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Ask HN: Rate my startup, Gradifi.com

6 points by theli0nheart 17y ago

theli0nheart 17y ago
I realize that most of you won't actually be able to create an account, so forgive me in advance for that. The service revolves around college students at a few select schools, and if you don't have an alumni or current email address for any of those schools, you're out of luck. So, my biggest worry is conversions. How do I get people who visit the front page to actually make an account? Are there too many "barriers" to entry (i.e. graduation year, first name, last name, etc)? Also, I'm concerned that people who visit the site don't actually know what it's about, or what it's used for. How would you recommend I make this a little more clear?
- redrory 17y ago
  Why don't you use Facebook Connect, most students already post that info on facebook.
  - theli0nheart 17y ago
    I did to begin with (2-3 months ago). The issue was that students were uncomfortable with the idea that people could view their transcripts on their computers if they didn't log out of Facebook. So yeah, good idea in theory, but students rejected it.
- apsurd 17y ago
  I'm glad you are at least aware of how ridiculously obtuse your homepage is. The signup form (in this case) seems very very unwelcoming. To answer your question, why don't you just list the schools? I assume you are only marketing to them anyway so you can even have school specific landing pages. It's a much easier sell when you are talking directly to your niche audience. "Hey Ucla student, 500 of your peers are sharing their notes from __ucla_class___ wanna take a look?" Next, doesn't the value of your site depend on how many active users you have? Hence, chicken/egg. In this case, depending on your resources, my advice would be to cut every single school except for one, and prove it there. Do this literally at only one school , the school you can market directly to the most. If you have concerns that you need a lot of users from multiple schools, I don't see how that makes sense because your site, as it stands, is a very unattractive (to outsiders like me) walled-garden. So if it's a walled garden, make it a walled garden (one school only) if not, open it up, pick one! This is definitely a space where many have failed, I'm not saying you will, but I think something novel is needed. And since I've done some brainstorming in the space once upon a time, I have reasoned it would be most effective to dominate one and only one school, prove it, and then leapfrog. Hey "it worked for facebook" =]
  - theli0nheart 17y ago
    Thanks for the awesome reply. I'll go through one by one. * Listing the schools is a great idea. I'll do this immediately. * Yes, the site's value does depend on the number of active users. We launched at Yale and right now half of the student body is actively using it to choose courses...but other schools haven't seen the same success. I'm a horrible designer (and I'm kicking myself constantly because of it) and I'm aware of the unattractive landing. I'll try to make it less of a walled garden, because no one likes walled gardens. * Something novel is definitely needed. Whether or not Gradifi succeeds, that remains to be seen. BTW, could I shoot you an email?
DanielStraight 17y ago
I think the biggest barrier to entry is that the front page doesn't tell you anything about the product. I can't even tell what the product IS. Is it a website? A desktop app? A smartphone app? A Facebook app? What does it do? How does it work? What does it look like? Where are the answers to these questions?
- theli0nheart 17y ago
  You make some great points. Here's a shot: Gradifi is a web application that recommends courses to students based on courses that they've already taken. In addition, students can share notes with one another and can sell them to people who they don't know. Books that you list are advertised for free alongside course descriptions on the website. I'm afraid of putting too much text on the front page and perhaps scaring people away. Maybe that's an unfounded fear. Maybe screenshots may be helpful as well?
  - DanielStraight 17y ago
    I understand you don't want to scare people away, but why would anyone sign up for a service if they didn't know what it was? Screenshots would definitely be helpful. Consider a screencast too. Also, why not show publicly shared content? At least give some indication of what's inside if you sign up.
spokey 17y ago
The purpose of the site as expressed on the about page ("We think choosing courses is hard, and we're here to do something about that.") seems to bear no relation to the purpose expressed on the homepage ("Share your notes. Sell your books. Make money. Get better grades. Dominate."). Of the two, I think the about page MVP sounds more interesting, although probably less profitable. Out of curiosity, why do you have that RackspaceCloud logo in your footer? Are you affiliated with Rackspace somehow? Are you getting a referral bonus or something? Just big fans?

