11 ms·

Looking for Startup Advice

4 points by jasonsaeho 12y ago

Me and my co-founder have an idea that we just cannot give up on. We've been working on this idea for 1 and half year. However we failed after the first year and since November 2014, we got rid of everything we built and started over again with a product pivot and same idea/vision. Since the pivot we were able to move very fast. We now have had a polished product for a little while now and have been trying persistently to get organizations to adopt the platform. However trying to get organizations to adopt is like pulling teeth. Maybe it's because we have absolutely no network/connections to leverage, or maybe its because not everyone wants to write. Or maybe organizations just don't like "different" and "better" way of doing something they're already doing and wants to be left alone. We really, really feel like we have a very solid product right now. And we really like the vision/idea that we're trying to make come true, but trying to get past the organizations' "corporate wall" and have them adopt feels literally impossible. Is this a sign that we should give up on our vision? What we built currently is an organization publishing platform for team collaborated digital storytelling. The problem we're trying to solve is social responsibility. We could easily give up our vision and open up the platform to all types of users... but we're so attached and obsessed over our vision of different way of doing/reporting social responsibility. What do you think?? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Here's our product and a demo that you can login to play with: https://goodethos.com/charitywater https://goodethos.com/demo-public (username: demo-public, password: demo-public)

zaroth 12y ago
This looks really quite awesome. So you're sitting on a fairly compelling Medium competitor, and you don't want to open it up to let your users in? :-) My suggestion? Pivot from GoodEthos and focus on leveraging the beautiful CMS you built. I don't know if you want to keep it all under your domain, Medium style, or let people pay to host on their own domain. But depending on how scalable your back-end is, and what kind of revenue you would need to sustain it, I think there are a few different price points where this should sell quite well. For personal use, especially if you can automate setup of your own domain (e.g. just tell me where to point the A-record) I could see people paying a few bucks a month for this. For corporate, start at $99/month. More or less you could copy WPEngine pricing. But for now, just get it out there free for the first 10,000 domains to signup or whatever. If the problem is too many users and your servers are melting, that's when you send an email to Sam at YC and your problem is solved. Also, please add contact info to your profile.
jasonsaeho 12y ago
Problem is we are NOT like Medium. We have a completely different mission and we're not trying to solve/innovate publishing. THAT's what's so frustrating!! The problem we're trying to solve is Social Responsibility. Without getting to much into what Social Responsibility is, we want to show companies of all sizes like Coca Cola, Starbucks all the way down to small organizations that there is a different way to do/report social responsibility. But like I said in my original post, trying to convince organizations is like pulling teeth. How do we know whether or not to give up our vision and just focus on publishing?
- zaroth 12y ago
  What about the thing you have built is uniquely targeted to social responsibility versus general purpose publishing? Whatever the answer is to that question, it should be on your home page.
rickolas 12y ago
I'd just focus on the publishing aspect. As bad as it sounds, 90% of companies aren't concerned with the social responsibility side of things. Even convincing Non Profits to take on a new platform will be like pulling teeth. And it's not clear why your product solves anything to do with social responsibility in particular. It just appears to be a nice publishing/marketing platform. What features are specific to social responsibility?
- jasonsaeho 12y ago
  The thing is we're literally trying to tell companies that there is a "different" and "better" way to do something they're already doing. I know it looks like a Medium competitor right now, but what we're trying to do is provide a way for companies and nonprofits to talk about their social responsibility activities in an engaging way. From there we will provide discovery for the companies and thereby bringing awareness to consumers. And from there we plan to provide initiatives publishing because most organizations have very common initiatives. I can see why everyone is reacting this way. And quite frankly, I kind of see it too. It's just that we are so obsessed with the idea of social responsibility that we can't get our minds out of it.
  - rickolas 12y ago
    Please don't take my reaction negatively in any way. As I said the product is looking great. My point is this. What makes content that is about Social Responsibility any different that other content? e.g. What about your product encourages companies and non-profits to talk about that particular aspect of their business/cause more that it does about any other aspect or topic?
    - jasonsaeho 12y ago
      You're right. Content is content and there's no difference between content about social responsibility and any other content. We may be making a big mistake by trying to limit ourselves to the topic of social responsibility. We did that because social responsibility is the issue we want to tackle. And we thought that providing the tools to that user group is the right step. I definitely see everyone's point.
greenido 12y ago
Your product looks very good. But from a browsing 'around' I can't tell how it's different from Medium (and others). I would focus on that and try to make it clear to the clients (=the ones who pay not consume the content). Good luck.
jasonsaeho 12y ago
Thank you for comments and insight everyone. I have one more question. If we were to pivot and open up the platform to all users, do you think we should sell the software to everyone from the start? Or should we offer it for free? I know Zaroth suggested $99/mth corporate account. And I think that's probably a good idea.
nphyte 12y ago
hi how can i get in touch to help this grow?

