Congrats on the launch. How is this different than FireHydrant?
49 karma · joined December 14, 2020
That goes for anyone else!
--Rob
Two big changes: Most players in this space treat authentication as a point in time decision and it is usually static. IE, you are about to enter an webapp, we will now authenticate you. We think authentication should be a gradient. You can be unauthenticated, authenticated but unverified, and you can be fully authenticated. The ideal user experience is that users should be able to try an app or experience prior to having to "login".
Second, we also hold account/profile data for users and make it available to apps and websites to personalize and customize their experience. This is critical as we move into "hyper customization" in the near future. We allow sites to slowly gather data through trust. At the same time, we give the end-user control over this data (they can turn it off, edit it, just like they would a profile).
Agree, it is over-priced for simple use-cases. What would be an appropriate price for the hacker news audience? It is far easier for us to lower prices and raise them.
Let me know and I'll change it!
The truth is, if your email is compromised right now, most sites will be compromised since "lost password" fall backs are sent over email. 2FA is the way to go into the future.
The heart of this issue is around how to authenticate users quickly and securely.
Will update right now.
We will likely add Google Authentication since it is a faster way to validate your email (and 65% of internet users have gmail). Facebook auth is on its way out (down from 6M a few years ago to 3M in 2022).
Also, looking towards logging in with crypto wallets in the near future.
We (at Rownd) are looking into self-hosted, open-source options as well. What are a few features that are MUST haves?
There are some that are more complex (like SMS auth, email auth, etc). We want to 100% get away from passwords, so passwordless is critical since most passwords are security issues.
That is a great question. We are new and want to find those folks that are willing to pay 2-10 times more than the competitors. Most all of our competitors are free for 2-12 months hoping to lock you in. It is very counter-intuitive, but our first 20 paying customers have such a real pain point that are not being met, then even knowing that there are cheaper alternatives, they turn to us.
We do offer 50% off of that rate for hacker news ($49 a month). We will decrease our price over time as we really understand more about our customers, their problems, and make onboarding super simple.
Having said all of that, reach out at robert (a-t..) rownd.io and if you are willing to give us feedback I'll find a price to make it work.
What we (now with hindsight incorrectly) wanted to show was that you can enter you email and then NOT have to verify it and interact with the actual code snippet you can put into your app or website. Since we are in webflow and if you used a live snippet with a live App key, we assumed users would want to come back if they wanted access to it again. So, we figured most (and we have had a few hundred) would enter their email and then see a fully working snippet, with an API key, ready to roll in webflow and think that was neat.
Now, having a few hundred people on the site, I do think letting users see the snippet and then "request" an APP key with their email is the right answer. We could not have come to this conclusion without this launch.
Appreciate it! - Rob from Rownd
We also "verify" and authenticate, but that is where we diverge. We also help websites manage "profiles" and "accounts" and that data can be made available for customization and personalization. From what a user sees to how they interact with a site or app.
Finally, we give the user the ability to retroactively "revoke consent" to their data. When they turn it off, the site and app no longer have access to it.
To emphasis: During check out, they still have you add your email and phone (for receipt, tracking, etc). It is transactional in nature, but the company still has it and likely saves the session with a cookie.
Rownd is trying to fix this: Why not treat everyone like a guest the first time and if they want, when they come back, they can verify phone/email (or wallet in the future) and then the rest is filled in.
99% of the time I "continue as a guest" because it is easier than going through the hassle of email (verify), password (remember or pw manager), and the 9 other questions they ask before you can actually check out.
I totally understand the "set up a call" frustration. Since we just launched, we really want to talk to users or potential users and learn more about their use-cases. We manually onboarded our first customers (emailing snippets, etc) and learned so much about their needs and painpoints, we wanted to keep that going for a while as we grow.
We want the internet to be kind of like Discord's auth, one where you can see what is going on in a server but there are some actions that require verification/authentication. Like you said, if you just want a sneak peak, no reason to verify your email or create a bad password. But if you want to leave a comment, you have to verify.
Buying something from an ecommerse website could be either or. You may want to save some specifics or preferences. Others may need you to create an account to come back, especially if there is critical data being stored. I agree that passwords are dangerous.
We used our own auth to create a "try it out" page on Webflow. We do need an email (but it does not have to be validated) so we can go to our backend and create an App key so you can try the snippet. If you come back, you also do not have to validate, but if you want to go into our app deeper, we have you validate because otherwise, you will not be able to get back after the tokens expire, you use a different browser, etc.
What is really exciting is a world where you can validate without an email or phone number. So you can come back without needing more data.
Edit: Also, if you're willing, can you shoot me an email robert (a - t) rownd.io? would love to chat about your thoughts on the product.
Edit: Even better, I updated the call to action at the top of the landing page. Thank you again for your feedback!
Thank you for your very focused and tactical feedback. Easy to change!
Try this: https://rownd.io/hacker-news . We'll add a button to the main site!
We are in the transition from "do things that don't scale" to "scale and grow".
--Rob
Pure gold Daniel! Spot on. Makes absolute sense!
Thank you for the feedback.
You are absolutely correct. Is it very easy to say the same thing 5 times. I really (sincerely) do appreciate the feedback. Seeing what is important and what resonates is really important and one of the best reasons for a Hacker News launch.
You really found the crux of our g2m a/b testing - appeal to the developer (this is really easy) or appeal to the product manager (this will get you more users, faster).
Hit me up sometime if you want to chat more (would love to pick your brain - robert (a-t) rownd (dot) io. ). Thank you!