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Form builders are a hard business to succeed with. Quite a lot of companies started off as a general “form builder” product and then found success by specializi

Form builders are a hard business to succeed with. Quite a lot of companies started off as a general “form builder” product and then found success by specializing into specific uses of forms. Examples include Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Open Water, etc. Quite a lot of other companies stick with generic forms and get stuck and stagnate. The reason is that forms are like dates, time, addresses, names, to-do lists, etc. They are things that many developers need to work with, but are way deeper and more complicated than they seem at first. See the wide variety of feedback and suggestions just in this HN thread. So I would recommend specializing if you want to gain traction. And expect to do tons of marketing.

diggan 1y ago
> And expect to do tons of marketing. Fun fact: Typeform basically did no "traditional" marketing in the beginning of its life, and most users came from the "Powered by Typeform" button in the bottom right, which was visible for every free form IIRC. Those users, also publishing their own forms, led to more users finding Typeform from that same button.
- snowwrestler 1y ago
  When does a marketing tactic become “traditional”? Putting ‘Powered By’ tags on products goes back at least 20 years.
  - paulryanrogers 1y ago
    Is it a traditional marketing tactic to rely largely on something as subtle as powered-by links? (Genuine question, I haven't studied marketing beyond a few documentaries.)
  - Dylan16807 1y ago
    Unless there's a sea change, a minor tactic can continue to exist but not be "traditional" indefinitely.
  - diggan 1y ago
    > When does a marketing tactic become “traditional”? The original message was: > And expect to do tons of marketing. Which putting a "Powered by" button isn't, it's basically a software, UX and design task instead. I guess by "traditional" marketing I meant the type of activities that require active effort to do, compared to something like that.

diggan 1y ago

> And expect to do tons of marketing. Fun fact: Typeform basically did no "traditional" marketing in the beginning of its life, and most users came from the "Powered by Typeform" button in the bottom right, which was visible for every free form IIRC. Those users, also publishing their own forms, led to more users finding Typeform from that same button.

snowwrestler 1y ago
When does a marketing tactic become “traditional”? Putting ‘Powered By’ tags on products goes back at least 20 years.
- paulryanrogers 1y ago
  Is it a traditional marketing tactic to rely largely on something as subtle as powered-by links? (Genuine question, I haven't studied marketing beyond a few documentaries.)
- Dylan16807 1y ago
  Unless there's a sea change, a minor tactic can continue to exist but not be "traditional" indefinitely.
- diggan 1y ago
  > When does a marketing tactic become “traditional”? The original message was: > And expect to do tons of marketing. Which putting a "Powered by" button isn't, it's basically a software, UX and design task instead. I guess by "traditional" marketing I meant the type of activities that require active effort to do, compared to something like that.