HackrNwsDesignr
HackrNwsDesignr on Hacker News
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Saturday February 05, 2011 @12:09AM
from the ask-hn dept.
How do you guys go about getting initial traction for your product? How many users do you usually get when doing so (if you post on Hn, for example). I'm finding this is the barrier to moving forward after building a good product.I thought we could use this post to each discuss different methods for bringing in users initially without spending much if any money, and doing so in an ethical...
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Thursday February 03, 2011 @03:14PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I am looking for a startup blog that covers startups in the medical field (web startups and biotech). Does anyone know of any?
I'm trying to get a little insight into what HN wants from a new startup blog, I have already started writing a few posts and am a big believer i just diving in, but wanted to see what your thoughts and what you guys are looking for in a startup blog.
Is there anything besides the typical startup review you would find useful? Maybe the community. I read facebook is putting out a 3rd party commenting system and thought it would be great to have a quora style accountability in the comments. What do you guys think? Any ideas, feedback on a startup blog is welcome, and I'll definitely get it going asap. I already have the wordpress up and a few posts.
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Tuesday February 01, 2011 @01:33AM
from the ask-hn dept.
Hey HN,
I noticed a post recently about a TC competitor, and well I've been planning to work on a startup focused blog as well, mainly because TC covers mainstream news and bigger companies. I would like to focus on startups solely, but since there are some already out there, and the one mentioned in the other post, I have been trying to think of a twist. I wanted to get some feedback and see...
nice. what will the premium version have? is it a place to scribble notes?
I'm looking to see a few bare bones MVP's, early stages, or different MVP's at different stages perhaps, I know what they are, just trying to get a post / resource going for HN to see real people's MVP's, not like, facebook, flickr, etc.
what does convertible note/solid terms mean?
maybe YC doesn't want to spend time gaining that clout? they're like the sequoia of incubators.
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Monday January 31, 2011 @11:31AM
from the ask-hn dept.
Is anyone working on an MVP they want to share/get feedback on? I'm reading a lot about lean startup methodologies and would love to see a few.
What does "LP" mean? Does that mean an investment deal or advising deal?
How do you guys manage 40 startups in one batch? I am quite excited to read about them when they launch.
I agree with Travis, you shouldn't really be worried about getting seed capital. We believe that you can believe in your product enough to make it do well, we've all been there, but the fact is that's not enough. So what is? Like Travis said: traction. If you build the prototype and then get traction you can goto the VC's, heck you might be in such a good spot you can call the shots like zuckerberg did with facebook. There's no harm in doing this first, and thinking you need capital is usually a false hurdle.
bottom line: keep going.
I can see hipmunk fetching way more than 10 million, if they decide to sell. It addresses a huge paint point in sites people have little brand loyalty because people hop around for deals to airlines they _do_ have brand loyalty for anyways. Hipmunk is 10x easier to use with all the same deals on those sites, and they are creating brand loyalty with a cute chipmunk. #win
bummer. oh well. I'm hoping to set something up really informal..just so we have a place to work that is not home. maybe just a group of hackers at a library or quiet place where we can build. nothing fancy.
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @08:53PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I was wondering if there were any hackers in ft worth that might be interested in starting a coworking space-- nothing big. I'm thinking maybe we can use a room at a library or find an area that would be suitable to bring laptops etc.I know there's one in dallas, but thought it would be nice to set one up around ft. worth/nrh area.
I think you should try to find someone here who has put some work into a tutoring service, and is clearly moving in a positive direction in tutoring like your project. Give it to them and help them get going on their ambition. Great designs and name, and I hope you find a home for it :)
www.techwildcatters.com does more enterprise projects and not consumer.
Does anyone have a good tutorial link to switching from a regular vps host to something like amazon ec2 or linode?
I would try to go anywhere where parents/kids are. Maybe you could work with a local book store that often does story time type things for kids, or even schools. We had a virtual bank in elementary school to learn about money, why not work with local schools that may or may not have it already, and supplement with your app or offer it?
Congratulations on a great concept and design. Any plans to offer a free trial or demo of the product?
how would you get the geocoordinates of hacker news users? I don't see it in the about profile, do you mean asking them for it?
Also, if anyone has ideas of something quick and easy they wanted to have built, feel free to share here.
Posted by
HackrNwsDesignr on Saturday January 08, 2011 @10:15PM
from the ask-hn dept.
Are there any hackers that want to work on a few ideas for a web app from scratch? We could build something that we ourselves come up with together and hack it together in a few hours until it's up and running.I am a front-end designer. I was hoping we could make a resource to benefit the start up community on hacker news.I would like to use PHP/MySQL, but I'm open to learning Ruby on Rails for...
I'm going to try RoR, I hear it is a lot of fun, and as a programmer I want to have fun with my work :)
I would suggest measuring the work hours you have in a day, and understand at 9 pm you have to start thinking about going to sleep, and getting tired. It's hard to jump from active to sleep, you'll fail. So learn to push yourself to stop at take it easier gradually. By 10 PM, maybe you start actually winding down more. With practice you can probably get to bed quickly, and take advantage of your work hours during the day. Try practicing this regimen for a while and you'll get into the habit of ending your day, not working til exhaustion. In fact you probably functioned that way before you worked too hard =)
Does anyone know if non-googlers can work on Gmail apps/plug ins? I have some cool ideas that would benefit a lot of people in their daily email writing.
I would suggest figuring out what you want to code as a starting point. For example, if you want to build a web start up it might be better to focus on articles in that community as opposed to say articles on how to code better in C or for windows application.
Next, there are lots of articles out there on how to be a better programmer, I imagine its a combination of working on your own things, talking to other programmers who are smart, and reading about some of the people out there who have put time into figuring out what this means -- Joel Spolsky comes to mind.
Of course with anything practice makes perfect, so that's a must. After you've decided on some philosophies, maybe you could work on a few apps every month until you accomplish your goal of 'stepping up.'