7 ms·

My experiences on a one month startup

49 points by jasonb05 18y ago

halo 18y ago
IMO you should offer free subscriptions to people for creating decks - this free content will attract more people to the site and make you stand out and differentiate yourself from competitors like Supermemo or Mnemosyne. The "content is king" meme exists for a reason.
- jasonb05 18y ago
  that is good advice, we really do need a lot more content to get users. Hard-core users seem to obsess about making their own decks, thus the available content is there as a hook or gateway to becoming a more involved user.
  - halo 18y ago
    Actually the one thing that has put me off using one of these applications is the lack of availability of a library of decks and is probably the main advantage of a web-based approach. I'm not a fan of the over-proliferation of social network-based sites (Halo's law: "Every site expands until it becomes a social network, those that don't are replaced by those that do"), but I think this is the key case where it could really work to both your and your users advantage. The hardcore users will be more likely to already have bought Supermemo, have lots of Supermemo decks and be unlikely to switch over. I think you could end up with a larger, broader market than that. But I think the concept is good.
    - marcus 18y ago
      Consider building a tool to let users import decks they created on other sites/with other tools (and thus probably retain rights on) to your platform
      - jasonb05 18y ago
        good suggestion :) we have import from csv, but you're right - import from supermemo and eqiv would be a useful feature. thanks
hooande 18y ago
I love the idea of building a team and then coming up with different products. Your project mayhem is almost as cool as the one in fight club. I think the idea behind Spicy Elephant might be a bit abstract for most consumers, but the site came out well. The name doesn't help people to understand what it is...but I like it any way =) I wish you guys the best of luck with your future projects and I can't wait to see what you come up with next.
- 13ren 18y ago
  I think the "elephant" part does, esp with the graphic. Though I don't get the "spicy" part... for me, it actually brings to mind an elephant that has eaten too much spicy indian food... But sometimes, memorability is more important than meaningfulness... (eg. all the weird IT names we've gotten used to, Red hat, Apache, Mozilla). it would be really cool to have a cute/humorous story to explain the name (and the business), so that someone mentioning the name would be asked to explain it, and get to pass on an interesting story. eg. Ycombinator. Easy for me to suggest - but coming up with such a story is harder. :-)
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... it would be really cool to have a cute/humorous story to explain the name (and the business), so that someone mentioning the name would be asked to explain it, and get to pass on an interesting story. eg. Ycombinator. Easy for me to suggest - but coming up with such a story is harder. :-) ..." A parent company that creates other companies as its namesake suggests ... "a higher-order function which computes a fixed point of other functions" ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_point_combinator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_point_combinator
immad 18y ago
advertising is a clear and big monetization strategy. A lot of startups use it effectively.
- vaksel 18y ago
  Yes but it requires you to achieve a huge userbase before you start seeing any significant profit, and honestly I don't see his startup being able to do that, because I'm guessing his niche is very small
  - immad 18y ago
    My comment was regarding the statement: "The one caveat was that each project must have to have a clear and realistic path to monetization (for example: subscription, not advertisement)" I don't think an advertising monetized startup is unclear or unrealistic and it means that you discount a lot of ideas from the start.
    - paul 18y ago
      Yes, realistically neither subscription nor advertisement is likely to bring in a lot of money. My guess is that they want to do things the "37 signals" way, and that means acting as though advertising isn't "realistic".
      - jasonb05 18y ago
        yeah, the video of DHH's talk at startup school influenced the team a lot!
13ren 18y ago
Great stuff! I think you need a clear pitch of what you're offering users. Something that can leverage word of mouth: short, easy to grasp, exciting. (Of course, maybe through following supermemo's seeding the geek market, you don't need it for us) The offer is to "help them to learn stuff, by ... ", how? The first part is clear (cute: elephant=memory), but "how" it helps is not clear. "2. We intelligently organize when to study" That doesn't give me a sense of it (sounds like "in the morning"?, "after exercise"?, "at night"?) It's cute having your info as the first scheduled training, but maybe more effective to also have that info available before trial. :-) It's probably just me, but (though cute), I found scheduling that a bit pushy. I'd also feel more comfortable having a clearer sense of when training will occur: what's the scheduling for this deck? I don't think it's needed for the learning task; but it would make the user feel more informed and in control; and not at the whim of a machine (users don't like that). But I think you could have something really successful going there.
- jasonb05 18y ago
  some good points. I really like your comment about knowing the schedule for a deck. We do have an overview in the train page, and some more information in the stats page, but a clear visualization of a decks complete schedule would be a great addition. thanks.