4 points by jasonsaeho 12y ago

zaroth 12y ago

This looks really quite awesome. So you're sitting on a fairly compelling Medium competitor, and you don't want to open it up to let your users in? :-) My suggestion? Pivot from GoodEthos and focus on leveraging the beautiful CMS you built. I don't know if you want to keep it all under your domain, Medium style, or let people pay to host on their own domain. But depending on how scalable your back-end is, and what kind of revenue you would need to sustain it, I think there are a few different price points where this should sell quite well. For personal use, especially if you can automate setup of your own domain (e.g. just tell me where to point the A-record) I could see people paying a few bucks a month for this. For corporate, start at $99/month. More or less you could copy WPEngine pricing. But for now, just get it out there free for the first 10,000 domains to signup or whatever. If the problem is too many users and your servers are melting, that's when you send an email to Sam at YC and your problem is solved. Also, please add contact info to your profile.

jasonsaeho 12y ago

Problem is we are NOT like Medium. We have a completely different mission and we're not trying to solve/innovate publishing. THAT's what's so frustrating!! The problem we're trying to solve is Social Responsibility. Without getting to much into what Social Responsibility is, we want to show companies of all sizes like Coca Cola, Starbucks all the way down to small organizations that there is a different way to do/report social responsibility. But like I said in my original post, trying to convince organizations is like pulling teeth. How do we know whether or not to give up our vision and just focus on publishing?

zaroth 12y ago
What about the thing you have built is uniquely targeted to social responsibility versus general purpose publishing? Whatever the answer is to that question, it should be on your home page.

rickolas 12y ago

I'd just focus on the publishing aspect. As bad as it sounds, 90% of companies aren't concerned with the social responsibility side of things. Even convincing Non Profits to take on a new platform will be like pulling teeth. And it's not clear why your product solves anything to do with social responsibility in particular. It just appears to be a nice publishing/marketing platform. What features are specific to social responsibility?

jasonsaeho 12y ago
The thing is we're literally trying to tell companies that there is a "different" and "better" way to do something they're already doing. I know it looks like a Medium competitor right now, but what we're trying to do is provide a way for companies and nonprofits to talk about their social responsibility activities in an engaging way. From there we will provide discovery for the companies and thereby bringing awareness to consumers. And from there we plan to provide initiatives publishing because most organizations have very common initiatives. I can see why everyone is reacting this way. And quite frankly, I kind of see it too. It's just that we are so obsessed with the idea of social responsibility that we can't get our minds out of it.
- rickolas 12y ago
  Please don't take my reaction negatively in any way. As I said the product is looking great. My point is this. What makes content that is about Social Responsibility any different that other content? e.g. What about your product encourages companies and non-profits to talk about that particular aspect of their business/cause more that it does about any other aspect or topic?
  - jasonsaeho 12y ago
    You're right. Content is content and there's no difference between content about social responsibility and any other content. We may be making a big mistake by trying to limit ourselves to the topic of social responsibility. We did that because social responsibility is the issue we want to tackle. And we thought that providing the tools to that user group is the right step. I definitely see everyone's point.

greenido 12y ago

Your product looks very good. But from a browsing 'around' I can't tell how it's different from Medium (and others). I would focus on that and try to make it clear to the clients (=the ones who pay not consume the content). Good luck.

jasonsaeho 12y ago

Thank you for comments and insight everyone. I have one more question. If we were to pivot and open up the platform to all users, do you think we should sell the software to everyone from the start? Or should we offer it for free? I know Zaroth suggested $99/mth corporate account. And I think that's probably a good idea.

nphyte 12y ago

hi how can i get in touch to help this grow?