Ask HN: what's stopping you from launching?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=903858

by evancaine • 17 years ago

30 46 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

hearing about Paul Bucheit's first version of gmail always makes me realise how much of a perfectionist I'm being.

what's stopping you from releasing a demo/beta right now? For me, it's the design.

yan• 17 years ago

For me, it's getting over the attrition of not starting what I really want to work on.

fjabre4• 17 years ago

Yep. Same here: design.

Well that and we've spent so much time on the main app that we don't have a workable login yet - our login process is akin to 37signals where we subdomain the account i.e. yourcompany.domain.com so it's not that straight forward.

So for us it's literally too early to release since no one could sign up.

One thing we could do is have a signup with an email for news of our pending release... but we're still fine tuning exactly what message we want to release with.

This may be a huge mistake on our part but only time will tell. I'll be sure to share our experience releasing 'late', good or bad, with the HN community.

dan_sim3• 17 years ago

Why the subdomain? Can someone explain why a lot of app are doing it? Personally, I avoid using an app that uses a subdomain.

pchristensen• 17 years ago

I believe it makes it easier to partition traffic and different subdomains can have different configurations.

fjabre4• 17 years ago

It's the easiest way for us to direct them to their own VM and database.

It also seems to work pretty well for all the 37signals apps and and few others that segment this way.

ryanwaggoner• 17 years ago

Why do you specifically avoid it?

gthank• 17 years ago

At a guess, I'd say because it's a popular feature (appeals to vanity AND is easier to remember) that simultaneously makes it easier to load balance.

rykov• 17 years ago

A few reasons off the top of my head where subdomains make sense: 1. Letting users override subdomain with a custom domain (ala Posterous) 2. White-labeling (esp. in combination with #1) 3. SEO - last I researched, Google sees virtual hosts on same IP as separate entities, so if your clients use a custom domain and you have a "Powered by" backlink, you'll get some SEO juice

BigCanOfTuna• 17 years ago

I'm actually concerned about the graphic design of my startup. There is a pay-for-service component to it, and I have this feeling that if it doesn't look professional, no one will trust it. Anyone think that is a valid concern?

transburgh• 17 years ago

It is a valid concern, but it would need to be bad to keep from launching (and thus improving based on analytics).

It also depends on your audience. Are they more web savvy?

Harj• 17 years ago

yes it's a concern but not enough to stop launch (assuming a base level of usability in the current design). you can redesign after launch and track how it improved conversion rates.

fjabre4• 17 years ago

It is a valid concern. Credibility is important for a startup. It also depends on what you're offering.

If it's something remarkable then it won't matter as much. People will just want it and might look past things like design to get it.

Usually though when people are opening up their wallets they want to make sure the service is credible and the overall design is the first thing that helps them make this distinction, followed by a blog, founding team descriptions, press mentions etc...

Tawheed2• 17 years ago

isn't worrying about your graphics design just a proximate cause of fear? we constantly pick at and spin around one little thing when we're afraid of moving forward and getting to the real root of the problem.

bemmu3• 17 years ago

I don't know what your startup is, but how can having something out there be worse than having nothing out there?

lwhi2• 17 years ago

If it looks like time has been spent on attention-to-detail - and the application's approach has been thought out well, there's a fair chance visitors will view the app as a quality product regardless of graphical finesse.

Maybe the best approach to take when good graphic design is in short supply, is to keep it simple - and strip back all graphic elements that have no strict purpose?

Tawheed2• 17 years ago

fear of failure. once you get it out there, it will be the true test.

sid• 17 years ago

As much as i would like to say its this little defect, that minor defect or "i need to do abit more market research", its pretty much what tawheed said, fear that what i built isnt good enough, there are things that i didnt think of that will make it crash, people wont like it.Im over it now though, we are at our final week and regardless we gonna launch real soon

d_graffito• 17 years ago

We felt the same way, but pushed it out early. Many things have clearly failed, but as a result we have learned an enormous amount about our users.

dpcan2• 17 years ago

Initially I thought "failure" as well. But it turns out, I could care less about "failing", it's my fear of PROBLEMS that stop me from launching.

I have a lot of stuff in my life to take care of already. If launching a product means more problems and little extra money, I definitely procrastinate.

Here are just a few problems I worry about before launch (just off the top of my head):

1) Connection problems that aren't even something I can personally fix (client-side)

2) Feature requests. Tweak requests. People that don't understand that the app isn't a CUSTOM program and wonder why they can't get what they want even though they are paying for it.

3) Credit card payment processing problems. Denied cards, expired cards, overdraft cards, PayPal, Auth.net, 2co, etc. The problem of what to do with accounts when someone isn't paying or when someone says they are trying to pay, or will pay, but don't pay... blah blah blah. PROBLEMS!!!

4) Meetings and Training. The app can be STUPID SIMPLE, but there are still those corporate people that want a training session, or a conference call, white papers, or a live meeting to discuss the benefits of our app. Seriously. Pay $20-$100 and just find out. If you are thinking about my app that much, it's probably not for you.

4) Monitoring backups, restores, server problems, data center problems, storage space, vps, dedicated servers, s3, e3, cloud, load problems, twitter api, facebook connect, etc, etc, etc

Problems, problems, problems, problems.

Maybe this isn't an issue when you have VC, but in the bootstrapping world, failure doesn't matter as much as PROBLEMS do.

symptic3• 17 years ago

These still exist in the "VC world," and then there are added constraints as well, such as expectations and pressure on yourself not to let other people down. Bootstrapping is simple; just get the fucking work done. Pardon my french, but that's what it comes down to. People find it easy to let themselves down, so when they do it's not a big deal, but letting a guy (or gal) down who took the time, effort, and money to put into your company will make you try that little bit more.

