Show HN: Salsa-as-a-service landing page
get.hombresalsa.com
get.hombresalsa.com
Just because you're in validation stage doesn't mean the marketing page only deserves 2 hours. When the Lean Startup came out, Eric Ries was pushing back against people who devote thousands of dollars and hours before they knew if a product would work out not.
AppSumo has made it cool to test w/ quickly-conceived pages. But a minimum viable product still needs to be viable.
Maybe I'm a hater. If so, sorry I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I just think it's worth pushing for higher-quality in validation tests. A few more hours could greatly affect your results.
For example: what are examples of brands of salsa you'll be delivering? Is this an email newsletter, or a paid service? What if I don't like the salsa this month? Is it crazy-wacky mango salsas or interesting tomato-based salsa?
Answering those questions might push your needle in the right direction. :)
Your comments, along with a ton of others, are definitely helping. To answer your questions this is both a newsletter and I will be selling independently owned salsa brands, both as a monthly subscription and through an e-commerce section. The landing page is very basic, probably too basic, but it’s serving as a way to keep in touch with other salsa enthusiasts until I can get everything up and running.
Again, I appreciate your comments. All feedback is important!
Your own questions provide exactly that- Maybe nobody cares what type or brand of salsa it is, just that it’s different each month. Or maybe 2/3s of potential users ask that question, and he knows he should add that as a feature/description.
Or maybe he hears people want guacamole and sour cream delivered as well, and he then tests that offering out. Or nobody signs up, it fails, and he’s only lost a few hours of his time.
If you have an idea worth testing, it's probably worth spending 5-10 hours on the test, assuming you want to receive decision making data.
I would expect any landing page like this to "prove" the idea was terrible, when it in fact could have legs. I for one would like a salsa of the month club.
(I only learned of the condition because one of the family members mentioned above was my college roommate.)
[1] http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/cilantro-love-hate-...
But I think you need to do some more work to get this on up and running properly.
right now it looks a little bit like a link farm page.
May I suggest the following changes.
1) Move the text out of the picture or at least have it on a background.
2) Remove the gradient from the sign up form and give it a solid color (perhaps red?)
3) Move the sign up form outside the picture.
4) Be more disciplined with your description text.
5)Set up a facebook page and a twitter account, start collecting followers there and show some of the feedback on your page.
6) And most importantly. Add a FAQ so that people know who you are, where you are located, what this is all about, what they are signing up for and so on.
Best Wishes
In other news, I'm seriously craving salsa now, so that aspect of the site works.
I had a very similar idea about a year ago. Except my idea was that user would build their salsa by selecting ingredients and I would make/ship. Of course this allows recipe sharing and such. The thought of food production quickly had me shelf that idea. Your approach seems much easier to execute
The HN audience probably has a inherent bias TOWARDS saas services/subscription models.
I’m still working through the price points, and I’ll probably offer an e-commcerce section as well.
Shipping the salsa isn’t much of a problem. The brands I’ve been talking to have their methods down pat and it hasn’t been a problem thus far
Second, I LOVE this idea. Kind of like Graze, but for salsa. Actually, yes, do that - make Graze for salsa. Give us options. Let us choose to Hate or Love certain ingredients/keywords.
And I appreciate the kind words. There’s so many great salsas out there yet it seems they’re so hard to find.
I don't have any sense of your service area (SF? West Coast? US? Global?), price points, or your food handling reliability.
All of those datapoints are important for me to even ask myself if I'd buy.
I’m working with existing salsa brands, mainly independently owned brands who will take care of the shipping.
I’m really just doing this for fun to share great salsas and help out some existing small businesses. We’ll see where it goes from there
What did you make the landing page with?
I’ve been getting a lot of interest from the UK, so I’m thinking I should work with some UK salsa brands as well. At this point it remains to be seen if I will ship to the UK, but I definitely will work on it, so I’m hopeful.
Simple, clear visual design. Straight-forward, terse copy. Great on every level. Kudos.
Looking forward to hearing from you!