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Ask HN: My app is shared on Twitter every day. What should I do?
I created an app last year that gained some popularity on Hacker News thankfully. I'm in a transition phase. I work full-time and I have a side job I'm finishing up for a client. Soon I can concentrate on building my next version.
My problem is it's shared on Twitter, but it has bugs and it's not good enough to begin marketing yet. I'm learning Swift to build the 2nd version, but I'm not an iOS coder, so the build is slow going. I've had a ton of feedback and I have the design and features of the next version planned.
Should I pursue seed funding? Should I apply to an accelerator? Should I look for a partner to help with coding? I don't have much money, but should I hire someone? I've looked at the analytics and the market segment is pretty clear. It makes me a little nervous to see the social sharing without much real ability to capitalize on it. I'm not sure how long Buffer will keep it in the suggested articles rotation (although it seems like it's been 6 months now). It's shared on Twitter and LinkedIn almost everyday for at least 3 months. I feel like the opportunity is slipping away.
I may be overreacting, but hopefully you can understand my anxiety. You can see the shares by searching Twitter for "rememberwinapp.com".
- andymoe 12y agoTry to fix the bugs. Don't rewrite the app from scratch. Keep updating it and keep momentum. The other questions are harder and really something you have to figure out for yourself. I can say a partner can help and turning a side project into a business is a ton of work. At the same time don't let fear of missing out force a rash choice and only work with someone you trust and have a track record with. You have built something people seem to want and that's a great first step.
- Dudelander 12y agoLook for a co founder that has the programming skills you need. If you don't know anyone that's a good fit, apply to an accelerator like YC.
- pXMzR2A 12y agoRelease it under GPL if you can, put it on github or bitbucket, document the bugs as "issues," focus on fixing show stoppers and high-visibility user complaints, don't worry too much about it (all these apps are buggy, we just don't like show stoppers), ask for donations and for volunteer drive-by coders.
- shouldbeworking 12y agoThis is a bad idea. You have to have a plan if you have a for-profit open source product. You need to give contributors something so they don't feel like they're being taken advantage of. It's complicated. It isn't as easy as just open sourcing it and asking for contributions.
- pXMzR2A 12y ago> You have to have a plan if This is a moot argument. Of course s/he has to have a plan if s/he wants to be in business. What was asked was suggestions, not detailed strategy deliverables.
- bbcbasic 12y agoNot a good idea if the OP wants to profit from the app. Might be an OK idea if he just wants to get his name out there, and have something good for the ol' CV.
- sergiusignacius 12y agoKeep updating the app. It's awesome, I already have it installed. I can help you with coding if you need! Cheers.
- entangld 12y agoCould you contact me at info at rememberwinapp dot com?
- sergiusignacius 12y agoDone!
- benshyong 12y agoCheck out Assembly.com as a potential option :) (this involves releasing under GPL)
- pinkyatemydog 12y agoIs the GPL compatible with distribution on the (Apple) app store these days? I remember that back in 2010 it wasn't, and Apple removed GNU Go from the app store after this was pointed out by the FSF.
- belorn 12y agoApple inserts a additional license on any app that is placed in the app store. If the author do not permit such a thing, then apple would commit copyright infringement if went ahead and still did it. The GPL license do not allow additional license requirement to be added, so apple would need addtional permission from the author before distributing the software.
- josemando 12y agoi can help with the coding
- entangld 12y agoCould you contact me at info at rememberwinapp dot com?
- MAGZine 12y agoWould like to say that this app looks sweet, and that I hope to see an Android version (I've been periodically checking the webpage for updates). Keep up the momentum!
- jtreitz 12y agoWhy not apply for YC summer batch and see how far it gets you. Btw: just bought a copy of your app.
- mmorris 12y agoFirst, this is a great problem to have! Enjoy it. More to the point, is there a business entity that owns the app? If so (or if you can create one), giving some equity to someone in exchange for helping you complete the app (either the current version or the next) is a way to pay without any cash outlay. Since you're already finding some success in the marketing department I'd think finding someone who'd "invest" in your business in that way would be a possibility. Last... definitely not accusing you of anything, but I was just musing on the fact that this would make a good marketing campaign: young upstart with too much success and not enough capital -- it's like a cinderella story ;)
- malditojavi 12y agoHow many monthly active users (or even daily) do you have? As far as I'm seeing through Twitter, it's just people sharing the link, but using it? I'm in a similar situation with http://petithacks.com http://petithacks.com Launched it last september while learning Rails, and got some traffic peaks that bring among 2-3k users/month (but only 100 active - liking, saving stuff).
