11 ms·

14 Days Later: What I’ve learned in the first 2 weeks of my startup

91 points by dcaldwell 15y ago

j_col 15y ago
That background makes the text very hard to read (at least for my eyes). Literally had to copy-and-paste the text into a text editor...
- ralphsaunders 15y ago
  You might find this bookmarklet useful then: http://readable.tastefulwords.com/ http://readable.tastefulwords.com/
  - j_col 15y ago
    Ah nice, thanks for the tip!
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  I'll look into changing it. I just put something up quick last night after I wrote the post
  - fuzzythinker 15y ago
    Is the paper-bag background what he's complaining about or is that what you changed into? I love the paper-bag background. Do you mind sharing where you got it from? [EDIT] Nevermind the last question, saw the tumblr link at the bottom.
- StrawberryFrog 15y ago
  For me too. The black on dark brown does not make for good readability. Design - not impeccable after all.
kariatx 15y ago
Wow! Impressive first two weeks. It seems to me that you're doing a lot right here. I like how you sum up your business ("We let nonprofits setup a good-looking, donation-enabled website in about 1-2 minutes."), and if I were a website-less non-profit, I would be very interested. I clicked over to your site, and your design blew me away. You really build authority with it, but also keep things fun, lighthearted, and modern. A couple suggestions: - You might want to test telling people they don't pay you fees after the first X they receive in monthly donations (around $1333, right? maybe make that an even $1000) as opposed to the maximum they pay you in fees. My marketing copywriting intuition tells me that may be clearer / more compelling than people having to do the math themselves. It also gives them a more tangible goal to shoot for and story to tell themselves. ("I'm sure we can get over $X a month, and the service is basically free after that!") - Possibly test a more prominent mention of Facebook / Twitter integration on the front page (to the point that you don't have to click or mouseover to see it). I have a feeling that these features are pretty important to non-profits, especially ones who aren't savvy enough to have a good web presence yet. I'm not sure - again, probably I would just test it out.
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  Thanks. Those are great recommendations. I'll definitely look into testing them.
masondesu 15y ago
Thanks for being honest about your experiences. It's refreshing to hear some real metrics, even if they aren't the most compelling stats for a launch. Excited to hear more updates in the coming months.
SeoxyS 15y ago
I hate to be a downer, but I don't think there's any world in which two weeks is enough to make any conclusions. I think you need to give it a serious shot (think months) before you'll be able to objectively assess your business.
- masondesu 15y ago
  Did you think about your comment for months before you posted it? I think you need to give this article a serious shot (think months) before you'll be able to objectively assess this article.
  - Ixiaus 15y ago
    I agree with SeoxyS - 14 days is nothing! I'm just now reaching conclusions about my business and it has been a whole year! Granted my business is very different and conclusions to be made vary based on the character and intentions of what you are doing - but I still hold to the logic that 14 days just isn't enough time to draw conclusions. Further, you could actually put forth why you disagree with him instead of taking his comment and applying an out-of-context switch with the subject. Comments and articles are completely different from a business on scale and intent (seriously, months to think about a comment? However I do re-read my comments to make sure they are sound, so maybe minutes). What I think you meant to say is that writing and sharing thoughts is okay no matter what stage you are at; in that I agree, but I disagree with writing about weak conclusions (weak because 14 days isn't enough time to gather the data and experience necessary to clearly conclude) based on the fact that as an author on the internet, drawing conclusions too soon can actually hurt your business.
    - masondesu 15y ago
      As you said, writing and sharing your thoughts on your own business is fine at any stage. The author wasn't making a final, definitive assessment of his business, and it's absurd for SeoxyS to assert that he was. Even if the author had made a "conclusion", he is welcome to. If he learned something in two weeks, congratulations to him. If after two weeks post launch, and months of development, he cannot plausibly have "made a conclusion", then no one on this thread has the right to "make a conclusion" after reading one blog post.
patio11 15y ago