6 points by theli0nheart 17y ago

I realize that most of you won't actually be able to create an account, so forgive me in advance for that. The service revolves around college students at a few select schools, and if you don't have an alumni or current email address for any of those schools, you're out of luck. So, my biggest worry is conversions. How do I get people who visit the front page to actually make an account? Are there too many "barriers" to entry (i.e. graduation year, first name, last name, etc)? Also, I'm concerned that people who visit the site don't actually know what it's about, or what it's used for. How would you recommend I make this a little more clear?

redrory 17y ago
Why don't you use Facebook Connect, most students already post that info on facebook.
- theli0nheart 17y ago
  I did to begin with (2-3 months ago). The issue was that students were uncomfortable with the idea that people could view their transcripts on their computers if they didn't log out of Facebook. So yeah, good idea in theory, but students rejected it.
apsurd 17y ago
I'm glad you are at least aware of how ridiculously obtuse your homepage is. The signup form (in this case) seems very very unwelcoming. To answer your question, why don't you just list the schools? I assume you are only marketing to them anyway so you can even have school specific landing pages. It's a much easier sell when you are talking directly to your niche audience. "Hey Ucla student, 500 of your peers are sharing their notes from __ucla_class___ wanna take a look?" Next, doesn't the value of your site depend on how many active users you have? Hence, chicken/egg. In this case, depending on your resources, my advice would be to cut every single school except for one, and prove it there. Do this literally at only one school , the school you can market directly to the most. If you have concerns that you need a lot of users from multiple schools, I don't see how that makes sense because your site, as it stands, is a very unattractive (to outsiders like me) walled-garden. So if it's a walled garden, make it a walled garden (one school only) if not, open it up, pick one! This is definitely a space where many have failed, I'm not saying you will, but I think something novel is needed. And since I've done some brainstorming in the space once upon a time, I have reasoned it would be most effective to dominate one and only one school, prove it, and then leapfrog. Hey "it worked for facebook" =]
- theli0nheart 17y ago
  Thanks for the awesome reply. I'll go through one by one. * Listing the schools is a great idea. I'll do this immediately. * Yes, the site's value does depend on the number of active users. We launched at Yale and right now half of the student body is actively using it to choose courses...but other schools haven't seen the same success. I'm a horrible designer (and I'm kicking myself constantly because of it) and I'm aware of the unattractive landing. I'll try to make it less of a walled garden, because no one likes walled gardens. * Something novel is definitely needed. Whether or not Gradifi succeeds, that remains to be seen. BTW, could I shoot you an email?

DanielStraight 17y ago

I think the biggest barrier to entry is that the front page doesn't tell you anything about the product. I can't even tell what the product IS. Is it a website? A desktop app? A smartphone app? A Facebook app? What does it do? How does it work? What does it look like? Where are the answers to these questions?

theli0nheart 17y ago
You make some great points. Here's a shot: Gradifi is a web application that recommends courses to students based on courses that they've already taken. In addition, students can share notes with one another and can sell them to people who they don't know. Books that you list are advertised for free alongside course descriptions on the website. I'm afraid of putting too much text on the front page and perhaps scaring people away. Maybe that's an unfounded fear. Maybe screenshots may be helpful as well?
- DanielStraight 17y ago
  I understand you don't want to scare people away, but why would anyone sign up for a service if they didn't know what it was? Screenshots would definitely be helpful. Consider a screencast too. Also, why not show publicly shared content? At least give some indication of what's inside if you sign up.

spokey 17y ago

The purpose of the site as expressed on the about page ("We think choosing courses is hard, and we're here to do something about that.") seems to bear no relation to the purpose expressed on the homepage ("Share your notes. Sell your books. Make money. Get better grades. Dominate."). Of the two, I think the about page MVP sounds more interesting, although probably less profitable. Out of curiosity, why do you have that RackspaceCloud logo in your footer? Are you affiliated with Rackspace somehow? Are you getting a referral bonus or something? Just big fans?