Ask HN: Please review my startup, Crowdbeacon.

[swellular]

Hello HN!

Like other review-seekers, this is my first submission. That said, I read HN often and I’m a huge fan of the community (have been fortunate to meet a few members in person). Along with the support of a small, boot-strapped team, this week we launched our location-based service called Crowdbeacon, and would love your feedback.

http://www.crowdbeacon.com

Crowdbeacon is a location-based service (I know, I know but bear with me) that was created for one purpose: to help people find what they need. To make this happen, we developed a platform that prompts users to “Ask for anything”… with their questions delivered to local experts and businesses based on self-identified category, subcategory and keywords. On top of that, since we can’t guarantee that questions will be answered by users or businesses we comb other APIs (Yelp, Foursquare and Wishpond for now) and search them for what the user is looking for, hopefully finding the answer along the way.

We’ve had a lot of success in the first three days (articles in TechCrunch and LifeHacker resulting meeting our initial user goals) but of course realize there is a long road ahead.

Any feedback you can provide on the product, marketing, and potential for growth is much appreciated.

[waterside81]

I'd put a way to ask a question right on the front page. People want to be able to test the merits of your service quickly (at least I did). I wanted to quickly type "Good wings in Toronto?" but couldn't find a place to do so, unless I signed up (I think?)

Optimizely (I'm not affiliated with them) gets this part down pat. You can start using their service right away without any signup.

http://www.optimizely.com

[boylerob]

Sorry -- I posted this as a comment below:

waterside. Thanks for the feedback. We are adding this functionality in the next few days, because to your point we want people to be able to use the site to ask anything about any location they want. You're spot on, and we appreciate that feedback.

[AndrewWarner]

I think your homepage doesn't do your mission justice.

"Turning location into communication" left me confused. I think it would be more helpful to say something like, "Get answers from local experts."

Also, your call to action is weak. "Join now, I'm an individual/business" feels like an obligation. It might be more helpful to say, "Ask your question" and/or "Answer questions."

[boylerob]

Thanks for the feedback. We'll definitely make adjustments to the call to action based on your thoughts (you're most likely not alone in your sentiment).

A question I have is:

"Get answers from local experts" only covers 50% of our product offering as we see it, and leaves out the fact that we are very focused on integrating external APIs to add implicit value for users. Our position is that this is really critical, because the problem in the past that has sprung up time and again with services similar to ours is that in low-density population areas functional, real-time Q&A is extremely difficult. Or do you think that this doesn't matter?

[swellular]

Thanks for your feedback Andrew.

As Robert noted we plan to make adjustments. Early next week we are adding the functionality for users to ask questions directly on the site, without having to use the iPhone app. Your copy, "Ask your question," might be a good fit there.

[streety]

It's a nice looking site.

On http://www.crowdbeacon.com/how-works.aspx the video was a little slow to load so for a while it looked like a blank page above the fold.

Some of your FAQs don't sit well with me:

Why did you start Crowdbeacon? Consider ditching, "Also, because the future of life as we know it is rapidly becoming mobile and we wanted to make our mark early in the game." It comes across as a long-winded way of saying "this is a me too startup" rather than focusing on your USP.

How do you make money? Comes across very much as a non-answer. I suggest you remove this one entirely.

[boylerob]

streety: thanks for the feedback.

I changed the "Why did you start CB" answer. Very helpful input.

Regarding the $ question: it is a non-answer, and might seem like a throwaway but it is important to us that potential investors (who have pinged us multiple times now from the site) know that we're thinking about it. We're not Twitter, ya know?

Overall, I very much appreciate the feedback.

[swellular]

Streety- Thanks we'll look into the video. You make some good points about the FAQ's as well.

[boylerob]

FAQs = Already changed :)

[kaylarose]

Clickable http://www.crowdbeacon.com/

[boylerob]

waterside. Thanks for the feedback. We are adding this functionality in the next 5 days, because to your point we want people to be able to use the site to ask anything about any location they want. You're spot on, and we appreciate that feedback.