I (transparently) love HN, but very much do not love HN on pricing. A blog post is sitting in my drafts folder about this. One of these days, one of these days... There are numerous Ask HNs about our demographics. Take a look at them. Compare with your domain expertise about people who run non-profits. The differences are fairly dramatic. You'll never win an argument about pricing with someone who is not in the market for your product anyhow. Their opinions are not relevant. Getting $0 from HN readers will not compromise the success of your business, since there is no pricing strategy which will result in you getting more than $0 from HN readers. I also think that 9.5% is less than 6% + 3.5% when considered from the perspective of the people whose opinions matter to you making your rent next month. For that matter, I think 10% would also also likely be perceived as less than 6% + 3.5%. In any event, you'll likely be additive on their existing revenue (or the customers will think you are), and 90% of free money is better than 100% of no money every day of the week.
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  Some wise words. Thanks. You're correct - we are additive on the nonprofits' existing revenue (other than cases where they would be switching from another service). The problem that I seemed to be encountering in emails from prospective customers (actual nonprofits) was that it was psychological. Nonprofits are pressured to keep their Administrative and Fundraising expenses low. They tend to have a gut reaction when they see a percentage that's above 0%. They also tend to think about how much they could raise. When they think of it in very aspirational terms, the % seemed prohibitive. Of course, I could be wrong on all of this. I've only been doing it for 2 weeks...
  - dugmartin 15y ago
    Why not reverse the pricing and say "you keep 90% of the first $1000 you raise through Bellstrike and 100% of the money above that". It puts a positive spin on it and they see they save money as they raise more money.
    - dcaldwell 15y ago
cannuk 15y ago
The design really caught my eye as well. I love the playfulness of it. Who is your designer, if you do not mind me asking..
thorstadt 15y ago
I can definitely relate to the "outskirts of the roman empire" sentiment: I'm also launching a startup in Greenville, SC, and it definitely feels like the "middle of nowhere" in the world of tech startups. I'm curious how many other startups/HN users are around the area.
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  We'll have to grab coffee sometime
- mcrittenden 15y ago
  Small world, I'm also in Greenville and just recently launched http://fileslap.com http://fileslap.com.
bambax 15y ago
> Impeccable design is worth it The site's design is indeed impeccable; did you do it yourself or did you use a service provider of some kind?
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  We used the amazing @rogie (twitter handle) for the design of Bellstrike.com and the amazing @squaredeye for 3 of our templates/themes. We iterated on some of their work in house and did some other minor design stuff ourselves.
callmeed 15y ago
Good post. I can relate to a lot of it after posting my project here on HN a couple weeks ago. (plus it's also a niche website builder) You didn't ask for any marketing advise but have you considered targeting Christian (or other) missionaries overseas? I have several friends from the US who have moved to Africa or eastern Europe long-term. They are usually sponsored by a US church and qualify as non-profits; but they also rely on recurring support to pay their bills. I think many of them could use something like this. Well done.
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  I'd love to target them. Do you know the best way to do so? I have a feeling it's a pretty fragmented market so it could be difficult to get in front of a large group of them in a single publication, website, or conference.
  - JoachimSchipper 15y ago
    For what it's worth, Googling ""my parents were missionaries" site:news.ycombinator.com" gets you a starting point or two. ;-)
  - callmeed 15y ago
    Do searches of church blogs and facebook pages (example search "missionaries africa site:facebook.com"). Also, pitch it to some of the top christian/theology blogs out there. Since your product is essentially free to setup/host and quite beneficial, I imagine you could get a few to post about it. Many of the missionaries I know meet with other nearby missionaries monthly or quarterly, so I think the word could spread if you were able to reach the right people.
18pfsmt 15y ago
