Ask HN: Rate my startup: IvyLees | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Rate my startup: IvyLees

ivylees.com

28 pointsrriepe35 comments

It seems like a well-designed application to me. While I am not intimately familiar with the need for such a social network, I will trust that you and others can make that assessment.

A couple notes on the design:

- Focus borders on the username and password fields are different.

- I like the clean look overall, but the contrast is a bit too low in some places: Large buttons, Registration form header.

- I think a little more top and bottom padding on the search bar would be nice.

Thank you. You have a very good eye for detail-- I'll add these to the to-do list.

Playing around with it now and so far:

1. Love the design. Simple, clean, effective.

2. The "tools" sections need to be much more apparent. This is in theory the main purpose of the site.

3. 140 characters is hot as Hansel right now, but there's no way someone can pitch me effectively in 140. I think that needs to be upped significantly.

4. I'd like the homepage to be more of a personal dashboard. History of direct contact, recommendations of new releases that fall in line with my "public collections" (I don't like that terminology, 'groups' maybe?), etc.

I focused on the negative because those are the areas I think need the most work, but overall I think you're off to an awesome start. I could see this becoming very usable for me - ie, button on my blog and a note that I will only consider pitches delivered via Ivylees. Man, that sure would help my inbox...

Thanks, Zach. These are all areas we're concerned about right now, so your feedback is definitely appreciated (and focused on the right spots). When you say up the pitch character limit, are you thinking around 300? Or even more?

My pleasure, and feel free to hit me directly if you'd like feedback as revisions are implemented. As for the character limit, 300 is much more appropriate I think. It's a catch 22 in a way - journalists/bloggers theoretically want a lower limit with the hope that they will receive a succinct message. Businesses/flacks on the other hand, will be put off if they have to keep revising their thoughts over and over to fit them into such a small space.

Personally, I might start with a limit of 500 characters but I'm likely in the minority. For comparison sake, this message is 593 characters.

I would have said 500-1000. There's only so much you can convey in 3 sentences.

I've seen a few sites that used 250, and that seems like the sweet spot to me. It forces you to condense, but it gives you enough space to broadcast a thought.

Would prefer to see some sort of demo that doesn't require signing up. Maybe a interactive demo, simple flash presentation or at least graphical use cases.

Nitpick: big buttons at the bottom don't seem clickable.

We've opened up parts of the site so that you don't have to be logged in to view it. Some links will need to be added to the front page, but maybe this will satisfy your curiosity for now. http://ivylees.com/associations/IvyLees

Irony is 68-point font telling you to "whisper, don't shout"

They could work the irony by having "Whisper" in large font and then "... don't shout" in 75% or 50% font next to it.

Would work better as a metaphor because (I guess) this statement/site is implying that "Whisper" is the more effective communication approach.

A lot of the time small fonts are a pain, though. I liked the look.

With a name like "helveticaman", I guess I'll take your word for it.

A helvetica man is actually the symbol on the men's room...but yeah, I like the font too.

Facebook called, and they're flattered.

Interesting niche.

One comment on the front page - I think it's great and clean, but I think it undersells what you're doing. The "highlights" that you have (linked form the pale buttons at the bottom) are very compelling arguments to try your startup ... but they're hidden one click in.

The design is nice. Is this addressing a real need? I am very close to the "media outlet environment" and I'm not sure if we have a need for such a resource? What are the tool-based things you are talking about? Maybe I just need more convincing?

Thanks, tyohn. I suppose it depends who ask if we're filling a real need. PR agencies pay hundreds of dollars a year to have access to media databases. Companies pay anywhere from 5-350 dollars to put out news releases to the big newswires. To us, it seemed like both of these needs could be served much cheaper with a tool-based social network.

Now that you've "opened up parts of the site" and I played around - I think it makes a lot more sense to me. If you can gain some critical mass it just might work. Good luck!

Will certainly take a look at this in more detail when I'm on my laptop, as I'm on BlackBerry now, but I find the concept interesting.

I work at a PR agency and a tool such as this to help "push" the advancement of new and relevant technology/services is really welcomed. This can cut into territory like Cision's for media database lists considering users of the site actively generate content.

A few questions/tips;

1.Can I cull some of my other SNS information and port it to your site? Maybe even just an OpenID or Clickpass account?

2.Have you done any self-marketing yet, perhaps even reaching out to the larger agencies for a live demo? May be a nice idea to generate interest at a target market.

I'd be happy to have you guys demo something in the future.

Oh, one other thing in terms of an idea: Set private networks based on agency email address.

