Now, if you're asking if it's aesthetically pleasing, that's a different story. But we were talking about design, right?
Hmm I think design also includes aesthetics - at least somewhat. Think about UI/UX. Both are design concepts. You're essentially describing the Casio as providing a great UX but not a great UI. I'd still argue UX is more important, but I wouldn't fully ignore UI when talking about design.
"This is awesome, good luck!" or something similarly supportive should be the bulk of comments in here. Cynicism for something like this, especially given the time we're in, is not helpful.
A solution is to build a platform that crowdsources such cases to raise awareness AND a call for action. The community would need to be unbelievable but it's not at all impossible. Once there are 100,000 signatures on any petition under 30 days, the White House guarantees a response. There are many great communities with more than 100,000 active users. Why not?
I don't want to work for a company, I'd much rather start my own. And there are definitely some problems I'd like to solve, but I'm still figuring out which ones will actually add value and how to go about solving them. Any advice? If I just applied with a bunch of ideas and the YC team liked one, would it be considered? I'd imagine there needs to be at least some progress but still thought I'd ask.
My relevant background is that I built a social calendaring app with my college roommate and it was eventually acquired by our university. In my eyes, it was a failure that I learned a lot from.
It was a social calendaring app exclusive to UofM students. We uploaded the course database so students could pick the classes they were enrolled in and sync it to a calendar (students could also sync their other calendars) and share it with their friends. It was an easier way for UofM students to see what their friends/classmates were upto throughout the day.
I'm a college kid, started a startup with my roommate and sold it to our university. We did everything wrong, but learned so much that I could write a thesis on it. If I had to do it again and change ONE thing, though, it would be one of PG's central points in this post: get to know your users. We knew who they were at a big picture (UofM students) but did not do a good job honing on on specific 'personality types' that would enjoy our app nor did we keep in touch with our loyal users as much as we should have. Will definitely do that when a next time comes around. The crazier, and daunting, part of reading this post is realizing that despite how much I learned from my first startup, there will be so much to learn from when I find the next fun thing or problem to work at. Can't wait.
Student at Univ. of Michigan. Just sold my mobile/web app to the University. Looking for work during the school year, willing to do some front-end dev, PM, and/or BizDev/Sales. Can put in at least 20hr/week.
Location: Ann Arbor
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: Can't until I'm done w/school in May.
Almost every parent comment so far contains "What's the catch?" or something similar. Speaks volumes of EA's lack of transparency with their customers. They make great games, but seem to have some sleaziness when it comes to the pricing/terms of their products.
I think their base model is validated, it just may need more. According to the TC article [1], "In a statement, Flipkart said the 'funds will be used to make long-term strategic investments in India, especially in mobile technology.'" So they are predicting some of these acquisitions to help grow that model before going public.
Awesome! I never really thought Show HN would stop ProductHunt from growing. They're similar, but have key differences.
It's also cool that they let you know when your product is on PH and validate posts. Only thing I wish is that they had a little better/more responsive customer service but I guess they are still in their initial stages. One of their moderators posted my product but used a very unfitting title. I tweeted and wrote to them but didn't receive a response until the next day and, if you're familiar with PH, that is simply too late because my product was already buried in the previous days posts...and then I was told they couldn't do anything more to help me. Hope this serves as feedback for the future!
The most impressive 'stat' about these stats is how little most of the startups were when they were accepted into YC. And the average goes on to raise ~$40M(taken from a existing comment on this thread). Take Airbnb as an example...probably no VC, and hardly any angels, would have ever invested in them at the stage YC did.
Yes, you're right, so crowdsourcing is appropriate to say. The second option, "If a user asks enters a product that is already in the database and you already have a better price, notify him in a mail a few minutes later that you have a better price and he will be impressed", is a little longer than a few minutes right now but we will improve that very soon.
I wouldn't go as far as crowdsourcing quite yet, but yes, all in disguise. So from the users point, they hardly have any work to do when it comes to the searching. And we'll let them know how the search goes from our end :)
Thanks for the advice/link. Spending money effectively is key because I'm a poor college student. I really hate ads but after reading through several blogs/articles, it seems like it could be a good start to getting some more initial users.
At a very high level, this idea seems interesting. But I've seen a few sites like this one recently and I'm not a fan. They generally have a cool-looking page but hardly any information saying what they ACTUALLY do. My guess is they want us to click around the page(s), admire the design and ideally, sign up to learn more.
Frankly, not many people seem to be a fan of it so future landing page designers, please take note of this and avoid it. Beautiful design is awesome but it is merely the cherry on top. If the stuff below it sucks, the cherry loses its significance.
Awesome! This is one of the first outdoor smart products out there that seems legit. I can't see why a gardener would not want this. Hopefully you guys can do what Nest did inside of homes, to the outside of homes. Good luck :)
I clicked "She'll be right!" just to test if this was true and none of the results guess me to be Australian. I had originally thought the same as you did but was pleasantly surprised.
Great article, but I have a situational question: Let's say a company has grown at a 10% weekly growth rate and is now at 500 users. But as they try to sell to more people, they realize they are no longer growing at 10% and their growth rate is stagnant or decreasing WOW. Does it make sense to continue trying to sell OR focusing on user feedback and improving the product? I assume 'both' will be a popular answer but why? If you know your product is currently subpar, why not just build until the next iteration is ready and then start selling again?