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This is a Show HN. I’m sure the poster would greatly appreciate feedback from someone with experience like yours, not an advertisement for your own service.

chrischen 7y ago
Of course! If they are reading this feel free to email me anytime (email in profile) for feedback or advice. It looks like this is an MVP setup on shopify and is exactly how it should be started to test the waters. There's no reason not to start simply because Instapainting, etsy, or countless other sites exist already, but it does mean the grind is going to be long and hard (I've just been slowly iterating since 2014 and unbeknownst to me there were dozens of incumbents even back then) and unlikely to be VC-backed in this space. I've seen many come and go as most upstarts in this space find the revenue and profits unimpressive—this is honestly the biggest reason why most fail. Getting press is generally hard because the idea isn't technically new, and people don't like to write about it as-is as it's too commercial. SEO should be the main focus, as any such sites that don't rank on Google will quickly find ad-driven user acquisition costs to drive down the already thin margins too much. I would also be prepared and iterate and implement a more robust tech based platform off this initial traction as quickly as possible. I honestly don't think there's much room in the space in the future for plain middlemen in this space between Instapainting and Etsy being available that enable direct artist participation. We look like we just forward orders over to artists but artists are basically running the show now on Instapainting, and we just try to surface the best performing ones.
- rishav_sharan 7y ago
  Love the fact how helpful you are being in a post about a potential rival.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
But implicit in that is that HN is not a market place nor a captive audience for you to advertise to either. It is common (and appreciated) that people post details of related services/products and their experiences creating/using them.
GordonS 7y ago
Woah there, that seems just a tad negative! I didn't read this post as an advertisement - if anything, I was surprised by the humbleness of their post, which made clear that they were not the first with this idea, and that they take a very reasonable percentage.
- VectorLock 7y ago
  How did it not sound like an advertisement? It was pretty matter of factly "WE DO THIS TOO BUY FROM US"
  - GordonS 7y ago
    It was nothing of the sort - it was a reply to comments specifically about the InstaPainting service.

chrischen 7y ago

Of course! If they are reading this feel free to email me anytime (email in profile) for feedback or advice. It looks like this is an MVP setup on shopify and is exactly how it should be started to test the waters. There's no reason not to start simply because Instapainting, etsy, or countless other sites exist already, but it does mean the grind is going to be long and hard (I've just been slowly iterating since 2014 and unbeknownst to me there were dozens of incumbents even back then) and unlikely to be VC-backed in this space. I've seen many come and go as most upstarts in this space find the revenue and profits unimpressive—this is honestly the biggest reason why most fail. Getting press is generally hard because the idea isn't technically new, and people don't like to write about it as-is as it's too commercial. SEO should be the main focus, as any such sites that don't rank on Google will quickly find ad-driven user acquisition costs to drive down the already thin margins too much. I would also be prepared and iterate and implement a more robust tech based platform off this initial traction as quickly as possible. I honestly don't think there's much room in the space in the future for plain middlemen in this space between Instapainting and Etsy being available that enable direct artist participation. We look like we just forward orders over to artists but artists are basically running the show now on Instapainting, and we just try to surface the best performing ones.

rishav_sharan 7y ago
Love the fact how helpful you are being in a post about a potential rival.

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

But implicit in that is that HN is not a market place nor a captive audience for you to advertise to either. It is common (and appreciated) that people post details of related services/products and their experiences creating/using them.

GordonS 7y ago

Woah there, that seems just a tad negative! I didn't read this post as an advertisement - if anything, I was surprised by the humbleness of their post, which made clear that they were not the first with this idea, and that they take a very reasonable percentage.

VectorLock 7y ago
How did it not sound like an advertisement? It was pretty matter of factly "WE DO THIS TOO BUY FROM US"
- GordonS 7y ago
  It was nothing of the sort - it was a reply to comments specifically about the InstaPainting service.