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How does http://www.nomadmoments.com/ http://www.nomadmoments.com/ survive the massive war chest and tech advantage of Uber/lyft? The $25 a month fee seems eas

by bruceb 7y ago

How does http://www.nomadmoments.com/ http://www.nomadmoments.com/ survive the massive war chest and tech advantage of Uber/lyft? The $25 a month fee seems easy to get drivers to pay as they can pay that to uber/lyft everyday in commissions. I suspect the subscription will not stay at that rate for long.

kart23 7y ago
Sorry, this is kind of off topic, but why the hell is such a simple website 7MB? I instinctively dont trust companies that cant even deploy a simple website. The massive background image doesnt even look right on mobile, its scaled to fill.
- bruceb 7y ago
  funny you say that, it was behaving a bit weird on FF desktop for me.
- TylerE 7y ago
  It's way worse than that. It's served 25.9MB to me. They are using ginormous background images, and loading multiples. 8000x4000 jpgs. 32 fuckign megapixels. For a background image.
  - bschwindHN 7y ago
    I had it even worse: https://imgur.com/XctFp8c.png https://imgur.com/XctFp8c.png 32.6 MB And I have to agree with the OP, simple things like this instantly drive away my trust that they know what they're doing.
    - andrewstuart 7y ago
      >>> simple things like this instantly drive away my trust that they know what they're doing It inspires me with confidence that they are focused only on things that get them launched.
      - TylerE 7y ago
        That works great until it doesn’t? What else have they ignored that is going to bite them in the ass?
      - quickthrower2 7y ago
        Bounce rates and load times are important if you want people to try the product.
      - bschwindHN 7y ago
        Yeah okay, forget first impressions. It's such a basic thing, who knows what else they've screwed up.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  Sorry about this, but we haven't figured out how to scale images to different dimensions, so get in a car with one of our drivers who we didn't background check and is probably drunk.
  - JamesAdir 7y ago
    "Do things that don't scale" Paul Graham
    - WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
      > things that don't scale > drunk driving You're not wrong.
- andrewstuart 7y ago
  They're trying to get to market. The team is probably the founder and his little brother and the cat helping out when it can although its paws slip off the keys on the keyboard. They have more important things to do although I do concede it's a pretty big glitch. They'll get around to making it awesome.
- ec109685 7y ago
  Not secure either…
- hazz99 7y ago
  This is really not the important thing here. The hard part is going to market and carving out a niche for yourself (not to mention the endless customer validation and following synthesis), especially in a crowded and rapidly commoditising market like this. Spending a long time on your site in the early stages is a completely irresponsible and wasteful use of time, when you can be developing or outside validating.
ericd 7y ago
Lyft and Uber are public now, so they have a bit less latitude to engage in an even more aggressive price war, at least without making some painful cuts. They’re already under pressure to demonstrate that they can be long term going concerns. So, I think Nomad is coming out at a perfect time. Also, it’s much cheaper to jump in and piggyback on the existing supply of drivers and riders than it was to create that market. It’s one more app to run/check, and many drivers already run two, and many riders check two. If Nomad runs super lean and they offer drivers and riders more income and cheaper rides, respectively, without singing the experience too much, I think they have a shot. In any case, I’m rooting for them, it seems like it’ll put some more power in the hands of the drivers, away from Uber.
Jommi 7y ago
Yeah I really do not see the benefit of a fixed fee as a starting point competing against a %. Doesn't make sense at all. Why switch to a new service and be 100% likely to pay something, yet not 100% likely to get paid yourself at all? Would rather start out with a 0e/month and get it up to, say, 50$ (or more) based on a rolling basis based on your revenue per month. The app looks like a thousand other ride-hailing attempts as well. What the hell is the secret sauce here?
dalbasal 7y ago
One ride at a time. The "tech advantage" is not insurmountable. These are, at the core, just apps that let users hail a ride and pay. Uber-Lyft competition has already demonstrated that ride-sharing doesn't come with an automatic moat. Both drivers and passengers are willing to use multiple apps and both respond to prices. Hence price wars. The big problems are network effect chicken-egg problems. You need enough drivers and passengers simultaneously. But, this only needs to be solved in one locale at a time. Uber & Lyft put all their efforts into scale, assuming that winner-take-most dynamics will fix the economics eventually. They didn't. It's not a terrible idea to start a competitor building a low cost/fee model from day one. Flat fees for drivers might be interesting because once the fee is paid drivers have an incentive to get their money's worth. It's not an easy win to go after, but not impossible either. Ride sharing is not an airtight market.

