Ask HN: I didn't launch early enough, I'm struggling and could use some advice.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5689690

by kyle_t • 13 years ago

9 11 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I built an application to solve a very real problem I was having with sharing email accounts between other employees/contractors/assistants. It was a personal project that I enjoyed building in my spare time. I had hopes that it would also be useful for enough other people that I could make a 'lifestyle' business out of it.

In hindsight I should have treated it like a business from the start, launched early and got user feedback to guide the direction of the product and marketing. In reality I got carried away adding features I thought were cool but have no idea if they will actually be useful (or even more importantly that people are willing to pay for).

I've struggled immensely with releasing a product that I do not consider complete or perfect. It has been quite the internal battle to convince myself that customers won't in fact take one look and laugh.

The product I wanted to create (that solved my problem) would add an additional layer to your existing email address so that you could safely give access to other people and add a bunch of useful features as well such as email reminders, reporting, private notes, queued messages etc..

What is my target market? An overly broad and reaching question for sure, but I honestly don't know. I feel like we are a cross between a help desk and email management? I feel pretty confident that B2C is not the right fit for us but am I crazy to be ignoring them?

Is this something people that are even willing to pay for? Currently we are charging 39/month for first email address, 54/month for 3 email address and 79/month for 5 email addresses.

Thanks!

The link: https://www.recandy.com

monkeyspaw• 13 years ago

I'd focus on who would get value out of your features. Figure out what your top 1-2 features are, and think of who needs extra privacy. People in the government, in purchasing? Senators?

I think your pricing is way off unless you can find a super niche segment who are crying out for your product. People don't like to spend $50 per year on an email, much less per month.

Let me ask you this: what kind of person would need to securely share access to your email? Probably someone in charge. Work from there.

I hope you figure it out. It seems a little bit to me like you're trying to reinvent email and charge a premium for it, which is a tough product to sell.

kyle_t3• 13 years ago

"People don't like to spend $50 per year on an email, much less per month."

I completely agree from the consumer side of things. I'm hoping that for businesses who have many people touching the same email addresses it is a drop in the hat. I'm just afraid that these businesses are already tied to big name players offering less niche products.

"Let me ask you this: what kind of person would need to securely share access to your email? Probably someone in charge. Work from there."

This is a good point. The other types of people on my radar: those that frequently work with contractors/personal assistants and single customer service emails managed by multiple employees (which is probably managed by someone in charge like you said).

" It seems a little bit to me like you're trying to reinvent email"

That's actually what I was hoping to avoid. My goal was more to add an extra layer, that people would be willing to pay a premium for.

Great advice and food for thought!

jyu• 13 years ago

As another price point, I believe Google apps for business is $50 / yr / person.

ScottBurson• 13 years ago

Looks like you have some nice features here. This is not something to laugh at, at all.

I could see using something like this for a customer support email list.

Pricing is an issue, though. If I actually had a running business that was doing its customer support over email, the amount you're asking would be no problem. But I could also see just using it personally. For that, however, the price is too high by a factor of 10, maybe 20. (Compare Evernote, for example, at $5/month.)

Have you considered offering a free plan for personal use? This would give you an opportunity to demonstrate value and build a user base. At the prices you're asking, you would need only a small fraction of users to convert to the paid plans to make money.

You have some good ideas here and I think you're attacking a real problem, but you are in a space where it's going to be very difficult to get noticed. It's not going to be easy to overcome that.

kyle_t3• 13 years ago

Thanks Scott I really appreciate the feedback.

"If I actually had a running business that was doing its customer support over email, the amount you're asking would be no problem"

Its primarily for this reason why I've been trying to target businesses. I've been having trouble finding a market though. If I start attacking the help desk arena I'm a new player with a lot of well entrenched competitors. If I start going after smaller players like consumers, price will have to drastically drop, revenue per customer will drop and total signups will have to significantly increase to make up for it.

