3 ms·

Show HN: 6 days until broke/homeless: here is my hack

19 points by oliv__ 11y ago

oliv__ 11y ago
Hi HN, my name is Olivier, I’m a 22 yo entrepreneur with a failing startup. I have 6 days left until I go broke, have to leave the city and end my bootstrapped company. So I came up with this crazy website to raise funds to help me survive: AskJemima.com is a witty virtual psychic that will text you a personalized answer to any question you ask for 99c. Help out a fellow hacker and ask a question!
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
iqonik 11y ago
What is your other business? Why is it failing? I appreciate you're trying to hang on in there, but it might be better to cut your losses and move on to the next thing.
- oliv__ 11y ago
  It's Skyler[0]: it's a fashion weather app. We are bootstrapped and can't raise money so we have to shut down at the end of the month... :( [0] https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829
  - iqonik 11y ago
    Looks interesting and it's a nice feature. Not sure if it is a standalone app though - I have the default weather app that works just fine. However, you have something that would be valuable to other Apps such as Next, New Look or similar (I'm in the UK, so these shops may not be relevant to you.). I would suggest approaching them and offering to license your software so every morning a push alert is sent to their users with the weather for that day and a suggested outfit from their shop. That is the only route to real monetisation that I can see.
  - chillingeffect 11y ago
    I think these (and the pepper thing?!) are all good lessons for you if you're able to learn from them. The key things I missing from your portfolio are: A. The Elusive Obvious B. Communication of Value. Those are your blind spots. Nail those and with your other qualities you'll be successful. I hope this feedback is useful to you: A. The Elusive Obvious: What is a "fashion weather app?" It's obvious to you, but not enough other people. The Elusive Obvious is a common problem and the good thing is: it's relatively easy to correct. Just use the "elevator pitch" or "grandparent description" techniques. Say "It shows you attractive people in cool clothes automatically dressed for the weather forecast so you know what to wear that day." B. Value: You have to tell everyone who hasn't bought your app why to spend five minutes, 99 cents, 1.6 MB, learning and using your apps instead of doing other things we already love like making a stir fry and letting the chips fall where they may w/r/t weather: How much will we get back for our expenditure? Tell a story, will it save us time? Lead to better social results? Save us money? Change our mood, make us laugh, validate our clothes choices? Lead with emotion. You can't count on your customers to hang out in 45-minute brainstorming sessions ideating all the reasons they should use your program. You've got to tell them point-blank. (And now I'm off to do the most important thing which is to apply all these critiques to myself. Good luck, Oliv__)
  - kenko 11y ago
    So ... why is it free?
- alternize 11y ago
  you probably should rather ask those questions through OPs website? :)
  - iqonik 11y ago
    heh. You're probably right, except I wonder if I'd be helping to keep a business going when I'm not sure that is what is right thing to do here.
mpeg 11y ago
This is pretty racist, "mon".
- justwannasing 11y ago
  Nowadays, everything is considered racist. EDIT: See what I mean?
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    Even if that were true, it wouldn't stop some things from actually being racist.
  - mpeg 11y ago
    Cultural appropriation is always uncomfortable in the first place. For example, see the media storm over Kylie Jenner's hairstyle [0] [0] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-appropriation-it_b_7800126.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-appro...
    - nxttuesday 11y ago
      Consider it a pull request I think callsyfing it as racist is fair, isn't "mon" slang from Jamaica, a nation in which 59%[1] have mixed ancestry?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica
- dataker 11y ago
  The website's color: red, yellow and purple. It's obviously a humorous reference.
- oliv__ 11y ago
  Sorry if you find this offensive, it was just intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Actually my cofounder's grandma is pretty much the type portrayed: that's where we took the inspiration from.
  - 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  > What is your paypal? That seems like a good question for Jemima.

19 points by oliv__ 11y ago

Hi HN, my name is Olivier, I’m a 22 yo entrepreneur with a failing startup. I have 6 days left until I go broke, have to leave the city and end my bootstrapped company. So I came up with this crazy website to raise funds to help me survive: AskJemima.com is a witty virtual psychic that will text you a personalized answer to any question you ask for 99c. Help out a fellow hacker and ask a question!

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

iqonik 11y ago

What is your other business? Why is it failing? I appreciate you're trying to hang on in there, but it might be better to cut your losses and move on to the next thing.

oliv__ 11y ago
It's Skyler[0]: it's a fashion weather app. We are bootstrapped and can't raise money so we have to shut down at the end of the month... :( [0] https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011881829
- iqonik 11y ago
  Looks interesting and it's a nice feature. Not sure if it is a standalone app though - I have the default weather app that works just fine. However, you have something that would be valuable to other Apps such as Next, New Look or similar (I'm in the UK, so these shops may not be relevant to you.). I would suggest approaching them and offering to license your software so every morning a push alert is sent to their users with the weather for that day and a suggested outfit from their shop. That is the only route to real monetisation that I can see.
- chillingeffect 11y ago
  I think these (and the pepper thing?!) are all good lessons for you if you're able to learn from them. The key things I missing from your portfolio are: A. The Elusive Obvious B. Communication of Value. Those are your blind spots. Nail those and with your other qualities you'll be successful. I hope this feedback is useful to you: A. The Elusive Obvious: What is a "fashion weather app?" It's obvious to you, but not enough other people. The Elusive Obvious is a common problem and the good thing is: it's relatively easy to correct. Just use the "elevator pitch" or "grandparent description" techniques. Say "It shows you attractive people in cool clothes automatically dressed for the weather forecast so you know what to wear that day." B. Value: You have to tell everyone who hasn't bought your app why to spend five minutes, 99 cents, 1.6 MB, learning and using your apps instead of doing other things we already love like making a stir fry and letting the chips fall where they may w/r/t weather: How much will we get back for our expenditure? Tell a story, will it save us time? Lead to better social results? Save us money? Change our mood, make us laugh, validate our clothes choices? Lead with emotion. You can't count on your customers to hang out in 45-minute brainstorming sessions ideating all the reasons they should use your program. You've got to tell them point-blank. (And now I'm off to do the most important thing which is to apply all these critiques to myself. Good luck, Oliv__)
- kenko 11y ago
  So ... why is it free?
alternize 11y ago
you probably should rather ask those questions through OPs website? :)
- iqonik 11y ago
  heh. You're probably right, except I wonder if I'd be helping to keep a business going when I'm not sure that is what is right thing to do here.

mpeg 11y ago

This is pretty racist, "mon".

justwannasing 11y ago
Nowadays, everything is considered racist. EDIT: See what I mean?
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  Even if that were true, it wouldn't stop some things from actually being racist.
- mpeg 11y ago
  Cultural appropriation is always uncomfortable in the first place. For example, see the media storm over Kylie Jenner's hairstyle [0] [0] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-appropriation-it_b_7800126.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kadia-blagrove-/cultural-appro...
  - nxttuesday 11y ago
    Consider it a pull request I think callsyfing it as racist is fair, isn't "mon" slang from Jamaica, a nation in which 59%[1] have mixed ancestry?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica
dataker 11y ago
The website's color: red, yellow and purple. It's obviously a humorous reference.
oliv__ 11y ago
Sorry if you find this offensive, it was just intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Actually my cofounder's grandma is pretty much the type portrayed: that's where we took the inspiration from.
- 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

pavel_lishin 11y ago
> What is your paypal? That seems like a good question for Jemima.