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Ask HN: Review my startup

42 points by hammadnasir 9y ago

Would love to have your feedback on my startup named Sportal - it helps you find players in your locality for playing any sport you want. Here's the link to the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getsportalapp.sportal&hl=en

bdcravens 9y ago
An Android app isn't a startup.
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  then what are Instagram, Uber, WhatsApp, Tinder and Snapchat?
  - bdcravens 9y ago
    Businesses that have an app.
  - owebmaster 9y ago
    They are startups with mobile apps.
    - tehlike 9y ago
      let's not be nitpicky. He apparently wants it as a startup, maybe not as big as snapchat/instagram, but they all started with an app. also - how do you know he didn't incorporate the company already?
      - wjh_ 9y ago
        Looks like he did. Most of the replies to the reviews are from "Sportal Inc."
      - owebmaster 9y ago
        there is no point in calling your project a startup if you are only a wannabe fasting growing app. You can call it but people will appear to contradict you. And it is not a problem to have an app instead of a startup. I actually think it is a lot better and less biased.
        nkkollaw 9y ago
        > will appear to contradict you Sometimes "startup" is used instead of "project". Is it really that big a deal? All this time wasted over such an insignificant detail.
- Grustaf 9y ago
  It's a good start
Communitivity 9y ago
First, kudos for the app! Creating any product and shipping it is a sucess. That said, I suggest you take a look at http://bestpitchdecks.com/ http://bestpitchdecks.com/ to see some of the additional information you need in order to make a startup. Having a MVP is a great start, but if you haven't done customer research, SWOT market analysis, etc. you don't know whether the app you created is a real MVP that can progress you down the road to product-market fit, or a collection of features that you think would be good (and you may be right, but without customer input, you might not be profitably right).
- justboxing 9y ago
  > SWOT market analysis First time I've come across this acronym. Googled it to find SWOT expands to "Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities, Threats". Any inexpensive way to do this for an MVP? I'm currently working on shipping my 1st side-project and am very interested in learing more about how I can utilize SWOT approach.
  - shshhdhs 9y ago
    When you say inexpensive, what do you mean? In terms of time or money? It's inexpensive to do (just use a whiteboard or piece of paper), but can take time to get the data and analyze it without bias. Getting feedback from potential users on the weaknesses & opportunities takes time too. To reduce this effort, spend 30 minutes to draw up a cursory SWOT and then continue to think about it while in the shower, driving, on the bus, etc. The answers will come to you over time.
    - justboxing 9y ago
      Thanks. By inexpensive, I meant in terms of money. Example: > Getting feedback from potential users on the weaknesses & opportunities takes time too. I know there are individual sites that let you poll users, or send them questions or surveys etc. But the good ones cost money. I don't mind paying at all, but wanted to know if there are any good websites / Saas etc that will help do each piece of the SWOT. Or maybe I am overanalyzing this? P.S. My project is a niche job board. Any ideas how I could try to do the SWOT analysis?
peterkshultz 9y ago
My two cents: - As a fan of pick-up basketball games, I could definitely imagine myself using this (in fact, I've read people ask for this exact app). I wouldn't use it unless there was a good deal of activity in my area. Try and incentivize first-time downloads. - It'll be difficult for people to find your app with the name Sportal--it's the name of a Bulgarian sports site. Aside from ease of discovery via search engines, there might even be a copyright issue. - Try to get on to iOS as soon as possible to expand your audience.
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  Thank you for giving this nice and small feedback.. I got your points!
insomniacity 9y ago
Don't forget that Sportal is an existing name (I saw it advertised in the 90s/early 2000s), and people will try going to sportal.com.
alexkon 9y ago
How do you grow your local user base in your town?
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  Good question! This is what is needed to be figured out. I'm thinking about this. Do you have any ideas or advice on this? Please let me know.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
gamerDude 9y ago
I think this could be awesome. Especially for sports leagues. I play some sports my friends don't play, but there isn't a great way to find a team. And most leagues have a shitty system to sign your name and hope a team needs a spare. But all in all, it's kinda shitty. It would be awesome to be able to join a sports league and connect with everyone else who doesn't have a team so we could make one.
wsetchell 9y ago
I'm probably in your target market. I host/organize pickup games in several sports. I attend lots of other pickup sports. Finding other games, and getting people to come to my games is a constant struggle. Kudos for shipping something, that's awesome! Feedback: Network effects are working against you. If lots of events are on here, it might be a useful place to search for sports. If lots of people search for sports on here, it might be a useful place to recruit people to my events. Without either, this provides no value to me. Product: * As a person who wants play a sport, this app is not useful to me. There were no "events" nearby me to join. * As a person who organizes pickup sports with friends, I'm not sure why I'd use this over my favorite messaging app to organize. * As a person who wants to recruit new people to join pickup sports game, this app isn't useful for me. I help "advertise/promote" my pickup games on email lists, FB pages, and a meetup page. Creating an event here doesn't seem worth my time since I'm not convinced that it'll bring in people to play with. Technical * Facebook login didn't work for me, it said some error about a bad location or something. * Loading is painfully slow. * It crashed after I tried to create a "I want to play sports" event.
- arikr 9y ago
  To OP - read this carefully as this is great, honest, kind feedback. Also, to OP don't fixate on the technical feedback - the non-technical feedback here is even more important (assuming your goal is a product people want). To wsetchell/the feedback giver - kudos on giving great, honest and kind feedback.
  - wsetchell 9y ago
    thanks :)
  - hammadnasir 9y ago
    Yes, indeed it is a great feedback and I'm taking it into total consideration.
- eloff 9y ago
  All of these can be summed up as the chicken-and-egg paradox, or network effects. You need users to make the app useful, to get more users, to make the app useful. Look at how other business get around that, e.g. facebook launched to just one market first, Harvard students, then slowly expanded out one market at a time.
metaphorm 9y ago
does it do games as well as sports?
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  it helps in finding players for playing outdoor sports and not for mobile or video games.
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    I'm asking about games that would require a similar sized group of people that an outdoor sport would. board games, roleplaying games, etc.
    - hammadnasir 9y ago
      haven't thought about considering board games etc into this but this is something we can think of integrating in the app.
clairity 9y ago
you've done some nice work on the app! hopefully that was fulfilling in itself. (but there's always a 'but'...) most small businesses (startups or otherwise) are a marketing problem, not a technology problem. i've seen a ton of event discovery apps like this over the years (i even worked on one myself! =), and, while it seems logical on the surface for something like this to exist, such apps almost never solve a burning need for users. discovery just isn't something recreational athletes go to an app for. social networks and search are generally good enough initially. and once you find a single location or event (in my case, a basketball league), your now expanded network provides all the further discovery you need (including other sports you like). because of this, every casual sports discovery app i've seen either dies or pivots very quickly. i would advise you to think about what else you can solve in this space that doesn't have a substitute product (e.g., don't pick messaging, as that's well covered by social networks as well).
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  Thank you for the feedback and kind words. :)
vasilakisfil 9y ago
I would love the same app for tennis partners :)
psyklic 9y ago
I cofounded a social discovery company a while back, so have thought through similar issues. Consider a dating site -- at the minimum, it must laboriously onboard a number of users at each location. Your site faces a much more difficult challenge -- you not even need lots of users per location, but you also need them to be continually posting events. I encourage you to consider how to add value to users even when there is no constant stream of events (and perhaps even when there are few other local users).

