May 23, 2018

Explain what your startup/side-project is about, in under 10 words: Series #4

Hey IH!

This is the 4th part of the discussion that I first started in February, 2018.

Tell us what your startup/side-project does, in under 10 words and share a link too.

Also, submit your project to 10words.io (an amazing newsletter started by a fellow IH👉 @luckybamboo).

For those of you who replied to the previous discussions and those of you working on early-stage startups/side-projects, share your milestones on earlystagenews.com (launching 25th May)


  1. 6

    Envelope budgeting and debt management without the learning curve

    http://www.budgetwise.io/

  2. 5

    Create and sell merchandise with no upfront costs or risk.

    https://merched.com

  3. 5

    Codegiant.io - Single platform for software development!

    I am loving this thread. Cheers!

    1. 1

      I am loving this thread. Cheers!

      🙌

  4. 5

    Startup tools to grow and launch your project.

    https://www.launchfactory.io/

    1. 1

      I think your website is currently down.

    2. 1

      How will you make money from this?

  5. 4

    Community-based lists of books

    http://www.threebook.co/

  6. 4

    Headspace for the voice.

    https://apple.co/2fkWezS

    1. 1

      Great! Went to voice coach as a child, and this would have been awesome. Probably good idea to partner with orthodontists

      1. 1

        Thanks @francopetra ! I built "Astound" with the help of my girlfriend Leila who works as a voice coach/speech pathologist, and has helped tons of kids. Can you remember: how was your experience as a kid? Did you like it, was it annoying?

        Also, interesting you mention Orthodontists. To be honest, I haven't really thought about that. Can you explain your reasoning a little more? I'm curious.

        1. 1

          The experience was okay. It was really frustrating to breathe badly and couldn't pronounce some words as well because of my teeth/orthodontic, and it really helped.

          So, that's why I bring orthodontists, many kids loose some mouth movement when they have braces for a long time.

          At least that how it works in Argentina. Maybe in other parts the specialty is divided differently, but I don't think so.

          Good luck!

          1. 1

            That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

    2. 1

      this looks great, like a WAY BETTER version of what I was thinking of building!

      1. 1

        Thanks @scavenger - what were you thinking of?

        1. 1

          I guess what I'm building is a bit different, more about practice exercises for conversation, ie for people who struggle to think of things to say

          1. 1

            like things to say to break the ice, and get a conversation started?

            1. 1

              kinda, also how to keep it going

  7. 4

    PDFShift, an API to convert any HTML documents in PDF.

    1. 2

      By the way, love the idea to keep it under 10 words, forces us to find a good catch phrase :) :+1:

      1. 2

        True :) Also helps you discover a lot of amazing projects in the shortest time

        1. 1

          Yep, I agree with you!

    2. 1

      When did you launch this? How has the progress been?

      1. 3

        I launched it ... yesterday ! (officially) :p

        I've been building it for the past 3 months, ensuring everything was perfect, and I hit some pretty big road block. The most difficult thing was to keep going, and now it's live :)

        I plan to make some articles about the progress in the future, when I'll have some interesting data to share (hopefully)!

        1. 1

          I launched it ... yesterday ! (officially) :p

          Congrats 🙌 You've to just ship and make your product better along the way 👈 nice post :)

          The most difficult thing was to keep going, and now it's live :) I plan to make some articles about the progress in the future,

          Awesome! Keep us posted.

        2. 1

          Did you do a market research to see if someone did it before you ?

          If yes, what motivations behind redoing it ?

      2. 1

        Cool product, congrats on your launch.

        1. 1

          Thank you :)

  8. 4

    Web-based 3D/AR story builder for educational purposes.

    1. 1

      Sounds good! Do you have a website or is it just an idea at the moment?

      1. 1

        There is a website (but not updated in quite some time): http://www.storytechnologies.com/

        1. 1

          The idea seems promising. Do keep us updated :)

  9. 4

    Makers shipping awesome stuff on the www, in the open

    https://digisquire.com/#makers

    1. 1

      This is ace!

      Right up my alley for my latest project, streaming what I'm working on for 7 days straight - http://charlie-starts-up.webflow.io/

      I've gone ahead and submitted myself, I hope that isn't bad etiquette! ;)

      1. 2

        That etiquette is encouraged!

        Your idea and openness is ace 👊

    2. 1

      Nice! When did you launch it and how has the response been? Have you made money from this?

      1. 1

        About 2 weeks ago.

        No I have not made any money, nor do I really intend to make money from it. You can see the article I did on IH https://www.indiehackers.com/@willpower_iam/a-curated-list-of-makers-shipping-awesome-products-in-the-open-b4604e14d0 which had a very poor response, and a more detailed articles on my 12startups.com publication https://medium.com/12startups/a-curated-list-of-makers-shipping-awesome-products-in-the-open-792f8a02981c

        The response has been ok/not great (people like it, it just hasn’t caught on that much). I’m not great at marketing but thats the point of doing this side-project. Its something that I am interested in and find valuable so I will crack on with it, and build up some marketing skills as I go.

