7 ms·

My girlfriend tries to explain my startup in 90 seconds

59 points by marknadal 14y ago

orangethirty 14y ago
Now do one where she does not mention being your girlfriend, and include a better close at the end. Better yet, use http://videorascal.com http://videorascal.com (I dont own it or work for it).
paigalhaes 14y ago
Link to Accelsor http://accelsor.com/ http://accelsor.com/
revelation 14y ago
I guess it's reasonably useful for mockups, but you can not seriously design a website (or any UI) with absolute sizes.
- hunterowens 14y ago
  You can set min/max width and percentages are coming soon.
- unalone 14y ago
  Of course you can. Don't be daft. There are plenty of advantages to relative sizing, and in general it's a good policy, but there are many excellently-designed web sites whose sizes are absolute – just as there are many shit designs that're responsive as hell.
  - kaoD 14y ago
    Eveytime I open a website with absolute sizes I want to cry. Most of my monitors have either crappy or too big resolutions.
- marknadal 14y ago
  Yeah, I am the sole developer so right now it is great for mockups and layouts. But demand the features you want, and I'll work towards them! :) I started with basic min/max widths, because that was the sizing I commonly used. Percentages are important also, which will be coming. Plus our experimental logic/animation tool let's you do some pretty spiffy stuff: http://www.screenr.com/Z9o http://www.screenr.com/Z9o and should support media-query conditionals in the future!
sushi 14y ago
I feel like this could be more useful if you let users export images as well. I know plenty of folks who need to do image manipulation but don't want to spend time learning Photoshop and rightly so, for small image tasks.
- marknadal 14y ago
  We currently allow you to download (export) a zip of the page, which includes the images you drop in. Or do you mean image manipulation itself? If you are good at it, you should join us! We'd love to have you open source it. :)
  - sushi 14y ago
    Well one particular use case I know of where it could be useful is that many people who work in marketing need images for campaigns. It doesn't have to be too high resolution or anything just simple 600px wide images for facebook or twitter. Now since marketing is run by marketers and they don't necessary know Photoshop or image editing software, they could use some simple tool which lets them drag drop images, text etc with intelligent spacing and margins. Once they have put images, text in order they want they can get a screenshot of the canvas which they can use for campaigns. My girlfriend is a community manager with a digital agency and she would kill to have a simple tool like this. Since you already have something similar you just need to add option to export the screenshot of canvas to be used for campaigns. I wish I could help but I am more of UI/UX designer than developer and currently working my ass off on some client projects.
    - marknadal 14y ago
      Ooh, gotcha. So just a simple command that would basically do a print-screen for them. Nice idea, I'll have to add that in! Thanks! Yeah, no joke, I know what you mean about client projects :P.
pbiggar 14y ago
> My boyfriend Mark is way too much of a perfectionist to post his startup on HN. I used to be worried about doing self promotion too, partly a cultural thing (being Irish) and partly because I was worried that people would judge us. This had a really negative effect on my last startup, esp in talking to VCs. I would work on that. Edit: I just noticed you did in fact post it yourself, so great start. I never did a Show HN for https://circleci.com https://circleci.com and I regret it.
pbiggar 14y ago
Something about this rubs me slightly wrong. I think it's "my girlfriend" and "My boyfriend" and "I know very little about programming, but I do know that his startup is awesome". I don't know the words to describe it, but it feels like a weird gender-in-CS thing. Anyone know more technical terms for this?
- zalew 14y ago
  "An unrelated person of unspecified gender tries to explain my startup in 90 seconds" better?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- petercooper 14y ago
  I think it's "my girlfriend" and "My boyfriend" I wonder if it's just safer in the tech online social scene nowadays to avoid gender and say things like "my partner" to avoid gender related trouble. A curious contrast against how we'd speak in regular life. Related: http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife
  - darkxanthos 14y ago
    The problem with partner on HN is it makes me think co-founder or the like. :-\
    - prg318 14y ago
      SO (Significant Other) is solid gender neutral verbiage IMHO
      - mpyne 14y ago
acangiano 14y ago
Micro feedback: the email address field looks like a button.
zalzane 14y ago
It looks like either reddit has discovered HN, or someone figured out that injecting "girlfriend" into article titles garners loads of votes for reasons beyond my comprehension. It's pretty pathetic how effective of a baiting tactic it is, in terms of both title and content. This is the second time this week that I've seen a submission hit HN's frontpage that used their girlfriend to snatch votes, I seriously hope it doesn't become a trend.
- tgrass 14y ago
  Downvote for unnecessarily derogatory language.
  - zalzane 14y ago
