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Ask HN: How important is it to have a 'About' page for your product or project?

I've seen many SaaS services from (presumably) small companies or individuals where the product website omits location, the person or people behind the product, and even the twitter account gives no indication of company location or who is behind it. I understand the privacy aspect, but I simply would not feel comfortable purchasing a (paid) product if I don't even know who is behind the product. As a customer, how much info do you expect to see about the people behind a project or product when you visit their website? Interested to hear of you thoughts as a customer, a product creator, or both. If you are a user or customer: Which of the following do expect to see in the 'About' section of a website? (Feel free to indicate whether you expect this for commercial or open source or both) - At least one or more person names behind the project or programme - Profile or mini biography of one or more people - Mini biography of the project or company - Country location (is this irrevelant if you are a 'digital nomad'?) - Address Anything else? If you are the person behind a product - How much information do you provide on your 'About' page? - How much do your feel comfortable sharing? - Are there any reasons why you don't share some details? (e.g. your location, your name)

brudgers 5y ago
Infinitely less important than having customers. In general, it is more likely to be playing house than doing what needs to be done.
keiferski 5y ago
99.9% of commerce is conducted between people that don’t know each other. I don’t know who owns the convenience store, bakery, or Vietnamese restaurant near my apartment. This hasn’t stopped me from frequenting them. If you are just purchasing a product and not providing confidential information (e.g. a financial SAAS) then I don’t see the issue, personally. Privacy-first seems like a good societal default to me.
- marto1 5y ago
  > 99.9% of commerce is conducted between people that don’t know each other. By volume I'm guessing. As in a person buying something from Lidl/Walmart. In any case do you have a source on this claim ?
  - keiferski 5y ago
    I wasn’t using it as a specific number, just as “overwhelming majority.” In reality, it’s probably more than 99.9%.
  - muzani 5y ago
    Do you actually need a source? This is one of those things strengthened by the absence of data. Just look at the supply chain. The pepperoni on a pizza was from a cow or pig somewhere, injected with chemicals from a research lab somewhere, where safety of the chemicals and livestock health was verified by another party. It was butchered by someone unnamed (some argue trafficked immigrants). It was cured by an unnamed person. It was stored in an unknown location, in unknown sanitary conditions. It was sent by an unnamed truck, to an unknown warehouse, run by an unnamed middle man with a turnover rate that's probably high enough to literally not know the names of the workers. It exchanges hands several times down the delivery chain. Thankfully it's a processed product and not something like milk which has to be carefully stored. It reaches an unnamed cook. And that's just one component. This is something that can literally kill you. What's keeping indentured labor from going school shooter and putting arsenic on it? A lot of food is processed in prisons too. There's an awful lot of trust in the supply chain. I live in a fairly corrupted region and worked in the food industry, where it's not uncommon to pad food with non-food items, so I trust this much less. I don't trust my payment gateways either; I keep several bank accounts, only a few of which have payment gateway access and I make sure that I don't have more in an account than I'm willing to lose. So dodgy SaaS isn't a huge priority.
    - marto1 5y ago
      Yes, yes, Adam Smith and all. Yet, your your story represents the end consumer perspective. What I have in my mind is a long chain of linked lists that connect and break off in various areas. My point is the butcher company probably has pretty good relations with at least some of their distributors. This also might be highly dependent on geography, culture, type of business. A source of some sort would be interesting for me, because both my and your story are just that - stories, and Adam Smith lived long time ago. Robust logic doesn't need to reflect reality.
codegeek 5y ago
As a small bootstrapped SAAS founder, I probably had may be 5 prospects care about our size (or who is behind it) in past 6+ years where we have served over 600 customers. I am on a lot of sales calls and in many cases, I don't even need to reveal I am the founder and they don't care. Sometimes they do and then I talk more about the business, history and founding. Almost always, it is about whether we can solve their problem or not and if we have done it before for other similar customers (social proof).
armagon 5y ago
If it is an about page for a product, and not covered on the home page, I want to know things like: * what is the product for? what desires/needs does it address? under what circumstances might I use it? If it is an about page for a business, I'd like to know: * where is the business based out of? (What town or city? Certainly, what state/province/country are they in) But that is mostly to answer the question: * can they ship/provide a product to me? am I going to be charged an egregious amount of time / will it get stuck in customs? If they are offering non-physical products: * if they are offering a digital good, I don't really care where they are from * if they are offering a service (ex. they are a lawyer), I need to know that they are competent in my jurisdiction * if they are offering a digital (read: cloud-based) service, then I need to know about data privacy and retention, etc, but I'm not going to look for that on the about page. Most of the time, knowing the people behind the product doesn't make a difference to me. Those big bio pages aren't useful to me as an end user; I don't know the people involved anyway, and have only their word that they are competent. Does the product stand on its own merits, or not? If not, it doesn't matter if a team or neuroscientists stand behind it.
marto1 5y ago
Importance is highly dependent on your primary marketing channel. Consider the amount of companies that don't even have a website to begin with or have one that hasn't been updated since the early 2000s. And they still do well. Because their target audience discover them in a different way. In any case wrapping up a simple about page is not a large effort and probably won't hurt to have anyway so do it. But spending a bigger chunk of time on it should be done only if this is at least a somewhat critical part of your marketing strategy. My 2c.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mikewarot 5y ago
You should explain, in language an 8 year old can understand, what product or services you provide, why the customer might need them, and how they go about making a purchase. A postal address is essential, so people know which governments might be involved in oversight, and have a rough idea of what hours you are likely to be available. An actual email or phone number that always gets answered puts you light years ahead of Facebook or Google in terms of customer service. (See, it is a low bar) You shouldn't depend on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as your primary web page. They are subject to change on a whim, and you will get burned.
muzani 5y ago
As the person behind a product, I don't show information because I find the anonymity charming. It's like publishing something under a pen name. It's a habit I picked up from my first business, where people would be supportive because you're from the same country/race/religion. They'd buy things, bring friends in, and then act entitled because they "helped" you. It also messes with the data, when you're trying to figure out whether you have a valid business model and who your target market is. 60% of the users on my site are from the US, and I worry it might have a negative effect if they see that I'm not. I also presume a lot of product owners leave out their location, because it's probably somewhere in India.

