5 ms·

Founder Stories: The Ups and Downs of Startup Life at WeddingLovely

46 points by johns 14y ago

shazow 14y ago
Tracy previously posted about her former failed cofounder[0] experience (before Julia came aboard), this one is about a failed hire, but she has a lot more stories about failed acquisitions, fundraising, and products. I've experienced some of these things with my own startup too but it never ceases to amaze me how diverse and different, yet universal, the "hard parts" of startups are. I wish more people were brave enough to talk about that side. [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3776972 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3776972
- limedaring 14y ago
  Thanks. :) A lot of people at Startup School were more than happy to talk about the troubles they went through, but only after the fact — it was really hard for me to press submit to talk about current troubles. So much pressure for startup bullshit out there!
  - yuhong 14y ago
    Reminds me of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823
    - limedaring 14y ago
      That's awesome, haven't seen that before. Funny because I was just at Brooklyn Beta and Ben spoke at length about how he didn't know what he was doing and attributed some of Svpply's "failure" to his run as CEO.
wtvanhest 14y ago
I'm interested to hear how you came up with your pricing. Likely you spent a lot of time coming up with the packages, but it seems like your market is really a tough market to price properly. There is so much complexity in this industry that I would assume that the right pricing strategy would make a huge difference in your business. At first glance I would assume things like... you must be low enough to not compete with wedding planners, so that would imply a max price of $2K to $3K. But then your pricing is only $79 which is far below (what I think is the average cost of a wedding planner). I'd be interested to find out what makes up that difference. Are there ways to close the gap? I'm sure there are a lot of considerations in the pricing that I cannot even think about properly, but it seems like there should be a lot of opportunity here.
- limedaring 14y ago
  HA good question. Succinctly, our pricing is not set in stone is likely to change. Keep in mind that the vast majority of weddings these days do not have full planners, and if they work with a planner, generally it's a month-of or day-of planner, so that lowers the tiers of people we would be "competing" against. WeddingLovely is also very new, so starting out at $14.99/month seemed ideal to test out. $19.99 is actually an experiment in price anchoring. $119 is because people usually work with us way before their wedding so we wanted to have a tier that rewards people who start with us early. Basically, these are all guesses that we're testing, and will update and improve both our pricing as well as our features as we work more with engaged couples as well as gain more experience running an online wedding planning app.
  - limedaring 14y ago
    Oh, and it's worth noting we work with planners (http://WeddingPlannerLove.com http://WeddingPlannerLove.com) — we're not about replacing the planner, since we do recommend planners within the app. :)
  - radicalbyte 14y ago
    I got married a year ago, the organisation was so painful that I considered (and quickly dismissed) and idea to go into this space myself.. If I had to do it again, I'd want (and pay good money for): * RSVP: via web/email, Facebook and post. Charge for post. * Wedding Website (incl gallery!) * Gift management (use a partner) Then you can add: * Make deals with Photographers, possibly vet them. Maybe get them to fill your galleries? It could be a hard sell, especially if you try and compete with them (i.e. by offering prints). Actually, why not partner with them: give them the ability to sell their prints more easily, not just to the Bride & Groom, but to the guests! Actually, building a wedding business around the problem-domain of Wedding Photographers seems like an excellent strategy. If you increase their profits then they'll evangelise your site. * Wedding plans / inspiration. Nice because you can sell stuff there (via partners). * Directory for Wedding locations: it was hard finding good pictures and prices of wedding locations. * Directory for Reception locations: same problem as Wedding Locations. This is also a more general problem, the discoverability of these places is terrible. * Diversify into cards. This'll be a massive win for men: never forget your wedding anniversary again. Heck, implement this as a simple reminder service. Make a fun "Groom" styled-skin to solve his problem (and double your market!). BTW this also works for anniversaries / birthdays etc. Men forget this stuff really quickly. The post wouldn't be complete without some feedback: I personally don't like the copy on your site. You sound like a Bridal magazine. Your focus is on "curated links we found on google", but it should be on how you actually solve the problem of organising a Wedding. I don't care about the pretty things you've found on Google* Question: why on earth are you charging a monthly fee for a one-off occasion? Why not let people try your site out for a month, with a larger flat fee at the end? Then offer to host the wedding picture gallery for N months, with the option to buy N months extra hosting. What is your conversion rate like? I like what you're doing, there's certainly enough to support a small but healthy business.. it would be cool to see you succeeding, especially if it comes from advice from HN :) * NOTE: I'm not your target market.
yogrish 14y ago
Great Post Tracy. Great going for your startup and ATB. Thanks for being open in talking about your current troubles and not giving a rosy picture about ur startup.
azat_co 14y ago
Nice post Tracy! :)
- limedaring 14y ago
  Thanks Azat! Had no idea this would get picked up by HN at all, it's quite the compliment.
colinbartlett 14y ago
Great post! And how refreshing: founders that don't just squander investors' money, but actually live paltry lives while trying to grow.
- limedaring 14y ago
  Technically I've done both, since WeddingLovely was in the 500 Startups incubator a year ago. ;) Just haven't raised any more money since, which is another long and complex story that I should probably write about too!
  - colinbartlett 14y ago
    Yes! You should! I, for one, would love to hear why.
    - limedaring 14y ago
      Cliff notes: I don't feel comfortable raising money until the timing is absolutely right, and the timing was not right at 500's demo day since this online planning product hadn't launched yet, there was another weddings company in my batch doing something similar, and another two prominent wedding startups were fundraising at the same time too. :)

