Show HN: Salsa-as-a-service landing page

http://get.hombresalsa.com/hombresalsa/

14 50 13 years ago

get.hombresalsa.com

eb0la• 13 years ago

For just one second I thought it was a dance partner as a service for women. Mmmmmm that should work :-D

Ha! I could see that working. Salsa dancers might get a lot of hate (like my landing page) but they sure as hell get a lot of women. Take your pick!

tannerj• 13 years ago

You should update the copy right info at the bottom of the page. It was kind of jarring when I saw that it wasn't changed from the default text from the template.

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

will do! This was my first landing page so I really appreciate the feedback :)

ThomPete• 13 years ago

I love physical companies using digital media, I really do, they are hard to succeed with but if you do they can be great business.

But I think you need to do some more work to get this on up and running properly.

right now it looks a little bit like a link farm page.

May I suggest the following changes.

1) Move the text out of the picture or at least have it on a background.

2) Remove the gradient from the sign up form and give it a solid color (perhaps red?)

3) Move the sign up form outside the picture.

4) Be more disciplined with your description text.

5)Set up a facebook page and a twitter account, start collecting followers there and show some of the feedback on your page.

6) And most importantly. Add a FAQ so that people know who you are, where you are located, what this is all about, what they are signing up for and so on.

Best Wishes

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

I appreciate the feedback! The page is definitely lacking in a lot of areas, so receiving unbiased feedback makes things a lot easier to prioritize. Again, I appreciate you sharing some insight. I’m currently making improvements and trying to spruce it up with my limited (non-existent) design skills :)

richardjs• 13 years ago

Also, fix the copyright line at the bottom, unless the company's name really is "Your Company". And the privacy policy "link" isn't a link.

In other news, I'm seriously craving salsa now, so that aspect of the site works.

solaris152000• 13 years ago

Great idea, will you ship to the UK?

What did you make the landing page with?

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

I made the landing page with Unbounce.com

I’ve been getting a lot of interest from the UK, so I’m thinking I should work with some UK salsa brands as well. At this point it remains to be seen if I will ship to the UK, but I definitely will work on it, so I’m hopeful.

wrongc0ntinent• 13 years ago

Much better!

stevewilhelm• 13 years ago

How do you like the unbounce.com service so far? Would you recommend it?

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

It seems to be a good service. I need to improve my page a lot more, but that’s not Unbounce’s fault. They seem to be a good service and their customer service is very friendly, so yes, I’d recommend them.

iambateman2• 13 years ago

Ok, Brandon, let me rant for a second. This isn't your fault, you're a part of a much bigger trend. But bro, a validation test is no excuse for being hasty.

Just because you're in validation stage doesn't mean the marketing page only deserves 2 hours. When the Lean Startup came out, Eric Ries was pushing back against people who devote thousands of dollars and hours before they knew if a product would work out not.

AppSumo has made it cool to test w/ quickly-conceived pages. But a minimum viable product still needs to be viable.

Maybe I'm a hater. If so, sorry I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I just think it's worth pushing for higher-quality in validation tests. A few more hours could greatly affect your results.

For example: what are examples of brands of salsa you'll be delivering? Is this an email newsletter, or a paid service? What if I don't like the salsa this month? Is it crazy-wacky mango salsas or interesting tomato-based salsa?

Answering those questions might push your needle in the right direction. :)

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

I appreciate the constructive criticism, and I agree with your points.

Your comments, along with a ton of others, are definitely helping. To answer your questions this is both a newsletter and I will be selling independently owned salsa brands, both as a monthly subscription and through an e-commerce section. The landing page is very basic, probably too basic, but it’s serving as a way to keep in touch with other salsa enthusiasts until I can get everything up and running.

Again, I appreciate your comments. All feedback is important!

iambateman2• 13 years ago

Cool man! Really not trying to crush your dreams. salsa of the month has a market somewhere. The biggest question is if you can access that market.

brianbreslin2• 13 years ago

Brandon, update the copyright in the footer at least. "copyright your company" ....

firstplanthendo• 13 years ago

One of the points of a validation test like this is to be broad in your product offering, and seek feedback to guide the development/refinement of your product and its features.

Your own questions provide exactly that- Maybe nobody cares what type or brand of salsa it is, just that it’s different each month. Or maybe 2/3s of potential users ask that question, and he knows he should add that as a feature/description.

Or maybe he hears people want guacamole and sour cream delivered as well, and he then tests that offering out. Or nobody signs up, it fails, and he’s only lost a few hours of his time.

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

yep! All of that is definitely true as well. People seem to be receptive to salsa in general, and from there I can see what types of flavors everyone likes and settle on a fair price point

jaredstenquist• 13 years ago

Agree completely. I can tell this was made with UnBounce, and i could duplicate it in roughly 6 minutes.

