck!!

There are special types of tags with additional information - address, name, rating. We call them "Places". You can attach a "place" to the note. Users can create their own places and share.

You just gave me a eureka moment. I really like how simple and clear your homepage is. It instantly made me realise what I am doing wrong with the homepage of http://www.mightycv.com which is my first startup. So I just wanted to say thanks.

I had better get to work and start rethinking, redesigning and restructuring things. Great idea by the way, good luck I hope it takes off!

I'd recommend not using centered alignment for the text. You might appreciate this article on alignment: http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/design-basics-alignme...

Thanks! I've made a few changes now, hoping that they have improved things.

Pretty good job at first glance. It's got definite utility, though I do have doubts about it's potential users. Either way though, best of luck. You might want to check it at 1024x768 - the design is thin enough to fit on that resolution, but due to some padding on either side you end up with a horizontal scrollbar before you can actually see the page.

Just an idea - can you integrate what the recommended changes for vehicles are at various mileages? That would be killer and a heck of a way to plan in advance. I know the info is out there, every time I go to get my oil changed they pull up a program for every car and review the recommended updates...

Yes, we will be adding that info gradually and hopefully community will help us. But there is a fun part. Once we get enough amount of actual info, we can show some interesting statistics. For example how much does it cost to own particular model or how often particular problem happens, etc.

Just some critical advice - you might want to redo your screencast. Not b/c it wasn't informative, but b/c it had no energy. I felt sort of like I watching a coding screencast and wasn't excited to take any action. Just a thought...

Agree, we are planing to change it soon.

- What are the benefits over a service like driver side?

- I get that everyone wants to add a social element to their site, but why share my notes on my car with my friends?

- Benefits over DriverSide: web2 (i.e. social elements), better UI and mobile apps (soon)

- Well, maybe "friend" does not sound correct, let's say with interested people. Actually that's the opposite of following the other cars.

I don't know, I like driver sides ui. And they have a lot of great features. I wouldn't switch.

RepairPal is another competitor. They have mobile apps.

Just pointing out two competitors that have a lot of features that you need to differentiate from.

If your target market is in the USA, I think you should change your tag line.

"Put your car expenses under control."

Should read,

"Get your car expenses under control."

Yes, thank you!

Logo is confusing especially considering you have a number 2 in your domain name, yet use II in your logo.

Overall page looks very nice!

You've got a minor css issue on your frontpage with the 'shdtxt' class positioning for your text shadow effect, where the shadows appear misaligned/flow differently than the callout text. Maybe try using text-shadow instead?

What browser is it? I know about a problem on IE6, but didn't get to fixing it yet.

I saw it on Chromium/Mac and I just confirmed it (9.0.597.107). Also seeing it on Safari/Mac.

Screenshot: http://cl.ly/092a1U1Z1i3G2D2x1Z19

Awesome idea dude. I'm going to buy my first car and was going to record all my repairs, inspections, MOTs etc in an excel spreadsheet. Might use your app instead. Good luck!

you could have as well said: "please sign up for the beta".

Agree, but do you think that would make the signup conversion rate higher?

A/B testing is your friend. Try both and see which way works better for you.

disagree. It's also a matter of respecting people, if you ask them to "check out your website" and they can't until you invite them...

I don't think that is the point. I signed up anyway, but I did feel like you were not respecting my time and interest, by asking me to check out something I cannot check out until you invite me...

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