Ask HN: Is my concept and current application viable?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2074280

by apedley • 16 years ago

9 18 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have recently finished the first launchable product of my "startup" for want of a better word. http://jv.binkd.com

The basics - it connects businesses to join together to form joint ventures to help increase both of their businesses.

I am struggling to get constructive feedback on this application and whether it is actually ready for me to take further or needs a different approach.

The responses from people testing so far have been, looks good, good concept and it will be useful once you have lots of people. Not exactly confidence building.

So my question, is it just the people I require to increase it's usefulness and am I ready to hit my foot on the accelerator?

Currently this is funded by my other business activites in Binkd (Jvee is a small off shoot), I am not new to business but am fairly new to web based startups and the startup community in general.

I would be very greatful for anyone who could offer constructive feedback on this application and concept.

Thanks Adam

newyorker• 16 years ago

Linkity! http://jv.binkd.com

apedley10• 16 years ago

what is the process for making a link active in HN.

Do I do html? BBCode?

Skywing• 16 years ago

links in the body of your post will not become a hyperlink. only in comments do they become clickable.

apedley10• 16 years ago

Ok, 30 mins, not one piece of feedback. I did learn about links becoming active in comments and not posts, which is something at least.

Maybe I should ask the question on how do I get people to respond to my questions? Because my experience over the last week is showing I am failing fairly badly at it. :)

nithyad2• 16 years ago

Hi Adam,

I just went through your site. A few things from the 5 mts I spent there

1. I find the name hard to pronounce. It would be tough for me to remember the name let alone spread it 2. As a business owner you didnt convince me about how exactly I benefit by collaborating with other businesses. Any case studies? Personal experience? I haven't felt the need to collaborate with other businesses to improve mine. But if you can convince me about it I wouldn't mind trying it. 3. Monetization. What are your plans?

apedley10• 16 years ago

Thanks for checking out the site. Some case studies would be a great idea, I am about to use the software myself (in real business) to setup/manage a few JV's, I shall publish the results. Thanks for that idea.

Monetization - freemium model. Once numbers have increased to a threshold, the amount of businesses you would wonder who you could trust. Business relationships are formed around trust. So additional verification added to businesses who want to upgrade and also the current limit of a max of 5 active Joint Ventures lifted, among a few other things.

Thank you for giving your feedback. I appreciate the time you took to do it.

nithyad2• 16 years ago

All the best!

veb2• 16 years ago

My 2 cents... I don't want to sign up to see how the system works, I'd rather be looking at other businesses with goals similar to mine, and if I want to get in touch... BOOM! Sign up time.

apedley10• 16 years ago

That thought already crossed my mind and while the search results wouldn't be as accurate until you signed in and provided more details about the business (as you said the business would have to have goals/values similar to yours) it could be done.

But then I come to the chicken and the egg problem. With no businesses to start with, it's not useful. And no businesses will sign up until it is useful.

And unfortunately unlike Quora or other sites, I just can't fake that user data until I make it. Any suggestions?

And thank you for your time in checking out my site. It's much appreciated.

apedley10• 16 years ago

Just an idea. If made the search open to the public, but required a little bit of information at the start e.g. what industry you are in etc (some search parameters, but not identifiable information) then it turned up unimpressive results (as it would at the moment since there are not many businesses in there)

Then say, do you want to be notified of any other businesses that are interested in a JV with you in the future.

Would you signup to that? Or would you move along?

veb2• 16 years ago

You raise an excellent point. I normally do shove my email address into things to be notified of in the future, and the weirdest thing is I hardly ever get notified.

I think this would work well (for people like me anyway...)

tst_• 16 years ago

Just a small thing: Upload your logo in higher res

apedley10• 16 years ago

Thanks, will do.

notahacker• 16 years ago

The one issue I have with the concept is that "joint venture" means so many things to different businesses - it can be as simple as pooling cash for a marketing campaign (probably quite easy to arrange via a website like yours) or as complicated as setting up a separate legal entity after years of debate, due diligence and contract negotiation. Generally I'd consider things like sponsorship and donations (mentioned in your blog post) to be a different beast entirely.

apedley10• 16 years ago

There are 2 ways to do this, either open up and do it more as a social b2b site and not so focused on JV's or close it down further and more specifically what type of JV this site accepts.

You are right that JV means a lot to different people and I think that the word joint venture probably has to go and I need to close this down further to only support certain types of joint ventures.

Any suggestions?

And thanks for taking the time to look at my site.

apedley10• 16 years ago

I have gone about this the completely wrong way.

Rebuild time :) (not as drastic as I just made it sound)

Thank you everyone for letting me think this out.

Ask HN: Is my concept and current application viable?

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