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Tout – How My Weekend Project Turned into a Real Lean Startup

98 points by Tawheed 16y ago

newchimedes 16y ago
Great job with Tout. As someone who has emailed a lot of people it's nice to have the ability to have templates for different groups of people. I watched the video and was curious if there is a way to bulk message again a pre-defined a group of people. For example let's say I messaged the "bloggers" group about a product launch. Then 3 months later we do a big update and I want to message them again.. can I just message that group with a different email? Without something like Tout the process is pretty annoying (going through individual email address and crafting a message and then sending off)
bryanhun 16y ago
A great story (thanks for sharing) and product. I look forward using it to tout my startup.
doctororange 16y ago
Great write-up. I expect to be using Tout in the future.
dr_ 16y ago
Pretty cool. I like this part from the FAQ regarding phone support: " We do not outsource our support overseas or employ low paid, unqualified support staff."
Jebdm 16y ago
This is something of an aside, but: if you're blogging about your product, put a great big highlighted link to it front and center. There is a link to it in the sidebar, but it could be way more noticeable.
- citricsquid 16y ago
  Yeah, I went to another blog post just to find the app. He kept saying "tout" and never linked it. I didn't think to check the sidebar.
ianhawes 16y ago
Can someone give me a tl;dr for this article?
- dools 16y ago
  http://toutapp.com http://toutapp.com
snitko 16y ago
I think I'm gonna be your customer, this seems to be exactly what I need, but it somehow escaped my attention before. Two things that are not clear from the screencast: do I reply to emails through Tout or through my gmail interface and does Tout automatically detects replies from people I emailed, stores them and archives them in Gmail?
- Tawheed 16y ago
  You reply through Your email client (for now). We focus on your outbox. As for replies, we'll be releasing a gmail integration.
hemancuso 16y ago
Odd question, but is tout incorporated? Wondering about your transition from weekend project->taking money. Presumably you need bank accounts/merchant accounts/gateway accounts and so forth. Seems like the step of incorporation alone could eat a big chunk of time. And there is no about/company page anywhere on Tout. Which seems a bit suspect [FWIW].
roryokane 16y ago
I don't understand why Tout has the feature to send emails later. You say you can send your emails so they only arrive at a time convenient for the recipient, but isn't receiving an email always convenient? The recipient doesn’t have to do anything when they receive it, it just goes into their inbox for them to read whenever they decide it is convenient. That’s one advantage of email vs. instant messaging: the conversation can be delayed until the other person has time to continue. Or are most people so bad at reading their email that the only way to get them to read it is to email them at a time when they will hear their smartphone or computer chiming, if they have that set up?
- blrgeek 16y ago
  Some folks I know found that the best time for an email to reach someone's inbox to give it the maximum chance of being read was 8am Tuesday. Then it'd be at the right place in their inbox to get read! Wanting to catch execs for a sales pitch in the morning when they are fresh, rather than at 5:30pm when they're likely to just bin your mail. Second, perhaps you don't want them to see it now, or reply to it now, but after some other event.
devmach 16y ago
Not so important advice: Please don't put your picture on every page (braintrust.co). It's kind of disturbing : it's company's web site not yours..
iaskwhy 16y ago
I'd love you to A/B test the solo pricing between $30/month and $1/day. When I went to the plans' page I saw the $30 price tag and thought it was kind of expensive for what it does. Then I read the "Tout costs about a $1/day out of your marketing or advertising budget" line and I thought of how cheap it actually was.
artmageddon 16y ago
Tawheed: It doesn't take away from the coolness of the product or your blog post, but I wanted to point out that you used the word "Still" twice in a row when you wrote "Still still kept costs less than..." Just wanted to bring that to your attention :)

98 points by Tawheed 16y ago

Great job with Tout. As someone who has emailed a lot of people it's nice to have the ability to have templates for different groups of people. I watched the video and was curious if there is a way to bulk message again a pre-defined a group of people. For example let's say I messaged the "bloggers" group about a product launch. Then 3 months later we do a big update and I want to message them again.. can I just message that group with a different email? Without something like Tout the process is pretty annoying (going through individual email address and crafting a message and then sending off)

bryanhun 16y ago

A great story (thanks for sharing) and product. I look forward using it to tout my startup.

doctororange 16y ago

Great write-up. I expect to be using Tout in the future.

dr_ 16y ago

Pretty cool. I like this part from the FAQ regarding phone support: " We do not outsource our support overseas or employ low paid, unqualified support staff."

Jebdm 16y ago

This is something of an aside, but: if you're blogging about your product, put a great big highlighted link to it front and center. There is a link to it in the sidebar, but it could be way more noticeable.

citricsquid 16y ago
Yeah, I went to another blog post just to find the app. He kept saying "tout" and never linked it. I didn't think to check the sidebar.

ianhawes 16y ago

Can someone give me a tl;dr for this article?

dools 16y ago
http://toutapp.com http://toutapp.com

snitko 16y ago

I think I'm gonna be your customer, this seems to be exactly what I need, but it somehow escaped my attention before. Two things that are not clear from the screencast: do I reply to emails through Tout or through my gmail interface and does Tout automatically detects replies from people I emailed, stores them and archives them in Gmail?

Tawheed 16y ago
You reply through Your email client (for now). We focus on your outbox. As for replies, we'll be releasing a gmail integration.

hemancuso 16y ago

Odd question, but is tout incorporated? Wondering about your transition from weekend project->taking money. Presumably you need bank accounts/merchant accounts/gateway accounts and so forth. Seems like the step of incorporation alone could eat a big chunk of time. And there is no about/company page anywhere on Tout. Which seems a bit suspect [FWIW].

roryokane 16y ago

I don't understand why Tout has the feature to send emails later. You say you can send your emails so they only arrive at a time convenient for the recipient, but isn't receiving an email always convenient? The recipient doesn’t have to do anything when they receive it, it just goes into their inbox for them to read whenever they decide it is convenient. That’s one advantage of email vs. instant messaging: the conversation can be delayed until the other person has time to continue. Or are most people so bad at reading their email that the only way to get them to read it is to email them at a time when they will hear their smartphone or computer chiming, if they have that set up?

blrgeek 16y ago
Some folks I know found that the best time for an email to reach someone's inbox to give it the maximum chance of being read was 8am Tuesday. Then it'd be at the right place in their inbox to get read! Wanting to catch execs for a sales pitch in the morning when they are fresh, rather than at 5:30pm when they're likely to just bin your mail. Second, perhaps you don't want them to see it now, or reply to it now, but after some other event.

devmach 16y ago

Not so important advice: Please don't put your picture on every page (braintrust.co). It's kind of disturbing : it's company's web site not yours..

iaskwhy 16y ago

I'd love you to A/B test the solo pricing between $30/month and $1/day. When I went to the plans' page I saw the $30 price tag and thought it was kind of expensive for what it does. Then I read the "Tout costs about a $1/day out of your marketing or advertising budget" line and I thought of how cheap it actually was.

artmageddon 16y ago

Tawheed: It doesn't take away from the coolness of the product or your blog post, but I wanted to point out that you used the word "Still" twice in a row when you wrote "Still still kept costs less than..." Just wanted to bring that to your attention :)