4 ms·

How Hipster Got 10K Signups In Two Days Without Revealing What It Does

33 points by ssclafani 16y ago

jdp23 16y ago
"But just like the hipster tribe themselves, what Hipster does is besides the point." Really? It's probably going to matter one of these days ...
- ianl 16y ago
  Don't question TechCrunch, it'll boggle your mind.
callmeed 16y ago
Images also exist for: http://city-images.usehipster.com/boulder.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boulder.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/losangeles.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/losangeles.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/newyork.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/newyork.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boston.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boston.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/miami.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/miami.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/chicago.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/chicago.jpg but not Portland or Seattle? And it's called "Hipster"? Phhhhfffttt
fookyong 16y ago
Dry testing at its best. 1) Landing page with email capture + vague promise of something cool 2) ??? 3) Profit! I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have a product yet and are still figuring things out... EDIT: Just realised I am a hypocrite... http://littlecosm.com http://littlecosm.com (I assure you that there is a product behind this, though!)
- hugh3 16y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if it's all a massive hoax to see how many people you can get, with a little clever marketing, to sign up for a site that doesn't even exist. Though now that it's been so successful, it'd kindof be a waste not to monetize the hoax.
- daemin 16y ago
  Isn't that the whole point for the practice of lean startups? Where you validate that there is a market by asking people to give their email address before you go and start spending time and money on it. Still feels a bit "icky" to me, but then I like the act of building stuff itself.
  - fookyong 16y ago
    It is, although normally with a Dry Test you are a little more specific so that you know what product the hype is or is not being validated for. Hipster's hype simply validates that people like hype (and pictures of cities).
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Registered. ;)
  - fookyong 16y ago
    it worked!
- dqminh 16y ago
  the site looks great. Registered ;)
narkee 16y ago
Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by hype and bandwagon behaviour, and not by actual content or usefulness.
- dominostars 16y ago
  Isn't that just another way of saying, 'Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by marketing'?
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- jdp23 16y ago
  wait a second though, nobody's adopted it yet. so i'd rephrase: Illustrates how much tech 'journalism'adoption is driven by hype and bandwagon behaviour ...
coderdude 16y ago
Must... fight... the envy. Seriously though, congratulations to the people behind it. I'd be so excited if I got that kind of response and I'd feel a lot of pressure to not let all those interested people down.
trotsky 16y ago
So TechCrunch is now promoting themselves as a critical component in the substanceless promotion of a pre-launch website whose purpose is undetermined? Their mothers must be very proud.
benologist 16y ago
Heh one of the comments posted this link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVuHsg4J:boulder.usehipster.com/questions/where-is-the-best-happy-hour+/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2Bsite:usehipster.com%2B%2522use%2Bhipster%2522&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVu... Which shows it to be another Q&A site.
- dusing 16y ago
  Hmm. Hipster style Q/A for major cities. Like a Gilt/Quora. Could work
joshfraser 16y ago
We borrowed the same sign up process for http://torbit.com http://torbit.com and are seeing the same viral results, even though our product is a lot less consumer facing than theirs. I wouldn't be surprised to see this become standard functionality for startup landing pages.
- cmer 16y ago
  Could you explain this signup process a little bit more? I don't see anything unusual at Torbit...
  - joshfraser 16y ago
    After you register we give you a custom link that offers you priority access if you get your friends to register using that link.
    - prawn 16y ago
      Are you verifying the referred emails? What percentage of users are taking the bait to get earlier access?
gmjosack 16y ago
Once you signup it tells you to invite 3 more people and says the more people you invite the sooner you'll get access. Not to take away from all the signups they've received but I'm sure a good percent are people just entering fake emails with their referral ID considering you don't even need to confirm your signup.
- narkee 16y ago
  It's like a pyramid scheme!
  - jdp23 16y ago
    except without any money!
aurem1 16y ago
I guess it means that all who signed up are not currently hipsters.
fookyong 16y ago
Turns out Hipster is Q&A for places: https://twitter.com/#!/yongfook/status/27198058643066880 https://twitter.com/#!/yongfook/status/27198058643066880
brudgers 16y ago
If you have to ask what hipster does, you're not hip enough to get it.
- NiloParedes 16y ago
  As the hispter answered the straight-faced young mid-western in my office, "What's a hipster?"
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jw84 16y ago
I wish they would graduate Alexia to cover better stories. Give her some of those Glengerry Glen Ross leads, Michael and Erick, instead of making her trawl through Hacker News threads. Other than the ironic name use, what's the point of throwing 460 words on this?
impendia 16y ago
That's a damn good picture. If they had put up an even slightly less cool picture, the number of signups would not be so crazy. With technology, as with everything else in life, appearance matters, and this proves it.
sunbash 16y ago
So there's been a lot of talk about hipster - the super stealth startup that amassed a butt load of subscribers without revealing what it does. There's been a lot of talk about how "brilliant" a success it already is. TOTAL BS IN MY OPINION First of all, its just the good ol SV old boys club at work. How did the startup get prime coverage on TC their first few hours of splash page activation? guess the founding team has some great connections. secondly, i believe only techies and irrelevant early adopters invite people to a site they have never used in return for "beta" access. 90% of the world doesn't even know what beta access is. 80% of these sign ups will never return. What the F* does this validate? I'll give it up for a great name and connects I would kill for, but these guys have done absolutely nothing yet as far as i am concerned. Get this shit off your homepage TMZ... i mean tech crunch. What do you think?

