BetaCandy: Idea to Launch in Under 24 Hours

http://collaborable.com/blog/betacandy-open-signup-now

by ericingram • 15 years ago

18 17 15 years ago

kiriappeee• 15 years ago

I signed up. The confirmation mail hasn't arrived after nearly 20 minutes :S

ericingram7• 15 years ago

Ouch, it's a campaign monitor list, so delivery is up to their system (campaignmonitor.com). When it closes to invite only, we'll use our own system to manage invites and emails.

You can subscribe multiple times and it should re-send the confirmation.

alanfalcon2• 15 years ago

Now I want this kind of list for iOS apps. Suggestions?

ericingram7• 15 years ago

Have a particular iOS app/maker in mind? I want to approach the best, and get the best offers for our subscribers.

rmah• 15 years ago

Umm... what does it do?

ericingram7• 15 years ago

Entrepreneurs sometimes have trouble getting a new product into the hands of its most important target: early adopters.

It's an e-mail list, open signup for now, but invite-only soon, of picky early adopters. People that are usually the type to play with beta products (good ones, great ones).

Entrepreneurs create a killer offer to attract these early adopters (BetaCandy subscribers) and the "best" will be sent to this list. Hand picked, no spam.

Think of it like a shortcut for the famous "email signup splash page". If we grow a quality list of true early adopters, keep the offers relevant and awesome, it should work out well for both startups and subscribers.

ericingram7• 15 years ago

Currently at about 50 subscribers (double opt in).

ericingram7• 15 years ago

150

jerrell• 15 years ago

Really interesting idea.

One issue I was conscious of while reading the description: I'm not sure the intersection between the early adopter cohorts for different markets would be very large. There is a certain mindset involved, sure, but people need to also be passionate enough about the subject or pain point to bother with bleeding edge products.

If you try to just sign up as many people as possible who self-identify with the early adopter mindset, it may take a while before you have broad enough coverage of interests in that audience for it to be useful to startups outside the core "tech for techies" market.

mikecarlucci• 15 years ago

It might take a while to get the right audience but it could be like the App Store for small/new developers who could never get any sizable audience at all to really explore a project in process.

sunsu• 15 years ago

One weekness of this is that it won't work well (at least in the beginning) for startups whose products are focused more towards businesses.

ericingram7• 15 years ago

So far, most of the signups identify themselves as entrepreneurs. That means business products may fare well.

As things go, we'll come up with clever ways of segmenting and targeting the list, to maximize impact for entrepreneurs and relevance for subscribers.

alanfalcon2• 15 years ago

I'd have liked the opportunity to self identify with multiple options as I'm sure others here would as well.

jschuur2• 15 years ago

Your incentive driven approach seems to overcomplicate what you're trying to solve. You're creating a commitment and operational overhead for a new service where it's not really needed.

If I'm an early adopter, it's because I already love trying out new stuff. No need to give me candy, just tell me where the van is.

ericingram7• 15 years ago

I understand your point, but an unsweetened offer quickly becomes another tech blog/feed, another e-mail you ignore because it's like every other beta intro.

I believe sweet offers give subscribers a reason to pay attention to the entrepreneurs product, beyond what you'd get at a typical tech blog.

Thanks for your feedback!

jschuur2• 15 years ago

I think early adopters are smarter than that. They don't need to be lured in with the offer of free stuff. The very reason they're early adopters is because they grasp the potential for a new service and how it fits into their lifestyle. Not because of a superficial offer of freebies.

Companies that are confident about their quality products at an early stage don't need to bait beta testers with free stuff to lure them in.

In fact, I think you're going to skew the kind of user who would sign up based on getting free stuff in the wrong direction.

No doubt, you could get _more_ users if you offer free stuff, but at this early point, companies want the _right_ kind of users, not quantity.

sachinag• 15 years ago

Ha, awesome! Nice to see all sorts of ideas around this space pop up. Love that companies have to give the subscribers something special to be featured.

(We submitted AlphaList, which doesn't do promotions and asks the e-mail list subscribers to give the founder feedback, ten days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140672 )

If y'all need any help or have any questions, just let me know.

BetaCandy: Idea to Launch in Under 24 Hours

Related Stories