Somehow, I missed the original HN post, but I like the service as it serves a vastly ignored market (I've also been a fan of Causes since they started). As far as pricing is concerned, it sounds like it might be best represented on a graph (donations vs. donations less fees). Also, I'm curious about pointing people to Hover when they want their own domains: is there an affiliate relationship there? I didn't get too far into the 'help' section, but who is going to help with DNS settings? Is that something Bellstrike will provide support for?
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  We don't have any type of affiliate relationship with Hover. Most of our target market is not super tech savvy and I just think Hover is one of, if not the, easiest to use registrars out there. Right now, nonprofits have to just forward their custom domain to their Bellstrike domain. However, we have plans to implement domain masking. If we do integrate with Hover's API, we could manage their DNS settings for them (if they choose) or just give them good instructions. It's kind of hard to give great instructions on DNS settings to a non tech savvy audience though because every registar is different.
sandieman 15y ago
Epic quote - "I’ve never even been to Silicon Valley. I think of Silicon Valley as people in far flung areas of the Roman Empire must have thought of Rome. Surely it’s a mythical land of people who hack apps together in a weekend and sell them for $20 million on Monday."
citricsquid 15y ago
For dcaldwell: maybe consider working with reddit somehow? http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/if-youre-nonprofit-organization-we-have_14.html http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/if-youre-nonprofit-organizati...
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  Thanks. We're actually setup as a for-profit. But I really want to provide value and help nonprofits out on our blog. I'll probably write a post about how they can use this service with Reddit.
  - citricsquid 15y ago
    Yeah that's what I meant, co-ordinate with reddit to offer this as a service to your users. So they create a site with you and advertise with reddit :-)
pknerd 15y ago
No doubt that HN rocks. Being a person not living in Valley, even in US I got to know about the things which I really needed to know; business and tech. Though I have not done something "remarkable" yet but I believe in myself that whenever I do, it would be because of things I learnt from HN. Coming to your product, it's a cool idea and you are definitely targeting a niche which makes it noticeable. One thing which I think successful entrepreneurs don't share that how do they reach their target audience. This is something which every entrepreneur should share by discussing his/her case study.
alexkearns 15y ago
DCaldwell, I agree with you on the limits of the lean start-up philosophy. I think the minimum viable product idea is hyped up immensely and is often an excuse for someone to release a half-finished product and call themselves an entrepreneur. A minimum brilliant product, on the other hand, is something I could unreservedly support. And I think that is what you have achieved. Well done!
Valien 15y ago
I've known the fine folks behind this project for a while and it's exciting to see them launch and gain some traction. It's great for our area and great for them. Congrats again Dodd and team. Looking forward to see more great stuff coming down the pipe!
_ud4a 15y ago
do you mind sharing how you actually got those hits in the first two weeks? i know with many startups getting the word out after the launch is very hard. so aside from HN what else did you do to get word out and get even foreign non-profits?
- dcaldwell 15y ago
  I've actually got a blog post planned for that :) I'd love to get a little more traction so I actually have something to write about though. But a big thing is just that people like to talk about designy stuff on Twitter a lot
civilian 15y ago
Just FYI, the I Do Foundation (a service where you can donate to charities that a wedding-couple list) charges 8% https://www.idofoundation.org/ https://www.idofoundation.org/ So your 9.5% is not that far off. When I did my donation to the charity my friends chose, it included a note about the 8% and told me that it's the general rate. From their site: """ Charitable Gift Registry: The percentage listed on the I Do Foundation website for each store is the exact amount that will be donated to charity every time a guest purchases a gift through an I Do Foundation registry link. For example, a $100 purchase from Cooking.com generates $8 for charity. The I Do Foundation does not deduct any fees from these donations. When guests make online donations, an 8% fee is added to their donation. This fee covers the cost we incur from our credit card processing company. For example, when a guest donates $100, an $8 fee will be added. """
laconian 15y ago
You are selling a publishing platform, so why use Tumblr? You might want to switch your blog over to your product, you know, eat your own dogfood and all that...

