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Ask HN: help with my startup
This is my first post, please be gentle :)
In 2009, with a friend, I launched gdocsopen.com, a way to use google docs for local office documents. After launch, we got some really good press.
Fast forward 3 years, after which I put some effort into the website & app, it's not working really well (2-3 sales / month). I realised that the market is really small.
What do you advise me to do? Move on or keep trying to succeed with this app?
- benologist 13y agoI would think the number of people who care about google docs as a full replacement for locally installed software would have to be very small so you need to grow towards a larger audience. Maybe you can also support office365, zoho, and any other web based alternative to some locally installed piece of software. That would potentially allow you to pull affiliate fees for driving new customers to software you support and/or get some promotion or marketing from those companies.
- ra00l 13y agoI've thought about this approach, but wanted to wait until I have a proven concept. Google Docs has lots more users than zoho/office365. I like the idea with affiliate fees. Thanks for the feedback!
- michaelstewart 13y agoGiven Google's market share, I doubt supporting new platforms would do anything more than double sales. Another 3 sales per month wouldn't warrant that amount of work.
- michaelstewart 13y agoWhat sales volume were you receiving after the launch when your site was getting traffic from your press coverage? If you were doing a lot of sales when you were getting good press you clearly have an application that people want and are willing to pay for. In that case you might be able to substantially increase sales by spending more time on marketing. If you do decide to move on to something else, maybe you could offer the app for free and encourage social sharing both in the app and on the website. You could then move back to the project if downloads pick up as a result.
- thesmileyone 13y agoI hate the domain name honestly. Too long and 3 syllables, good domain names are 2 or less, you need something that is going to stand out and get noticed IMO. The other issue is that Microsoft now uses "the cloud" to store all your data, treating your computer as a terminal, therefore people have no need for your service!
- ra00l 13y agoabout your first observation, don't know if the name is what's wrong... that's exactly what my app does: it uses the cloud to keep any documents you open :)
- waster 13y agoI'm with those who said it's in the market, for various reasons. In pretty much all respects, it's about the numbers. Is there a big enough existing market/potential market for your product as it is? Are there borderline cases that might be sold on your product if they had a free trial? Is there a bigger market if you shift to another variant like the web-based alternatives penologist mentioned? What's your margin for any of this? Are you deterring people with a long domain/name? I realize I'm restating what other people said, but with many things, I think the math speaks for itself, or at least, it should. Run the numbers as ruthlessly and exactly as you can. Then make your decision based on that. If your heart is in this, maybe you can adapt it somehow so that the numbers are more promising. But let the numbers speak.
- ra00l 13y agothanks for the tip. The numbers were always saying to give up, since I put way too much effort, with little reward...