So, as I said above, take my comments for what they are worth on a BB, but I'll check the site out in more detail. Just wanted to add here that this is a very good niche for something like this. Good luck!

You have picked an interesting niche within a large market of professionals. I assume you have done your homework re: competition, present options for solving customer problems, and therefore demand for your product.

There are many market niches that are presently underserved by current businesses. Do you really think Craigslist, Ebay, and Facebook will still be the only solutions for their users in 20 years time? I highly doubt it. Smart entrepreneurs find a way to snag users from sites with proven appeal by creating a unique spin on what the market leaders do.

For example, a startup in France (not yet in the States, hint hint) operates an online marketplace for specific, high-demand categories of goods such as electronics (ie Iphones) and digital cameras. You can choose what you want to sell for, but the price must be 50% below retail, regardless of the condition of the item. So- specific goods at 50% or more below retail is a unique sping for an online marketplace that hasn't yet been done in the States. There- I have just released one of my startup ideas. Anyone want to have a go at that one?

- Whisper. Don't Shout is cute, but it doesn't tell me anything. That's a lot of screen real estate for something that's just cute.

- The term social network is somewhat tired. Everything is social now. Building a social network was sexy three years ago. Now it's just a category of sites that hearkens to the passing bubble. Say what you do. People will expect it to be social anyway, and besides, when was the last time you went looking for a "social network for $foo"?

- Connected to those two, your two key points seem to be "Create and share news releases." and "Get new story ideas or pitch your own." Those are your message. That's the reason people will be landing on your site. Those are the ideas that you want to hit people over the head with in the first seconds that they land on your site. Bonus points if you can convey that graphically.

The design is nice, the opened page is very facebook like I don’t think it has to be, use your talent to stick to your originality.

I don’t know much about journalism and PR work but I will suggest you find a way to source your content from other sources in other to attract users don’t count much on user-defined content, I get this from watching a friend of mine struggle with his content driven social site.

I must give you guys an A for your design, I have not tested it usage (will do so when I have a minute) but I will strongly suggest to make some content visible without sign-on. Sign-on-before-you-see scenario can be a turnoff for most people.

Interesting idea. How are you going to keep signal vs noise ratios worthwhile for Journalists?

If I'm launching a start-up and want to have to send out a press release, I need to either hire a PR agency or find a list of people I should email, which means I am at least minimally competent. If I understand correctly, on IvyLees, I could just sign-up and issue a press release into my industry. Assuming the site becomes popular, won't Journalists be more interested in the companies that are capable of reaching out to them 'the hard way' rather than issue a massive press release?

Can I join and mercilessly spam the heck out of media outlets?

Also, what's the play here? Are the tools supposed to pull people in? Do you have any journo or PR cred behind the project?

I can't use this and know if I'm really giving useful feedback, but: everything is pretty except for the Search bar up top. It takes up a lot of space and doesn't provide much, and I don't like the blue.

Also, you have something like three different effects when I focus on three different fields.

interesting idea - clear target audiences. trick will be getting those audiences to use this. seems like a relatively good problem to have, especially for a communication network play, though by no means cake.

two design tweaks:

on my pretty good lcd, the 'sign up today', 'journalism' and 'business & pr' calls-to-action lack enough contrast for the white type to pop without me adjusting my screen settings.

looking at the press release template - your logo is huge. which is ok - once i realized that that's where the (my) companies logo would go. even then it's a little large. regardless of the size, though, i would think about changing your example press release to something other than your own company as understanding whose logo that is is a subtly you don't need to create.

I think it's a cool idea for a product. The Journalism / PR space can use some innovation. The struggle, perhaps, will be getting people to start using it. I'd recommend getting to know people / users at places like OJR.org, MediaBistro, etc.

my two comments would be 1) make the "tools based" either link to a page describing what that means, or find a better way to describe it. I think I know what you are getting at, but I'm not sure most people (non-tech) would.

2)the "Journalism" and "PR - Business" links at the bottom of the page that are somewhat greyed out. They look good in the sense that they don't draw too much attention, but I'd think that the least they should darken when I hover to make it apparent that they can be clicked. The way it looks right now, I'd think that they were greyed-out as in unusable.

This is a genuine nit-pick, but I don't like the light green ivy leaves on the blue background (top left)... Maybe I had "blue and green should never been seen" drummed into me too much...

The name makes me think of "Ivy Leagues", which makes me think it is something for students. Also... white text on a light-coloured background is quite hard to read.

I have to ask, what need are you addressing that already existing social networks don't provide?

We're offering traditional public relations tools, including an online newsroom, a press release builder, and media list building.

To me it looks just like you implemented a few parts of FB, and copied their style guide.

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