ryderj

Hi HN,

Like the rest of the startup community, we love a good Paul Graham essay. However, when it comes to choosing one it's always a bit of a hassle. So we made Jumble!

Jumble gives you a Paul Graham essay to read with 1 tap and then lets you shuffle your way through more essays on the fly.

If you've got any feedback/comments, we'd love to hear them.

Cheers, Jack & Sam

Jack from wantobuy here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11477823 - also somewhere on the first page - I agree with you Vishal and abhi3.

Moreover, we were rejected the standard YC way too but have got some really great feedback from the HN community which we're implementing already!

I just think the whole Apply HN buzz fizzled out, favouring those that got in on day 1..we were about a week late..

Googling is certainly an option if you've got the time/effort.

But in these Facebook Groups, general 'want to buy' posts are created since there may be a brand/item that you don't know about - someone else may have found something that fits the criteria in the past.

This is a way for people to recommend items to you, tapping into their experiences & learnings and a great way for you to discover new products without the effort of trawling google/eBay/Amazon etc.

Hey Chris, which part are you referring to?

We're only using PayPayl to handle payments, employing a feedback system to combat untrustworthy users and in the beginning only allowing Log In with Facebook so users are authenticated to some degree.

Happy to explain any aspects in further detail!

Local businesses are definitely important! We want to satisfy the casual sellers and the smaller businesses too.

Ideally, we'll sync up with the stock these businesses are currently holding and then be able to let them know who wants to buy their products. Win-win since businesses are accessing new customers that didn't previously know about them and the buyers are getting what they need.

I like the locality aspect though and I agree that should play a big role in this side of things.

Cheers!

Because sellers are able to see what people are wanting to pay for their item (its included in the listing), they can easily identify the going-rate for items and use that to decide whether they want to sell or not.

Like any marketplace there'll be time wasters - I don't sell on eBay anymore because of them - but in my experience, most of the time its the buyers that are time wasters.

In our case - since buyers have gone to the effort of creating a WTB listing, you could argue they're less inclined to waste sellers' time. Of course, the feedback system/reporting users would help us to identify repeat offenders and take action.

Check out our demo which should help explain things: http://www.wantobuythat.com/demo.html

Good to know, cheers for that.

Perhaps taking payment before an order is placed so that as soon as the target amount is hit the order is automatically placed.

Amazon has 1 click, we're talking zero clicks!

Interesting idea but what about the privacy of the information? I wouldn't want my life to be in the hands of anyone else, all in one place, due to the risks involved.

Yes, almost the reverse of current retailers. Instead of multiple buyers trying to purchase from one seller, we're looking at one buyer having multiple product options from other users.

This would help with product discoverability since other users can suggest products the buyer had not originally thought of as well as helping the buyer to get the exact product they want.

Cheers

Hey, we're from Britain too, Newcastle originally!

To clear that up, when we talk about 'posting' we mean creating a Facebook post in a Fb Group.

The only time something would be sent in the mail is the same as conventional selling, when something has been purchased.

Like any marketplace we're employing a feedback system where users can rate/report transactions to combat dissatisfaction.

On top of that, when a user sells an item they must take a photo on the spot, not choose from their photo library. The photo is tagged with their username and date so the buyer is confident the item they're purchasing belongs to that particular seller.

Payments can only be sent/received using PayPal to start with since this is standard practise with our beachhead segment - Facebook Groups.

Authentication service - for items over a certain price we're looking to offer an authentication service where we can act as the middleman for the transaction. This way we can ensure premium goods are legitimate before sending them onto the buyer.

Of course, with marketplaces there's risk, however, we feel these steps will help to minimise this risk.

Great question!

Process - Although I never got a chance to use it, we have looked into this and it seemed like eBay's service was hard work for buyers. The whole process of creating a 'wanted item' listing and then eventually purchasing that item seemed to be fairly ugly and involved entering auctionId's or setting up new auctions to complete the purchase... not fun!

Fees - eBay fees are sky high at 10% + listing fees. Instead of charging fees we're looking to generate revenue through referral, not charge the buyers/sellers directly.

Product discoverability - We're not bound to one platform. From scraping top retailers such as Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba and eBay we've got a wider search area to find exactly what buyers want.

Community - We're building this for the Facebook Group community because we would love to have something like this ourselves - it would make our lives buying/selling so much easier. As a result, the ability to chat with sellers within the app (not email) and share WTB listings to Facebook Groups gives our users much more power to find what they want, fast!

Thanks! Controlling the price 'want to buy' requests will be important. Currently, on Facebook Groups people advertise that they would pay a much larger figure than they intend to which is extremely frustrating for sellers as well as other interested buyers.

I agree, with scale a catalog of what people want to buy and how much they want to pay for it turns us into a market research company of sorts!

Thanks for the feedback Toby! Yeah for sure we're looking to control how much people purchase things for so people can actually follow through with their WTB requests - by not allowing silly 'want to buy' amounts for example.

Cheers!

Cheers for the feedback Aron!

Yeah, we're both in so many Facebook groups our newsfeeds are purely streetwear posts! As you say, the challenge comes when we want to get people onboard. The great thing is that these WTB posts already exist within the groups so I'm sure we can find a way of getting these on our platform in the beginning so we at least have the supply side of things covered. Yeah you're right, raffling a pair of Yeezy's would get everyone and their mum to download the app - something we'll look at down the line for sure.

I hear what you're saying about the website and we are looking to get something decent up before too long, however from talking to members, a growing number of people are using the Facebook Groups app to get their 'fix' of streetwear throughout the day, so an app would seem like the natural progression there. I do understand what you're saying and we'll certainly look into the desktop presence asap.

Great stuff, thanks again - I'll ping you an invite to test the app so far if you're interested?

We were thinking of expanding into something similar eventually related to group buying. Were you focused B2C? We were considering looking into B2B but as you say, I can imagine the complications involved!

Great shout, you're right. I think it's about finding a balance between standardising the listing as much as possible but allowing for people to post any item they're after.

Cheers!

Are we any more/less likely to be accepted if our team is straight out of University?