    How is it unnecessary? Someone is using their female significant other's gender to promote their product. Just having his girlfriend make a video explaining his startup wouldn't be an issue - but having her make that video, then submitting an article that "hey, here's my GIRLFRIEND explaining my startup" makes it off as sex appeal. Since sexism in gaming is a hot thing topic right now, imagine if Spike TV was to advertise that a program that discussed videogames, and that they advertised as being hosted by a "woman", no names, just "hosted by a woman". That's pretty much what this submission is doing.
    - tgrass 14y ago
      "Whore" is inappropriate.
      - ntumlin 14y ago
        "Karma/Vote whoring" is a pretty common term for someone who is doing something immoral/dumb just to get upvotes.
      - tgrass 14y ago
        @ntumlin: when the issue is explicitly gender based and is referring to "using one's girlfriend"...there is a great deal of baggage that comes with the word whether the writer intends it or not.
jacquesm 14y ago
I wonder how many people clicked because they were interested in the start-up and how many people because they were interested in the girlfriend.
- hammock 14y ago
  Judging by the fact there's hardly half a dozen comments relating to the actual product, I think you have your answer.
n9com 14y ago
Great stunt to get on front page of HN. Keep on hustling!
hello_newman 14y ago
I understand what others are saying about a possible "gimmick" by using the "my girlfriend" line to get people to click on it. Although that may be true, and they could be pulling a fast one, I think we are all being too cynical. Hacker News is supposed to be a community of like minded people sharing their interests with others who enjoy the same thing. I think it is really cute that she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't have to do this, but she either likes him so much, or likes the product so much, that she wanted to help him make it successful. I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front page, then others must agree as well.
- kostya-kow 14y ago
  >I think it is really cute that she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't have to do this, but she either likes him so much, or likes the product so much, that she wanted to help him make it successful. I don't care how cute it is. If you want cuteness, go to /r/aww, not HN. I want meaningful, thought-provoking content. >I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front page, then others must agree as well. Using your logic, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong with majority of content on Reddit. After all, people upvoted it, so there is nothing wrong with it! So far, the readers on HN have been more thoughtful, and I would hate for the quality of this website to go down.
  - hello_newman 14y ago
    "I would hate for the quality of this website to go down." I do agree. I come to hacker news just for the reason you listed above; "meaningful, thought-provoking content." But HN is also a community. Every now and then for someone to share something like this, I think that's perfectly fine. I do agree if people do take advantage of this, it would significantly reduce the valuable content that I love about HN. We have to trust that his girlfriend really did post this, and didn't pull a fast one on us. Everything in moderation.
dvt 14y ago
Cute girl? Check. Start-up related? Check. 90 seconds? Check. Congrats, you've got exactly what HN is looking for in a front-page post.
- wwwarhawk 14y ago
  Or, Reddit.
nvr219 14y ago
My wife really liked this link.
jordan_clark 14y ago
Girlfriends aside, the interface is fantastic. I would use this. Good job.
chacham15 14y ago
Is anyone else disappointed to find that on a product demo, the top half of the comments page have nothing to do with the product?
stevep98 14y ago
Your girlfriend thinks you're just a 'good friend'. Impedance mismatch.
mnicole 14y ago
Despite the Reddit-esque linkbait title, I could understand the sentiment about someone being worried about doing a ShowHN themselves. However, my problem with the video is that it didn't really add anything to the non-audio version of the same video currently on the homepage. It mentions the exporting, but doesn't show it. It speaks to responsive, but doesn't show it. I'm not sure if these features aren't baked in yet, but I didn't get anything out of the audio version that I didn't get from the non-audio one coupled with the features page. In fact, the voiceover distracted me from what was actually going on with the demo (particularly looking at the weird stuff going on at the bottom) because it wasn't talking about what was going on as it was happening nor the extensibility of the features being shown, but rather just spoke to the product as a whole from someone that seemingly doesn't know what the scope/final product will be. Since she's non-technical, it probably would have sold viewers a lot more if she'd been using your tool to create her own page to show just what a breeze it actually is to use. In the same vein, I think your website could really use some work; the video of the product should go at the top, not the weird <video> of the skewed color-picker (that doesn't need to be there at all, really). Your features should also be on the homepage. Also, considering the current crop of alternatives in this realm and the more advanced options those have (http://webflow.com/ http://webflow.com/ in particular), I think it would benefit you to show your pipeline and what people can expect down the road.
helloamar 14y ago
Good work!

