[niko001]

I run IdeaCheck.io [0], a similar service. I appreciate competition, but this looks like a quickly thrown together MVP without a real product. Have a look at the graphs on the sample report [1] - it makes zero sense to present this information as a line chart. What is the significance of the 8 other data points on the chart that aren't labeled? What kind of metrics are "accuracy" and "feelings"? "My idea is 50% accurate?"

From the landing page: "Are you opening a burger joint around the corner? Let us talk to the people from the office building in front of it, your potential customers!" Sorry, I can guarantee you that's not what you're doing.

IdeaCheck uses a professional panel provider to find respondents. We negotiated a contract with this provider to provide entrepreneurs with access to the same class of market research that Fortune 100 companies use. We don't make any targeting claims that we can't deliver on. Yes, respondents are paid, but that doesn't incentivize them to be extra nice - they answer multiple random surveys each day (from different companies doing market research) and are paid for their time, not their opinion. In general, I like the idea of not paying respondents and actively searching for a small target niche, but at the same time you're introducing a non-response bias (you're spamming hundreds of people to receive 25 survey responses - those who reply aren't an accurate representation of the target audience)

[0] https://www.ideacheck.io

[1] https://afteridea.com/app/index.php?id=5b396a5f4eb37

[BartBoch]

Well, ok. I see you decided to attack me. OK. I am not interested in going into the fight with you, so I will answer just a few things I think people would like me to explain.

"My idea is 50% accurate?" - the question "How accurately do you think this idea solves the problem?" should explain that.

"Sorry, I can guarantee you that's not what you're doing." - great, how?

"but at the same time you're introducing a non-response bias" - so according to you paying to pretty much-untargeted people to answer questions is better than getting some of the relevant people to fill out the survey? Interesting.

"you're spamming hundreds of people to receive 25 survey responses" - it seems you know things I don't know then. I am not spamming people. I send them a request if they can fill out the survey to help a company. All of the people we contacted agreed to be contacted.

Only because you have not managed to figure it out, does not mean other people haven't. I am OK with running at no profit, for now, to build the brand and get my name out. You can pretend like paid, barely targeted people are better than answers from real, targeted, unpaid people. But the reality is, that even if only certain % of people answer to our call, they are still targeted, and they beat paid survey takers by a mile.

Very classy of you to post this kind of biased and offensive comment.

[dumbfoundded]

Here's some feedback from someone who isn't a competitor of your's.

I'm guessing you're using facebook ads to hand out surveys to targeted people. If that's not exactly what you're doing, you should be aware of the fact that your business model's value is to bypass people from going into the facebook ad manager, creating a survey, selecting a few interests / demographics and then hitting enter.

There's not a lot of value in this business model, especially given that if I did this using facebook, I would have the actual audience instead of your summary of it.

Next piece of advice, be less emotional. Someone criticized you. Don't take it personally, address their points or don't, I don't care, but as a potential customer, I look at this message and immediately am turned off by it. The message above does make some good points and you just try to drown it out with emotion.

Last piece of advice, I actually think there's a lot of value in talking to people directly. If you could actually "talk to the people from the office building in front of it" and then scale it, that might have value but from your website, I have no clue if that's what you're doing and I actually get the impression that you're not.

[BartBoch]

I am actually not using Facebook Ads. I am using lead generation tools to find prospects and contact them using text messages. No ads are involved in the process.

"The message above does make some good points and you just try to drown it out with emotion." - sorry, but I find post above my response to be a self-promotion and invalid judging. I have no issue with answering questions, no matter how difficult they are. But a competitor should have more class than just "assuming" and basing a line of offense on that. There is a difference I think in asking valid questions and using the assumptions by a competitor to attack my business.

"I have no clue if that's what you're doing and I actually get the impression that you're not." - we can target people that work for a company located in an office building for example. As mentioned previously, I am using text messages to reach the people. This is just an example of targeting we provide.

[mkl]

How do you get the mobile numbers of the people who work in a particular building? That sounds impossible.

[BartBoch]

You can get a mobile phone for people that work for a company, or for a division (if it is a different entity). There is quite a lot of companies providing that data.

[niko001]

> Very classy of you to post this kind of biased and offensive comment.

I don't know how my comment was "biased and offensive", I even said I liked the approach in general? I pointed out factual inaccuracies and things that don't make sense in your landing page copy and sample report, that's all.

> I am not spamming people. I send them a request if they can fill out the survey to help a company. All of the people we contacted agreed to be contacted.