        One part of me is hopefully for levelsio or another user with a big following to RT to their audience or it to be picked up by some media but I’m comfortable with it only be useful to one (me) or two people or more hopefully.

        1. 1

          The response has been ok/not great (people like it, it just hasn’t caught on that much). I’m not great at marketing but that's the point of doing this side-project.

          If people like it, I think you've to give it time and learn along the way or get a co-founder who's good at marketing or hire somebody.

          One part of me is hopefully for levelsio or another user with a big following to RT to their audience

          Reach out to them on Twitter. If not a DM, send them a tweet and tell them about your project.

          On a personal note, I think the name could be something related to the idea. I had discovered something similar a couple of weeks ago and I remembered it because of the project's name (OpenStartups.com)

          1. 1

            Thanks mate. Yeah the name is just a domain I have previously purchased - if it takes off I might look at changing

            1. 1

              Good luck 👍

  10. 3

    Learn and understand the Quran vocabulary in arabic.

    http://www.quranprogress.com/en

  11. 3

    HOT TIP: IH comments supports markdown so you can pair your link with your description/keywords. Better SEO value (albeit minimal) and looks cleaner.

    "["description"]"("link")" <-- remove the quotation marks

  12. 3

    Find and Prioritize Optimization Opportunities From Your Google Analytics Data

    https://www.gethighlights.co/

  13. 3

    On-demand support engineers.

    https://palar.support

  14. 3

    Split Testing For Your SEO Strategy https://abrankings.com

  15. 3

    DEVY.io

    Unlimited Web and Mobile development for a fixed monthly fee.

    Site: https://devy.io/

  16. 3

    Unlimited premium design-as-a-service

    https://www.manypixels.co

    ---

    Some news on it:

    1. Currently focusing on hiring only Senior designers, in-house (working remotely only is actually difficult)

    2. Really upped the speed / quality in the last few weeks

    3. Still trying to find repeatable acquisition channels

    But above all: Still fully bootstrapped and focusing on creating value!

  17. 3

    Supercharge your front-end skills by building real projects.

    Frontend Mentor

  18. 3

    Support Hub, a premium helpdesk solution for Envato authors.

    1. 1

      Hey there!

      That seems super cool, already signed up =)

      We're always looking into better alternatives to the big ticketing services out there. How does it compare to a tool like Zendesk?

      1. 1

        Hey Gabriel,

        I see that you have signed up. You haven't confirmed your email but I'll send you the invitation anyway. :)

        Support Hub is specifically tailored for people who sell themes, plugins and other items on Envato marketplaces (ThemeForest, CodeCanyon, etc.). When an author connects his Envato account it synchronizes all his items and it can check the purchase codes and allow only tickets from customers with a valid support. It also supports public tickets that are visible and searchable by anyone, which helps customers to quickly find answers by themselves.

        Zendesk is, as you said, a big ticketing service and has a lot of stuff but it doesn't have the Envato integration which is something that all Envato authors need.

  19. 3

    7 day stream while building my project, an eCommerce community/service!

    http://charlie-starts-up.webflow.io/

    1. 2

      Hi,

      Do want any feedback? I'm saying this because I got a service where I review software projects?

      1. 1

        Sure thing Azhan, that'd be dope! Feel free to drop by the stream and let me know in chat, then I can bring up the work so far and you can give us your feedback and share your service :)

        1. 2

          Yeah sure, it would be nice if you tell your friends who might need my service.

          1. 1

            No problem, do you have a website?

            1. 1

              Yes, here is the link: https://www.mijjimo.com

  20. 2

    Simple, elegant scheduling tool that helps small businesses generate leads

    https://www.cozycal.com

  21. 2

    I've got two:

    Goodreads for Video Games

    NewGamesComingOut - Easily see which video games are coming soon.

    1. 1

      Both projects are centered around games. Are you an avid gamer yourself?

      1. 1

        I try to be haha. I built GG| because there were so many games I wanted to play but I didn't have a simple way to keep track of all of them. I missed out on a ~10 year chunk of awesome games and I had been using Goodreads a lot so I wanted something similar.

        The other one, NewGamesComingOut, I just built last weekend in a few hours as an experiment with SEO stuff and to hopefully try to drive traffic to GG|

        1. 1

          I try to be haha. I built GG| because there were so many games I wanted to play but I didn't have a simple way to keep track of all of them. I missed out on a ~10 year chunk of awesome games and I had been using Goodreads a lot so I wanted something similar.

          It's amazing how you've built something to solve your own problem :) How's the response been so far?