59 points by marknadal 14y ago

Now do one where she does not mention being your girlfriend, and include a better close at the end. Better yet, use http://videorascal.com http://videorascal.com (I dont own it or work for it).

paigalhaes 14y ago

Link to Accelsor http://accelsor.com/ http://accelsor.com/

revelation 14y ago

I guess it's reasonably useful for mockups, but you can not seriously design a website (or any UI) with absolute sizes.

hunterowens 14y ago
You can set min/max width and percentages are coming soon.
unalone 14y ago
Of course you can. Don't be daft. There are plenty of advantages to relative sizing, and in general it's a good policy, but there are many excellently-designed web sites whose sizes are absolute – just as there are many shit designs that're responsive as hell.
- kaoD 14y ago
  Eveytime I open a website with absolute sizes I want to cry. Most of my monitors have either crappy or too big resolutions.
marknadal 14y ago
Yeah, I am the sole developer so right now it is great for mockups and layouts. But demand the features you want, and I'll work towards them! :) I started with basic min/max widths, because that was the sizing I commonly used. Percentages are important also, which will be coming. Plus our experimental logic/animation tool let's you do some pretty spiffy stuff: http://www.screenr.com/Z9o http://www.screenr.com/Z9o and should support media-query conditionals in the future!

sushi 14y ago

I feel like this could be more useful if you let users export images as well. I know plenty of folks who need to do image manipulation but don't want to spend time learning Photoshop and rightly so, for small image tasks.

marknadal 14y ago
We currently allow you to download (export) a zip of the page, which includes the images you drop in. Or do you mean image manipulation itself? If you are good at it, you should join us! We'd love to have you open source it. :)
- sushi 14y ago
  Well one particular use case I know of where it could be useful is that many people who work in marketing need images for campaigns. It doesn't have to be too high resolution or anything just simple 600px wide images for facebook or twitter. Now since marketing is run by marketers and they don't necessary know Photoshop or image editing software, they could use some simple tool which lets them drag drop images, text etc with intelligent spacing and margins. Once they have put images, text in order they want they can get a screenshot of the canvas which they can use for campaigns. My girlfriend is a community manager with a digital agency and she would kill to have a simple tool like this. Since you already have something similar you just need to add option to export the screenshot of canvas to be used for campaigns. I wish I could help but I am more of UI/UX designer than developer and currently working my ass off on some client projects.
  - marknadal 14y ago
    Ooh, gotcha. So just a simple command that would basically do a print-screen for them. Nice idea, I'll have to add that in! Thanks! Yeah, no joke, I know what you mean about client projects :P.

pbiggar 14y ago

> My boyfriend Mark is way too much of a perfectionist to post his startup on HN. I used to be worried about doing self promotion too, partly a cultural thing (being Irish) and partly because I was worried that people would judge us. This had a really negative effect on my last startup, esp in talking to VCs. I would work on that. Edit: I just noticed you did in fact post it yourself, so great start. I never did a Show HN for https://circleci.com https://circleci.com and I regret it.

pbiggar 14y ago

Something about this rubs me slightly wrong. I think it's "my girlfriend" and "My boyfriend" and "I know very little about programming, but I do know that his startup is awesome". I don't know the words to describe it, but it feels like a weird gender-in-CS thing. Anyone know more technical terms for this?

zalew 14y ago
"An unrelated person of unspecified gender tries to explain my startup in 90 seconds" better?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
petercooper 14y ago
I think it's "my girlfriend" and "My boyfriend" I wonder if it's just safer in the tech online social scene nowadays to avoid gender and say things like "my partner" to avoid gender related trouble. A curious contrast against how we'd speak in regular life. Related: http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife
- darkxanthos 14y ago
  The problem with partner on HN is it makes me think co-founder or the like. :-\
  - prg318 14y ago
    SO (Significant Other) is solid gender neutral verbiage IMHO
    - mpyne 14y ago

acangiano 14y ago

Micro feedback: the email address field looks like a button.

zalzane 14y ago

It looks like either reddit has discovered HN, or someone figured out that injecting "girlfriend" into article titles garners loads of votes for reasons beyond my comprehension. It's pretty pathetic how effective of a baiting tactic it is, in terms of both title and content. This is the second time this week that I've seen a submission hit HN's frontpage that used their girlfriend to snatch votes, I seriously hope it doesn't become a trend.