33 points by ssclafani 16y ago

jdp23 16y ago

"But just like the hipster tribe themselves, what Hipster does is besides the point." Really? It's probably going to matter one of these days ...

ianl 16y ago
Don't question TechCrunch, it'll boggle your mind.

callmeed 16y ago

Images also exist for: http://city-images.usehipster.com/boulder.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boulder.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/losangeles.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/losangeles.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/newyork.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/newyork.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boston.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/boston.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/miami.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/miami.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/chicago.jpg http://city-images.usehipster.com/chicago.jpg but not Portland or Seattle? And it's called "Hipster"? Phhhhfffttt

fookyong 16y ago

Dry testing at its best. 1) Landing page with email capture + vague promise of something cool 2) ??? 3) Profit! I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have a product yet and are still figuring things out... EDIT: Just realised I am a hypocrite... http://littlecosm.com http://littlecosm.com (I assure you that there is a product behind this, though!)

hugh3 16y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if it's all a massive hoax to see how many people you can get, with a little clever marketing, to sign up for a site that doesn't even exist. Though now that it's been so successful, it'd kindof be a waste not to monetize the hoax.
daemin 16y ago
Isn't that the whole point for the practice of lean startups? Where you validate that there is a market by asking people to give their email address before you go and start spending time and money on it. Still feels a bit "icky" to me, but then I like the act of building stuff itself.
- fookyong 16y ago
  It is, although normally with a Dry Test you are a little more specific so that you know what product the hype is or is not being validated for. Hipster's hype simply validates that people like hype (and pictures of cities).
steveklabnik 16y ago
Registered. ;)
- fookyong 16y ago
  it worked!
dqminh 16y ago
the site looks great. Registered ;)

narkee 16y ago

Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by hype and bandwagon behaviour, and not by actual content or usefulness.

dominostars 16y ago
Isn't that just another way of saying, 'Illustrates how much tech adoption is driven by marketing'?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
jdp23 16y ago
wait a second though, nobody's adopted it yet. so i'd rephrase: Illustrates how much tech 'journalism'adoption is driven by hype and bandwagon behaviour ...

coderdude 16y ago

Must... fight... the envy. Seriously though, congratulations to the people behind it. I'd be so excited if I got that kind of response and I'd feel a lot of pressure to not let all those interested people down.

trotsky 16y ago

So TechCrunch is now promoting themselves as a critical component in the substanceless promotion of a pre-launch website whose purpose is undetermined? Their mothers must be very proud.

benologist 16y ago

Heh one of the comments posted this link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVuHsg4J:boulder.usehipster.com/questions/where-is-the-best-happy-hour+/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2Bsite:usehipster.com%2B%2522use%2Bhipster%2522&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:suTSLVu... Which shows it to be another Q&A site.

dusing 16y ago
Hmm. Hipster style Q/A for major cities. Like a Gilt/Quora. Could work

joshfraser 16y ago

We borrowed the same sign up process for http://torbit.com http://torbit.com and are seeing the same viral results, even though our product is a lot less consumer facing than theirs. I wouldn't be surprised to see this become standard functionality for startup landing pages.

cmer 16y ago
Could you explain this signup process a little bit more? I don't see anything unusual at Torbit...
- joshfraser 16y ago
  After you register we give you a custom link that offers you priority access if you get your friends to register using that link.
  - prawn 16y ago
    Are you verifying the referred emails? What percentage of users are taking the bait to get earlier access?

gmjosack 16y ago

Once you signup it tells you to invite 3 more people and says the more people you invite the sooner you'll get access. Not to take away from all the signups they've received but I'm sure a good percent are people just entering fake emails with their referral ID considering you don't even need to confirm your signup.

narkee 16y ago
It's like a pyramid scheme!
- jdp23 16y ago
  except without any money!

aurem1 16y ago

I guess it means that all who signed up are not currently hipsters.

fookyong 16y ago

Turns out Hipster is Q&A for places: https://twitter.com/#!/yongfook/status/27198058643066880 https://twitter.com/#!/yongfook/status/27198058643066880

brudgers 16y ago

If you have to ask what hipster does, you're not hip enough to get it.

NiloParedes 16y ago
As the hispter answered the straight-faced young mid-western in my office, "What's a hipster?"

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jw84 16y ago

I wish they would graduate Alexia to cover better stories. Give her some of those Glengerry Glen Ross leads, Michael and Erick, instead of making her trawl through Hacker News threads. Other than the ironic name use, what's the point of throwing 460 words on this?

impendia 16y ago

That's a damn good picture. If they had put up an even slightly less cool picture, the number of signups would not be so crazy. With technology, as with everything else in life, appearance matters, and this proves it.

sunbash 16y ago

So there's been a lot of talk about hipster - the super stealth startup that amassed a butt load of subscribers without revealing what it does. There's been a lot of talk about how "brilliant" a success it already is. TOTAL BS IN MY OPINION First of all, its just the good ol SV old boys club at work. How did the startup get prime coverage on TC their first few hours of splash page activation? guess the founding team has some great connections. secondly, i believe only techies and irrelevant early adopters invite people to a site they have never used in return for "beta" access. 90% of the world doesn't even know what beta access is. 80% of these sign ups will never return. What the F* does this validate? I'll give it up for a great name and connects I would kill for, but these guys have done absolutely nothing yet as far as i am concerned. Get this shit off your homepage TMZ... i mean tech crunch. What do you think?