  - 13ren 18y ago
    You're welcome - I had seen the schedule on train page, but not the one on the stats page (this may be because I'm on a tiny eee PC, and didn't happen to scroll down... for this (rare) case, I think some sites have subtle guides in the design to suggest the page isn't finished more lower down - I see you have narrow vertical margins, but the RHS is off my screen... as said, a rare case (and it could just be me). It would be nice to know which each deck is scheduled when (just different colours and a key) - ie, the visualization you suggest. But you've basically answered my issue - actually, the basic schedule you have now is very important, because you need to know, so you visit the site when the next learning is scheduled. One way is (optional) email alerts, to remind people. (Of course, a serious user would be at the site every day anyway). BTW: somehow, the info on train and profile pages seems a bit confused to me... maybe there's a better principle to organize it by, in terms of what the user needs, in their work flow. (but I think it's OK as it is - this is just a refinement). Don't know if any of that helps, but thought I might as well pass on my reactions, just in case they do.
avner 18y ago
paying for hosted SVN is a pain... I found a godsend when in a similar situation- www.assembla.com - free project management, svn, git, trac- just name it.
jrsims 18y ago
Just curious - why beanstalk and not github?
- pmorici 18y ago
  Because they were using subversion, not git.
  - mmilo 18y ago
    Yup exactly, and since only one member of the group was familiar with rails when we started we thought it would be best to stick with at least a version control system that we all knew.
DanielBMarkham 18y ago
Congrats on the project! It does seem a little obscure but as I understand it, it has a lot of academic interest. The only thing that made me wince was when you put your source repository on your server. Probably a bad idea, as you found out. You really want your production server configured and streamlined to do one thing -- make money. (Or provide value to users, to be more precise) Think of it as a big cash register. Try to keep it as clean as possible.
bluelu 18y ago
Load the next card in the background so I don't have to wait for the next card to appear when I continue. (I know that the next cards depend on what you achieved in the past, but you could still calculate the next card on the past achievements without considering the last answer).
- mmilo 18y ago
  Cheers Bluelu, It's definitely something that's in the cards, pun indended :)
pageman 18y ago
tried to register right now but can't for some reason ...
- jasonb05 18y ago
  sorry about that, out email broke. should be working fine now.
bootload 18y ago
Some observations: Firstly congratulations on getting the idea from zero to launch in one month. Even if the thing fails you have invested only 1+ resources building. I tried this yesterday, registered and had a play around. Impressions: - name: 2 words, elephant that never forgets but why spicy? longer to type - registration: faultless - no favicon: with tabbed browsers favicons make it easy to find - demo: no video demonstration OR quick visual demonstration from front page to show canned demo how app is better - clean urls: yes, but where is clean url on say popular? ~ http://spicyelephant.com/decks?direction=ASC&order=popular http://spicyelephant.com/decks?direction=ASC&order=popul... - feedback: google group (good) no twitter, blog. Would have thought a twitter account and blog was a good idea for features and latest new decks? - loading: no check for javascript block - layout: readability reduced by lots of text. cull text. - New deck: there is no easy way to create new deck once registed (ie: need a big easy to find button for people with really big thumbs so they do not have to hunt for it). Link to create deck should be off front page. When user is logged in "Make new deck" should be at the front page not just http://spicyelephant.com/profile http://spicyelephant.com/profile Now most of these are pretty trivial. The app works. What about marketing and getting feedback from users to improve? The only real things I'd suggest would be: - add "make new deck" to front page easier to find - add a demo walk through with story with pictures and text showing how the app is better - add blog and twitter support (more feedback & data push). One feature request I'd really like to see is a widget I could add to a third party site linking back which allows other companies to create information, test and show users results.
- bootload 18y ago
  I'd also add: - Contact form fails
- jasonb05 18y ago
  that is fantastic feedback bootload, thanks a lot mate! I've upgraded you (login:bootload) to premium as a gesture of the thanks. jase
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... thanks a lot mate! I've upgraded you (login:bootload) to premium as a gesture of the thanks ..." Aw gee you didn't have to. But I'll see how I can make use of it. One idea I've had is could you use the flash cards as a sort of measurable help system? Anyway thanks. Keep up the features.
donw 18y ago
I've written a similar system specifically tailored to learning foreign languages, so I'm definitely interested in taking a closer look at what you've produced.
JimEngland 18y ago
Just a quick observation: Compare the comments on Hacker News to that on Reddit. http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6uo66/my_experiences_on_a_one_month_startup/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6uo66/my_experi... You'd think everyone on Reddit created their own million dollar tech startup based on those comments.

