We built our startup out of hatred. Pure fury-fuelled hatred. | Hacker News Reader

We built our startup out of hatred. Pure fury-fuelled hatred.

building.getbrandid.com

The startup in question is here: https://www.getbrandid.com/#/

And boy do I hate the copy:

SHOP. LIKE A MAN. Get someone else to do it.

Godspeed to these guys -- I agree that the mens' clothing space is definitely lacking -- but this seems like a bad alignment of marketing and target audience.

Yeah. I too dislike shopping, and I could probably use someone with better taste than me picking out my clothes.

But I also do not enjoy contributing to the "hurr durr men are Neanderthals" meme. The messaging here seems to be the personal shopping equivalent of Axe.

I think it would be lovely if we lived in a world where gender roles and stereotypes and all the things we're mainly trying to take out of the tech industry didn't exist but…Brandid absolutely nail their brand placement for their target audience.

If you're not that target audience - fine, but lots of men are.

I don't know. JackThreads and a couple of other sites seem to be on the right track. Not sure what these guys have in mind, but that copy repels me. Maybe they are attuned to a whole different market I'm not really aware of, or can relate to.

Some comments:

- When I click on "getbrandid.com" take me to getbrandid.com and not http://building.getbrandid.com/getbrandid-com/ . There's no useful information on that page. I expect to be taken to your product. This is a major oversight.

- The all caps COMMENTS is bothering me, it's not that important of an element. Maybe it's just me.

- I can't reach the footer easily because of the tweets that keep loading. Seriously, what's the point of having a footer if I have to keep scrolling to get there?? There's a "load more" button but it keeps loading without clicking it (heck I'm not even able to click it).

- This URL structure: https://www.getbrandid.com/#/keep/calm/wearepros

Is stupid. Semantics? Oh no! Additionally the back button doesn't work on that page.

A question:

Do the girls get paid a cut? I actually think this is a pretty nice concept. You're essentially paying an agent to do what they love to do (shopping) by letting another agent pay for the service to connect you to that agent. That's neat. And focusing this on men – at least in the early stage – is not stupid. I would reckon that most people who dislike shopping are men.* I'm not sure whether your brand positioning should be so explicit. Consider the income of the target audience and then consider whether they want to feel like they're being targeted by an offshoot of the Axe brand. I think you can find PLENTY of guys who don't need the whole "hurr durr I'm a man durr" and who would be willing to spend a lot more money having someone else buy this stuff for them. This way you may be missing out on those people and instead attracting less affluent/lower income males who are not the optimal target audience.

* I'm not one of them btw, men who dislike shopping that is.

I visited your web site and now I am a little full of hatred as well due to your record breaking stereotypical/conservative/sexist/gendered approach. I would like to know if there is a website that pays people (people of all gender identities) to choose clothes for you while it does not make you feel unwelcome due to the fact that you are not a "bro". (Why dont you make the girls choosing the clothes to have nude pictures as well, i am sure it would make the whole experience 12000% more manly!)

Sadly, we humans respond well to stereotypical/conservative/sexist/gendered pitches. One of the sadder aspect of humans are our easy, obvious, and operating emotional triggers that work really well for selling ideas, products, and political campaigns.

Not we humans, we sexist/conservative/stereotypical people. I did not respond well at all. And I do have a huge problem with shopping , and yes I am a male. Ok now somebody go make an application such as this that is targeted exclusively to queer men , then another one that is targeted to people with Aspergers that hate the social aspect of shopping. Then another one for people with ADHD that hate shopping as well because it takes too long, and another one for masculine lesbians that dont believe in their taste of clothes. And also another one for super busy people and another one for people that are disabled. To be honest with you the only person in my social circle that fits in their definition of masculinity, is not my father, or any of my male straight friends, but a lesbian friend of mine.

pure unadultered hatred of.... clothes shopping websites?

I may be too nerdy for this, but how can anyone have such passionate feelings about how some web shop doesn't make you feel manly enough? It all makes the whole story feel terribly insincere and immature.

I don't think this needed passionate feelings about web shopping to be immature. I use "douchebaggery" to refer to things colorfully in casual speech; I most certainly wouldn't use it while discussing my startups.

Granted, targeting different audiences means taking different approaches, but I don't see this hitting its stride with any of them.

I like buying my own clothes and I don't feel like I'd use a service like this, not once, not ever. Does that make me less a man? I think not.

Your idea is sexist/stereotypical. Why not use your "innovation" and your will-power to create a shop that work for anyone at all, dispite the gender?

The site is also really confusing, feels like you've just thrown together some nice UI elements that a designer made for you. Did the funding for the UX/UI guy run out?

Not a bad idea. The design needs work. I can tell you right now that I'll never use your service though. I'm a pretty big bro, but honestly your entire tone is incredibly condescending. Just because I wear polos and was in a fraternity doesn't mean that I deserve to be talked to or treated like a child.

I'd be really interested to know how difficult it was to get the rights to use all of the celebrity images on the site.

Or ... did you just gank them?

They keep saying they're not douchebags, but boy do they sound like them.

They're not douchebags. I know the founders; they're very nice, funny guys. I winced when I saw this on HN because I knew it wouldn't go over well with the hypersensitive, humourless groupthink that prevails on HN.

I was going to reply and express my hurt feelings, but I'm not sure how that will go over. I've decided to wait and see what others post before forming my opinion.

Erm, their "SWAT Team". Every single one of them a bit easy on the eye, no? Not exactly your "average" collection of people is it? Kinda fortunate, no? Too much of a dating site vibe if you ask me.

I'm sorry for being off topic, but that blog navigation really annoys me.

I hate it when you click 'Home' on a blog and it doesn't take you to the main product page. But I thought this was different. I thought the 'getbrandid.com' would take me to getbrandid.com. Instead it took me to a page that pretty much just served as a link to 'getbrandid.com'

I have a wife now, but without one I would probably use this service.

We can arrange a divorce if you so wish.

Your startup idea may not be douchebaggery, but that was.

So if you don't hate shopping you are not a man?

hoping an adult will come along and rewrite the copy for what is otherwise a good idea

Apropos of nothing, I went to Business School with one of the girls listed as a "specialist wardrobe augmentation technician". Lovely person.

Is that a dot-com "personal shopper"? It's a legitimate career, I suppose, why the less relevant title?

Amen! Too many people have forgotten what it's like to code in anger. It's an important ability to have.

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