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Show HN: My girlfriend's startup

jellifi.com

46 pointspxlpshr33 comments

That MTV video... I'm choosing my words very carefully here. That video says something about the company. That's the point, right?

I imagine the notion of having a) a launch party, b) a launch party with burlesque dancers, c) a launch party with burlesque dancers filmed by MTV was not an accidental choice by the company. Perhaps jellifi is aimed at a particular submarket in the event planning space which is very interested in the glitzerati world of fashion models and reality TV celebrities. If so, that video isn't completely insane. If you're not aiming to cement your reputation as that sort of business, I would strongly reconsider having that video on your home page.

In particular, in picking who to show that video to, I would note that it is going to be positively radioactive to multiple, independent, broad swathes of people in the tech community.

What the heck is it supposed to do?

That's a serious question. I scrolled all the way to the bottom, clicked on About Jellfi, read a bit about the founders, and then finally noticed that:

"Jellifi matches both professional and casual event planners to the best and most unique local talent for flawless and fun events without the stress."

That (preferably with fewer adjectives) needs to be the first thing I (and anyone else) see, IMO. Without it the service seems all style no substance.

(Granted this may not be as much of a problem with promoters and artists than it is with a 38 year old programmer that lives in insurance.)

To me, part of the issue is that there are two audiences (event planners/event related services vs. someone who needs help planning an event) and the homepage attempts to market to both at the same time. The subheading and the call to action seem to contradict each other. "Jellifi is looking for event planners" vs. "Plan Event Free"...huh?

That said, I do think it's an interesting concept and suggested it to a friend who does event photo booths and he seemed very interested in signing up.

I read the site and still can't really figure out what it does.

What the hell was that "launch party?!" Was that really thrown just for the launch of this simple event app? Am I in another world? What a tremendous waste of resources. This startup craze is truly getting outlandish.

First page without scrolling down I see:

"Online tools makes it easy to plan your next events."

There is also a big green button that says:

"Plan event free"

So I'm not quite sure why are you are confused about, the site is about planning a events!

Yes, a 25 year old female founder. 3 engineers, 1 ex-radio industry veteran, and ~5 other team players.

She got started last year, went through a rough patch with a different designer+developer team, had to rethink everything, and then in Jan of 2013 -- landed an amazing marketing opportunity for the site which will air later this year. Very proud of their accomplishments, especially in a city like Austin where consumer startups are much more difficult.

Please show her and her team some HN love, feedback, etc. I've been a member at HN for a long time so I'll be here to answer any questions.

Interesting site. There are parts that left me a little confused. Are they basically building a marketplace + online tools? If so, the text 'Jellifi is looking for event planners, bands, rental services, entertainers, caters, models, photographers, bars, venues, and more' should perhaps be 'Jellifi has a network for local event planners, bands, rental services, entertainers, caters, models, photographers, bars, venues, and more'. The point is that when I see 'Save Time Booking Your Next Event', I wonder 'how' - and was hoping for an answer there.

The other question is, who is going to be paying on the site - event organizers or those getting gigs? (Both is fine, but it is not clear from the site).

As someone who might organize one or two big events a year, I feel like if I pay, I would like to pay per event for help. (I guess I could consider paying throughout the year, but I find it hard to understand a value proposition that would matter in between my events).

Plan Event Free in the call to action button is a little odd, should probably be Plan Event For Free

Or just "Start Planning" and make it apparent elsewhere that it doesn't cost money

One of the landing page screenshots says "Jellifi Can Help You Throw A Better Weddings Event!" Is that a typo? Is "a weddings event" a thing?

I guess it can help you plan an event consisting of multiple weddings. I've never been to such an event, but I imagine it would be quite a challenge given that planning a single wedding event can sometimes lead to massive personal meltdowns.

Another minor typo:

"Online tools makes it easy to plan your next events."

You probably want to make either "tools" singular or "makes" into "make."

Aahh, good point. That's actually the recommendation box you're shown after you've stated what type of event you're hosting. It's part of the process to help save time and streamline planning.