- malditojavi 12y agobtw now that I know what most of the recurring users are looking for (inspiration for their marketing campaigns), now it's when I'm starting to introduce some features (paid plans for promo of products related, reach an audience, etc.) If it can give some ideas.
- entangld 12y agoPeople are sharing it independently. I haven't added my url to any of my own tweets. I'm pretty sure Buffer suggested stories and LinkedIn Pulse have been a some part in the growth. It's largely being shared within a niche on Twitter. It's a very simple app at moment. I don't have much for in-app analytics.
- malditojavi 12y agoStart tracking who uses the tool, and how they do it. I reached out manually like 40-50 people to ask them (by email) why the were accessing to my site twice per week, what they were looking for. http://mixpanel.com http://mixpanel.com have some free plans that might be helpful for your case. drop me a line if I can help somehow javier@petithacks.com
- randall 12y agoThis is how startups are unfortunately supposed to feel. The fact it's spreading without you having to do much is a good sign. Just keep going as much as you can and don't worry too much. Easier said than done, but you're on the right track. You don't have to optimize every part of the project for it to be successful. You're not going to miss out on anything if you don't perfectly execute right now, just focus on getting better a little at a time.
- AznHisoka 12y agoYou do know that maybe 20, 10, or even less than 1% of the people who Buffer'd it actually visited your site and downloaded the app, right? Most people use their suggestions on auto-pilot. I would be excited if you saw people spontaneously praising it on Twitter, not Buffering it. When i search on Twitter, I only see the automated Buffers, not tweets like "Just found out this app.. love it!" or "Has anyone else used this app?".
- entangld 12y agoThanks for raining on my parade. jk I know conversions are only a small percentage. Some people are excited and I still receive emails from people. Eyeballs first, conversions second right? My page visits have been growing, and Twitter is a percentage of it. It's something to build on. My honest take is that people are interested in the idea, but I need to continue working on the product. Execution is important.
- AznHisoka 12y agoWhat's your business model? How do you intend to make money from this?
- entangld 12y agoI want to make sure I'm solving the problem before I decide how to make money. It's useful to several different groups: business teams, coaches, people in the employment space and normal people. I only need to cover rent and other expenses. There are a few options (in-app purchases, ads, pro account for business teams).
- AznHisoka 12y agoHmm.. The guys at Twitpic were solving a problem and even had an enviable number of users, but never knew how to make money. The ended up closing shop. So I suggest figuring out the money part too.
- halcyondaze 12y agoFix your bugs, etc etc but save all of these mentions to a Twitter list or favorite. Basically capture the interest so you can reach out to them when the app is closer to product market fit. This is a good problem to have and there's not much you have to do to 'fix' it, just capture interest, improve product, and tell interested parties.
- codeoclock 12y agoOMG I want an Android version of this SO BAD. Maybe I'll build it... Don't worry, if I do it'll be for personal use, I obviously wouldn't release it and screw you over.
- entangld 12y agoLOL
- entangld 12y agoI laughed earlier, but I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I just thought it was cool that you were going to go forward with it.
- bbcbasic 12y agoThis is where I like the idea of just creating things like this as a website. Then stuff a thin layer on IOS and Android for those who care about it being an app.
- jvickers 12y agoIdeally you'll be able to fix bugs and handle the growth as it comes. Is your app free?
- andybak 12y agoWould someone care to explain what the hell Buffer is?
- entangld 12y agoBuffer (bufferapp.com) sends your tweets on a schedule so that you don't have to manually tweet them. They also suggest tweets for you when your queue runs empty.
- pnathan 12y agoDon't rewrite it - yet. Keep incrementally improving it. Find your users and engage them - improve it. n.b., rememberwinapp.com is a pretty cool idea. You can definitely spin it along at least two angles: "life hack" approaches and "better mental health" approaches (work with a professional counselor on this one).
- lukethomas 12y agoI'm in the same spot with my app (digitaldetachapp.com). I found an awesome developer overseas, but I'm at a point where I'm not sure how much money I want to put into it. I've decided to slowly keep improving based on customer feedback (I'm self-funding this). It's a great learning experience at the very least. Here's what I suggest: 1) Fix the bugs and 2.) Consider charging more (I'd probably triple the price if I was you) It seems like you're delivering quite a bit of value. Don't be afraid to charge more.
