adityakothadiya

Glad you liked it.

Great suggestion on creating similar landing pages for niche reminder services. I've looked into Google keyword tool, but haven't thought of using it this way. Will look more into it.

No, iPhone app is not everything. You're right, in fact, the main juice is in Web service. iPhone is just a client based on my API. Starting with an iPhone app was just market position approach. There is no app in the app-store which provides this simple solution, so thought let's start with that, and then expand. Web service solution is coming soon though.

Thanks again for your valuable feedback.

Clickable: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093542

Ha ha! I had not expected this usage before. But someone also wrote this review for my app in the app store. I guess this is going to be a common use case then. :)

By Favorites do you mean favorite receivers? Yeah, that's something I'm thinking to add in future. Thanks for the feedback and wishes! Yeah, web application version will be launched soon, which will be primarily targeted towards small businesses with mode advanced features!

Clickable links: Homepage: http://justremindit.com App Store link to download: http://appsto.re/JustRemindIt

This is exactly what my wife struggled for this very moment. It was so hard for her to use Twitpic or Tweetdeck when all she wanted to post a photo from Twitter site. They should really just add their own photo sharing service or integrate seamlessly to other service from their current web site. Their iPhone app is quite good, wish they can bring that experience on their web site.

Yeah, Posterous numbers always seemed to be inflated. I once tried posting my blog link using Bit.ly URL shortner as it also offers analytics for clicks per hour. But Bitly's stats were way less compared to what Posterous was showing during few hours of observation. Unfortunately I didn't do more analysis, but from that point onwards, I started not to believe in Posterous' numbers.

I agree too. It looks stunning and polished service. I'm not sure what marketing strategies/tactics you used so far, and what were the results of it.

But I think you need to focus entirely on marketing and reaching out to many students. Think about some creative marketing ideas that are directly related to university students or so.

See if you can get someone on advisory board who is marketing pro, and help you grow from here. If I was in your shoes, probably I wouldn't quit at this stage. There got to be something that you'll figure out that will work.

Worst case, pivot this crowd-sourcing model to other domain - you already have product ready, see if you can apply this model to other high-paying industry.

Just my $0.02s

I'm not sure why you're saying it's cheaper. As Danielle mentioned, the prices are actually very less. And as a developer, every penny difference counts. Also they give $30 credit, which is more than enough to "try and play" and release your app to production.

I agree with point "3" though. I use Twilio for an app which sends voice call reminders to other people. But when automatic reminder call goes to these people, it goes from a 1-877 number and many people don't pick up the phone thinking that it's a spam number. Instead if I could call from the number of an original user who sets the reminder, that would be really great.

Point "6" also seem to be great, and I'm sure Twilio will add that.

But somehow, the article coming from Tropo's evangelist is not strong enough or convincing to make a switch from Twilio to Tropo. In fact you did a good job in highlighting some of the technical differences. I think the post lacks these kinds of specifics.

Well, I thought the competition was for developers as in indie-developers and not startups! Here is what the description from contest page says -

"We've partnered with Union Square Ventures, who are investors in Twilio, to give one developer the opportunity to travel to New York City to meet with Fred Wilson, Albert Wenger, and Brad Burnham."

This doesn't seem to be a appropriate winner to me. Please note, I'm not demeaning Asthmapolis' value proposition. I'm just saying, probably they are better suited for TechCrunch Disrupt kind of competiion as a startup, and not developer contests!

Mornings nature sounds; afternoon trance.

Thanks for great insights and suggestions! Yeah, retention is key for my app, as it's sort of subscription based model. So thanks for analytics suggestion. Will cook up demo video as well.

Here is a clickable link in case you want to see the preview and earn some free credits before launch - http://justremindit.com

Thank you! I just revoked the authorization for most of the services that I wasn't using frequently but had signed-up one fine day.

May be it's just me that I'm not so impulsive buyer as Sachin. But here is what I do when I see the Groupon deal - ponder upon if I want to buy this or not. Of course, the % discount is always incredible, there is no question about it, so I know I'm going to get it at lot cheaper price than I usually do. But the pondering is always about - do I need it? So the moment I see a Groupon deal, I can't decide right away that I want to buy it or not. I keep pondering over it till afternoon, and most of the times I purchased the deals in the late afternoon or evening. So it takes some time for me to see the deal, and then make the decision. I can't think of myself making the decision within few minutes after I see the deal, and that too before sleep after a tiring day of work. So I actually don't mind getting these emails in the morning, when I'm fresh and ready to get started for the day. So not sure if the pattern Sachin wrote about is most common or the pattern I'm seeing is common. Yeah, that's when A/B testing will help.

SF is primarily a hub of Web-based companies - consumer applications. Though there are many big players down in Palo Alto/Mountain View. Also, startup doesn't mean only web-based startup. There are thousands of hardware and enterprise software companies down in San Jose/Santa Clara.

Here is the stack geographically, that works quite well with stack of software.

San Fran: Web based apps

Palo Alto/Mountain View/Cupertino: Web based + Desktop based software

Santa Clara: Enterprise + Desktop based software + EDA software + Hardware

San Jose: Hardware

That's not entirely true. Definition of failure varies broadly for different people the same way definition of success. I know few entrepreneurs very closely who made their first startup very successful. Sure, it was very challenging along the way, but they made it in the end.

