myoung8

16 ms·

31.
How to make stuff people love(assets.pivotallabs.com)
2 points by myoung8 16y ago|0 comments
32.
by myoung8 16y ago
Yes
33.
by myoung8 16y ago
No
34.
Poll: Does your company provide free lunch every day?
4 points by myoung8 16y ago|4 comments
35.
How fast can a startup get things done?(carwoo.com)
12 points by myoung8 16y ago|2 comments
36.
by myoung8 16y ago
Cartelligent is similar in the sense that it provides a very convenient way to buy a new car. They are a lot more hands-on than CarWoo! (in fact, they are a broker, while CarWoo! is not), so the buyer won't ever actually talk to a dealer an
37.
by myoung8 16y ago
You don't tell the media about it. Or ask them not to write about it. Launch is a loaded word nowadays. To be very specific, it was a product launch, not a media launch.
38.
by myoung8 16y ago
We only do new cars right now, we'll be getting to used in the near future, including private-party in all likelihood.
39.
by myoung8 16y ago
It's very difficult to give an average price on a car since there is so much variation and there are so many nuances to each car. What I can say is that, on average, we save buyers over $3000 off the sticker price of the car. The range of s
40.
by myoung8 16y ago
It wasn't really an uphill battle at all. Due to the way dealers are compensated (i.e. on volume for the most part), their first priority is simply to sell a car (irrespective of how much margin they make). Thus, a highly-qualified CarWoo!
41.
by myoung8 16y ago
Unfortunately, you'd also: - get spammed by those dealers in a heartbeat, for 2-12 months after submitting the lead, even if you end up buying a car! - have to manage the negotiations over email, with at least 3 dealers if you want to be su
42.
by myoung8 16y ago
I wouldn't necessarily call it a "problem" with a our service. Some people prefer to do things on their own, some prefer the convenience that CarWoo! provides. At the end of the day, if you try to do it yourself, you'll spend a lot more tim
43.
by myoung8 16y ago
Just FYI, this has been fixed, we're now using radio buttons. You can see my response below as to why we were using checkboxes in the first place.
44.
by myoung8 16y ago
Precisely. There are a lot of other possible revenue streams, even if we never charge the dealers (which we'd like to avoid because we are a consumer advocate and don't want to be beholden to the dealers).
45.
by myoung8 16y ago
That's assuming that you can actually get 5-7 dealers to compete :) There are few things to take into account: 1. We're working with real dealers behind the scenes, calling them if we have to. We don't use automated systems (not because it'
46.
by myoung8 16y ago
Mike, thanks for your feedback. I'll respond to each of your points: 1. We optimized for the majority of our users' browser resolutions. Your not the first to give us this feedback, though, and if we get enough of it we'll switch to a narro
47.
by myoung8 16y ago
Yup. Right now, we're focusing on buyers who know exactly what they want. Moving forward, we're going to move further up the funnel and get into the research step too. There are already sites that do research fairly well, but no one handles
48.
by myoung8 16y ago
CarWoo! is only for new cars at the moment. We're going to get into used cars soon, and odds are we'll work with private-party transactions as well as dealers if buyers want a Certified Pre-Owned car.
49.
by myoung8 16y ago
So, some insight into the checkbox vs. radio button thing: We started with checkboxes because it used to be the case that a buyer could select up to 3 trims. This gave them more flexibility, but ultimately created a burden for dealers. From
50.
by myoung8 16y ago
Yes, you can switch preferences once you finish signing up. The "stuck-in-the-signup-loop" thing is also something we're working on. It's a balance between increasing conversions and pissing some people off. We're probably going to switch t
51.
by myoung8 16y ago
It's true, you would have to buy 2 plans to shop for 2 cars. The reason we do that is because there's a fixed cost per car on the back-end for us in terms of contacting dealers and getting offers, so letting users shop as many cars as they
52.
by myoung8 16y ago
Thanks for pointing out these issues. We're working on fixing them.
53.
by myoung8 16y ago
We've built a reputation system, which, in short, helps ward off a lot of bad dealer behavior. I can get into more details if anyone's interested. If you have a trade-in, you can describe it and the dealers will include a quote for that in
54.
by myoung8 16y ago
This has been a long time coming. Feel free to ask us anything if you've got questions about CarWoo!
55.
by myoung8 16y ago
Can anyone think of ways to speed the sociolegal acceptance of this technology? At the end of the day, I have a feeling it won't really come down to lives saved even if that's how the media spins it. At the end of the day, it has to help pa
56.
by myoung8 16y ago
It's not rational, but part of the Silicon Valley mindset is "go big or go home" and oftentimes people don't stop to think whether it's good for their business, they just accept it as fact.
57.
by myoung8 16y ago
He doesn't seem to realize that you can learn all those things they teach you in business school (finance, marketing, corporate law) as you go if you're a real entrepreneur. Sure, you might make a few mistakes early on, but there's no bette
58.
by myoung8 16y ago
I think people want products that are simple to use, not just simple. There's a big difference. There are many products that have a lot of features, but employ concepts like progressive disclosure to make them easier for a wide range of peo
59.
Poll: Do you have Gmail Priority Inbox already?
8 points by myoung8 16y ago|9 comments
60.
by myoung8 16y ago
Yes

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