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No formal studies of that kind, no, but I spoke with a few small business owners who thought it was a great idea and that they would love to have it. I also di

No formal studies of that kind, no, but I spoke with a few small business owners who thought it was a great idea and that they would love to have it. I also did some market testing last December where I threw up a simple test page under what I was going to call the product: "Mobilliti". I ditched the name (seriously, look at all the i's and l's, it's completely unreadable), but kept the feedback. I spent $50 on Google Adwords, and got a several people who were interested enough to click through all the way to the "Sign up" button, and then fill in contact information about when the product would be available.

megamark16 17y ago
So what kind of information did you include as part of your market testing? I'd be interested to see what that looked like compared to what your product has (so far) actually turned out to be. Did your idea evolve much between then and now?
- DanHulton 17y ago
  Honestly, I haven't done any formal market testing. My original test site explained the concept in about three paragraphs, and the concept hasn't changed very much. The idea started simple and has stayed simple - i.e. it hasn't changed much. "Web-based invoicing that you can use from your mobile phone." I anticipate changes in the future, though, as people actually get a good look at the idea and how it turned out. I'm thankful that I have a fairly flexible framework (Kohana PHP) and design philosophy for what that happens.
there 17y ago
(disclaimer: i'm the author of a competing product - http://corduroysite.com/ http://corduroysite.com/ which has an iphone/mobile interface in development) i've also been told by my customers that a mobile interface would be great and generating invoices at a client's location would be useful, but i think the important thing is that it's just a feature of a bigger billing system. when they get back to their office, the normal web interface to the system still has all of the tools they need to work quickly. do you see your product as being a company's only billing system where they do everything through a mobile interface or is it intended to be a small invoicing system that works in tandem with their existing billing system like quickbooks? i ask because your site is heavily pushing the mobile part without really detailing the rest of the system.
- DanHulton 17y ago
  That's an excellent point. I've already got someone using it for the web interface despite the heavy mobile use I'm pushing, but I can see how my copy comes off as missing the "complete picture," as it were. Something I'll have to work on. And no worries on being a competitor - there's tons of guys like us! FreshBooks, CurdBee, Ballpark, Ronin, The Invoice Machine, Cannybill - the list goes on. And Freshbooks has an iPhone interface, even. This is - I'm told - good news. A large market with a fractured user base is a good place to enter, provided you can target a niche that nobody else has made their own... which is what I'm trying to do.

megamark16 17y ago

So what kind of information did you include as part of your market testing? I'd be interested to see what that looked like compared to what your product has (so far) actually turned out to be. Did your idea evolve much between then and now?

DanHulton 17y ago
Honestly, I haven't done any formal market testing. My original test site explained the concept in about three paragraphs, and the concept hasn't changed very much. The idea started simple and has stayed simple - i.e. it hasn't changed much. "Web-based invoicing that you can use from your mobile phone." I anticipate changes in the future, though, as people actually get a good look at the idea and how it turned out. I'm thankful that I have a fairly flexible framework (Kohana PHP) and design philosophy for what that happens.

there 17y ago

(disclaimer: i'm the author of a competing product - http://corduroysite.com/ http://corduroysite.com/ which has an iphone/mobile interface in development) i've also been told by my customers that a mobile interface would be great and generating invoices at a client's location would be useful, but i think the important thing is that it's just a feature of a bigger billing system. when they get back to their office, the normal web interface to the system still has all of the tools they need to work quickly. do you see your product as being a company's only billing system where they do everything through a mobile interface or is it intended to be a small invoicing system that works in tandem with their existing billing system like quickbooks? i ask because your site is heavily pushing the mobile part without really detailing the rest of the system.

DanHulton 17y ago
That's an excellent point. I've already got someone using it for the web interface despite the heavy mobile use I'm pushing, but I can see how my copy comes off as missing the "complete picture," as it were. Something I'll have to work on. And no worries on being a competitor - there's tons of guys like us! FreshBooks, CurdBee, Ballpark, Ronin, The Invoice Machine, Cannybill - the list goes on. And Freshbooks has an iPhone interface, even. This is - I'm told - good news. A large market with a fractured user base is a good place to enter, provided you can target a niche that nobody else has made their own... which is what I'm trying to do.