49 points by jasonb05 18y ago

halo 18y ago

IMO you should offer free subscriptions to people for creating decks - this free content will attract more people to the site and make you stand out and differentiate yourself from competitors like Supermemo or Mnemosyne. The "content is king" meme exists for a reason.

jasonb05 18y ago
that is good advice, we really do need a lot more content to get users. Hard-core users seem to obsess about making their own decks, thus the available content is there as a hook or gateway to becoming a more involved user.
- halo 18y ago
  Actually the one thing that has put me off using one of these applications is the lack of availability of a library of decks and is probably the main advantage of a web-based approach. I'm not a fan of the over-proliferation of social network-based sites (Halo's law: "Every site expands until it becomes a social network, those that don't are replaced by those that do"), but I think this is the key case where it could really work to both your and your users advantage. The hardcore users will be more likely to already have bought Supermemo, have lots of Supermemo decks and be unlikely to switch over. I think you could end up with a larger, broader market than that. But I think the concept is good.
  - marcus 18y ago
    Consider building a tool to let users import decks they created on other sites/with other tools (and thus probably retain rights on) to your platform
    - jasonb05 18y ago
      good suggestion :) we have import from csv, but you're right - import from supermemo and eqiv would be a useful feature. thanks

hooande 18y ago

I love the idea of building a team and then coming up with different products. Your project mayhem is almost as cool as the one in fight club. I think the idea behind Spicy Elephant might be a bit abstract for most consumers, but the site came out well. The name doesn't help people to understand what it is...but I like it any way =) I wish you guys the best of luck with your future projects and I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

13ren 18y ago
I think the "elephant" part does, esp with the graphic. Though I don't get the "spicy" part... for me, it actually brings to mind an elephant that has eaten too much spicy indian food... But sometimes, memorability is more important than meaningfulness... (eg. all the weird IT names we've gotten used to, Red hat, Apache, Mozilla). it would be really cool to have a cute/humorous story to explain the name (and the business), so that someone mentioning the name would be asked to explain it, and get to pass on an interesting story. eg. Ycombinator. Easy for me to suggest - but coming up with such a story is harder. :-)
- bootload 18y ago
  "... it would be really cool to have a cute/humorous story to explain the name (and the business), so that someone mentioning the name would be asked to explain it, and get to pass on an interesting story. eg. Ycombinator. Easy for me to suggest - but coming up with such a story is harder. :-) ..." A parent company that creates other companies as its namesake suggests ... "a higher-order function which computes a fixed point of other functions" ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_point_combinator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_point_combinator

immad 18y ago

advertising is a clear and big monetization strategy. A lot of startups use it effectively.

vaksel 18y ago
Yes but it requires you to achieve a huge userbase before you start seeing any significant profit, and honestly I don't see his startup being able to do that, because I'm guessing his niche is very small
- immad 18y ago
  My comment was regarding the statement: "The one caveat was that each project must have to have a clear and realistic path to monetization (for example: subscription, not advertisement)" I don't think an advertising monetized startup is unclear or unrealistic and it means that you discount a lot of ideas from the start.
  - paul 18y ago
    Yes, realistically neither subscription nor advertisement is likely to bring in a lot of money. My guess is that they want to do things the "37 signals" way, and that means acting as though advertising isn't "realistic".
    - jasonb05 18y ago
      yeah, the video of DHH's talk at startup school influenced the team a lot!

13ren 18y ago

Great stuff! I think you need a clear pitch of what you're offering users. Something that can leverage word of mouth: short, easy to grasp, exciting. (Of course, maybe through following supermemo's seeding the geek market, you don't need it for us) The offer is to "help them to learn stuff, by ... ", how? The first part is clear (cute: elephant=memory), but "how" it helps is not clear. "2. We intelligently organize when to study" That doesn't give me a sense of it (sounds like "in the morning"?, "after exercise"?, "at night"?) It's cute having your info as the first scheduled training, but maybe more effective to also have that info available before trial. :-) It's probably just me, but (though cute), I found scheduling that a bit pushy. I'd also feel more comfortable having a clearer sense of when training will occur: what's the scheduling for this deck? I don't think it's needed for the learning task; but it would make the user feel more informed and in control; and not at the whim of a machine (users don't like that). But I think you could have something really successful going there.