42 points by hammadnasir 9y ago

bdcravens 9y ago

An Android app isn't a startup.

hammadnasir 9y ago
then what are Instagram, Uber, WhatsApp, Tinder and Snapchat?
- bdcravens 9y ago
  Businesses that have an app.
- owebmaster 9y ago
  They are startups with mobile apps.
  - tehlike 9y ago
    let's not be nitpicky. He apparently wants it as a startup, maybe not as big as snapchat/instagram, but they all started with an app. also - how do you know he didn't incorporate the company already?
    - wjh_ 9y ago
      Looks like he did. Most of the replies to the reviews are from "Sportal Inc."
    - owebmaster 9y ago
      there is no point in calling your project a startup if you are only a wannabe fasting growing app. You can call it but people will appear to contradict you. And it is not a problem to have an app instead of a startup. I actually think it is a lot better and less biased.
      - nkkollaw 9y ago
        > will appear to contradict you Sometimes "startup" is used instead of "project". Is it really that big a deal? All this time wasted over such an insignificant detail.
Grustaf 9y ago
It's a good start

Communitivity 9y ago

First, kudos for the app! Creating any product and shipping it is a sucess. That said, I suggest you take a look at http://bestpitchdecks.com/ http://bestpitchdecks.com/ to see some of the additional information you need in order to make a startup. Having a MVP is a great start, but if you haven't done customer research, SWOT market analysis, etc. you don't know whether the app you created is a real MVP that can progress you down the road to product-market fit, or a collection of features that you think would be good (and you may be right, but without customer input, you might not be profitably right).

justboxing 9y ago
> SWOT market analysis First time I've come across this acronym. Googled it to find SWOT expands to "Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities, Threats". Any inexpensive way to do this for an MVP? I'm currently working on shipping my 1st side-project and am very interested in learing more about how I can utilize SWOT approach.
- shshhdhs 9y ago
  When you say inexpensive, what do you mean? In terms of time or money? It's inexpensive to do (just use a whiteboard or piece of paper), but can take time to get the data and analyze it without bias. Getting feedback from potential users on the weaknesses & opportunities takes time too. To reduce this effort, spend 30 minutes to draw up a cursory SWOT and then continue to think about it while in the shower, driving, on the bus, etc. The answers will come to you over time.
  - justboxing 9y ago
    Thanks. By inexpensive, I meant in terms of money. Example: > Getting feedback from potential users on the weaknesses & opportunities takes time too. I know there are individual sites that let you poll users, or send them questions or surveys etc. But the good ones cost money. I don't mind paying at all, but wanted to know if there are any good websites / Saas etc that will help do each piece of the SWOT. Or maybe I am overanalyzing this? P.S. My project is a niche job board. Any ideas how I could try to do the SWOT analysis?

