Show HN: Cleveland Incubator launches Siri Humor site.

by mannylee1 • 14 years ago

9 11 14 years ago

mannylee14• 14 years ago

Cleveland isn't know for its Tech/Startup scene. So over the past couple of months, a few of my buddies decided to start a Meetup ( Startup Slam Cleveland ) with the goal of changing this perception. Yes, this is a huge endeavor. Changing anyone's stereotype of a city is pretty ambitious, but we decided that something, no matter how small, should be done. Eventually, we turned the Meetup into a mirco incubator ( Blazooka ) with the long term goal of growing the incubator on a larger scale.

To start out we decide to build something that could, in the loosest of terms, become a viable product. It was more important to launch something quickly then to sit around and not make any decision at all.

We threw around a lot of ideas and choose to do a Siri Humor site for our first project. The decision was made on a lot of factors, primarily being:

- The idea was simple and it could be launched relatively quickly.

- There is competition for this niche, but we felt that we could make a better product.

- The idea could, and eventually should, be turned into a mobile app.

- The site can make money with custom Siri quoted T-Shirts, ads, and any potential income from a mobile app.

- The three founders could all help develop it.

With that said, and with a lot of hard work http://siriously.co launched in public beta on Feb 1st. We are excited, but we also realize that there are a lot of features that still need developed and there are some bugs in the system; but overall the main functionality of the site should work. Getting it launched, since launching anything can be very difficult, was the primary goal.

Now, it might be ironic that we made a humor site, especially when outsiders throw Cleveland jokes around like its their job. But we don't take ourselves too siriously, so we'll just roll with the punches for now. And hopefully, one day, with a lot of hard work, our Cleveland incubator Blazooka, will be taken seriously as well. We're in it for the long haul.

mattberg• 14 years ago

how do you plan on gaining traction in this market? i remember what seemed like 100s of these type of sites popping up all over the place when Siri was announced, and that was months ago.

mannylee14• 14 years ago

Those are all valid concerns. As far as there being though competition in this niche, there is. However, a good majority of those sites are plain blog sites and don't allow up voting down voting etc. And yes, we have a lot of work to do to promote the site so it gets traction. All great points.

bradleyland• 14 years ago

Our primary office is in Hudson, OH, but the programming team is down in Florida. The next time we're up (I require avg daily temp of 50 degrees) we'll be sure to hit you guys up. We're a bootstrapped Rails-based startup with a procurement software product. I know... exciting! We make it fun though :)

Can you confirm that this is the correct group on Meetup?

http://www.meetup.com/Startup-Slam/

mannylee14• 14 years ago

Yeah, that is the correct link. We would love it if you attended.

ryanschmidt• 14 years ago

Sounds good. I'm in the Canton area so I'm a bit far but maybe I'll make it to a meetup soon.

shade• 14 years ago

Very nice, and it's nice to see the local scene getting a bit of attention -- I live up in Beachwood, and work for a company that's based in the accelerator in downtown Akron. I may have to swing by for a meetup sometime.

The NE Ohio tech scene doesn't get enough credit, honestly. You've got companies like LeanDog doing some pretty nice stuff in the local Rails and Agile world -- with an awesome floating office, to boot. There's also definitely a startup scene around here, too -- though here in the Akron accelerator, it seems like the startups are biased a little more toward biomedical stuff. Though, that's a particular area that Akron's been trying to encourage, so it's not too surprising.

I moved over here from NW Ohio a couple of years ago and I don't get why so many people are negative about Cleveland and Akron -- I love it here. There's tons of stuff to do, indoors and out, there's a pretty good food scene if you like variety, and the cost of living is pretty affordable.

kayhi• 14 years ago

I'm over in Toledo - nice to see Ohio on the incubator map!

viscanti• 14 years ago

What Cleveland Incubator? It's not obvious from the linked site.

mannylee14• 14 years ago

We are still working on the incubator website, but when it's live it will be blazooka.com. And our name is the same Blazooka.

It's a very young incubator, but the 3 founding members are really passionate about forming relationships with other Cleveland devs and/or designers and launching profitable websites.

BrentRitterbeck• 14 years ago

I'd be interested in meeting some business-minded people in and around Cleveland. I currently live in Akron, but I am moving back to the Parma in two weeks. I'm just learning how to program for Android, but I my background is in financial engineering.

If people are looking for a solid idea to build out, I got some ideas in the financial realm. I'd be glad to talk with people about them. I simply don't have the time to implement things by myself.

Show HN: Cleveland Incubator launches Siri Humor site.

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