- sah2ed 12y ago2. Or keep the price unchanged but unlock additional functionality via in-app purchases.
- foobar2k 12y agoI'm somewhat biased, but you should consider using a crash monitoring tool like Bugsnag (https://bugsnag.com https://bugsnag.com) to help you find and fix the bugs :) Have you spent any time working out the total market size for your app? Doing some basic modeling might help you make your decision!
- jwatte 12y agoGetting a technical co-founder might be a really good idea! That co-founder may be able to start sooner than you can. But you should definitely think about cutting bait on work and side project soon if you want to double down. The fact that you already have market validation is huge! Many startups burn ask their energy and money just getting there.
- benologist 12y agoFix whatever bugs you can now. To make lots of downloads sustainable you have to be able to hold whatever rankings you achieve. Otherwise this will be a peak and you will be trying to fix the fall while you try to do anything else.
- hellotimmutton 12y agoIm not an iOS programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you could interop swift code with obj-c. In that case, write new functionality in swift and fix the obj-c with the intention to convert it to swift later down the track. A rewrite would be overkill, just fix and update where appropriate. Also, if you need someone to port it to Android, feel free to give me a yell :P
- hiou 12y ago> it has bugs and it's not good enough to begin marketing yet Measure and prioritize the bugs. If you don't know how many people are dealing with them you can't figure out how many you need to fix. > I'm learning Swift to build the 2nd version I won't tell you what to do, but software history is full of 2nd versions the morphed into death marches. tl;dr Figure out the fewest amount of bugs you need to fix to make it work for 80% of your users and then market aggressively. Do not rewrite right now.
- jmduke 12y agoAs someone who rewrote his app in Objective C into Swift, I highly recommend it if you think Swift is rad (I do!) and enjoy substantially improving the quality of your code. That being said, I highly recommend against it if your primary goal is one of the following: - revenues - features - installs - bugfixes It will take you longer than expected to accomplish very little in terms of meaningful improvements which can be relayed to your customers.
- archagon 12y agoHey! I remember your app from your HN submission. Glad to see it's working out well for you. This is tangential and not really an answer to your question, but you should probably work on your icon a little bit. At the moment, it reads to me like "sketchy website companion app". It'll be miles better just by removing the white/azure background and having the goblet a little bigger and by itself. (IMO.)
- entangld 12y agoThanks! You're probably right about the icon. LOL
- JohnHammersley 12y agoFirstly, great idea for an app -- I often tell myself I need to take the time to enjoy the wins but there is always the next thing to move on to. Being reminded of them at a later date makes perfect sense, and I'll download the app to give it a try when I'm next on my ipad. In terms of advice -- everyone's already said it: don't rewrite now, just fix the important bugs and give it a push. Good luck!
- epictoo 12y agoOn your app website or store page, mention about the bugs and let people know that you are aware with that. This will give impression that you're still care about the app and hear users' feedback. Also share about your time problem to buy more time before you can fix it.
- T3RMINATED 12y agoguys quit sugarcoating it for him.. i used your app and it sux balls ... dont ever quit your day job mate. EVER!
- z3t4 12y agoFrom coaching and positive psychology, it wouldn't surprise me if there are ten more apps just like this one ... Or it's a new market opening up! Either case, you seem to have an opportunity here. You should start with a business plan! Do not worry about the bugs right now. An idea for business plan is that you can let people get a kickback for each purchase they referrer. You can start with the ones giving you feedback. After some sense of market and estimated budget you should hire a freelancer. Not trying to offend you here, but you have been working on this for six month, a freelancer would probable be able to fix the bugs in six hours for $15 an hour or less. If I was in the phone app business I would probably rip off your idea and have an app out by tomorrow :P
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- BorisMelnik 12y agoCongrats on the organic growth! Many app makers can't even pay to see this kind of traction! Some of these are quick fix questions, others are more life questions. Sure, applying to an accelerator is a great idea, but it is a life commitment you really need to think about. See if you can fix the most noticeable bugs that folks seem to be talking about or ticketing. From there you can start to think more clearly about your goals.
- loumf 12y agoI downloaded the app and started using it. I really like it -- I keep a physical notebook for exactly this purpose -- it's a journal of highlights of the day. I didn't see any issues in my usage -- just fix what you think is wrong -- polish up what you have and work on spreading it (not more features).