If you have an idea worth testing, it's probably worth spending 5-10 hours on the test, assuming you want to receive decision making data.

I would expect any landing page like this to "prove" the idea was terrible, when it in fact could have legs. I for one would like a salsa of the month club.

lazyant2• 13 years ago

For the 30% of people who are genetically disposed to hate cilantro/coriander, please have an option to not have it in the salsa or skip those types of salsas.

masonhensley• 13 years ago

30%, really? I've only ever known one family that has the soapy taste issue with cilantro/coriander.

(I only learned of the condition because one of the family members mentioned above was my college roommate.)

m_ram• 13 years ago

It looks like it's not quite 30%, but still high enough to make an opt-out worthwhile [1]. As someone who is afflicted, I can say that it would be a deal-breaker.

[1] http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/cilantro-love-hate-...

pacofvf• 13 years ago

If you are looking for recipes look at this list: http://www.gustausted.com/2010/07/34-salsas-mexicanas-receta... it's in Spanish though. My favorites: 'Salsa Borracha', and 'Salsa de ajonjolí'

adamb_• 13 years ago

From the HN title & the actual landing page, I thought this was a satirical commentary on "X-as-a-service" startups...

dboyd• 13 years ago

I thought so too. My meager spanish translated the domain name into "mansauce.com", which really doesn't sound that appealing 8).

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

haha! Yeah, I obviously don’t know much spanish.

kfk• 13 years ago

Hey, I have been thinking about a similar concept, although more similar to take away. Are you working on this alone?

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

That’s great! And yes I am. It’s just a side project of mine as of now. Feel free to email me at HombreSalsa@gmail.com

disdev• 13 years ago

Share your email address?

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

hombresalsa@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

bovermyer• 13 years ago

First, your landing page needs the attention that others have mentioned.

Second, I LOVE this idea. Kind of like Graze, but for salsa. Actually, yes, do that - make Graze for salsa. Give us options. Let us choose to Hate or Love certain ingredients/keywords.

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

yes it does, big time!

And I appreciate the kind words. There’s so many great salsas out there yet it seems they’re so hard to find.

home_brewer3• 13 years ago

I have a similar service except beer-as-a-service. http://homebrewster.com I would love some feedback

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

That’s awesome! Since you get a new beer kit every month, doesn’t it take at least a month to brew the beer?

home_brewer3• 13 years ago

It does take about a month to brew beer. The kits I will be offering will take about 3 weeks.

bmelton• 13 years ago

Sorry for being off-topic to the main thread, but I just had to say that your landing page is pretty damn close to perfection. I love it.

Simple, clear visual design. Straight-forward, terse copy. Great on every level. Kudos.

home_brewer3• 13 years ago

Thanks! I really appreciate it! Lots of tweaking.

rzendacott• 13 years ago

Hi! I'm working with Shane (home_brewer) on HomeBrewster as well, and we've submitted it as a Show HN to get some feedback: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6726421

ktosiek• 13 years ago

Looks like the prices in FAQ and Pricing don't match

brianbreslin2• 13 years ago

Some constructive feedback: 1. Maybe offer a few price points? - i.e. select how much salsa you want $10/month?$20? 2. Will shipping glass containers with liquid be costly/dangerous/risky? 3. Did you try any google adwords?

The HN audience probably has a inherent bias TOWARDS saas services/subscription models.

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

All great advice.

I’m still working through the price points, and I’ll probably offer an e-commcerce section as well.

Shipping the salsa isn’t much of a problem. The brands I’ve been talking to have their methods down pat and it hasn’t been a problem thus far

pnathan• 13 years ago

Cool idea.

I don't have any sense of your service area (SF? West Coast? US? Global?), price points, or your food handling reliability.

All of those datapoints are important for me to even ask myself if I'd buy.

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

All great questions. As for now I’m focusing just in the US, but depending on demand I may expand.

I’m working with existing salsa brands, mainly independently owned brands who will take care of the shipping.

I’m really just doing this for fun to share great salsas and help out some existing small businesses. We’ll see where it goes from there

conductr• 13 years ago

I like your approach. Assuming you are going to focus on existing salsa and not make your own.

I had a very similar idea about a year ago. Except my idea was that user would build their salsa by selecting ingredients and I would make/ship. Of course this allows recipe sharing and such. The thought of food production quickly had me shelf that idea. Your approach seems much easier to execute

brandonpindulic19• 13 years ago

Definitely. Your idea would be awesome though, just it a lot more obstacles to get through to produce it.

Show HN: Salsa-as-a-service landing page

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