Startup with no direction seeking for guidance

[xtnzt19]

This is my first time submitting to hacker news. I'm 21, turning 22 on June, and based on the Philippines. I have recently quit my job as a web developer last October 2012 to build my startup - Droolify, a content sharing service/catalog that lets people discover, share, and talk about "droolify-ing" things. I spent the last hellish 6 months building the web application, with no income, and my family stressing me up as they don't understand what I am doing to my life, and pushing me to get a job and be employed. Life is hard here.

I launched the site on April 10, 2013, rigged with Facebook's open graph so the site can get more exposure. I gained a couple of signups on the first week and about 5-8 active users daily. They were in my circle of friends, and some were friends of my friends. I thought that I would reach about 50-100 active users on its first two weeks, but my expectations were wrong. It kept on the ground with 0-2 active users.

I don't know if the idea was wrong. Right now I'm planning to rewrite the code from scratch ( Switch to a different web app framework to accomplish more features; Remove the responsive design; Add more features esp. realtime functionalities with nodejs; and so on... )

I don't want to lose hope and really seeking for guidance.

http://www.droolify.com

[daerty0153]

At times, just coding might not be enough to get your startup at the expected presence.

In my opinion, what you need is to first gain some insights on

- how to build online presence

- User experience

Ex: By having a first look at your site, it is not directly visible what your site exactly does. Then I looked for About link (for which I had to scroll down to bottom right)

There's a lot of data available on the net which you can use to improve in these areas. I would suggest instead of recoding and loading the site with extra features, if you are satisfied with current functionality, then try to build online presence first.(You may start with getting more likes for your facebook page)

[xtnzt19]

Thanks for this. I'll take a look at those areas. Though I'm wanting more functionalities, will it be okay if I gather likes for the facebook page even though the functionalities I wanted are not yet implemented? (e.g. first impression of the site's current functionalities can make a visitor like/dislike the site)

[daerty0153]

I think it would be okay to create a 'Site new version coming very soon' landing page and take the main site down as you work on it. But main and the most difficult target would be letting users know what your site exactly does, how easy it is, how different it is: all of them without showing the actual site! ( maybe some simple text on landing page, and mostly through well drafted text publicity on social networks ).

Show users before adding the functionality that they actually need it.( that it was inherent). If you are able to do this correctly, then you could get yourself a good fanbase.

Basically, I would suggest to improve on promotional strategies before starting coding again (after a landing page). And also keep a clear view on how are you going to generate income( if you want to call yourself a startup :) )

[keenahn]

Sounds like a classic case-study for Lean Startup methodologies.

Why did you sink 6 months into this without knowing if people actually wanted it?

Stop coding. Now. Go out and talk to your potential customers. What problem are you solving? How are people solving it now?

Best of luck, and hopefully this can be salvaged, or else it is a learning experience for next time.

[oakaz]

Just switch to another idea. Implement it quickly. Observe the reactions and make a new plan. You need to iterate the ideas. Rewriting is a mistake. Of course you can implement it much better but the risk will be double next time. There are dozens of new ideas.

[xtnzt19]

So are you saying that the idea is a no-good? :( Could you elaborate why the risk will be doubled? Though I'm just planning on rewriting, my real problem is to build a user base and make the website known and used.

[oakaz]

I'm not saying the idea is good or bad. I say, just move on. Don't repeat yourself. Do new things. Don't get stuck. Don't get upset. Move on.

[aantix]

Why would you rewrite from scratch? Sounds like you're just stalling from getting to the root issue.

Why not try some other marketing approaches?

[xtnzt19]

Thanks for the reply. Well the main reason for the rewrite was that I wanted to switch to a different web application framework so I could accomplish features that I can't with the current framework I'm using. And also to clean up the code, and write more efficient unit tests. Though I'm just planning through it.

Yes, though I really don't have any idea how to REALLY market a website. The only idea I know of was spreading it through Facebook open graph, but it still wasn't enough. I'm thinking of ads, and more ads, but I don't have the money for it.

[manuletroll]

What framework are you using? What are the features you can't implement with it?

[xtnzt19]

I don't know if it would be ethical for me to tell of the framework I'm using. What I can say is that it's quite new and collaborators of it are small unlike that of Yii, Zend, and Symfony. (I'm using PHP) Unit testing, database ORM, model validation, etc. are hard to make use of on this framework I'm using, as these functionalities of it are lacking features

[manuletroll]

Well in any case I have a hard time imagining that the framework you're using is really the cause of your main problem, the lack of users.

[xtnzt19]

Sorry, but I didn't say nor even think that it's the cause of my main problem.

[samfisher83]

This seems like one of the many other sites out there like pinterest etc. What makes it different?

[dear]

It's less than a month old. Do you expect overnight success?

[xtnzt19]

How I wish it would have been! :) Thanks for this.