Ask HN: Review our Business TV Startup

by zen53 • 17 years ago

13 9 17 years ago

Hey All,

Would love to get your feedback on a site I am working on at the moment. We just launched today so expect it to have a few bugs that need ironed out still.

Thoughts on branding/UI/Site content etc very much appreicated - either positive or negative. Will take them onboard/review and implement.

(Note: smart phone goodness a couple of weeks away)

zen534• 17 years ago

Hey All,

Would love to get your feedback on a site I am working on at the moment. We just launched today so expect it to have a few bugs that need ironed out still.

Thoughts on branding/UI/Site content etc very much appreicated - either positive or negative. Will take them onboard/review and implement.

(Note: smart phone goodness a couple of weeks away)

mbreese• 17 years ago

This is a very US centric comment, but the format of the dates threw me off for a minute. I suspect you're a European company, so you use DD/MM/YY. However, if most of your audience is US, they'll expect MM/DD/YY. As a compromise, you could do Jan-18 or 18-Jan, or something like that... that was the very first thing that stuck out to me though.

Well, that and the small size of the interviews. I would like to see the interviews be a little longer. Perhaps you're planning on splitting a longer interview into smaller chunks, in which case, it might be nice to let us know what is coming down the line. If there are longer videos available to registered users (which it looks like there might be), it wasn't very clear how much longer they were or what other topics they covered. Perhaps you could post two times. One for unregistered (2:30) and one for members (45:00). Then you could have a breakdown of the topics, and show which chunk the unregistered viewers get to see.

Also, while watching a video my scrolling position would frequently change. If I was scrolled all the way to the top, it would scroll down (presumably to make the ad visible?). This was distracting. If you need to have the ad visible, you might consider relocating it next to the main video player.

I'd like to see more though... good luck!

zen534• 17 years ago

Will look into the video scrolling...that shouldn't happen at all. The US centric comment makes perfect sense as this is our target market.

It seems we need more of a call to action at the end of the video to pre-empt registration to watch the whole video. The idea of showing the difference between unregistered/members video lenghth/breakdown of topics is great and one I would like to implement. Cheers

johnrob• 17 years ago

My first impression of the site was that it was a directory of videos featuring bosses ("meettheboss.tv" implies just that). However, the site looks overly complex given that mission... there are channels, articles, training, podcasts, etc.

You should either make the product as simple as the name (i.e. simplify the site's navigation and content so that it only includes boss videos), or change the name/message to imply more than boss videos.

d4ft• 17 years ago

So what extra does this provide outside of the numerous other startup/how to rule world video sites (Mixergy comes to mind), and will whatever that extra is make it monetizable? For instance, are you guys producing your own content, and if so, are the people saying different things than they have already said elsewhere? So in short, what value does meettheboss add to the already crowded "how to run a good business" market.

zen534• 17 years ago

Thanks for your insights. Big fan of Andrew's work. Yeah the content is original and produced by us. The value-add is in the strength of the interviewees we'd like to think. Breaking out an shining in this space is definitely going to be a challenge. We are channelling all the value into the content, ondemand access on multiple platforms (mobile, boxee, apps, widgets etc), and working towards connecting the audience closer to the top CEO's of the World. Thanks again.

callmeed• 17 years ago

First off, the design of the site is fairly solid. I think you did a good job there.

As johnrob stated, the name might be an issue–you don't want your brand to pigeon-hole you or give people the wrong impression.

I have no idea what your monetization strategy is, but I would look into a paid section of the site. Offer the 2-10 min videos for free but have a "premium" area where you have collections of 20-60 min videos available for paid members.

You could also organize premium videos into groups and offer some sort of "program" to entire organizations. Business training programs are big business–especially in areas like management, customer service, conflict resolution, compliance, etc. You could use something like Moodle (http://moodle.org/) to offer videos, content, testing, and tracking.

Yes, I know it's expensive to create such content but if I were you, I'd go looking for a partner–someone who has created these programs in analog/DVD formats. Offer to repurpose their content for the web and share revenue.

Anyway, that's my $.02 ... might be beyond what you had in mind.

zen534• 17 years ago

Really appreciate your thoughts Erik. The "premuim" area makes sense - this is definitely on our roadmap. Love the idea/look of moodle will review this further. Partnering makes huge sense for quality additional content for the premium subscribers. Thank you

Vindexus• 17 years ago

"MeetTheBoss TV is where future leaders learn."

I think this is a bit ambiguous and sounds kind of marketingy. What does that it exactly? I think something along the lines of " learn how to be a better boss" or "how to climb the corporate ladder" or something along those lines would be better.

I like the design though. It seems very clean.

Ask HN: Review our Business TV Startup

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