Find the motivation to get these small un-sexy tasks out of the way and then focus on growth. it doesn't matter how or where you find the motivation, just get your work done. Now I don't mean work 15 hours a day. Just stop wasting time when you are working. Come up with systems that optimize your time. And feel free to outsource. If you're familiar with economics, there is an opportunity cost to everything; odds are it costs you less in the long run to pay someone to keep up with your servers' status or to fulfill customer support so you can focus on what you are truly skilled at.

vessenes• 17 years ago

Re-brand, user login system, some items that probably aren't critical but at least one person on the team feels 'has to be there'.

This makes me want to release an alpha today. Okay, maybe tomorrow.

mooders• 17 years ago

Two things - the design is, well, okay but extremely simple.. It just doesn't have that finished look about it.

And the app itself is incredibly simple, which makes me second guess myself as to whether it is too simplistic that users won't pay the few bucks I intend to charge for it. I keep telling myself that they pay for value, not the number of lines of code...

leeskye• 17 years ago

Is it useful? I love Fried's point about your product being useful. Useful>Innovative.

vgurgov• 17 years ago

Can 100% understand this feeling and this is how I fight with this - just release this damn thing!

Not even restricting alfa beta invite only users, just do whatever you can, get feedback and keep improving it! Design never can be perfect - even getting best designers workin on my site i still keep finding issues with it. Its just endless process, and most of your client(not timewasters but client) really dont give it that much attention as you do!

Remember you will loose few clients today but you will learn on you mistakes today also. JUST DO IT!

levirosol• 17 years ago

Lack of functionality was holding me back. Then it was no mechanism for feedback. I'm still thin on functionality and copy, but I have a feedback mechanism now.

www.SportsLeeg.com

Getting over the "first release" hurdle is tough. So many "what if"'s remain. Once it's out though, motivation goes through the roof to keep things running tight and releasing often. I find myself releasing 3-4 times a week now. Even for small stuff.

neurotech1• 17 years ago

My Biggest issue is that when you take the leap from "side project" to start-up, there has to be reasonable confidence that the idea is unique enough to make it as a startup.

Somehow I wont be building a search engine this week :)

christonog• 17 years ago

I'm having trouble discerning what the meaning of "launching" is when most people talk about it. Is it as simple as deploying something to a production server? Or trying to get one more feature in that initial release? Either way, there is no excuse for soft launching now if you have any working code.

auston• 17 years ago

I agree with pretty much everyone else - design is KEY.

Hiring someone like MetaLab seems unrealistic to bootstrapper's - doing it yourself usually leaves a lack confidence (at least for me).

But I don't think you should let design hold you back, if it's useful, people will use it, THEN you can invest your real time / effort / money into making it look better.

weaksauce• 17 years ago

Here's a link to the video if you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-buc...

I couldn't find it on justin.tv

Edit: Oops that's not the full video. Does anyone have the full video?

bemmu3• 17 years ago

I'm looking for it too. That part seems to be missing from justin.tv.

kloncks• 17 years ago

Simple for me. I am not done yet...

Sorry if that was too inappropriate for a serious topic.

What stopped me in the past was always the design/look of the site.

cmelbye• 17 years ago

Ease of use problems. Users have to upload SSL certificates, and Ruby's OpenSSL library is lacking in features and it's missing a lot of documentation, which is hindering efforts to handle different types of certificates and verification. Might give a message queue + a Python script a try...

megaduck• 17 years ago

Plain old incompleteness. There's a number of bits where either the interface or the backend component aren't finished yet. Unfortunately, they're not optional.

The launch will be soon, though. We've got a big roadmap, but that's not going to stop us from launching the moment the app does something (anything!) useful.

prabodh• 17 years ago

I am working on something for which similar products exists in the market place...So making my product beat the existing alternatives is taking time for me

symptic3• 17 years ago

School for me.

There seem to be a lot of mentions of 'design' though. Honestly, it doesn't matter how good or bad your product is. Get -something- out there for other people to use. Run a private beta of just 5-10 people at first who are willing to critique everything to the ground. Then your design will fall into place rather than trying to be "smart" about it initially.

There is a difference between pretty design and converting design, and then there is a small group of designers capable of providing converting designs that are pretty. Your website need not be pretty to convert well though.

My $.02.

PS: No offense to PG and this wonderful community, but getting off the internet would probably help a lot of us more than it would hurt.

justlearning• 17 years ago

oddly enough for me - losing interest in the project. Once it's out there, I want to work on something else.

cmars232• 17 years ago

A worthwhile idea. After trying a few projects, I've come to realize that it's going to have to be something I care enough about to sacrifice my time and energy for and sell without feeling fake.

I really have no clue what that is. All I want is cash money really.

falsestprophet• 17 years ago

from your profile: My dream is to make a big chunk of fk you money without having to do marketing or sales.

Web commerce doesn't sound like the way to go for you. You want to be a Wall Streeter.

lwhi2• 17 years ago

I think graphic design should be thought of as graphical engineering .. in the sense that a good graphic designer is always trying to find the very best way to approach a problem.

Poor design isn't down to having bad aesthetic taste or lack of artistic skill - it's down to a lack of clarity in purpose.

Good design is clear thinking made visual... to be able to achieve this, clear-thinking needs to be built into the processes and workflows of applications from the get-go.

Too often, I think a lot of people see graphic design as a skin that can be slotted onto a second rate product to make it sing - and imo, this isn't the case.

wlievens• 17 years ago

A name for my game!

Ask HN: what's stopping you from launching?

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