This is a terrible title. It tells me nothing about the product. I expect a title like this in /r/pics but not in HN.

You're right. I should have known better... :)

Looks good. Out of curiosity, why didn't she submit this herself? To me, this is as odd as a woman submitting "Show HN: My boyfriend's startup".

It looks great to me. My main problem is that she asked me to give over my personal information before I can really do anything. I chose "Birthday" (my birthday is coming up) and I wanted to see what kind of suggestions would come up, but the first thing I see is "Give us all your information and create an account", but I don't particularly want to do that just yet. Can't she wait and ask for that at the end, when I presumably do something like hit a "Create This Event" button?

The app seems to have pretty large customer base already. And I thought Show HN was for people to show-off their new products/features/hacks. Anyway, I still don't understand what it does that is unique compared to competition. From its description all I see is all kinds of adjectives thrown around without concise use-case. Is it like a market place for planners and service providers?

Her social media feeds are really trying too hard. Does spamming people with unrelated memes and asking for likes really onboard users vs alienate those she already has? And I'm with patio11 on the video, I had to stop it. Show me the prep and the setup, give me testimonials and shots of various types of events she's done. Not close-ups of women taking their clothes off.

Main call to action seems confused -- text suggests that you're looking for suppliers, button underneath suggests you're looking for buyers. The "event planners" you're looking to supply are probably not enticed by the "Plan Event Free" button. Maybe split it in half to appeal to each?

How do you pronounce "jellifi"? Jellify? Jellifee? Jellifih?

Was the original idea for it to be http://jellifi.sh, but they changed their minds and went with jellifi.com?

This is something they should figure out - if I tell someone "just go to jellifi.com" there's a decent chance they won't know how to spell it. So perhaps look into making the name more obviously spellable (jellify.com), extend to jellyfish.com, grab all the alternate domains, or work hard on your SEO so even misspelling it still nets you the right site. :)

jell-eh-phi :)

Good idea, but hard to figure out when I first landed on the page.

Also, that speed register thing that's supposed to work with Facebook, I cant figure out how to do it. It is not implemented yet?

Otherwise great work. Tell your girlfriend congrats.

Interesting idea! Thanks for sharing.

Just a quick note, the pricing page (http://jellifi.com/Pricing) needs to be fixed, it still has the standard 'Lorem ipsum...' filler text.

Good catch, almost silly it went missed. Reported! Thanks.

2 hours later, still Lorem Ipsum. Hmm. I hope this doesn't reflect turnaround times if I were ever a client.

Cool idea. What sort of things is she doing to get it out there and try to start getting people using it, get it known and stuff?

A lot of local-level marketing in Austin and parts of Texas. They just started to expand into other cities and part of that is due to the pending national/international exposure.

Banner image doesn't stretch on Chrome + retina display. http://puu.sh/2upQE

auto-complete search bar for location is a little too small, using chrome

bubble, what bubble...

This and Summly do indeed give the feeling of a bubble, don't they.

Good layout...I like the big call to action with the rest of the page being devoted to a semi-walkthrough of what you'll find.

However, the "call to action" button text should be fixed. Currently, it reads: "Plan Event Free". It looks like a typo was made, though I understand you wanted to keep the text short...but right now, it looks like an amateurish grammar mistake. Perhaps, these might work:

"Free: Plan an Event" "Plan an Event for Free"

Or separate the text into a button label and header:

   Try it for free:
   Plan an Event

edit: Another suggestion: Use geolocation to narrow, by default, the services listed here: https://jellifi.com/service

Right now, it simply shows everything that's on the site, which immediately, in my mind, triggers a "there's a bunch of unfiltered spam listings here that I won't be interested in"...even though it looks very nice. But a little personalization will help a long ways.

And if the listings are too sparse to personalize it for most users, then limit the selection to just the cities you've focused on. No shame in saying "We've just launched in Austin, TX and San Francisco, SF. Follow us on Twitter to see updates when we open in other cities!"

Awesome, great feedback so far.

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