3 ms·

Sell HN: Selling our Twitter marketing tool (ask me anything)

26 points by jmathai 17y ago

jmathai 17y ago
You can view the site here: http://publicitweet.com http://publicitweet.com. We're selling a newly formed start-up (≈7 mo) in order to focus more on another venture we're involved in. We can disclose information pertaining to the site. We're bootstrapped, so any deals would be as quick and simple as possible. Unfortunately, we can't focus on both ventures. Ask me anything.
- robfitz 17y ago
  Hey J. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'm really curious about what made the direct messaging engine so tricky/special.
  - jmathai 17y ago
    Mainly the rate limiting and errors. Rate limiting: Twitter rate limits these calls but for direct messaging they don't provide any information as to what the overage state is. So, if you get an "over" response you don't know if you should wait an hour or a minute to try again. When sending messages out in high volume you can't just pound their servers, nor would they appreciate that. Errors: Twitter's API throws a lot of errors. A lot of them aren't even valuable errors (like 404 or 403 but rather 500s). They will also implement things in an ad-hoc manner to deal with issues on their end, for example introducing 302 redirects without much notice.
- jmathai 17y ago
  FYI, I didn't know about flippa but just listed it there for $5,000 :) http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitter-marketing-tool http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitt...
paraschopra 17y ago
Not related to your particular offer but I like the way you are approaching the issue of selling your startup so openly. Could trigger a meme: 'Sell HN'
- jmathai 17y ago
  Thanks. Hopefully it could trigger a sale :).
- rewind 17y ago
  Personally, I think it would suck if people started coming here to dump their companies. I don't think that's why most readers come to the site, so it's just more noise.
  - adrianwaj 17y ago
    I disagree, at least here the people selling conceived and built the site, with some hack element to it. So you expect some degree of quality, and the reasons to sell may be the urge to start something new rather than for pure profit maximization. Flippa, Sitepoint: like looking for a diamond in the rough.
    - jmathai 17y ago
      For clarification, this is precisely what we're looking to do. We have a different venture we want to devote all our time to. The only down side to having ideas out the wazzu :). The venture we're focusing on is http://www.textbookrevolt.com http://www.textbookrevolt.com.
  - axod 17y ago
    Agreed. I think most people know where http://flippa.com/ http://flippa.com/ is
    - jmathai 17y ago
      Now I know about it, thanks :) http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitter-marketing-tool http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitt...
adrianwaj 17y ago
Well, I could use this app as the base of something I want to build. So I am looking for some custom development consulting as well. Also, I don't want it to cost the earth - maybe I could buy just a majority stake.
- jmathai 17y ago
  Not available for consulting beyond knowledge transfer. Send an email (support@publicitweet.com).
  - adrianwaj 17y ago
    What language and server stack does the site use? I presume you want it off your servers. Anyone here looking for some interesting, unique and promising consulting work that stretches well beyond Twitter? Please make contact with me.
    - jmathai 17y ago
      I can help get it set up but it uses a standard LAMP stack. Requires Apache, PHP (5.2+) and MySQL (5+). Optionally uses Memcache and falls back to APC.
nishantmodak 17y ago
Old Thread for review of 'Publicitweet' on HN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=856450 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=856450
ashishk 17y ago
Looks interesting but has it made money?
- jmathai 17y ago
  We haven't added any payment functionality to the site. We have code in a branch that integrates with Amazon's FPS but it hasn't been pushed to the production site. That was our next logical step and there are actually a lot of opportunities in the product to upsell on features.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
chrischen 17y ago
Do you take equity?
- jmathai 17y ago
  No. It's just myself and my co-founder and we're interested in selling it outright. We haven't taken any funding and our main goal is to alleviate ourselves from managing the site. It is pretty much on autopilot but we're focusing more on a separate venture and would like to find a good home for the site.

26 points by jmathai 17y ago

You can view the site here: http://publicitweet.com http://publicitweet.com. We're selling a newly formed start-up (≈7 mo) in order to focus more on another venture we're involved in. We can disclose information pertaining to the site. We're bootstrapped, so any deals would be as quick and simple as possible. Unfortunately, we can't focus on both ventures. Ask me anything.

robfitz 17y ago
Hey J. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'm really curious about what made the direct messaging engine so tricky/special.
- jmathai 17y ago
  Mainly the rate limiting and errors. Rate limiting: Twitter rate limits these calls but for direct messaging they don't provide any information as to what the overage state is. So, if you get an "over" response you don't know if you should wait an hour or a minute to try again. When sending messages out in high volume you can't just pound their servers, nor would they appreciate that. Errors: Twitter's API throws a lot of errors. A lot of them aren't even valuable errors (like 404 or 403 but rather 500s). They will also implement things in an ad-hoc manner to deal with issues on their end, for example introducing 302 redirects without much notice.
jmathai 17y ago
FYI, I didn't know about flippa but just listed it there for $5,000 :) http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitter-marketing-tool http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitt...

paraschopra 17y ago

Not related to your particular offer but I like the way you are approaching the issue of selling your startup so openly. Could trigger a meme: 'Sell HN'

jmathai 17y ago
Thanks. Hopefully it could trigger a sale :).
rewind 17y ago
Personally, I think it would suck if people started coming here to dump their companies. I don't think that's why most readers come to the site, so it's just more noise.
- adrianwaj 17y ago
  I disagree, at least here the people selling conceived and built the site, with some hack element to it. So you expect some degree of quality, and the reasons to sell may be the urge to start something new rather than for pure profit maximization. Flippa, Sitepoint: like looking for a diamond in the rough.
  - jmathai 17y ago
    For clarification, this is precisely what we're looking to do. We have a different venture we want to devote all our time to. The only down side to having ideas out the wazzu :). The venture we're focusing on is http://www.textbookrevolt.com http://www.textbookrevolt.com.
- axod 17y ago
  Agreed. I think most people know where http://flippa.com/ http://flippa.com/ is
  - jmathai 17y ago
    Now I know about it, thanks :) http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitter-marketing-tool http://flippa.com/auctions/82518/PubliciTweet---Online-Twitt...

adrianwaj 17y ago

Well, I could use this app as the base of something I want to build. So I am looking for some custom development consulting as well. Also, I don't want it to cost the earth - maybe I could buy just a majority stake.

jmathai 17y ago
Not available for consulting beyond knowledge transfer. Send an email (support@publicitweet.com).
- adrianwaj 17y ago
  What language and server stack does the site use? I presume you want it off your servers. Anyone here looking for some interesting, unique and promising consulting work that stretches well beyond Twitter? Please make contact with me.
  - jmathai 17y ago
    I can help get it set up but it uses a standard LAMP stack. Requires Apache, PHP (5.2+) and MySQL (5+). Optionally uses Memcache and falls back to APC.

nishantmodak 17y ago

Old Thread for review of 'Publicitweet' on HN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=856450 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=856450

ashishk 17y ago

Looks interesting but has it made money?

jmathai 17y ago
We haven't added any payment functionality to the site. We have code in a branch that integrates with Amazon's FPS but it hasn't been pushed to the production site. That was our next logical step and there are actually a lot of opportunities in the product to upsell on features.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

chrischen 17y ago

Do you take equity?

jmathai 17y ago
No. It's just myself and my co-founder and we're interested in selling it outright. We haven't taken any funding and our main goal is to alleviate ourselves from managing the site. It is pretty much on autopilot but we're focusing more on a separate venture and would like to find a good home for the site.