91 points by dcaldwell 15y ago

j_col 15y ago

That background makes the text very hard to read (at least for my eyes). Literally had to copy-and-paste the text into a text editor...

ralphsaunders 15y ago
You might find this bookmarklet useful then: http://readable.tastefulwords.com/ http://readable.tastefulwords.com/
- j_col 15y ago
  Ah nice, thanks for the tip!
dcaldwell 15y ago
I'll look into changing it. I just put something up quick last night after I wrote the post
- fuzzythinker 15y ago
  Is the paper-bag background what he's complaining about or is that what you changed into? I love the paper-bag background. Do you mind sharing where you got it from? [EDIT] Nevermind the last question, saw the tumblr link at the bottom.
StrawberryFrog 15y ago
For me too. The black on dark brown does not make for good readability. Design - not impeccable after all.

kariatx 15y ago

Wow! Impressive first two weeks. It seems to me that you're doing a lot right here. I like how you sum up your business ("We let nonprofits setup a good-looking, donation-enabled website in about 1-2 minutes."), and if I were a website-less non-profit, I would be very interested. I clicked over to your site, and your design blew me away. You really build authority with it, but also keep things fun, lighthearted, and modern. A couple suggestions: - You might want to test telling people they don't pay you fees after the first X they receive in monthly donations (around $1333, right? maybe make that an even $1000) as opposed to the maximum they pay you in fees. My marketing copywriting intuition tells me that may be clearer / more compelling than people having to do the math themselves. It also gives them a more tangible goal to shoot for and story to tell themselves. ("I'm sure we can get over $X a month, and the service is basically free after that!") - Possibly test a more prominent mention of Facebook / Twitter integration on the front page (to the point that you don't have to click or mouseover to see it). I have a feeling that these features are pretty important to non-profits, especially ones who aren't savvy enough to have a good web presence yet. I'm not sure - again, probably I would just test it out.

dcaldwell 15y ago
Thanks. Those are great recommendations. I'll definitely look into testing them.

masondesu 15y ago

Thanks for being honest about your experiences. It's refreshing to hear some real metrics, even if they aren't the most compelling stats for a launch. Excited to hear more updates in the coming months.

SeoxyS 15y ago

I hate to be a downer, but I don't think there's any world in which two weeks is enough to make any conclusions. I think you need to give it a serious shot (think months) before you'll be able to objectively assess your business.

masondesu 15y ago
Did you think about your comment for months before you posted it? I think you need to give this article a serious shot (think months) before you'll be able to objectively assess this article.
- Ixiaus 15y ago
  I agree with SeoxyS - 14 days is nothing! I'm just now reaching conclusions about my business and it has been a whole year! Granted my business is very different and conclusions to be made vary based on the character and intentions of what you are doing - but I still hold to the logic that 14 days just isn't enough time to draw conclusions. Further, you could actually put forth why you disagree with him instead of taking his comment and applying an out-of-context switch with the subject. Comments and articles are completely different from a business on scale and intent (seriously, months to think about a comment? However I do re-read my comments to make sure they are sound, so maybe minutes). What I think you meant to say is that writing and sharing thoughts is okay no matter what stage you are at; in that I agree, but I disagree with writing about weak conclusions (weak because 14 days isn't enough time to gather the data and experience necessary to clearly conclude) based on the fact that as an author on the internet, drawing conclusions too soon can actually hurt your business.
  - masondesu 15y ago
    As you said, writing and sharing your thoughts on your own business is fine at any stage. The author wasn't making a final, definitive assessment of his business, and it's absurd for SeoxyS to assert that he was. Even if the author had made a "conclusion", he is welcome to. If he learned something in two weeks, congratulations to him. If after two weeks post launch, and months of development, he cannot plausibly have "made a conclusion", then no one on this thread has the right to "make a conclusion" after reading one blog post.

