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Cofounder & CTO here - happy to answer any questions! My heart is filled with joy today to finally launch this product. The project has been an entire year, fu

Cofounder & CTO here - happy to answer any questions! My heart is filled with joy today to finally launch this product. The project has been an entire year, full-time, in the making. It started when I tried selling software that I had written as a side project. I saw two very big problems with the digital marketplaces online: 1. One company owns most of the marketplaces. Fees start in a tier, at 50%. Others like Creative Market are better (30% flat), but still seems excessive. I did a whole lot of spreadsheet math and determined 18% is more than fair for both creators and the company. 2. Engineers: do you like downloading Zip archives to get updates? Me either. I made the platform with deep Git integration. Customers can type `git pull` to get updates, or add the CDN urls to their package managers. Creators can use branches and tags as they see fit to manager their products. And hey, if your customers aren't technical, they can still download archives & see all Git commits in their dashboard. So here I am one year later, finally complete (unit tests and all!). I'm a classic ENFJ personality. Please send me any feedback, good, bad, or downright mean :-) Cheers!

thrownaway954 9y ago
honestly... i am so confused on what exactly this product and/or service does from the 5 second scan of the landing page. I really believe you need to make it more clear about exactly what you do and how it can help.
throwaway2016a 9y ago
Out of curiosity, how do you manage git account authentication? I have been trying to find a git server solution that uses a database to do access control for repositories over SSH.
- throwaway413 9y ago
  I’m forgetting the details and names of the API calls, but essentially, you can override the default SSH authentication check which normally looks in the authorized_key file to instead query a remote resource to get back the fingerprint for that key pair. You can then use this in that custom script to authenticate the connection. You also need a second piece, one that uses SSH ForcedCommands, to essentially pipe the original git request into the newly authenticated session and execute. If I remember the name of the method to override I’ll update. It was hard to find. It has everything to do with SSH and nothing to do with Git. Edit: Found it - it's the AuthorizedKeysCommand [1] and you can use that in lieu of an AuthorizedKeysFile (which is authorized_keys by default) to run a script that can query a remote resource for the pubkey. [1] https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config#AuthorizedKeysCommand https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config#AuthorizedKeysCommand
  - throwaway2016a 9y ago
    Awesome, thank you!
nlh 9y ago
Would never give mean feedback! But will give you honest assessment that, I hope, is helpful: Disclaimer - I'm giving you an impression based on about 30 seconds of viewing the page. I didn't intentionally spend so little time there, but I did what I think a typical new browsing user would do -- quick visit, scan the page, then leave. I'm also quite but not totally technical. * I didn't get an intuitive sense of the value you're offering and why that's relevant. I get that easy purchasing of software is nice, and easy updates is nice, but I don't know that I as a user ever need to see the Git history of the updates. I know as an engineer you'll want to be able to really dive in, but is that easier or better than reading a Changelog? I'm not sure. * I don't feel pain in this area -- I buy software either via the Mac App Store (easy updates) or directly from creators' websites (and most have 'Check for Updates' buttons). I admit I may be missing the mark here, so this isn't likely a valid criticism, but it's my perspective. So in summary: Your #1 value prop based on a 30-second read is tight git integration, and I'm not sure I care about that as a user moreso than a Changelog. Good luck! You've done exactly the right thing in shipping and talking to users, and I hope that the HN masses (as brutal as they can be) will help you improve and kick butt.
EnderMB 9y ago
Like the others that have commented, I found that your landing page didn't really tell me what your product did, or why it does it. However, the about page does this pretty well, and I while I think you've targeted a very niche and tricky market, I can appreciate the reasons for your approach from what I read. Maybe not directly, but I'd swap the about and home pages.

thrownaway954 9y ago

honestly... i am so confused on what exactly this product and/or service does from the 5 second scan of the landing page. I really believe you need to make it more clear about exactly what you do and how it can help.

throwaway2016a 9y ago

Out of curiosity, how do you manage git account authentication? I have been trying to find a git server solution that uses a database to do access control for repositories over SSH.

throwaway413 9y ago
I’m forgetting the details and names of the API calls, but essentially, you can override the default SSH authentication check which normally looks in the authorized_key file to instead query a remote resource to get back the fingerprint for that key pair. You can then use this in that custom script to authenticate the connection. You also need a second piece, one that uses SSH ForcedCommands, to essentially pipe the original git request into the newly authenticated session and execute. If I remember the name of the method to override I’ll update. It was hard to find. It has everything to do with SSH and nothing to do with Git. Edit: Found it - it's the AuthorizedKeysCommand [1] and you can use that in lieu of an AuthorizedKeysFile (which is authorized_keys by default) to run a script that can query a remote resource for the pubkey. [1] https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config#AuthorizedKeysCommand https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config#AuthorizedKeysCommand
- throwaway2016a 9y ago
  Awesome, thank you!

nlh 9y ago

Would never give mean feedback! But will give you honest assessment that, I hope, is helpful: Disclaimer - I'm giving you an impression based on about 30 seconds of viewing the page. I didn't intentionally spend so little time there, but I did what I think a typical new browsing user would do -- quick visit, scan the page, then leave. I'm also quite but not totally technical. * I didn't get an intuitive sense of the value you're offering and why that's relevant. I get that easy purchasing of software is nice, and easy updates is nice, but I don't know that I as a user ever need to see the Git history of the updates. I know as an engineer you'll want to be able to really dive in, but is that easier or better than reading a Changelog? I'm not sure. * I don't feel pain in this area -- I buy software either via the Mac App Store (easy updates) or directly from creators' websites (and most have 'Check for Updates' buttons). I admit I may be missing the mark here, so this isn't likely a valid criticism, but it's my perspective. So in summary: Your #1 value prop based on a 30-second read is tight git integration, and I'm not sure I care about that as a user moreso than a Changelog. Good luck! You've done exactly the right thing in shipping and talking to users, and I hope that the HN masses (as brutal as they can be) will help you improve and kick butt.

EnderMB 9y ago

Like the others that have commented, I found that your landing page didn't really tell me what your product did, or why it does it. However, the about page does this pretty well, and I while I think you've targeted a very niche and tricky market, I can appreciate the reasons for your approach from what I read. Maybe not directly, but I'd swap the about and home pages.