25-year old Indian bootstrapper goes up against billion dollar Demand Media
wordfaire.com
wordfaire.com
As far as I'm concerned, you haven't actually done anything yet.
My angle is to
1. Show that there are people in Chennai who actually do things like this. There are very few startups here, and the kind of programmers who'd be willing to work in one are a very small minority.
2. Attract other people in the region to me. Right now I'm doing this alone and it's not easy. I want to work with someone, and looking around and meeting people isn't working out. People who read HN self select themselves into being the kind of people I want to work with.
I understand that you think this was a publicity stunt, and yes, I did want people to see it. But I think that stating it that way misses the point.
When you launch a product, tell me why it's awesome and provide me with some minimal friction to get in there and try it. When I'm like "Whoa that's cool." then I'll care more about the creators.
If you're looking for people to help you out then say that outright. If I was a programmer looking to work at a startup, I'd have already glossed over this whole thing and moved on.
I'm not hating on you or anything. I'm trying to help you out. Another word of advice - don't write people off from a basic meeting with them. I didn't even know about HN until I was already working for a startup.