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Thanks. I went back and forth on this and it was a tough call.. the plan was to get an initial crowdfunding video out and try to raise from people already passi

Thanks. I went back and forth on this and it was a tough call.. the plan was to get an initial crowdfunding video out and try to raise from people already passionate about Polar. I also didn't want to go into the grand vision without also discussing what we're working on. If this was successful I was going to invest more time in a kickstarter/indiegogo style campaign. This took a week of work already so was a bug chunk of time.

kristianc 8y ago
The positioning isn’t a fluff piece exercise - it’s how you define what you are building, who it is for, and who it is not for. As a product guy, it’s your North Star. Without it you end up doing one or both of going down a tech rabbit hole of ‘it’s a decentralized, federated blah’ and losing people’s interest entirely. Ideally you should have a quick this is what we do, why we do it, and why we’re different ready at all times - even if your current audience is only true believers. EDIT: Clicked through to your features page. Confused. Polar allows me to "manage my reading"... oookay. What does that mean? What pain point is that solving for me? Does my reading need managing? What are the benefits to me as a user? You need to tell this story before you get to the fact that it's based on Electron (perhaps very much not a selling point) and uses PDF.JS. How is this better than Evernote for me, which, based on sheer longevity is probably going to be my first port of call? Who's your audience? Answer: not 'everyone' - you mention Pre Med students, but then your screenshot has a load of growth hackery stuff. If I'm a med student is there latex support? Getting out a notepad and making yourself clarify what this is, who you are building it for, and what benefit you see it giving them is going to be a big help for you. This goes double for you, as you're effectively creating a double sided marketplace of consumers for your product, and sites willing to integrate with your metadata.
- jammygit 8y ago
  I found that the process of making a pitch deck really helped me to flesh out my last product attempt, it was very educational for me. Next time I try to make something, I will make such a deck at the ideation phase.
jameskegel 8y ago
You're too wrapped up in the grand vision to invite us for the ride. Don't do that. Give us a quick and concise summary without jargon or marketing flair. If you can't express it in a few sentences, it's not ready.
CiPHPerCoder 8y ago
I've never heard of Polar before. Tell me, in as few words as necessary, why I should care about it and what it is? (In that order.)
newsroll 8y ago
As someone who has never heard about your product before I agree with the op. I read your text about how you wanted to raise money and “reboot the internet” but it’s meaningless to me because I don’t know what Polar is. I know there’s a video but I’m not gonna watch it just to learn what the product is.
vikramkr 8y ago
I don't think you did discuss what you were working on though, it's a noble vision for sure - I'm wondering if this is meant to be a page for people who already know what polar is or is it meant to reach a larger audience? Maybe if I already knew what the company was I'd have understood what was going on but I without already being a user already I was totally lost and had no idea what I was being asked to support.
bobajeff 8y ago
I'd like to add that you lack confidence in what you have to offer (can smell my own). My guess is you don't believe people will value what you're offering.
jammygit 8y ago
'I also didn't want to go into the grand vision without also discussing what we're working on.' The comment reminded me of something: in startup school, they cautioned us against pursuing a grand vision and encouraged us to talk to our users to find out what problems they needed to solve. In this case I think there is a lot of overlap but just wanted to say it since I remember the video so vividly.

kristianc 8y ago

The positioning isn’t a fluff piece exercise - it’s how you define what you are building, who it is for, and who it is not for. As a product guy, it’s your North Star. Without it you end up doing one or both of going down a tech rabbit hole of ‘it’s a decentralized, federated blah’ and losing people’s interest entirely. Ideally you should have a quick this is what we do, why we do it, and why we’re different ready at all times - even if your current audience is only true believers. EDIT: Clicked through to your features page. Confused. Polar allows me to "manage my reading"... oookay. What does that mean? What pain point is that solving for me? Does my reading need managing? What are the benefits to me as a user? You need to tell this story before you get to the fact that it's based on Electron (perhaps very much not a selling point) and uses PDF.JS. How is this better than Evernote for me, which, based on sheer longevity is probably going to be my first port of call? Who's your audience? Answer: not 'everyone' - you mention Pre Med students, but then your screenshot has a load of growth hackery stuff. If I'm a med student is there latex support? Getting out a notepad and making yourself clarify what this is, who you are building it for, and what benefit you see it giving them is going to be a big help for you. This goes double for you, as you're effectively creating a double sided marketplace of consumers for your product, and sites willing to integrate with your metadata.

jammygit 8y ago
I found that the process of making a pitch deck really helped me to flesh out my last product attempt, it was very educational for me. Next time I try to make something, I will make such a deck at the ideation phase.

jameskegel 8y ago

You're too wrapped up in the grand vision to invite us for the ride. Don't do that. Give us a quick and concise summary without jargon or marketing flair. If you can't express it in a few sentences, it's not ready.

CiPHPerCoder 8y ago

I've never heard of Polar before. Tell me, in as few words as necessary, why I should care about it and what it is? (In that order.)

newsroll 8y ago

As someone who has never heard about your product before I agree with the op. I read your text about how you wanted to raise money and “reboot the internet” but it’s meaningless to me because I don’t know what Polar is. I know there’s a video but I’m not gonna watch it just to learn what the product is.

vikramkr 8y ago

I don't think you did discuss what you were working on though, it's a noble vision for sure - I'm wondering if this is meant to be a page for people who already know what polar is or is it meant to reach a larger audience? Maybe if I already knew what the company was I'd have understood what was going on but I without already being a user already I was totally lost and had no idea what I was being asked to support.

bobajeff 8y ago

I'd like to add that you lack confidence in what you have to offer (can smell my own). My guess is you don't believe people will value what you're offering.

jammygit 8y ago

'I also didn't want to go into the grand vision without also discussing what we're working on.' The comment reminded me of something: in startup school, they cautioned us against pursuing a grand vision and encouraged us to talk to our users to find out what problems they needed to solve. In this case I think there is a lot of overlap but just wanted to say it since I remember the video so vividly.