tgrass 14y ago
Downvote for unnecessarily derogatory language.
- zalzane 14y ago
  How is it unnecessary? Someone is using their female significant other's gender to promote their product. Just having his girlfriend make a video explaining his startup wouldn't be an issue - but having her make that video, then submitting an article that "hey, here's my GIRLFRIEND explaining my startup" makes it off as sex appeal. Since sexism in gaming is a hot thing topic right now, imagine if Spike TV was to advertise that a program that discussed videogames, and that they advertised as being hosted by a "woman", no names, just "hosted by a woman". That's pretty much what this submission is doing.
  - tgrass 14y ago
    "Whore" is inappropriate.
    - ntumlin 14y ago
      "Karma/Vote whoring" is a pretty common term for someone who is doing something immoral/dumb just to get upvotes.
    - tgrass 14y ago
      @ntumlin: when the issue is explicitly gender based and is referring to "using one's girlfriend"...there is a great deal of baggage that comes with the word whether the writer intends it or not.

jacquesm 14y ago

I wonder how many people clicked because they were interested in the start-up and how many people because they were interested in the girlfriend.

hammock 14y ago
Judging by the fact there's hardly half a dozen comments relating to the actual product, I think you have your answer.

n9com 14y ago

Great stunt to get on front page of HN. Keep on hustling!

hello_newman 14y ago

I understand what others are saying about a possible "gimmick" by using the "my girlfriend" line to get people to click on it. Although that may be true, and they could be pulling a fast one, I think we are all being too cynical. Hacker News is supposed to be a community of like minded people sharing their interests with others who enjoy the same thing. I think it is really cute that she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't have to do this, but she either likes him so much, or likes the product so much, that she wanted to help him make it successful. I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front page, then others must agree as well.

kostya-kow 14y ago
>I think it is really cute that she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't have to do this, but she either likes him so much, or likes the product so much, that she wanted to help him make it successful. I don't care how cute it is. If you want cuteness, go to /r/aww, not HN. I want meaningful, thought-provoking content. >I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front page, then others must agree as well. Using your logic, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong with majority of content on Reddit. After all, people upvoted it, so there is nothing wrong with it! So far, the readers on HN have been more thoughtful, and I would hate for the quality of this website to go down.
- hello_newman 14y ago
  "I would hate for the quality of this website to go down." I do agree. I come to hacker news just for the reason you listed above; "meaningful, thought-provoking content." But HN is also a community. Every now and then for someone to share something like this, I think that's perfectly fine. I do agree if people do take advantage of this, it would significantly reduce the valuable content that I love about HN. We have to trust that his girlfriend really did post this, and didn't pull a fast one on us. Everything in moderation.

dvt 14y ago

Cute girl? Check. Start-up related? Check. 90 seconds? Check. Congrats, you've got exactly what HN is looking for in a front-page post.

wwwarhawk 14y ago
Or, Reddit.

nvr219 14y ago

My wife really liked this link.

jordan_clark 14y ago

Girlfriends aside, the interface is fantastic. I would use this. Good job.

chacham15 14y ago

Is anyone else disappointed to find that on a product demo, the top half of the comments page have nothing to do with the product?

stevep98 14y ago

Your girlfriend thinks you're just a 'good friend'. Impedance mismatch.

mnicole 14y ago

Despite the Reddit-esque linkbait title, I could understand the sentiment about someone being worried about doing a ShowHN themselves. However, my problem with the video is that it didn't really add anything to the non-audio version of the same video currently on the homepage. It mentions the exporting, but doesn't show it. It speaks to responsive, but doesn't show it. I'm not sure if these features aren't baked in yet, but I didn't get anything out of the audio version that I didn't get from the non-audio one coupled with the features page. In fact, the voiceover distracted me from what was actually going on with the demo (particularly looking at the weird stuff going on at the bottom) because it wasn't talking about what was going on as it was happening nor the extensibility of the features being shown, but rather just spoke to the product as a whole from someone that seemingly doesn't know what the scope/final product will be. Since she's non-technical, it probably would have sold viewers a lot more if she'd been using your tool to create her own page to show just what a breeze it actually is to use. In the same vein, I think your website could really use some work; the video of the product should go at the top, not the weird <video> of the skewed color-picker (that doesn't need to be there at all, really). Your features should also be on the homepage. Also, considering the current crop of alternatives in this realm and the more advanced options those have (http://webflow.com/ http://webflow.com/ in particular), I think it would benefit you to show your pipeline and what people can expect down the road.

helloamar 14y ago

Good work!