Ask YC: Feedback on which market to focus | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Feedback on which market to focus

9 pointsterpua12 comments

We've built a 2-way sync platform (for any file types), an iPhone webapp and a web console.

Because the technology is market flexible, we can focus on a number of products/markets. However, the team can't seem to make up its mind and focus is necessary.

These are the markets that we are considering and we need YC reader feedback as to which market and why?

  * last.fm meets documents
  * document management for SMBs
  * digital asset manager for designers
  * work/home/laptop synchronizer (think Dropbox)
  * mobile document management (think Blackberry for docs; what we have now - http://itenna.net)
  * file management and sharing with clients
  * document versioning for SMBs

Preferably, you test iTenna before commenting so you get a feel for the current product.

Early access:

http://itenna.net/signup (need a Mac, coding Windows)

We are using our savings, loans and credit cards to fund our startup so honest feedback will be appreciated :)

I don't know which is the right market, but I have a suggestion on approach: Choose an application/market that you, as founders, personally find appealing. E.g., if you're not designers, don't do an asset manager for designers. It will be way harder to get it right, because you have to make product decisions based on guesses and feedback, rather than intuition. It will also be less fun.

good point. Thanks Evan!

You've built a what? (Seriously, I had to take a look at the site to see what it was... how many others didn't bother?)

If I were you, I'd focus right now on the iPhone fanboys. A big issue you will have is that the iPhone hasn't really found a home in the business world yet. (And may never, although you may help that :-)

I'd focus on the Apple using web designer crowd. These folks love their iPhones and gadgets in general, and have the small freelance businesses that would find need in the product.

I'd ignore all the rest and just focus on them. Keep in mind as well that you aren't doing anything new outside of the iPhone market. (I can already run all my MS docs on a palm, smartphone etc.) There is definitely a need for the early adopters though.

Good Luck

Thanks for your comment.

RE: "you aren't doing anything new outside of the iPhone market" -- actually, there doesn't exist anywhere on the smartphone market the ability to wirelessly 2-way doc sync with the web and your computer. That's what we've built so can apply it to iPhone, Blackberry, etc.

Sorry, I missed the web part. Yes that would be unique, although I'm not sold on it's value. Why would I want my documents on your site when I've already got them on my phone and on my computer? What's the value add there? Backup? Sharing? I get the feeling that the only reason for this is that both my PC and my Phone are clients to the "master copy" on your server.

I do like the personal PC sync though, that's pretty nifty.

(EDIT: You know, back in the day there was no way in the world my comment would be downmodded. A shame.)

RE: web part - yes, backup, sharing and create/edit docs from anywhere (just in case :)

I agree with your point (and with the EDIT). All the big guys (google, MS, yahoo, ...) want to host our files these days, and they provide us with sharing, storage and simple editing facilities for docs and pics. They also do communications, calendaring, news and blogs, etc. I think SMBs will want to use that infrastructure and the big issue will be (as usual) integration.

So, terpua, don't add your servers to the picture in terms of where the files live. That just adds complexity and another point of failure. I'd much rather you help me sync my devices with those services or the services among each other. Sure, this is being done already, but there are a gazillion special cases that people will need support for, and a lot of them involve syncing. I would try to find a few of those cases and make your solution simple for end users to understand.

You may be doing some of this already but I can't tell from the info on your website. There should be an exhaustive feature list on your website.

As an SMB: I'd confirm that there is need for document management & versioning. As a technical person, I'm trying to craft time to build a document versioning & collaboration utility from existing open-source management & versioning (think of writing a desktop app to talk to a subversion back-end but as a document management & collaboration app) aimed at the various project teams in our org.

There might be that not all that visibility of SMBs of the problem. If you can clearly articulate a pain point that they will respond to, you'd have a potential winner.

You don't have to build it, we have it already :) We just need to add the webadmin layer for user management to make it SMB usable.

How about giving away a free version with support for 1GB? Have a free, professional and business versions.

Please put me on the beta trial list when it's available.

Dude this is a good problem to have, I guess.

What market has the biggest need and is most addressable?

Personally I don't like last FM idea and I can't see mobile bringing in money in the Short Term.

URLs aren't turned into links in the text area :)

So here it is: http://itenna.net/signup

Reply on news.ycombinator.com