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iqonikon I Almost Let My Failed Startup Destroy Me

The market is recruitment (in house and agencies) - and knowing the types of products they still use because it "works for them" and how hard it is to get them to change workflows etc; I believe early adoption will be key. Only time will tell I guess, I'll be sure to do a "Show HN" when I am done!

iqonikon Ask HN: Is free trial or a limited free version better?

It seems like you have proven that 24 hours would be more than enough. I would change it to:

"For a limited time, use * free for 24 hours", then inside the product, push hard from them to pay, have a countdown somewhere very visible for when their license expires.

it sounds annoying but I think it will increase your conversions tenfold.

iqonikon Ask HN: Is free trial or a limited free version better?

Why does the trial have to be 14 days? It sounds like you can get the value from your product in 7 days, perhaps less. Free trials are the period you have to convince them to hand over their cash, if that happens within the first minutes of using the software - get it then!

I would not advise offering a free version, they will be a drain on your support resources and you'll end up hating them. Or at least, I did :) - it is a lot easier to deal with an annoying user knowing they are paying your bills.

iqonikon I Almost Let My Failed Startup Destroy Me

Unfortunately being first to market is key (I think). But yes, you're right, she is already changing so much everyday :-)! Either way, I need to find a better balance, is 3 months too young to teach her to code?!

iqonikon I Almost Let My Failed Startup Destroy Me

Really? it was a painful week the last time I tried. I will give it a go again.

iqonikon I Almost Let My Failed Startup Destroy Me

I am addicted to Coca-Cola and need the caffeine to stop the headaches, my diet consists of quick easy takeout so I have enough time to work in the evenings and spend time with my 3 month old daughter. I am currently working on a side project that I hope will prove itself worthy of "giving it a shot". Now I'm thinking I need to get my health right before I even consider that...for want of a better saying, it's definitely food for thought.

iqonikon Show HN: Pdftotext.org

Thank you, I have bookmarked this for when I don't have a PDF reader installed. Also, we currently render PDF's as images for clients to view (in their browser), this works well on a desktop but not on mobile. I am wondering if the solution may be to display a text version to mobile devices!

iqonikon Why No Padlock?

Thanks, this is very useful. Would be good to be able to set this in pingdom and for you to return a 500 error when something is wrong. Like a healthcheck for SSL certs :-)....I think I'd pay for that too.

iqonikon Show HN: Talk to Users – Get point-and-click feedback from your users

Sorry but this needs touch support, right now it displays well on my iPhone but I cannot 'click' anything. Once you support mobile I will use it in my projects to see how it goes.

iqonikon The Ultimate SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet

Very useful and I must say the offer of a printed version for free with account sign up is brilliant marketing. hat tip

iqonikon Movement to get rid of Adobe Flash started 3 years ago. Flash is still alive

The only thing I use Flash for is to allow a user to easily get something to their clipboard. (http://zeroclipboard.org/) - until that is possible, afraid I will still be using it.

iqonikon Sales page teardown: Snappy

Interesting, although I found their pricing more confusing than anything.

iqonikon Show HN: ZapFixed – Remove annoying fixed menus – Chrome extension

Pretty cool, it would be useful if it could remember what it changed and allow you to toggle back in case i breaks the site you're on.

iqonikon I Work, I Swear

Too fucking right. The company I work for have gone from start up to a more established place - as such this has come up in discussion and it is know that it is very much accepted to swear and I do so on a daily basis.

iqonikon Ask HN: What and how would you pay for our service?

Honestly, if it was 9.99 a monitor, i'd try and make do with one / fine a way around paying for more. Just the hacker in me I guess ;)

iqonikon Ask HN: Do you drunk code?

I am part of the Friday Club at work, basically we have about 3/4 pints every Friday lunch time. My output on a Friday afternoon is close to zero, I cannot concentrate and really don't recommend it!

iqonikon Ask HN: What and how would you pay for our service?

This reminds me of the discussions between Tarsnap and Patio11 - basically, charge more and create tiered pricing. Even if the only difference between one of the tiers is having your phone number.

I will need 4 monitors when my project is complete and I would happily pay $49 per month for that peace of mind.

iqonikon BLOKK – A font for clients who don't understand lorem ipsum

I guess I have just been lucky and/or my mock ups were so confusing that the text was the last of their concerns heh.

iqonikon Ask HN: What are some of the major problems being faced because of web scraping?

Google penalising a site for not having original content may be one. Ofc, it uses bandwidth and costs the site you're scraping resource/money for no benefit to them.

iqonikon Ask HN: “Business” framework around a SaaS

I did some research on this before, I found that intercom.io is a must-have and can handle automated communication with your customers, Stripe is probably the best payment option and the account management will need to be home-rolled and utilize the API's of the aforementioned providers.

I'm sure there is something out there, I just haven't come across it yet!

iqonikon Rent a Squad – Rent proper technical teams from recognized startups

I like the idea - if I wasn't bootstrapping my side project I would definitely consider it so I could spend more time on the business side of things.

Side note, any reason the domain isn't hireasquad? The CTA's and content are.

iqonikon How do I motivate my friends to work on side projects?

I have many friends who are in Sales. I have shown them many side projects and tried to convince them to sell it in their spare time. They are all enthusiastic at first and joke about which sports car they will buy when it takes off.

The truth is they never even attempt to sell it, not once.

I do not get mad at them though, I have just learned not to work with friends. You need boundaries in business. I suggest you do the same :).

iqonikon BLOKK – A font for clients who don't understand lorem ipsum

I like the idea but I am not sure if it fixes a real problem. I don't think I have ever had feedback from clients complaining they don't understand the text.

Where did you get your validation from?

Edit: Looking at the amount of likes/tweets you seem to have social validation, just not sure where I would use it.

iqonikon Web developers, what SaaS tools would you like to see created?

Not affiliated, just remembered the "Shown HN" post when I saw your comment :)

iqonikon [dead]

I would give 30 days notice that you are going to close the account and offer to help (paid) with the migration. If after 30 days they have not migrated, pull the plug. This is assuming you have no legal obligation to keep it online.

iqonikon Web developers, what SaaS tools would you like to see created?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8783103

Any good?

iqonikon Forgot password – No account registered – Securiry breach?

If you have the bandwidth, handle forgotten passwords manually through a customer service call and ensure they give you email, username and billing details if applicable.

iqonikon Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?

In the UK, school goers do a 2 week work placement. Don't do what I did and let them choose for you, suggest an online company and push to shadow a PM, dev...it will at least be interesting and you might just learn a thing or two.

iqonikon Ask HN: Do you ever code under an influence?

Absolutely but I never commit any of the code I write ;). Or at least, I don't remember doing so.

iqonikon Ask HN: What are your big plans for 2015?

The company I work for will be hiring PM's in the 1st quarter. We're based in London, UK. Got an email add.? I'll send you a note when it happens if you're interested.