My current strategy is to attempt to market to businesses, continually evaluate the results and decide if a shift in customer base is required. I would much prefer 300 customers paying $50/month, then 3000 paying $5/month ;)

artas_bartas• 13 years ago

What I am missing on your website, is a clear vision of use case for this app. You know, stuff like - "hey you, overworked real estate agent, I have something to make your life so much easier. A system that sorts your incoming mail in a split of a second, bla bla bla".

Plus, the website lists many features, but it skimps on user benefits/concerns. For example, you have a "feature" called beauty (which is actually not that pretty - perhaps you can change the picture to the one featuring a family or smth) - why not say instead, our beautiful UI makes it so easy to navigate and sort your emails, you will forget you are working!

And security, why don't you talk about security? To me it is one of the major concerns if I am giving ANYBODY access to my inbox.

thoughtcriminal• 13 years ago

I'm probably your target market, and could put recandy to good use, but not at $39 /mnth. The price scares me right off. I'd subscribe at 5 /mnth or less though.

Also, invest in a copywriter. In fact, I am a copywriter. If you want to look at maybe doing a trade, hit me up at jason@hypnoticcopywriter.com or contact me through my site: http://hypnoticcopywriter.com

helen8420002• 13 years ago

With some tweaks this could easily become a lifestyle business for you.

I can tell this project comes directly from your own pain point, one that I have also had on many occasions.

Where you have probably fallen off track with it is by not defining your target market at the beginning you've got into the trap of presuming "extra features" = better value for the customer.

If you look at what you're selling - it's a simplification of an existing technology. You aren't in the business of selling people 'more' instead it's your job to refine, remove & simplify the process of sharing mail. Therefore every feature you add, it's just getting closer back towards the way things are done now.

From my point of view you are targeting individuals on the verge of starting a team. Bloggers with an assistant, co founders with their first users, freelancers with dedicated outsourcers.

You're the gap between a hellish inbox and really complex costly ticketing software.

A few general pointers spring to mind. I feel the word 'mail' should be in the name at least.

Your landing page should make people say 'hell yes' in 1 big headline, 3 bullet points and 2 small screenshots. A real hit between the eyes. Sell on emotional benefits like "fly through your inbox" "delegate like a pro" "goodbye repetitive e-mails'.

Also you have to make your onboarding as frictionless as possible. People with 1 well managed assistant will eventually get 2 or 3. They will think about future costs before they sign up with you. You want to HELP your users expand their team, so make it clear up front that it's pretty cheap to add extra e-mail addresses.

Some flat pricing to instill trust (we won't screw you over when you expand) plus a low (paying) entry tier. e.g $5 per e-mail flat. Make it a no-brainer to start (and then stay) with you as they grow.

Don't forget, e-mail is crucial to a business - I don't know how you're fixed for offering awesome support but that would also be a big selling point for your market segment.

Take a good look at your running costs and see how many users you'd need to break even at different price points. Also how many users it would take to cover costs & your existing salary after taxes.

I could go into further detail, just shout up if needed. Good luck!

kyle_t3• 13 years ago

Thank you Helen. Some great feedback there. You're point "Your landing page should make people say 'hell yes' in 1 big headline, 3 bullet points and 2 small screenshots. A real hit between the eyes." resonated poignantly with me. I think you hit the nail on the head. It wasn't obvious at first what we were selling.

I've done some redesigning on our 'marketing' pages to better illustrate what we are selling.

Thank you for taking the time to give your thoughts!

helen8420002• 13 years ago

No problem, you're welcome.

I see you made a few changes! :) I think at $9 per e-mail that's pretty sweet. I can see myself becoming a customer of yours soon!

I've got a few other suggestions but the main ones were -

1)In your bullets you've got a few run on lines with words orphaned which interrupts the flow reading the great features.

2)Your sign up buttons should be (without a doubt) GREEN!

3)The "No credit card required!" can be just text underneath so your button can have bigger text & stand out.

Hope that helps :)

sharemywin• 13 years ago

looks like a little task managment + little document management + email. Probably need to change the focus away from email which is free to problems your trying to solve. seemless email integration might be a better way to look at it.

Ask HN: I didn't launch early enough, I'm struggling and could use some advice.

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