patio11 15y ago

I (transparently) love HN, but very much do not love HN on pricing. A blog post is sitting in my drafts folder about this. One of these days, one of these days... There are numerous Ask HNs about our demographics. Take a look at them. Compare with your domain expertise about people who run non-profits. The differences are fairly dramatic. You'll never win an argument about pricing with someone who is not in the market for your product anyhow. Their opinions are not relevant. Getting $0 from HN readers will not compromise the success of your business, since there is no pricing strategy which will result in you getting more than $0 from HN readers. I also think that 9.5% is less than 6% + 3.5% when considered from the perspective of the people whose opinions matter to you making your rent next month. For that matter, I think 10% would also also likely be perceived as less than 6% + 3.5%. In any event, you'll likely be additive on their existing revenue (or the customers will think you are), and 90% of free money is better than 100% of no money every day of the week.

dcaldwell 15y ago
Some wise words. Thanks. You're correct - we are additive on the nonprofits' existing revenue (other than cases where they would be switching from another service). The problem that I seemed to be encountering in emails from prospective customers (actual nonprofits) was that it was psychological. Nonprofits are pressured to keep their Administrative and Fundraising expenses low. They tend to have a gut reaction when they see a percentage that's above 0%. They also tend to think about how much they could raise. When they think of it in very aspirational terms, the % seemed prohibitive. Of course, I could be wrong on all of this. I've only been doing it for 2 weeks...
- dugmartin 15y ago
  Why not reverse the pricing and say "you keep 90% of the first $1000 you raise through Bellstrike and 100% of the money above that". It puts a positive spin on it and they see they save money as they raise more money.
  - dcaldwell 15y ago

cannuk 15y ago

The design really caught my eye as well. I love the playfulness of it. Who is your designer, if you do not mind me asking..

thorstadt 15y ago

I can definitely relate to the "outskirts of the roman empire" sentiment: I'm also launching a startup in Greenville, SC, and it definitely feels like the "middle of nowhere" in the world of tech startups. I'm curious how many other startups/HN users are around the area.

dcaldwell 15y ago
We'll have to grab coffee sometime
mcrittenden 15y ago
Small world, I'm also in Greenville and just recently launched http://fileslap.com http://fileslap.com.

bambax 15y ago

> Impeccable design is worth it The site's design is indeed impeccable; did you do it yourself or did you use a service provider of some kind?

dcaldwell 15y ago
We used the amazing @rogie (twitter handle) for the design of Bellstrike.com and the amazing @squaredeye for 3 of our templates/themes. We iterated on some of their work in house and did some other minor design stuff ourselves.

callmeed 15y ago

Good post. I can relate to a lot of it after posting my project here on HN a couple weeks ago. (plus it's also a niche website builder) You didn't ask for any marketing advise but have you considered targeting Christian (or other) missionaries overseas? I have several friends from the US who have moved to Africa or eastern Europe long-term. They are usually sponsored by a US church and qualify as non-profits; but they also rely on recurring support to pay their bills. I think many of them could use something like this. Well done.

dcaldwell 15y ago
I'd love to target them. Do you know the best way to do so? I have a feeling it's a pretty fragmented market so it could be difficult to get in front of a large group of them in a single publication, website, or conference.
- JoachimSchipper 15y ago
  For what it's worth, Googling ""my parents were missionaries" site:news.ycombinator.com" gets you a starting point or two. ;-)
- callmeed 15y ago
  Do searches of church blogs and facebook pages (example search "missionaries africa site:facebook.com"). Also, pitch it to some of the top christian/theology blogs out there. Since your product is essentially free to setup/host and quite beneficial, I imagine you could get a few to post about it. Many of the missionaries I know meet with other nearby missionaries monthly or quarterly, so I think the word could spread if you were able to reach the right people.

