4 ms·

Review my startup: JamRides - Carpool to events

4 points by jaytee_clone 18y ago

jaytee_clone 18y ago
I'm the creator of JamRides. This is my first webapp, so please feel free to throw me whatever you can think of, especially the obvious. FYI, I decided to leave out anything that explains what JamRides is about on the homepage, (check the about section) mainly because I don't expect anyone to come to JamRides through homepage linking. In fact, the main feature of JamRides enables anyone can post carpool links anywhere, so the traffic coming in will should already know what we are about (somewhat). Does this make sense?
- pedalpete 18y ago
  I agree with your thoughts on leaving out explaining JamRides on the homepage, as it is simple enough to understand. But if i where you, i'd put your tagline 'Carpool to shows, events, gatherings' on the page. Not everybody will see the title, but that tagline is enough to describe what you are doing.
  - jaytee_clone 18y ago
    I agree. Where would you recommend to put the tagline?
pedalpete 18y ago
as a creator of a live music search site (www.HearWhere.com), I love the idea that you are proposing. However, i think getting users to post events is a bit of a challenge, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of 'discovery' built in. How will you manage how different people input the event differently? some might enter the band name, some might enter the location. Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming? I just realized in your demo all of your events are demo. Why not have those listed on the home page, you could do a 'search from area'. Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you could list the events near them. I don't think the 'from' field makes an sense in the address sense (unless you are just geocoding to region or something). Not sure what you are thinking of with respect to a use-case. Do you think people who have extra space are going to post the event? Or people who are looking for a ride would add it? Obviously the second makes more sense, but I'm not sure why the person with extra capacity would be driven to your site. Maybe i'm just having difficulty imagining it without enough content. If I were you I'd spend some time getting REAL events, and make the site something people could actually use (meaning working with real data, not demo data). Maybe even a screencast of who the actors are, and what they would do would help. The idea itself is simple to understand, but getting from 'people would use this to carpool to gigs' to actually getting the site used is a bit of a bigger leap than you expect. I'm speaking from experience. I've gone through many versions of my site since launching this summer, and it still needs more refinement. Best of luck with the new site.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  Thanks for all of the great ideas. Here are my response: "Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming? - I have. However first, I want JamRides to be adopted by bands and venues, so that then can make or link to their own carpool page like this one: http://jamrides.com/calendar?pblc_key=6619203945241087998 http://jamrides.com/calendar?pblc_key=6619203945241087998 "Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you could list the events near them" - Definitely. In fact, I did that already. It will look like this: (if you live in berkeley) http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  "I don't think the 'from' field makes an sense in the address sense (unless you are just geocoding to region or something)" - Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by this. "Not sure what you are thinking of with respect to a use-case." - Bands and venues hopefully will create theses event or even use our pre-build calendar. (I plan to create more features on the calendar too.) Then the use-case would be the people who regularity visit band/venue sites. And that way even people with ride space will be reminded about carpooling. "If I were you I'd spend some time getting REAL events," - Totally. I have a few crawlers that get bands, venues, events. I just haven't put them on yet, because I don't know about legality issue. "Maybe even a screencast of who the actors are" - Will do.
smoody 18y ago
Nice idea. Personally, I would hold off on the ads until you have some momentum. The revenue will be minimal until you have traffic and I believe not running adsense ads will make it more attractive to your early adopters.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  Totally agree. I was just testing the ads. Taking them off now.
symptic 18y ago
The name gets to me. Affiliating "jam" with anything that has to do with vehicles makes me think of traffic. Just my $.02.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  Yeah. I agree that it can come off like that. I just really like the word Jam.
siong1987 18y ago
In fact, I think that you can make the Web Application a bit more humanistic. For instances: 1. Everyone now is so concerned about Global Warming. Maybe you can add a "Carbon" bar on each user on how much carbon they save when they take a car pool instead of driving their own cars. Same, you can tell the people who are willing to offer the car pool on how much carbon they save by offering a carpool. 2. Make a small social circle among the users. Usually, people who take car pool are people who will go and forth from two different spots quite frequently. I think people will always go back to the same car pool with the same driver. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  1. Great idea. In fact, a lot of carpool sites have them. That will be a feature to implement in the future. Right now I'm just more tied up with the main features. 2. Yes. I thought a lot about whether I should make this community "profile centric" or "anonymous centric". There seems to be pros and cons in both. It's hard to decide. Right now, I'm hoping the social circles will be people who like the same musicians. Maybe uploading user photo?
jaytee_clone 18y ago
Also, it's kinda hard to see how JamRides is different than other service from the homepage. You guys should really check out the about section too. (Specifically the section explaining the difference.) http://jamrides.com/about.html http://jamrides.com/about.html
markessien 18y ago
Your application is completely dependent on the network effect. No people, no use. So you need to find a partner. You need to have one major partner or you will go nowhere. See finding that partner as 40% of your product.
guruz 18y ago
FYI, does not look good in camino. http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d7033aa53/ http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d...

