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What was the company from Office Hours doing Analytics as a Platform? Even if the guy couldn't explain it on stage, it sounds awesome, definite pain point we s

What was the company from Office Hours doing Analytics as a Platform? Even if the guy couldn't explain it on stage, it sounds awesome, definite pain point we see, and I'd love to sign up for it.

randall 15y ago
Yeah, totally wanna know too. It took a bit for him to explain, but I totally got it.
- dannyr 15y ago
  http://schmetrics.com/ http://schmetrics.com/
  - simonw 15y ago
    OK, I'm by no means a copy expert but I can see some very obvious problems with the text on that page (which are worth fixing, since it sounds like communicating what the product does is a known problem for the company). The first paragraph, "Schmetrics was founded by three lifelong friends to address the pain points we have felt repeatedly over years of working in software..." - provides no actual information. You can delete it entirely. The second paragraph starts "Our platform is based on modular, flexible design principles" and is just as bad. It hardly hints at what the product does. The last two paragraphs at least mention analytics in passing, but again don't tell me anything that I couldn't have guessed - "we believe our customers are our greatest resource when it comes to generating and validating the ideas" should be taken as default for any intelligent startup. Don't worry - these aren't dumb mistakes. This stuff (figuring out your messaging) is really, really difficult. Reading between the lines, it sounds like your product solves a problem that I have and I'm very excited to know more about it. Maybe you should revisit your answer to the YC application question "What is your company going to make?".
    - dannyr 15y ago
      simonw, Not my startup but a friend's. I'll tell him about your feedback.
    - dorkitude 15y ago
      I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write up this feedback. I'll post again when we rewrite it later today. We've had customers and revenue since day 0, and since we're three technical cofounders, we have largely (and, I now see, mistakenly) focused on building our platform as quickly and thoroughly as possible, to the expense of everything else. Our plan was purely serial: focus on the tech first, then build an image and a brand[1] later. The whole reason we applied to YC was to learn how to better communicate what we do. A YC S11 founder made it clear to me that YC could help us to fix our communication problems before they became problems, and only then did I apply. He said YC could help us learn how to communicate to three audiences: investors, the press, and customers. I give us a F, F, and C- for those respective audiences. We will get to A, A, A. [1]: Frankly, we're not even happy with the name "Schmetrics", now that we know how hard it is for people to pronounce and spell.
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benhamner 15y ago
How is it a pain point for you, and what would you like to see?
dorkitude 15y ago
That was me. Sorry if I was confusing/confused -- I have an extreme personality (I'm far too abstract), which is a big part of why complementary cofounders are so important for people like me. Had they been present, I'm sure we would've done better :)
- colinplamondon 15y ago
  No worries, my company runs into the analytics problem you're solving all the time, so I totally knew what you were talking about :)
- tumultco 15y ago
  Were you trying to make the point that your analytics can be for more than reporting? Ex: if you have a platform then you can feed the data back into a user-facing site to drive sales of popular items, make automated tweaks, or offer experiences tailored to the specific visitor?
  - dorkitude 15y ago
    Definitely. (among other points!)

What was the company from Office Hours doing Analytics as a Platform? Even if the guy couldn't explain it on stage, it sounds awesome, definite pain point we see, and I'd love to sign up for it.

randall 15y ago

Yeah, totally wanna know too. It took a bit for him to explain, but I totally got it.

dannyr 15y ago
http://schmetrics.com/ http://schmetrics.com/
- simonw 15y ago
  OK, I'm by no means a copy expert but I can see some very obvious problems with the text on that page (which are worth fixing, since it sounds like communicating what the product does is a known problem for the company). The first paragraph, "Schmetrics was founded by three lifelong friends to address the pain points we have felt repeatedly over years of working in software..." - provides no actual information. You can delete it entirely. The second paragraph starts "Our platform is based on modular, flexible design principles" and is just as bad. It hardly hints at what the product does. The last two paragraphs at least mention analytics in passing, but again don't tell me anything that I couldn't have guessed - "we believe our customers are our greatest resource when it comes to generating and validating the ideas" should be taken as default for any intelligent startup. Don't worry - these aren't dumb mistakes. This stuff (figuring out your messaging) is really, really difficult. Reading between the lines, it sounds like your product solves a problem that I have and I'm very excited to know more about it. Maybe you should revisit your answer to the YC application question "What is your company going to make?".
  - dannyr 15y ago
    simonw, Not my startup but a friend's. I'll tell him about your feedback.
  - dorkitude 15y ago
    I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write up this feedback. I'll post again when we rewrite it later today. We've had customers and revenue since day 0, and since we're three technical cofounders, we have largely (and, I now see, mistakenly) focused on building our platform as quickly and thoroughly as possible, to the expense of everything else. Our plan was purely serial: focus on the tech first, then build an image and a brand[1] later. The whole reason we applied to YC was to learn how to better communicate what we do. A YC S11 founder made it clear to me that YC could help us to fix our communication problems before they became problems, and only then did I apply. He said YC could help us learn how to communicate to three audiences: investors, the press, and customers. I give us a F, F, and C- for those respective audiences. We will get to A, A, A. [1]: Frankly, we're not even happy with the name "Schmetrics", now that we know how hard it is for people to pronounce and spell.

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benhamner 15y ago

How is it a pain point for you, and what would you like to see?

dorkitude 15y ago

That was me. Sorry if I was confusing/confused -- I have an extreme personality (I'm far too abstract), which is a big part of why complementary cofounders are so important for people like me. Had they been present, I'm sure we would've done better :)

colinplamondon 15y ago
No worries, my company runs into the analytics problem you're solving all the time, so I totally knew what you were talking about :)
tumultco 15y ago
Were you trying to make the point that your analytics can be for more than reporting? Ex: if you have a platform then you can feed the data back into a user-facing site to drive sales of popular items, make automated tweaks, or offer experiences tailored to the specific visitor?
- dorkitude 15y ago
  Definitely. (among other points!)