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by MattLaurie 1944 days ago
Great points really appreciate your thoughts here.

Data export is what we've been working on right now. What would be the first integration point you'd like to see? We've been discussing internally where to put our focus right now.

Fully agree with what you mentioned on search.

2 comments

Note that data export is something that many people will claim they want, but few will use. If this is where you’re spending your 1.0 time, it indicates to me that people want an exit valve before they’ve even really started using the product… which means they probably haven’t really used the product.

Focus on a great experience that I can’t replicate elsewhere, and I won’t have a need to leave (anytime soon).

Beta user here. I requested data export because it's part of my basic product due diligence when researching tools for my team. I have a bit of extra bias, I used to work for Red Hat, but really it's common sense. Especially when dealing with startups.

I sense from your other comments that you're in trolling mode, but if you're serious on this point, remember that user data freedom is a cultural signal that the team is committed to the best user experience. We proved this at Red Hat and it's the basic battle plan for SaaS these days. Any team that show me I'm not locked in is already building trust. Strange to see people arguing the opposite.

I'm not trolling at all. I'm dead serious.

If you're talking about Red Hat, you're talking about products developed by a large company that are expected to be supported and well built before they go out there door. The tendency of Red Hat's products gear towards enterprise needs that are well understood and often times the bulk of the exercise is more about engineering than finding product market fit.

None of that is the case here. This is an early stage company that just released their first product on a single platform, made by a handful of people on a hope and a dream. I've been there. I've also seen my fair share of distractions. I don't doubt that for you it's part of your basic needs. But that doesn't mean it's part of the basic needs of the majority of their future customers. It's very easy to get side tracked on early feedback for feature requests that even when made don't convert to actual usage.

Looking over the homepage, I don't believe they have found product market fit. To me, their messaging is unclear, and who this is for is not obvious. Even if they're on the right track, why should they waste time (and this opportunity on HN) for anything but getting the core product experience out to people? Leaving their platform is anything but a core product experience... it's an off ramp. When you have no cars on your freeway, on-ramps are far more important.

> What would be the first integration point you'd like to see? We've been discussing internally where to put our focus right now.

Think the first thing would be just some way to share read-only via a URL with people that don't have the app - unique ID but otherwise public - that's then easy to share with messaging apps - WhatsApp most of all I guess