by bruceb 7y ago

kart23 7y ago

Sorry, this is kind of off topic, but why the hell is such a simple website 7MB? I instinctively dont trust companies that cant even deploy a simple website. The massive background image doesnt even look right on mobile, its scaled to fill.

bruceb 7y ago
funny you say that, it was behaving a bit weird on FF desktop for me.
TylerE 7y ago
It's way worse than that. It's served 25.9MB to me. They are using ginormous background images, and loading multiples. 8000x4000 jpgs. 32 fuckign megapixels. For a background image.
- bschwindHN 7y ago
  I had it even worse: https://imgur.com/XctFp8c.png https://imgur.com/XctFp8c.png 32.6 MB And I have to agree with the OP, simple things like this instantly drive away my trust that they know what they're doing.
  - andrewstuart 7y ago
    >>> simple things like this instantly drive away my trust that they know what they're doing It inspires me with confidence that they are focused only on things that get them launched.
    - TylerE 7y ago
      That works great until it doesn’t? What else have they ignored that is going to bite them in the ass?
    - quickthrower2 7y ago
      Bounce rates and load times are important if you want people to try the product.
    - bschwindHN 7y ago
      Yeah okay, forget first impressions. It's such a basic thing, who knows what else they've screwed up.
WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
Sorry about this, but we haven't figured out how to scale images to different dimensions, so get in a car with one of our drivers who we didn't background check and is probably drunk.
- JamesAdir 7y ago
  "Do things that don't scale" Paul Graham
  - WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
    > things that don't scale > drunk driving You're not wrong.
andrewstuart 7y ago
They're trying to get to market. The team is probably the founder and his little brother and the cat helping out when it can although its paws slip off the keys on the keyboard. They have more important things to do although I do concede it's a pretty big glitch. They'll get around to making it awesome.
ec109685 7y ago
Not secure either…
hazz99 7y ago
This is really not the important thing here. The hard part is going to market and carving out a niche for yourself (not to mention the endless customer validation and following synthesis), especially in a crowded and rapidly commoditising market like this. Spending a long time on your site in the early stages is a completely irresponsible and wasteful use of time, when you can be developing or outside validating.

ericd 7y ago

Lyft and Uber are public now, so they have a bit less latitude to engage in an even more aggressive price war, at least without making some painful cuts. They’re already under pressure to demonstrate that they can be long term going concerns. So, I think Nomad is coming out at a perfect time. Also, it’s much cheaper to jump in and piggyback on the existing supply of drivers and riders than it was to create that market. It’s one more app to run/check, and many drivers already run two, and many riders check two. If Nomad runs super lean and they offer drivers and riders more income and cheaper rides, respectively, without singing the experience too much, I think they have a shot. In any case, I’m rooting for them, it seems like it’ll put some more power in the hands of the drivers, away from Uber.

Jommi 7y ago

Yeah I really do not see the benefit of a fixed fee as a starting point competing against a %. Doesn't make sense at all. Why switch to a new service and be 100% likely to pay something, yet not 100% likely to get paid yourself at all? Would rather start out with a 0e/month and get it up to, say, 50$ (or more) based on a rolling basis based on your revenue per month. The app looks like a thousand other ride-hailing attempts as well. What the hell is the secret sauce here?

dalbasal 7y ago

One ride at a time. The "tech advantage" is not insurmountable. These are, at the core, just apps that let users hail a ride and pay. Uber-Lyft competition has already demonstrated that ride-sharing doesn't come with an automatic moat. Both drivers and passengers are willing to use multiple apps and both respond to prices. Hence price wars. The big problems are network effect chicken-egg problems. You need enough drivers and passengers simultaneously. But, this only needs to be solved in one locale at a time. Uber & Lyft put all their efforts into scale, assuming that winner-take-most dynamics will fix the economics eventually. They didn't. It's not a terrible idea to start a competitor building a low cost/fee model from day one. Flat fees for drivers might be interesting because once the fee is paid drivers have an incentive to get their money's worth. It's not an easy win to go after, but not impossible either. Ride sharing is not an airtight market.