Comment by avalaunch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by avalaunch | Hacker News Reader

On the registration popup, it says 500 users required.

I had nearly this exact idea before. Actually that's where my username Avalaunch comes from - "launch your new idea with an avalanche of support". Thus far I haven't followed through with the idea because I don't think it provides enough value to the would be early adopters.

Two suggestions:

1. Let the idea author dictate how many users are required instead of setting an arbitrary number. For some ideas (new dating site), 500 isn't nearly enough. For others 50 would be plenty.

2. Set it up so that the idea author is encouraged to give something to the potential users for upboating an idea. Ie. "First 3 months of service are free for all upboaters".

Good luck! I'd be interested to hear how it turns out for you.

EDIT:

Suggestion 3. Add login by Facebook. I know most of HN hates it, but I hate filling out forms more.

EDIT 2:

The develop upboat is a really cool feature that I hadn't thought of. Maybe add a designer upboat too? Or ideally, let the idea author determine what kind of upboats he's looking for. Maybe I have a great developer but I really need a salesperson.

Interestingly I was working on this as well. It was called "should I Build it?" and the idea is if enough people vote YES (you decide how many people are enough), then you build it.

Two Additional Suggestions:

1. After the potential user votes "yes" or "no" allow the idea author to collect feedback as to why they voted the way they did. (customer development built-in). This will provide some great insights into what's valuable to your prospects.

2. Secondly it will be more useful to allow the idea author set this up on their own domain and be able to add their own styling to the page because most of the traffic the page will get will be from the idea author's network.

I don't see myself as a user, coming to your website to look for ideas to support with my email.

Finally how do you plan on monetizing this app? This is the chief reason I dropped the idea which is probably short-sighted but it'll be interesting to see how you go about it.

Good Luck.

1. Good call. 2. A widget is an awesome idea. Move aside, LaunchRock! 3. You're the man. Thanks!

Monetizing? Apps aren't expensive, and if it provides value to a community I certainly wouldn't mind not-charging for it. It took me 24 hours to build, and hopefully not a year of labor to maintain. If I can break even, I'd be happy. Otherwise, selling contact info of idea authors who've collected unreal amounts of upboats to investors seems like it could do something, granted I gather the consent of all parties involved.

I'm not so sure if 'yes' or 'no' with comment is needed.

Just have unrestricted comments for opinion, and only have a 'yes' vote for those interested. There isn't a reason for being interested in something, it's just something that you'd pay for, and enough of those justify the endeavour.

This is the type of rock-solid and generous advice that makes HN so valuable.

I agree. I'm pleasantly surprised (shocked?) at the lack of negativity in the comments thus far.

> Add login by Facebook

God no, anything but facebook. Github or google would be better.

This is a site for validating ideas. Unless all of the ideas are geared towards the developer community, Github isn't a good option.

You can hate on Facebook all you like but a lot of people use it as their preferred login method. Google is an ok alternative but doesn't cast as wide of a net.

LinkedIn would be another excellent choice.

> a lot of people use it as their preferred login method

and a lot don't, for good reason. at least have an alternative, github would be good because most of the customers will be developers.

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