Ask HN: Would appreciate feedback on our startup

[stockray]

Hey hackers,

My cofounder and I would be really thankful for any feedback you may have on our startup at www.stockray.com.

StockRay is a virtual stock market where you can buy or sell virtual shares of the things you care about: TV shows, celebrities, cities, tech products, politicians... Invest in the things you believe in and make a profit if your stocks go up!

Our goal is to create the largest real-time interest graph and trading platform in the world.

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[fearless]

Have you answered the three big questions of validating an idea? 1. Who is the target market? 2. What problem does this solve? 3. How will you make money?

[stockray]

Thanks fearless. The short answer is: absolutely. These are the questions that drove us to this product, and we feel very passionate about our answers, but it's helpful to see idea validation articulated in such a clear, concise way.

[fearless]

Yeah- I mean it would be easier for the community to give feedback if we knew your answers as to who the target audience was. i.e if your business model was to be a gambling site like Intrade, I would be very interested in participating and trading. If it's more just for fun/timewaster, I wouldn't be in your target market and couldn't give good feedback.

[stockray]

Makes sense: our business model is not gambling. We want to offer:

- Users a way to show their support (at first, with virtual dollars, but pending JOBS Act implementation, with real investment) for the businesses, products, and causes they care about;

- Businesses, products, and causes a way to find, track, and engage their supporters and eventually turn them into investors.

[fatalerrorx3]

Have you seen http://play.twidaq.com ? Isn't that the same idea?

[stockray]

Thanks! It's indeed similar, but twiDAQ is built around Twitter activity / performance, whereas we are a completely standalone exchange market. We don't consider ourselves a social media site: our end goal is to engage users with real-world, offline properties, and we're using stock-trading as a metaphor for this engagement.

[cdvonstinkpot]

https://www.stockray.com

[duiker101]

I am sorry but i am against website with facebook-only login.

[stockray]

Point taken! We'll add other logins in the future.