18pfsmt 15y ago

Somehow, I missed the original HN post, but I like the service as it serves a vastly ignored market (I've also been a fan of Causes since they started). As far as pricing is concerned, it sounds like it might be best represented on a graph (donations vs. donations less fees). Also, I'm curious about pointing people to Hover when they want their own domains: is there an affiliate relationship there? I didn't get too far into the 'help' section, but who is going to help with DNS settings? Is that something Bellstrike will provide support for?

dcaldwell 15y ago
We don't have any type of affiliate relationship with Hover. Most of our target market is not super tech savvy and I just think Hover is one of, if not the, easiest to use registrars out there. Right now, nonprofits have to just forward their custom domain to their Bellstrike domain. However, we have plans to implement domain masking. If we do integrate with Hover's API, we could manage their DNS settings for them (if they choose) or just give them good instructions. It's kind of hard to give great instructions on DNS settings to a non tech savvy audience though because every registar is different.

sandieman 15y ago

Epic quote - "I’ve never even been to Silicon Valley. I think of Silicon Valley as people in far flung areas of the Roman Empire must have thought of Rome. Surely it’s a mythical land of people who hack apps together in a weekend and sell them for $20 million on Monday."

citricsquid 15y ago

For dcaldwell: maybe consider working with reddit somehow? http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/if-youre-nonprofit-organization-we-have_14.html http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/if-youre-nonprofit-organizati...

dcaldwell 15y ago
Thanks. We're actually setup as a for-profit. But I really want to provide value and help nonprofits out on our blog. I'll probably write a post about how they can use this service with Reddit.
- citricsquid 15y ago
  Yeah that's what I meant, co-ordinate with reddit to offer this as a service to your users. So they create a site with you and advertise with reddit :-)

pknerd 15y ago

No doubt that HN rocks. Being a person not living in Valley, even in US I got to know about the things which I really needed to know; business and tech. Though I have not done something "remarkable" yet but I believe in myself that whenever I do, it would be because of things I learnt from HN. Coming to your product, it's a cool idea and you are definitely targeting a niche which makes it noticeable. One thing which I think successful entrepreneurs don't share that how do they reach their target audience. This is something which every entrepreneur should share by discussing his/her case study.

alexkearns 15y ago

DCaldwell, I agree with you on the limits of the lean start-up philosophy. I think the minimum viable product idea is hyped up immensely and is often an excuse for someone to release a half-finished product and call themselves an entrepreneur. A minimum brilliant product, on the other hand, is something I could unreservedly support. And I think that is what you have achieved. Well done!

Valien 15y ago

I've known the fine folks behind this project for a while and it's exciting to see them launch and gain some traction. It's great for our area and great for them. Congrats again Dodd and team. Looking forward to see more great stuff coming down the pipe!

_ud4a 15y ago

do you mind sharing how you actually got those hits in the first two weeks? i know with many startups getting the word out after the launch is very hard. so aside from HN what else did you do to get word out and get even foreign non-profits?

dcaldwell 15y ago
I've actually got a blog post planned for that :) I'd love to get a little more traction so I actually have something to write about though. But a big thing is just that people like to talk about designy stuff on Twitter a lot

civilian 15y ago

Just FYI, the I Do Foundation (a service where you can donate to charities that a wedding-couple list) charges 8% https://www.idofoundation.org/ https://www.idofoundation.org/ So your 9.5% is not that far off. When I did my donation to the charity my friends chose, it included a note about the 8% and told me that it's the general rate. From their site: """ Charitable Gift Registry: The percentage listed on the I Do Foundation website for each store is the exact amount that will be donated to charity every time a guest purchases a gift through an I Do Foundation registry link. For example, a $100 purchase from Cooking.com generates $8 for charity. The I Do Foundation does not deduct any fees from these donations. When guests make online donations, an 8% fee is added to their donation. This fee covers the cost we incur from our credit card processing company. For example, when a guest donates $100, an $8 fee will be added. """

laconian 15y ago

You are selling a publishing platform, so why use Tumblr? You might want to switch your blog over to your product, you know, eat your own dogfood and all that...