Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competitors: none. Target market: huge. But...

Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by gscott on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:30PM (#76079)

It is a unique story, try pitching it to the local news, worst they can do is say no.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by tkiley on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:36PM (#76081)

Good idea, I'll give that a whirl.

PG and others tend to talk a lot about how PR firms and offline marketing are irrelevant to online startups -- I think this may be one particular instance where that's not true. In a way, this is a very web1.0 idea, but hey, it's something people seem to want, so I'm running with it.

Thanks for the thoughts.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by ed on Sunday November 04, 2007 @04:14PM (#76098)

"Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month. And they were worth it. PR is the news equivalent of search engine optimization; instead of buying ads, which readers ignore, you get yourself inserted directly into the stories."

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by gscott on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:45PM (#76086)

The fact that you have a hospital willing to do this is something huge. If you can make it work with them you could go to other hospitals to do the same.

It is a tough one to figure out though. I would think you would need to try to inform everyone in a 6 mile radius of this service. If it is densly populated you might try door hangers.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by mynameishere on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:42PM (#76083)

What story could you possibly make this into except, "Rich fucks pay to get ahead of poor sick people in emergency rooms?"

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by tkiley on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:45PM (#76087)

Users of this service aren't allowed to "get ahead of" anyone. This service only allows people to wait at home rather than waiting in the ER; the wait time is still the same, it's only a bit more comfortable.

Thanks for your input. ;-)

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by mynameishere on Sunday November 04, 2007 @09:32PM (#76171)

Users of this service aren't allowed to "get ahead of" anyone

That is rather clearly the whole point, but I'm not going to argue with you--I'm just alterting you to the fact that the public response to this will be overwhelmingly anti-elitist. As such, any advertising should probably be targeted.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by gscott on Sunday November 04, 2007 @03:47PM (#76089)

Yes that is the story. Everyone wants to be rich and the guy who gets into the emergency room first. Kind of like those people who go to the front of the line at Disneyland.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by rksprst on Sunday November 04, 2007 @10:16PM (#76180)

Actually, you don't pay anything for those fast passes. If you have a ticket you just get them for free next to the ride. Everyone can do that.

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by rms on Sunday November 04, 2007 @10:20PM (#76183)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=65100

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Re:Ask YC: Profit: $25/user. Customers: satisfied. Competito... by jraines on Sunday November 04, 2007 @07:46PM (#76157)

You mean the people who are smart enough to buy Fastpasses?

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