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Heh, I built something similar years ago. Even got a YC interview. It was called decisioncandy. Originally targeted logos but switched to apparel... I think th

Heh, I built something similar years ago. Even got a YC interview. It was called decisioncandy. Originally targeted logos but switched to apparel... I think the Slack idea is brilliant though, and I could totally see that taking off for a wide variety of things.

jstummbillig 6y ago
Did your YC feedback yield hints as to why you were rejected (I am presuming)?
- rattray 6y ago
  Yes, a very clear answer! The problem we were solving was that apparel firms have really long lead times: they design their lines for a season 9-12mo before the customer buys it. That means they can't iterate on their designs; DecisionCandy would let them do so in a lightweight way, by showing their sketches/previews of pieces to their customers, and doing a "which do you like more" survey to score the items. The problem here is that it takes 9-12mo to find out whether the app does any good, and YC is a 3mo program! We were only just about to sign a pilot deal at the time, so the timing wouldn't have made sense. And indeed, that long of a feedback loop is realistically too slow for a VC startup. We closed up and I "pivoted" to something totally different a few months later.
CrackpotGonzo 6y ago
Super interesting. Any other ideas from your testing, or feedback from the YC interview on where there could be traction here? If you're willing to share, of course :)
- rattray 6y ago
  Hmm certainly willing to, but I don't have much. Mostly just that professional graphic designers didn't seem like the right audience since they already have networks of peers who can give better feedback. Oh, and the apparel-industry-specific stuff from below. But something like an engineer asking a colleague which web design they just hacked up looks better would be a much better fit.
  - biztos 6y ago
    I had an idea once about something similar, I called it Design Picker, where you'd basically use some combination of crowdsourcing and "algo" to help you make design decisions. I had the domain for years, but I could never come up with a version of the concept I thought actual designers would actually use, so I never built it.

jstummbillig 6y ago

Did your YC feedback yield hints as to why you were rejected (I am presuming)?

rattray 6y ago
Yes, a very clear answer! The problem we were solving was that apparel firms have really long lead times: they design their lines for a season 9-12mo before the customer buys it. That means they can't iterate on their designs; DecisionCandy would let them do so in a lightweight way, by showing their sketches/previews of pieces to their customers, and doing a "which do you like more" survey to score the items. The problem here is that it takes 9-12mo to find out whether the app does any good, and YC is a 3mo program! We were only just about to sign a pilot deal at the time, so the timing wouldn't have made sense. And indeed, that long of a feedback loop is realistically too slow for a VC startup. We closed up and I "pivoted" to something totally different a few months later.

CrackpotGonzo 6y ago

Super interesting. Any other ideas from your testing, or feedback from the YC interview on where there could be traction here? If you're willing to share, of course :)

rattray 6y ago
Hmm certainly willing to, but I don't have much. Mostly just that professional graphic designers didn't seem like the right audience since they already have networks of peers who can give better feedback. Oh, and the apparel-industry-specific stuff from below. But something like an engineer asking a colleague which web design they just hacked up looks better would be a much better fit.
- biztos 6y ago
  I had an idea once about something similar, I called it Design Picker, where you'd basically use some combination of crowdsourcing and "algo" to help you make design decisions. I had the domain for years, but I could never come up with a version of the concept I thought actual designers would actually use, so I never built it.