May be the fair statement would be - "Failed in one startup doesn't mean you failed as an entrepreneur. There is still hope that you can make the next one successful."

Exactly, that was the point. Even Mark Zuckerberg primarily focuses on Product and Platform, whereas COO Sheryl Sandberg focuses on other Biz Dev things.

(From: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/business/03face.html)

"Ms. Sandberg has focused on building the business, expanding internationally, cultivating relationships with large advertisers and putting her polish on things like communications and public policy. That has freed Mr. Zuckerberg to focus on what he likes best: the Facebook Web site and its platform."

This makes me admire Mark Zuckerberg more as he is heading such a big empire at such a small age! Facebook for sure had lot more challenges than Twitter for their Privacy issues and many new releases. Mark stood strong in all those incidents, and didn't give up. I remember his talk from StarupSchool, and how he was so supportive of Mark Picnus's advice on why founders need to be CEOs of their company.

Definitely user experience is the new IP. Some startups are getting some advantage over competitors just based on user experience. But do you think user experience is really defensible? How hard it is for competitors to imitate your user experience? (Apple just didn't have user experience. They had multi-touch technology as well, which was defensible.)

I remember reading one post from Union Square Venture blog about defensibility is not about features, or technology layer you use - but now a days its about the network effect (Craigslist, eBay), and accumulation of data asset (Google, Facebook).

So how startups can win over competitors in long run just based on User Experience? Sure, it can give great head start, but I think to sustain that leadership in the long run, you need to also innovate defensible technology or above mentioned network effect or data asset.

Wow! I was wondering what would happen to Brizzly after Twitter's new web interface. Brizzly has nice interface for in-stream media and so. I thought their key point was user interface. And I was thinking what would a startup (client) do, whose core selling point is better UI, in case when a platform itself comes up with a better UI.

I wonder how these acquisitions happen? Probably Brizzly knew they will die soon? So they wanted to sell it off? And they have some connections with AOL somehow, and get the word out that they are on sale? Any ideas?

This sounds great! I just formed a LLC today and will be launching my Twilio powered business in 2-3 weeks. It's web + iPhone app based app. Will be announcing soon here as well once my iPhone app gets approved.

$10K is not huge money for me, so that's not something which excites me, especially when I've revenue making plans from day 1. It's the network effect, PR effect, building relationships that one can achieve from these kinds of programs, excite me. I'm guessing this will be a great YC competitor, and in turn I hope it will return YC like after results.

I heard a similar story the other day by a friend of mine about his colleague. This guy left his job at previous company while his Green Card application was in the 2nd stage. He was tired of waiting in that 2nd stage for years with the hope of reaching to final stage. Finally he got too tired, and he switched the job to a different company. Just within 1 week of joining a new company, magically USCIS released new dates and that guy's application was able to go in the final stage of the Green Card process. Unfortunately, for that to happen, he needed to work with his previous company. He has no option than to talk to his old employer. They took him back.

Weird things happen with immigration cases. And big corporates are sensible enough to understand such situation and help good employees.

Apparently I didn't find his answers were crisp and clear. You could see lot of generalism and diplomacy. I use Quora, and I kind of get it. But I was trying to see how he pitches Quora - as investors or many people say - in 1-2 sentences. I didn't see he pointing out what they really stand for - like the one thing. I didn't see he explaining Quora's differentiating or unique selling points.

I was trying to learn how he explains why they exist. But apparently, I didn't see that spark.

Try this - http://blog.kissmetrics.com/seo-guide/

Wow! China is a huge market. I know it was very big, but didn't know it's this huge. I wonder if China has equally good Startup ecosystem like USA which promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. Also, another question is - do US startups even have a strategy to focus equally on Chinese market like US market? If yes, how do they go about doing that?

I'm glad to see your reply. At least we now know what exactly or close to exactly happened. The other day on HN thread, all we learned were "opinions" and "guesses" about why his startup is not getting featured on major blogs.

Now this is called as - the power of HN and open communication!

Having Optimizely featured on TechCrunch reminds me founder of another A/B testing startup visualwebsiteoptimizer.com asking advice on HN about why his startup is not getting featured on TechCrunch. VWO is definitely compelling and valuable product, but it didn't get covered after multiple tries. Many folks on HN gave advice that - "have a compelling story."

The compelling story in Optimizely's case is - "A YC funded company". I'm not against of Optimizely in any way, but this just shows the power of being YC network.

37Signals are trend setters when it comes to UI design. Pretty much every iteration of their Design/UI is followed by many web-apps. Remember the very first version of Ta-da list home page, then the old Basecamp homepage, and now the new Basecamp homepage. Also the layout of all their web apps is followed by many SaaS apps now. Now this - simple landing page, will be followed by many people now. It's good stuff!

Increase your patience level. Lower your unnecessary expectations. Have a playful environment. Respect everybody's style. And agree that world doesn't move at your pace.

Step back a little. See if there is something you can fix in you rather than fixing something in other people.

I've gone through this situation, and I've come across this problem by letting the steam off, trusting people, and giving there own space as long as I'm making progress on product front.