4 ms·

I don't understand the point of this product. You're obviously targeting people who already like coffee, such as myself: I already buy beans, grind them myself

I don't understand the point of this product. You're obviously targeting people who already like coffee, such as myself: I already buy beans, grind them myself, and manage the process using an Aeropress, and I'm hardly some coffee hipster because I use goddamned Eight O'Clock Columbian Peaks. Yet, you are trying to sell me instant coffee, which I automatically am wary of because instant coffee is the shittiest coffee you can drink... yet you have no way of convincing me otherwise. Subscriptions are only useful if you can convert the customer, "the first hit is always free." Also, your entire website is a hastily developed trainwreck: "Copyright $copy; 2017."... Copyright who? The email harvesting call to action in tan needs to follow the rule of thirds to stand out, your contact page needs serious loving (seriously, Google on how to make these), and your front page hero image is goddamned tiny and isn't even full width of the page, and the Sudden/Instant comparison block below it is formatted horridly. Please hire a web designer, you need someone with experience on how to do this right.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dsco 10y ago
The design is fine. Certain things can be tweaked but great web design isn't really going to drive the product. The taste, market-fit and brand probably have more impact. I'd suggest offering samples for a small price. Convincing customers about the taste with only a website can be an uphill battle unless they've been recommended the product, or actually tasted it. Perhaps free taste samples in stores can be a sales channel to the web site.
- freese 10y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion! We're exploring what we can do here. Ideally we'd love to make sampling really easy & inexpensive but with our current costs it's simply not feasible right now.
  - swamp40 10y ago
    There must be some price where you would break even shipping out a single tube. You could charge that amount for a sample, even if you consider it overpriced. You might be surprised at how many people want to try it, but don't want to commit to a subscription right away.
paavohtl 10y ago
And on Firefox, their SVG logo reads "Sudde offee". (http://i.imgur.com/HZ1Hnwg.png http://i.imgur.com/HZ1Hnwg.png)
- freese 10y ago
  Hmmm that's odd. Thanks for pointing out!
zloof 10y ago
Short answer is - we're working on it :-) We hired an engineer and a head of marketing in the last 2 weeks. We are very aware internally that our site has a lot of errors and a lot of what you're seeing are tests we are running. We have a larger design project going in the background. We do want to figure out a way for more people to try the product - so expect more there. The target market is actually interesting...there are a TON of people who are really interested in speciality coffee, but simply don't have access, know-how, or want to put in the time. As an example, someone who visited SF, tried Blue Bottle, but lives in Indiana without a Blue Bottle nearby. There are also folks who love great coffee, but really don't have the time (doctors, nurses, etc). A big surprise for us after working on Sudden for a year was that plenty of people who go to the top coffee shops in a city, every single day, don't know too much about the coffee itself (single-origin or pour over are foreign terms) - they just like the taste. A big mission we have is creating ACCESS. We want to help everyone have easy access and UNDERSTAND what great coffee is about. So responding to your initial question - we would absolutely love to have you as a customer, and I do think you'd love Sudden, but there are a lot of folks with a much more limited understanding of coffee who still love great tasting coffee (this was very surprising to us) - and we've realized there's a huge opportunity to open a new range of coffee to those people.
pxlpshr 10y ago
Sorry friend but I just visited your https://www.exelion.net https://www.exelion.net website and the level of arrogance in your comment is really unwelcoming and misplaced.
- DiabloD3 10y ago
  Last time I noticed, I wasn't seeking YC investment. Also, ad hominem attacks aren't really tolerated on HN. But hey, lets not help YC companies and let them squander that investment. If there is a market for their product, I hope they succeed; but they aren't going to succeed with the current state of that website.
  - freese 10y ago
    I agree with you that our website needs a lot of work. We just hired our first software engineer to work on it and are currently working with a design agency to make it a lot better. All feedback much appreciated!

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dsco 10y ago

The design is fine. Certain things can be tweaked but great web design isn't really going to drive the product. The taste, market-fit and brand probably have more impact. I'd suggest offering samples for a small price. Convincing customers about the taste with only a website can be an uphill battle unless they've been recommended the product, or actually tasted it. Perhaps free taste samples in stores can be a sales channel to the web site.

freese 10y ago
Thanks for the suggestion! We're exploring what we can do here. Ideally we'd love to make sampling really easy & inexpensive but with our current costs it's simply not feasible right now.
- swamp40 10y ago
  There must be some price where you would break even shipping out a single tube. You could charge that amount for a sample, even if you consider it overpriced. You might be surprised at how many people want to try it, but don't want to commit to a subscription right away.

paavohtl 10y ago

And on Firefox, their SVG logo reads "Sudde offee". (http://i.imgur.com/HZ1Hnwg.png http://i.imgur.com/HZ1Hnwg.png)

freese 10y ago
Hmmm that's odd. Thanks for pointing out!

zloof 10y ago

Short answer is - we're working on it :-) We hired an engineer and a head of marketing in the last 2 weeks. We are very aware internally that our site has a lot of errors and a lot of what you're seeing are tests we are running. We have a larger design project going in the background. We do want to figure out a way for more people to try the product - so expect more there. The target market is actually interesting...there are a TON of people who are really interested in speciality coffee, but simply don't have access, know-how, or want to put in the time. As an example, someone who visited SF, tried Blue Bottle, but lives in Indiana without a Blue Bottle nearby. There are also folks who love great coffee, but really don't have the time (doctors, nurses, etc). A big surprise for us after working on Sudden for a year was that plenty of people who go to the top coffee shops in a city, every single day, don't know too much about the coffee itself (single-origin or pour over are foreign terms) - they just like the taste. A big mission we have is creating ACCESS. We want to help everyone have easy access and UNDERSTAND what great coffee is about. So responding to your initial question - we would absolutely love to have you as a customer, and I do think you'd love Sudden, but there are a lot of folks with a much more limited understanding of coffee who still love great tasting coffee (this was very surprising to us) - and we've realized there's a huge opportunity to open a new range of coffee to those people.

pxlpshr 10y ago

Sorry friend but I just visited your https://www.exelion.net https://www.exelion.net website and the level of arrogance in your comment is really unwelcoming and misplaced.

DiabloD3 10y ago
Last time I noticed, I wasn't seeking YC investment. Also, ad hominem attacks aren't really tolerated on HN. But hey, lets not help YC companies and let them squander that investment. If there is a market for their product, I hope they succeed; but they aren't going to succeed with the current state of that website.
- freese 10y ago
  I agree with you that our website needs a lot of work. We just hired our first software engineer to work on it and are currently working with a design agency to make it a lot better. All feedback much appreciated!