peterkshultz 9y ago

My two cents: - As a fan of pick-up basketball games, I could definitely imagine myself using this (in fact, I've read people ask for this exact app). I wouldn't use it unless there was a good deal of activity in my area. Try and incentivize first-time downloads. - It'll be difficult for people to find your app with the name Sportal--it's the name of a Bulgarian sports site. Aside from ease of discovery via search engines, there might even be a copyright issue. - Try to get on to iOS as soon as possible to expand your audience.

hammadnasir 9y ago
Thank you for giving this nice and small feedback.. I got your points!

insomniacity 9y ago

Don't forget that Sportal is an existing name (I saw it advertised in the 90s/early 2000s), and people will try going to sportal.com.

alexkon 9y ago

How do you grow your local user base in your town?

hammadnasir 9y ago
Good question! This is what is needed to be figured out. I'm thinking about this. Do you have any ideas or advice on this? Please let me know.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

gamerDude 9y ago

I think this could be awesome. Especially for sports leagues. I play some sports my friends don't play, but there isn't a great way to find a team. And most leagues have a shitty system to sign your name and hope a team needs a spare. But all in all, it's kinda shitty. It would be awesome to be able to join a sports league and connect with everyone else who doesn't have a team so we could make one.

wsetchell 9y ago

I'm probably in your target market. I host/organize pickup games in several sports. I attend lots of other pickup sports. Finding other games, and getting people to come to my games is a constant struggle. Kudos for shipping something, that's awesome! Feedback: Network effects are working against you. If lots of events are on here, it might be a useful place to search for sports. If lots of people search for sports on here, it might be a useful place to recruit people to my events. Without either, this provides no value to me. Product: * As a person who wants play a sport, this app is not useful to me. There were no "events" nearby me to join. * As a person who organizes pickup sports with friends, I'm not sure why I'd use this over my favorite messaging app to organize. * As a person who wants to recruit new people to join pickup sports game, this app isn't useful for me. I help "advertise/promote" my pickup games on email lists, FB pages, and a meetup page. Creating an event here doesn't seem worth my time since I'm not convinced that it'll bring in people to play with. Technical * Facebook login didn't work for me, it said some error about a bad location or something. * Loading is painfully slow. * It crashed after I tried to create a "I want to play sports" event.

arikr 9y ago
To OP - read this carefully as this is great, honest, kind feedback. Also, to OP don't fixate on the technical feedback - the non-technical feedback here is even more important (assuming your goal is a product people want). To wsetchell/the feedback giver - kudos on giving great, honest and kind feedback.
- wsetchell 9y ago
  thanks :)
- hammadnasir 9y ago
  Yes, indeed it is a great feedback and I'm taking it into total consideration.
eloff 9y ago
All of these can be summed up as the chicken-and-egg paradox, or network effects. You need users to make the app useful, to get more users, to make the app useful. Look at how other business get around that, e.g. facebook launched to just one market first, Harvard students, then slowly expanded out one market at a time.

metaphorm 9y ago

does it do games as well as sports?

hammadnasir 9y ago
it helps in finding players for playing outdoor sports and not for mobile or video games.
- metaphorm 9y ago
  I'm asking about games that would require a similar sized group of people that an outdoor sport would. board games, roleplaying games, etc.
  - hammadnasir 9y ago
    haven't thought about considering board games etc into this but this is something we can think of integrating in the app.

clairity 9y ago

you've done some nice work on the app! hopefully that was fulfilling in itself. (but there's always a 'but'...) most small businesses (startups or otherwise) are a marketing problem, not a technology problem. i've seen a ton of event discovery apps like this over the years (i even worked on one myself! =), and, while it seems logical on the surface for something like this to exist, such apps almost never solve a burning need for users. discovery just isn't something recreational athletes go to an app for. social networks and search are generally good enough initially. and once you find a single location or event (in my case, a basketball league), your now expanded network provides all the further discovery you need (including other sports you like). because of this, every casual sports discovery app i've seen either dies or pivots very quickly. i would advise you to think about what else you can solve in this space that doesn't have a substitute product (e.g., don't pick messaging, as that's well covered by social networks as well).

hammadnasir 9y ago
Thank you for the feedback and kind words. :)

vasilakisfil 9y ago

I would love the same app for tennis partners :)

psyklic 9y ago

I cofounded a social discovery company a while back, so have thought through similar issues. Consider a dating site -- at the minimum, it must laboriously onboard a number of users at each location. Your site faces a much more difficult challenge -- you not even need lots of users per location, but you also need them to be continually posting events. I encourage you to consider how to add value to users even when there is no constant stream of events (and perhaps even when there are few other local users).