4 points by jaytee_clone 18y ago

I'm the creator of JamRides. This is my first webapp, so please feel free to throw me whatever you can think of, especially the obvious. FYI, I decided to leave out anything that explains what JamRides is about on the homepage, (check the about section) mainly because I don't expect anyone to come to JamRides through homepage linking. In fact, the main feature of JamRides enables anyone can post carpool links anywhere, so the traffic coming in will should already know what we are about (somewhat). Does this make sense?

pedalpete 18y ago
I agree with your thoughts on leaving out explaining JamRides on the homepage, as it is simple enough to understand. But if i where you, i'd put your tagline 'Carpool to shows, events, gatherings' on the page. Not everybody will see the title, but that tagline is enough to describe what you are doing.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  I agree. Where would you recommend to put the tagline?

pedalpete 18y ago

as a creator of a live music search site (www.HearWhere.com), I love the idea that you are proposing. However, i think getting users to post events is a bit of a challenge, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of 'discovery' built in. How will you manage how different people input the event differently? some might enter the band name, some might enter the location. Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming? I just realized in your demo all of your events are demo. Why not have those listed on the home page, you could do a 'search from area'. Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you could list the events near them. I don't think the 'from' field makes an sense in the address sense (unless you are just geocoding to region or something). Not sure what you are thinking of with respect to a use-case. Do you think people who have extra space are going to post the event? Or people who are looking for a ride would add it? Obviously the second makes more sense, but I'm not sure why the person with extra capacity would be driven to your site. Maybe i'm just having difficulty imagining it without enough content. If I were you I'd spend some time getting REAL events, and make the site something people could actually use (meaning working with real data, not demo data). Maybe even a screencast of who the actors are, and what they would do would help. The idea itself is simple to understand, but getting from 'people would use this to carpool to gigs' to actually getting the site used is a bit of a bigger leap than you expect. I'm speaking from experience. I've gone through many versions of my site since launching this summer, and it still needs more refinement. Best of luck with the new site.

jaytee_clone 18y ago
Thanks for all of the great ideas. Here are my response: "Have you considered using an api like zvents or upcoming? - I have. However first, I want JamRides to be adopted by bands and venues, so that then can make or link to their own carpool page like this one: http://jamrides.com/calendar?pblc_key=6619203945241087998 http://jamrides.com/calendar?pblc_key=6619203945241087998 "Also, you can use google to find the initial location of your users so you could list the events near them" - Definitely. In fact, I did that already. It will look like this: (if you live in berkeley) http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca http://jamrides.com/j?date=2008-10-31&from=berkeley,+ca
jaytee_clone 18y ago
"I don't think the 'from' field makes an sense in the address sense (unless you are just geocoding to region or something)" - Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by this. "Not sure what you are thinking of with respect to a use-case." - Bands and venues hopefully will create theses event or even use our pre-build calendar. (I plan to create more features on the calendar too.) Then the use-case would be the people who regularity visit band/venue sites. And that way even people with ride space will be reminded about carpooling. "If I were you I'd spend some time getting REAL events," - Totally. I have a few crawlers that get bands, venues, events. I just haven't put them on yet, because I don't know about legality issue. "Maybe even a screencast of who the actors are" - Will do.

smoody 18y ago

Nice idea. Personally, I would hold off on the ads until you have some momentum. The revenue will be minimal until you have traffic and I believe not running adsense ads will make it more attractive to your early adopters.

jaytee_clone 18y ago
Totally agree. I was just testing the ads. Taking them off now.

symptic 18y ago

The name gets to me. Affiliating "jam" with anything that has to do with vehicles makes me think of traffic. Just my $.02.

jaytee_clone 18y ago
Yeah. I agree that it can come off like that. I just really like the word Jam.

siong1987 18y ago

In fact, I think that you can make the Web Application a bit more humanistic. For instances: 1. Everyone now is so concerned about Global Warming. Maybe you can add a "Carbon" bar on each user on how much carbon they save when they take a car pool instead of driving their own cars. Same, you can tell the people who are willing to offer the car pool on how much carbon they save by offering a carpool. 2. Make a small social circle among the users. Usually, people who take car pool are people who will go and forth from two different spots quite frequently. I think people will always go back to the same car pool with the same driver. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

jaytee_clone 18y ago
1. Great idea. In fact, a lot of carpool sites have them. That will be a feature to implement in the future. Right now I'm just more tied up with the main features. 2. Yes. I thought a lot about whether I should make this community "profile centric" or "anonymous centric". There seems to be pros and cons in both. It's hard to decide. Right now, I'm hoping the social circles will be people who like the same musicians. Maybe uploading user photo?

jaytee_clone 18y ago

Also, it's kinda hard to see how JamRides is different than other service from the homepage. You guys should really check out the about section too. (Specifically the section explaining the difference.) http://jamrides.com/about.html http://jamrides.com/about.html

markessien 18y ago

Your application is completely dependent on the network effect. No people, no use. So you need to find a partner. You need to have one major partner or you will go nowhere. See finding that partner as 40% of your product.

guruz 18y ago

FYI, does not look good in camino. http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d7033aa53/ http://browsershots.org/screenshots/77c69ab2a918ce3b1628a45d...