Show IH: Buffl - Simple Flashcard App
Hi everyone,
Two months ago a friend and I launched Buffl. It's a simple app where you can create flashcards on your desktop and learn on your phone. Obviously there are already dozens of flashcard apps out there, but none of them offers what we were looking for: Simple & beautiful UI and mobile native UX & offline mode. So we created just that and so far people seem to like it. At the moment we only have an iOS app and collect customer feedback. If things are going well we will also develop an Android app.
Since this is the Indie Hackers forum you might wonder how our business model looks like. Right now we have three tiers in mind:
- Basic product is free for endusers.
- Marketplace where users can buy & sell educational content
- premium version for pro-users & organizations
I would love to hear what you think about our product and the idea in general.
Cheers Clemens
Web: https://www.buffl.co
Appstore: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/buffl-karteikarten-app/id1144134340?mt=8
You have an outstanding website. Did you use a packaged theme or is it all custom done?
You sure seem to have the simple and beautiful part down; the hardest part will be marketing and gaining traction in such a crowded market. I like the idea though.
Thank you very much! It's all custom made.
You are right, it's definitely a crowded market but I am optimistic. One week after we launched we were already ranked second for the keyword "Karteikarten" (flashcards) on the appstore in Germany, Switzerland and Austria (above big players such as Quitzlet).
love the clean UI! In terms of your revenue model, I think it would be a great idea for you to develop some "starter package" of flashcards that user can buy such as "Spanish for Beginner", "Conversational Basic Chinese" (languages) and across subjects such as "Project Management Basics", "SAT Math" etc.
Thank you. That is exactly what we are planning to do. Would you prioritize a simple marketplace over an android app?
If your plan is for revenue I would focus on marketplace first. Android market is known for lower purchase rate than App Store plus I think it will take less time for you to develop sample package than rebuild an android app.
typos in index:
convenient -> conveniently, did't -> didn't, prooven-> proven
Thank you! Will update that as soon as possible.
Great design, I am curious to hear your marketing strategy too. Do you plan to focus on a single vertical like language learning first?
Thank you! Judging from our data we were able to collect (35k cards created in 650 courses) the main subjects people are using our product for are language learning, business & economics, law, medicine and computer science.
Since we want to shift our focus on shared and collaborative courses in the future one idea is to target one specific university and try convince as many students as possible to use our platform.
Almost forgot... at least set up a landing page for all Android users to collect their email until you have the app ready. We did that for our iOS app and "launched" to a existing iOS userbase rather than starting all over again.
Good point! :)
Sounds like a plan.
Remember how Dropbox gave away a win-win deal for everybody who was referring a friend? Both got a benefit. Maybe you have a pro-feature or other goodie you can give away? I think Trello is still giving away 1 month of "gold" for each new user I invite. Could work well in an university environment.
we are not sure yet if we want to go for a premium version for endusers. our original idea was to create a marketplace where students or publishers could sell courses.
Congratulations on the launch. I was just wondering how did you figure out that you the market had a gap with the existing solution?
Another question- Are you working on this alone?
Some feedback- a slideshow that shows how the product works, maybe a few Flashcards in the making would be great to get a feel for the product.
@clemens I really like this idea. I know nothing about flashcards so I'm not qualified to comment on the uniqueness of the offer or the business potential but the idea of a marketplace sounds really sensible.
I know a secondary school teacher in the UK and we often discuss how he uses tech as a teaching aid. This kind of product would be perfect for him. I suspect he'd need to be able to offer a desktop option for students (social inclusion is a big thing here...we can't assume all students have smartphones/tablets etc...some will need to use public libraries to access the web). Some kind of log-in would be helpful so that he can check which students have visited the flashcards would be helpful too. Perhaps allow him to upload a list of email addresses/usernames and your system sends unique links to each of them?
Good luck - looks great,
James
@ James, actually there is a desktop version, which you can use with any Browser. I guess it's a bit unclear on the landing page, though. That's because until a couple of days ago you could really only study with your iPhone.
Login does exist as well. But I guess what you mean is some sort of reporting for teachers. That's a great point indeed. I guess we will brainstorm this in the next couple of days :)
Thank you,
Raffi
Cool thanks. Yes, I mean really basic reporting for teachers but also linked to "mass" mailing to a class of students (< 35). This linked to a marketplace feels very desirable. Great job!
this reminds me (superficially) of Google Primer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.primer&hl=en)
BTW: your privacy policy & terms point to a S3 bucket. maybe make it a static website with your domain on it?