Ask HN: Review my startup. https://www.tesla.im

30-second overview leaves me with 1 question: Why would I use this? Sure, you tell me that it's awesome and geeky under the hood, but what exactly is the value proposition to make me want to use it?

I think it would make sense if tesla.im had a single, very clear selling point that elevates it above other chat things. For instance, can you make me feel very VERY confident in the confidentiality/privacy aspects of your product? Since Google just dropped XMPP, you could pick that up as a value proposition as well.

"Realtime" isn't valuable to me if everything already feels realtime - it just sounds like a buzzword (even though it's not). This may be valuable to people who don't know anything about IRC or Google Chat already, but it feels a lot more like reinventing the wheel that already works pretty well with different technology.

Some general comments: The design is decently executed, but there are some points that could use some work. Specifically, there's a lack of imagery that leaves it feeling a bit cold. The copy sounds a little unpolished in places.

If you'd like a further/more in-depth review, you can reach me at jonathan[at]whiteboard.is

:/ https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tesla.im

I thought this looked familiar. Seems like the third time you're just linking to the homepage. Why not share something you've learned rather than just re-posting this?

At first glance it looks very nice and professional, inspired me to dig further.

You have a lot of competition: Flowdock[0], Hipchat, Basecamp, IRC, even Skype. What sets you apart from them?

I like the look and feel, it's different but still clean and simple.

I don't like that returning to the site takes me back into my room. Especially for a new product. I want to go back to your home page and read up more about the product.

Do you have threaded conversations? I'm mostly experienced with Flowdock, and their threaded conversations feature does work but it's a bit awkward. I think really solving this problem would let someone excel above the others.

[0] I work for the company that bought Flowdock.

Why didn't you just make a link instead of a text submission?

BTW made a HN room: https://www.tesla.im/home#1369674621421890119 EDIT: Doesn't work. See comment below this.

Tesla? I love Nikola Tesla too, but nowadays that name is also Elon Musk's company, and it's getting a lot of press, so you'll have a hard time with SEO.

Design is great but why should I use your product? I can use Skype which supports video and groups so your idea isnt new or revolutionary and in fact is lacking in comparison to your competitors. You need a edge. Something that no one has except you and something that people are in desperate need of.

What else are you building with this engine? Did you build the Tesla engine yourself? How did you build it (i.e. what languages) etc?

Pretty cool. I'm not inclined to sign up now since I'm worried that you will abandon the service within X days/weeks/months, but I bookmarked it :)

the site looks severely broken on FF 23 OSX 10.8, http://i.imgur.com/ivd6bYK.png?1

I could see this as a product that open source projects could use as a user-friendly replacement for IRC.

Link: https://www.tesla.im/

awesome it would be more cool if you give embed option , so we can chat it from everywhere . anyway, nice start