Ask HN: Don't signup, Just review the Startup product

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3657607

by kylecsteele • 14 years ago

3 9 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Would love to get feedback on our new startup. Launching MVP soon. Good, bad, brutal or whatever, just comment.

www.doccaster.com

verelo2• 14 years ago

Hm...i would love to provide more valuable feedback, but the page doesn't load for me.

Firefox says "The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

verelo2• 14 years ago

Ok now it loads.

1. So its a bit like google buzz for documents?

2. I get the pain point...i have always printed too many or not enough, and i hate seeing that go into the bin either way...

3. The site is ok, but i just don't feel interested enough to signup.

4. I suspect i would want to signup, if i currently needed to use something like this, right now i don't. Maybe this is something to consider when you're thinking about customer acquisition.

AznHisoka• 14 years ago

Same here, I get the pain point but am not motivated to try it... maybe I'm just not target audience.

kylecsteele4• 14 years ago

What you are saying makes total sense. Unless you were presenting or a vendor at a conference, there would not be a need for you to use it. The only time I wish I had doccaster was when I went to CES. All the paper, brochures and people made me feel overloaded. That's when a product like this becomes handy because it allows you to view the location, see the vendors, grab their documents and have a conversation if needed from the lobby of the convention floor.

LarryMade• 14 years ago

I had to strip of the www for it to work, need to fix your url or your webserver settings.

I like the animation, good points to get my interest. the background was odd, throwing stuff in the air in an empty field? think about that. How about something like a lightbulb over your ipad or something saying doccaster "sharing" or something - with a bunch of lightbulbs over disperse folks in a crowded room?

So you have to have your potential clients load up some app in order to access. Then it is limited by time and range... I guess that is a good thing if it is paid conference materials that you want stricter control over distribution...

So I take it you would have to create some sort of flyer or brochure on how potential clients can setup and sign into doccaster in order for them to access your stuff then? (cue the cute animation of people grabbing your flyer and throwing it in the trashcan) Will it work on my Linux laptop? or my Blackberry? etc. requiring an app will be limiting.

Document presentation/management is a great thing, but I think you have put in a few stumbling blocks to "gotta have it" adoption. I think you would get better results with a web portal where accounts are accessed like www.doccaster.com/mybizdocs which presents a graphical brochure rack to click and choose documents. Distributors could put that address on a card with friendly easy to read type "the Iludium Q35 Space Modulator: www.doccaster.com/q35info" five words and an address (maybe a graphic of it on the back of the card) just enough not to loose the attention of an ADHD executive.

But then again, you don't have the geographic control... but would you via a laptop either?

kylecsteele4• 14 years ago

Thank Larrys for the feedback. The product video was modeled off other web 2.0 intro videos (Dropbox 2min, Linkedin 2:35min) and was designed to provide first time users with an overview. We tried to create the stumbling blocks in the beginning b recreating events that commonly take place in the sharing of documents that the viewer would relate too. Probably, could have done better. Ultimately, we hope the video sparks interest by showing people the advantage of using our system over traditional document distribution methods. Thanks again.

relaunched• 14 years ago

Your video needs to be between 30-60 seconds...MAX

Your phrasing, "Broadcast any document into your location" doesn't explain what you do. I'm probably slower than the average hacker news reader, but that being said, I don't get it...especially after watching the video (which explained it to me). Something like, "Location-based document sharing" is a very functional explanation, but lacks lacks creativity. But, you get the point. A one-liner has to be both easy to remember AND something that when I repeat it to a friend, they get it too.

As another commenter insinuated, generally, the product applies to a lot of people, only a very small percentage of the time. I highly recommend you target carefully. Maybe the convention audience (thought probably not), or college recruiters. Be something specifically important to someone first and grow from there.

Caution: this has been done with QR codes. Check out why others that have tried solving this problem a different way have been or weren't successful.

Find out, as early as possible, how much people would be willing to pay for something like this.

Best of luck,

kylecsteele4• 14 years ago

Cool and thank you very much! Our vertical is the convention/ conference space. We live in Orlando which is a large convention market and have been tide to the space for a while which is the reason why the product was developed.

Ask HN: Don't signup, Just review the Startup product

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