brudgers 5y ago

Infinitely less important than having customers. In general, it is more likely to be playing house than doing what needs to be done.

keiferski 5y ago

99.9% of commerce is conducted between people that don’t know each other. I don’t know who owns the convenience store, bakery, or Vietnamese restaurant near my apartment. This hasn’t stopped me from frequenting them. If you are just purchasing a product and not providing confidential information (e.g. a financial SAAS) then I don’t see the issue, personally. Privacy-first seems like a good societal default to me.

marto1 5y ago
> 99.9% of commerce is conducted between people that don’t know each other. By volume I'm guessing. As in a person buying something from Lidl/Walmart. In any case do you have a source on this claim ?
- keiferski 5y ago
  I wasn’t using it as a specific number, just as “overwhelming majority.” In reality, it’s probably more than 99.9%.
- muzani 5y ago
  Do you actually need a source? This is one of those things strengthened by the absence of data. Just look at the supply chain. The pepperoni on a pizza was from a cow or pig somewhere, injected with chemicals from a research lab somewhere, where safety of the chemicals and livestock health was verified by another party. It was butchered by someone unnamed (some argue trafficked immigrants). It was cured by an unnamed person. It was stored in an unknown location, in unknown sanitary conditions. It was sent by an unnamed truck, to an unknown warehouse, run by an unnamed middle man with a turnover rate that's probably high enough to literally not know the names of the workers. It exchanges hands several times down the delivery chain. Thankfully it's a processed product and not something like milk which has to be carefully stored. It reaches an unnamed cook. And that's just one component. This is something that can literally kill you. What's keeping indentured labor from going school shooter and putting arsenic on it? A lot of food is processed in prisons too. There's an awful lot of trust in the supply chain. I live in a fairly corrupted region and worked in the food industry, where it's not uncommon to pad food with non-food items, so I trust this much less. I don't trust my payment gateways either; I keep several bank accounts, only a few of which have payment gateway access and I make sure that I don't have more in an account than I'm willing to lose. So dodgy SaaS isn't a huge priority.
  - marto1 5y ago
    Yes, yes, Adam Smith and all. Yet, your your story represents the end consumer perspective. What I have in my mind is a long chain of linked lists that connect and break off in various areas. My point is the butcher company probably has pretty good relations with at least some of their distributors. This also might be highly dependent on geography, culture, type of business. A source of some sort would be interesting for me, because both my and your story are just that - stories, and Adam Smith lived long time ago. Robust logic doesn't need to reflect reality.

codegeek 5y ago

As a small bootstrapped SAAS founder, I probably had may be 5 prospects care about our size (or who is behind it) in past 6+ years where we have served over 600 customers. I am on a lot of sales calls and in many cases, I don't even need to reveal I am the founder and they don't care. Sometimes they do and then I talk more about the business, history and founding. Almost always, it is about whether we can solve their problem or not and if we have done it before for other similar customers (social proof).

armagon 5y ago

If it is an about page for a product, and not covered on the home page, I want to know things like: * what is the product for? what desires/needs does it address? under what circumstances might I use it? If it is an about page for a business, I'd like to know: * where is the business based out of? (What town or city? Certainly, what state/province/country are they in) But that is mostly to answer the question: * can they ship/provide a product to me? am I going to be charged an egregious amount of time / will it get stuck in customs? If they are offering non-physical products: * if they are offering a digital good, I don't really care where they are from * if they are offering a service (ex. they are a lawyer), I need to know that they are competent in my jurisdiction * if they are offering a digital (read: cloud-based) service, then I need to know about data privacy and retention, etc, but I'm not going to look for that on the about page. Most of the time, knowing the people behind the product doesn't make a difference to me. Those big bio pages aren't useful to me as an end user; I don't know the people involved anyway, and have only their word that they are competent. Does the product stand on its own merits, or not? If not, it doesn't matter if a team or neuroscientists stand behind it.

marto1 5y ago

Importance is highly dependent on your primary marketing channel. Consider the amount of companies that don't even have a website to begin with or have one that hasn't been updated since the early 2000s. And they still do well. Because their target audience discover them in a different way. In any case wrapping up a simple about page is not a large effort and probably won't hurt to have anyway so do it. But spending a bigger chunk of time on it should be done only if this is at least a somewhat critical part of your marketing strategy. My 2c.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

mikewarot 5y ago

You should explain, in language an 8 year old can understand, what product or services you provide, why the customer might need them, and how they go about making a purchase. A postal address is essential, so people know which governments might be involved in oversight, and have a rough idea of what hours you are likely to be available. An actual email or phone number that always gets answered puts you light years ahead of Facebook or Google in terms of customer service. (See, it is a low bar) You shouldn't depend on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as your primary web page. They are subject to change on a whim, and you will get burned.

muzani 5y ago

As the person behind a product, I don't show information because I find the anonymity charming. It's like publishing something under a pen name. It's a habit I picked up from my first business, where people would be supportive because you're from the same country/race/religion. They'd buy things, bring friends in, and then act entitled because they "helped" you. It also messes with the data, when you're trying to figure out whether you have a valid business model and who your target market is. 60% of the users on my site are from the US, and I worry it might have a negative effect if they see that I'm not. I also presume a lot of product owners leave out their location, because it's probably somewhere in India.