3 ms·

Show HN: TurnShift, I turned an Algolia internal scheduling tool into a SaaS

49 points by vvoyer 6y ago

vvoyer 6y ago
Hey there HN. I am Vincent, a JavaScript developer. While working at Algolia, we had a team scheduling tool (called Bob) to share the customer and internal support duty amongst 40 engineers. The tool was widely successful and allowed us to easily know who was on support anytime of the week. It was an open schedule with shifts to book connected to Slack for notifications and reminders. When I left Algolia I took this internal tool and rewrote it completely as a SaaS product (my first one). And Algolia switched to it recently. You can read more about TurnShift (and its tech stack) on Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/turnshift/turnshift-what-why-how--MShG0jWyABA9PhvgliX https://www.indiehackers.com/product/turnshift/turnshift-wha.... I also build in public on: https://twitter.com/vvoyer https://twitter.com/vvoyer. If you'd like to try TurnShift, I created an AppSumo lifetime deal this week: https://appsumo.com/marketplace-turnshift/ https://appsumo.com/marketplace-turnshift/. And there's also the usual 14-day-free-trial-no-cc :) Send me questions here and I'll answer. Best, Vincent
- mritchie712 6y ago
  How's it going with the AppSumo deal? $100 for 10 users is scary cheap, I worry for your sanity if you need to provide any support. I'd reduce the 30 day trial to 14. Doesn't seem like it should take more than two weeks to get value and you can always offer an extension if they need it.
  - vvoyer 6y ago
    Thanks for the feedback and question: I worried/wondered the same. How it's going: one sale as of now (deal is one day old). To be honest if I ever get in trouble for selling too much on AppSumo this will be a good problem for me. Right now I am looking at getting as much user feedback as possible so no I am not worried. As of now the product feature set is not so big so support wise I should be fine. 30 days to 14 days that's a good point. I went for the de-facto standard without thinking it too much, if you have more details I'd be happy to learn. I might just try 14 days and see how it goes too.
    - mritchie712 6y ago
      It's not a massive leverage point, but the consensus is generally that shorter is better https://blog.close.com/saas-startups-why-your-free-trials-are-way-too-long/ https://blog.close.com/saas-startups-why-your-free-trials-ar...
      - vvoyer 6y ago
        Thanks, just did the change :)
- 147 6y ago
  How were you able to take the internal tool and turn it into a SaaS? I want you to unpack that a little more. Did you write it originally and take the code? Or did you make it yourself separately on your own time?
  - vvoyer 6y ago
    Hey there, simple answer: I completely rewrote the internal tool. I did not write the code originally. I took the idea and rewrote it completely.
haroenv 6y ago
We've been using TurnShift for a month now at Algolia, and I really appreciate that what used to be an underloved internal tool is now a very neat scheduling tool. We're using it both for scheduling of monthly "support day", as well as for rotation within teams to answer questions from other teams, and it has a lot of potential!

49 points by vvoyer 6y ago

Hey there HN. I am Vincent, a JavaScript developer. While working at Algolia, we had a team scheduling tool (called Bob) to share the customer and internal support duty amongst 40 engineers. The tool was widely successful and allowed us to easily know who was on support anytime of the week. It was an open schedule with shifts to book connected to Slack for notifications and reminders. When I left Algolia I took this internal tool and rewrote it completely as a SaaS product (my first one). And Algolia switched to it recently. You can read more about TurnShift (and its tech stack) on Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/turnshift/turnshift-what-why-how--MShG0jWyABA9PhvgliX https://www.indiehackers.com/product/turnshift/turnshift-wha.... I also build in public on: https://twitter.com/vvoyer https://twitter.com/vvoyer. If you'd like to try TurnShift, I created an AppSumo lifetime deal this week: https://appsumo.com/marketplace-turnshift/ https://appsumo.com/marketplace-turnshift/. And there's also the usual 14-day-free-trial-no-cc :) Send me questions here and I'll answer. Best, Vincent

mritchie712 6y ago
How's it going with the AppSumo deal? $100 for 10 users is scary cheap, I worry for your sanity if you need to provide any support. I'd reduce the 30 day trial to 14. Doesn't seem like it should take more than two weeks to get value and you can always offer an extension if they need it.
- vvoyer 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback and question: I worried/wondered the same. How it's going: one sale as of now (deal is one day old). To be honest if I ever get in trouble for selling too much on AppSumo this will be a good problem for me. Right now I am looking at getting as much user feedback as possible so no I am not worried. As of now the product feature set is not so big so support wise I should be fine. 30 days to 14 days that's a good point. I went for the de-facto standard without thinking it too much, if you have more details I'd be happy to learn. I might just try 14 days and see how it goes too.
  - mritchie712 6y ago
    It's not a massive leverage point, but the consensus is generally that shorter is better https://blog.close.com/saas-startups-why-your-free-trials-are-way-too-long/ https://blog.close.com/saas-startups-why-your-free-trials-ar...
    - vvoyer 6y ago
      Thanks, just did the change :)
147 6y ago
How were you able to take the internal tool and turn it into a SaaS? I want you to unpack that a little more. Did you write it originally and take the code? Or did you make it yourself separately on your own time?
- vvoyer 6y ago
  Hey there, simple answer: I completely rewrote the internal tool. I did not write the code originally. I took the idea and rewrote it completely.

haroenv 6y ago

We've been using TurnShift for a month now at Algolia, and I really appreciate that what used to be an underloved internal tool is now a very neat scheduling tool. We're using it both for scheduling of monthly "support day", as well as for rotation within teams to answer questions from other teams, and it has a lot of potential!