46 points by johns 14y ago

Tracy previously posted about her former failed cofounder[0] experience (before Julia came aboard), this one is about a failed hire, but she has a lot more stories about failed acquisitions, fundraising, and products. I've experienced some of these things with my own startup too but it never ceases to amaze me how diverse and different, yet universal, the "hard parts" of startups are. I wish more people were brave enough to talk about that side. [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3776972 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3776972

limedaring 14y ago
Thanks. :) A lot of people at Startup School were more than happy to talk about the troubles they went through, but only after the fact — it was really hard for me to press submit to talk about current troubles. So much pressure for startup bullshit out there!
- yuhong 14y ago
  Reminds me of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823
  - limedaring 14y ago
    That's awesome, haven't seen that before. Funny because I was just at Brooklyn Beta and Ben spoke at length about how he didn't know what he was doing and attributed some of Svpply's "failure" to his run as CEO.

wtvanhest 14y ago

I'm interested to hear how you came up with your pricing. Likely you spent a lot of time coming up with the packages, but it seems like your market is really a tough market to price properly. There is so much complexity in this industry that I would assume that the right pricing strategy would make a huge difference in your business. At first glance I would assume things like... you must be low enough to not compete with wedding planners, so that would imply a max price of $2K to $3K. But then your pricing is only $79 which is far below (what I think is the average cost of a wedding planner). I'd be interested to find out what makes up that difference. Are there ways to close the gap? I'm sure there are a lot of considerations in the pricing that I cannot even think about properly, but it seems like there should be a lot of opportunity here.

limedaring 14y ago
HA good question. Succinctly, our pricing is not set in stone is likely to change. Keep in mind that the vast majority of weddings these days do not have full planners, and if they work with a planner, generally it's a month-of or day-of planner, so that lowers the tiers of people we would be "competing" against. WeddingLovely is also very new, so starting out at $14.99/month seemed ideal to test out. $19.99 is actually an experiment in price anchoring. $119 is because people usually work with us way before their wedding so we wanted to have a tier that rewards people who start with us early. Basically, these are all guesses that we're testing, and will update and improve both our pricing as well as our features as we work more with engaged couples as well as gain more experience running an online wedding planning app.
- limedaring 14y ago
  Oh, and it's worth noting we work with planners (http://WeddingPlannerLove.com http://WeddingPlannerLove.com) — we're not about replacing the planner, since we do recommend planners within the app. :)
- radicalbyte 14y ago
  I got married a year ago, the organisation was so painful that I considered (and quickly dismissed) and idea to go into this space myself.. If I had to do it again, I'd want (and pay good money for): * RSVP: via web/email, Facebook and post. Charge for post. * Wedding Website (incl gallery!) * Gift management (use a partner) Then you can add: * Make deals with Photographers, possibly vet them. Maybe get them to fill your galleries? It could be a hard sell, especially if you try and compete with them (i.e. by offering prints). Actually, why not partner with them: give them the ability to sell their prints more easily, not just to the Bride & Groom, but to the guests! Actually, building a wedding business around the problem-domain of Wedding Photographers seems like an excellent strategy. If you increase their profits then they'll evangelise your site. * Wedding plans / inspiration. Nice because you can sell stuff there (via partners). * Directory for Wedding locations: it was hard finding good pictures and prices of wedding locations. * Directory for Reception locations: same problem as Wedding Locations. This is also a more general problem, the discoverability of these places is terrible. * Diversify into cards. This'll be a massive win for men: never forget your wedding anniversary again. Heck, implement this as a simple reminder service. Make a fun "Groom" styled-skin to solve his problem (and double your market!). BTW this also works for anniversaries / birthdays etc. Men forget this stuff really quickly. The post wouldn't be complete without some feedback: I personally don't like the copy on your site. You sound like a Bridal magazine. Your focus is on "curated links we found on google", but it should be on how you actually solve the problem of organising a Wedding. I don't care about the pretty things you've found on Google* Question: why on earth are you charging a monthly fee for a one-off occasion? Why not let people try your site out for a month, with a larger flat fee at the end? Then offer to host the wedding picture gallery for N months, with the option to buy N months extra hosting. What is your conversion rate like? I like what you're doing, there's certainly enough to support a small but healthy business.. it would be cool to see you succeeding, especially if it comes from advice from HN :) * NOTE: I'm not your target market.

yogrish 14y ago

Great Post Tracy. Great going for your startup and ATB. Thanks for being open in talking about your current troubles and not giving a rosy picture about ur startup.

azat_co 14y ago

Nice post Tracy! :)

limedaring 14y ago
Thanks Azat! Had no idea this would get picked up by HN at all, it's quite the compliment.

colinbartlett 14y ago

Great post! And how refreshing: founders that don't just squander investors' money, but actually live paltry lives while trying to grow.

limedaring 14y ago
Technically I've done both, since WeddingLovely was in the 500 Startups incubator a year ago. ;) Just haven't raised any more money since, which is another long and complex story that I should probably write about too!
- colinbartlett 14y ago
  Yes! You should! I, for one, would love to hear why.
  - limedaring 14y ago
    Cliff notes: I don't feel comfortable raising money until the timing is absolutely right, and the timing was not right at 500's demo day since this online planning product hadn't launched yet, there was another weddings company in my batch doing something similar, and another two prominent wedding startups were fundraising at the same time too. :)