jasonb05 18y ago
some good points. I really like your comment about knowing the schedule for a deck. We do have an overview in the train page, and some more information in the stats page, but a clear visualization of a decks complete schedule would be a great addition. thanks.
- 13ren 18y ago
  You're welcome - I had seen the schedule on train page, but not the one on the stats page (this may be because I'm on a tiny eee PC, and didn't happen to scroll down... for this (rare) case, I think some sites have subtle guides in the design to suggest the page isn't finished more lower down - I see you have narrow vertical margins, but the RHS is off my screen... as said, a rare case (and it could just be me). It would be nice to know which each deck is scheduled when (just different colours and a key) - ie, the visualization you suggest. But you've basically answered my issue - actually, the basic schedule you have now is very important, because you need to know, so you visit the site when the next learning is scheduled. One way is (optional) email alerts, to remind people. (Of course, a serious user would be at the site every day anyway). BTW: somehow, the info on train and profile pages seems a bit confused to me... maybe there's a better principle to organize it by, in terms of what the user needs, in their work flow. (but I think it's OK as it is - this is just a refinement). Don't know if any of that helps, but thought I might as well pass on my reactions, just in case they do.

avner 18y ago

paying for hosted SVN is a pain... I found a godsend when in a similar situation- www.assembla.com - free project management, svn, git, trac- just name it.

jrsims 18y ago

Just curious - why beanstalk and not github?

pmorici 18y ago
Because they were using subversion, not git.
- mmilo 18y ago
  Yup exactly, and since only one member of the group was familiar with rails when we started we thought it would be best to stick with at least a version control system that we all knew.

DanielBMarkham 18y ago

Congrats on the project! It does seem a little obscure but as I understand it, it has a lot of academic interest. The only thing that made me wince was when you put your source repository on your server. Probably a bad idea, as you found out. You really want your production server configured and streamlined to do one thing -- make money. (Or provide value to users, to be more precise) Think of it as a big cash register. Try to keep it as clean as possible.

bluelu 18y ago

Load the next card in the background so I don't have to wait for the next card to appear when I continue. (I know that the next cards depend on what you achieved in the past, but you could still calculate the next card on the past achievements without considering the last answer).

mmilo 18y ago
Cheers Bluelu, It's definitely something that's in the cards, pun indended :)

pageman 18y ago

tried to register right now but can't for some reason ...

jasonb05 18y ago
sorry about that, out email broke. should be working fine now.

bootload 18y ago

Some observations: Firstly congratulations on getting the idea from zero to launch in one month. Even if the thing fails you have invested only 1+ resources building. I tried this yesterday, registered and had a play around. Impressions: - name: 2 words, elephant that never forgets but why spicy? longer to type - registration: faultless - no favicon: with tabbed browsers favicons make it easy to find - demo: no video demonstration OR quick visual demonstration from front page to show canned demo how app is better - clean urls: yes, but where is clean url on say popular? ~ http://spicyelephant.com/decks?direction=ASC&order=popular http://spicyelephant.com/decks?direction=ASC&order=popul... - feedback: google group (good) no twitter, blog. Would have thought a twitter account and blog was a good idea for features and latest new decks? - loading: no check for javascript block - layout: readability reduced by lots of text. cull text. - New deck: there is no easy way to create new deck once registed (ie: need a big easy to find button for people with really big thumbs so they do not have to hunt for it). Link to create deck should be off front page. When user is logged in "Make new deck" should be at the front page not just http://spicyelephant.com/profile http://spicyelephant.com/profile Now most of these are pretty trivial. The app works. What about marketing and getting feedback from users to improve? The only real things I'd suggest would be: - add "make new deck" to front page easier to find - add a demo walk through with story with pictures and text showing how the app is better - add blog and twitter support (more feedback & data push). One feature request I'd really like to see is a widget I could add to a third party site linking back which allows other companies to create information, test and show users results.

bootload 18y ago
I'd also add: - Contact form fails
jasonb05 18y ago
that is fantastic feedback bootload, thanks a lot mate! I've upgraded you (login:bootload) to premium as a gesture of the thanks. jase
- bootload 18y ago
  "... thanks a lot mate! I've upgraded you (login:bootload) to premium as a gesture of the thanks ..." Aw gee you didn't have to. But I'll see how I can make use of it. One idea I've had is could you use the flash cards as a sort of measurable help system? Anyway thanks. Keep up the features.

donw 18y ago

I've written a similar system specifically tailored to learning foreign languages, so I'm definitely interested in taking a closer look at what you've produced.

JimEngland 18y ago

Just a quick observation: Compare the comments on Hacker News to that on Reddit. http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6uo66/my_experiences_on_a_one_month_startup/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6uo66/my_experi... You'd think everyone on Reddit created their own million dollar tech startup based on those comments.