I was using "spamming" in the sense of "mass-emailing people". This introduces a non-response bias.

> the question "How accurately do you think this idea solves the problem?" should explain that.

I still don't understand this question. Does a flower shop _accurately_ solve the need for floral gifts? It's just not a term I would use in this context, but ok, hopefully your survey respondents will understand what it means :).

> Sorry, I can guarantee you that's not what you're doing." - great, how?

Let's suppose I place an order for the following idea "I want to open up a burger food truck next to the AmeriCar Insurance office building in Chappaqua, NY" - this is your example on your landing page. No problem, right? Please don't make promises that you can't keep.

I'm not saying one or the other approach is better - there's definitely a need for both, I just don't think that you can consistently deliver this. Good luck!

[csallen]

> I don't know how my comment was "biased and offensive"

Mmm, imagine someone in real life presents their project to you and the first thing you say to them is that it "looks like a quickly thrown together MVP without a real product" and that their graphs "makes zero sense." Really imagine saying that to someone out loud.

Could you really blame them for being offended? Just because we're on HN doesn't mean we cease to be humans with feelings.

[BartBoch]

> Let's suppose I place an order for the following idea "I want to open up a burger food truck next to the AmeriCar Insurance office building in Chappaqua, NY" - this is your example on your landing page. No problem, right? Please don't make promises that you can't keep.

I can decide to not fulfill the order and refund the money. I have actually turned down few requests already. I am not greedy and I am not taking all orders as they come. I have right to refuse and refund if I cannot fulfill the promises made.

[CobrastanJorji]

>>> "Are you opening a burger joint around the corner? Let us talk to the people from the office building in front of it, your potential customers!"

>> Sorry, I can guarantee you that's not what you're doing.

> great, how?

Well...ARE you going to talk to the people from the office building in front of it?

[BartBoch]

I have mentioned it previously, I can target people working in a company in an office building and try to reach to them. So yeah, there is a good chance I will be able to do so.

[ALittleLight]

"A good chance I will be able to do so" is a very different thing from "Yes, I am doing this." A more accurate response would be "I'm not doing that."

As a general note, the parent comment seems like genuine feedback. Your response to it is very petty and hostile. You should learn to take feedback better.

[BartBoch]

I agree I could handle this better. To my defense after handling a few hundred emails, sales messages, comments etc. my brain was melting. I was prepared for everything, besides hijacking my thread for self-promotion. My reaction obviously should be better.

[sodafountan]

I tend to agree with OP, just because people are getting paid doesn't mean they're leaving biased reviews. Also, how long are people going to be willing to do this without expecting anything in return? It doesn't seem very sustainable and certainly won't scale as you get more customers.

This whole business just has a very scammy feel to it, and it just seems so rushed.

Congrats you made 1000 bucks in a month, who cares? Put together something people will actually want and can trust. Why not take the time to do that? The only thing this tells me is that you're not very serious, and so I won't be buying anything from you. I'm much more inclined to go with OP who has probably been doing this longer and appears to have done the research.

[BartBoch]

> Also, how long are people going to be willing to do this without expecting anything in return?

I think you missed the part - I contact new audience for every customer. Those are not the same asked over and over to answer questions.

[sodafountan]

How do you scale that? How do you become an expert in targeting my demographic? Why would I pay you to do that when I could do that myself and trust myself more with the results? You need to be in the business of building trust, and a simple MVP doesn't convey that to me. Especially one in which has some glaring holes like OP mentioned.

[ericpauley]

> so according to you paying to pretty much-untargeted people to answer questions is better than getting some of the relevant people to fill out the survey? Interesting.

Could you address this feedback directly instead of making a straw man? How do you prevent non-response bias?

[BartBoch]

By targeting responders as precise as possible so they answer because they want to, not because they need to.

[ericpauley]

That doesn't answer the question. Responders who see the idea as valuable are more likely to answer, which could skew your data. (this is more or less the definition of non-response bias) What is your solution to this? Original response proposed a pre-selected population who have incentive to respond either way.

[BartBoch]

By going this logic, there is not a thing called neutral or unbiased? Don't you agree?

[aqui_c]

My two cents in this discussion is that neither of the platforms tell how they get answers.

On IndieHackers, ideacheck has been asked several times what panel its used, but was never disclosed. The same is true for afteridea. The fact that both have big claims and no evidence supporting their statement is at most curious.