          The other one, NewGamesComingOut, I just built last weekend in a few hours as an experiment with SEO stuff and to hopefully try to drive traffic to GG|

          Smart ;) Is it inspired by NewMoviesComingOut?

          1. 1

            Smart ;) Is it inspired by NewMoviesComingOut?

            Yup! Exactly! I wrote about that briefly here: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-i-built-an-app-in-1-day-and-launched-it-the-same-weekend-f028de41a0

            How's the response been so far?

            I launched the initial version of GG| back in December and I've got 966 users so far. However, I made the mistake of not getting usage analytics in the mobile app, so I'm not totally sure about that. The website usage has been terrible though :(

            I'm guessing that as soon as I get some analytics in the app, those usage numbers will be a bit better than what I'm seeing on the website every day.

            Unfortunately, I also haven't monetized yet. I'm kind of in that stage where I feel like i need to keep adding features before I can monetize.

            1. 2

              The funny thing about this, is that I finally overcame the standard "buy a domain, never use it" that plagues so many entrepreneurs. I actually didn't buy this domain or make the logo until right before I launched.

              This is a really nice approach!

              I'm guessing that as soon as I get some analytics in the app, those usage numbers will be a bit better than what I'm seeing on the website every day.

              You've got really good reviews and I think this is something gamers will love. Keep going 👊

              Unfortunately, I also haven't monetized yet. I'm kind of in that stage where I feel like i need to keep adding features before I can monetize.

              I don't have much experience to help you out with this but I wish you the best for GG|and NGCO ✌

              P.s: Do keep us posted about your projects, on earlystagenews.com

  22. 2

    Australian technology jobs:

    https://austechjobs.com.au

  23. 2

    Queue up articles and schedule when to read them.

    https://www.alwaysreading.io/ (Other side project :))

  24. 2

    Do more pushups by tracking your pushups - https://twitter.com/pushuphero

    1. 1

      What's PushupHero all about? Why are you building it?

  25. 2

    Save links and get reminded about in a weekly email

    https://mailist.app/

  26. 2

    Simplest way to publish docs

    https://dimerapp.com

  27. 2

    can't wait you release earlystagenews, my next side project is almost ready to be built in the open :)

    1. 1

      Hey Carl!

      Early-stage News is now live!

      You can submit milestones here 👉 earlystagenews.com/#submit

      Do you mind telling us what you're working on?

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted 4 months ago.

  28. 2

    Curated list of tech founders in your inbox every week.

    https://techfoundrs.com/

    1. 1

      How is it built?

      1. 1

        I built it using a really cool flat file CMS called kirby CMS And the newsletter part is Mailchimp

    2. 1

      This is really good! Especially the links in each profile :) I have subscribed to your newsletter 🙌

      1. 1

        Cool, glad you found it useful! First one will be going out next week :)

        1. 1

          Awesome 🙆

  29. 2

    We test your website to give you confidence in it http://www.userconfidence.com

    (Yes! Ten exactly!)

  30. 2

    https://clicktoverify.net/

    Verify an email address with no server-side code.

  31. 2

    A text analyzer built for working with huge data sets.

    https://wiseer.io

  32. 2

    CodePilot.ai Faster solutions to your coding problems

    https://codepilot.ai

  33. 2

    Yet another baby name website, but with amazing data

    http://babynameinstitute.com/

  34. 2

    Generate leads for your B2B SaaS company using chatbots.

    https://convopanda.com

  35. 2

    The easiest way to host a paid job board.

    https://seeker.company

  36. 2

    Im doing the startup a month challenge and my first project is:

    A search engine to help entrepreneurs discover where their customers hang out online and which tools they use.

    It's not yet launched, but it will be launching in a week or so!

    http://www.sunwoo.io

    1. 1

      Im doing the startup a month challenge and my first project is:

      Nice :) How can we follow your progress?

      It's not yet launched, but it will be launching in a week or so!

      Submit an update to Early-stage News 👉 earlystagenews.com/#submit

    1. 1

      Awesome idea! Very niche. When did you launch? How/have you done any marketing?

  37. 2

    https://hitmetrics.io

    Unlimited analytics services for a flat monthly fee

    https://fakejson.com

    Mock backend API complete with test data

  38. 2

    https://www.buildeasyapp.com Real time cost tracking for construction companies.

  39. 2

    Gift suggestions, curated for each of your loved ones. http://forethoughtapp.com/

  40. 2

    Discover and review meal services that deliver to your door.

    https://www.mealnerds.com

  41. 2

    All the interviews in one place.

    (not launched yet)

    1. 1

      I had plans on building a platform that categorizes interviews based on the type of company founded/side-project made. The main idea was to help budding founders discover an interview with a maker who built a successful startup, similar to what they're building/planning to build. Also, categorize interviews on the basis of topics (thoughts on product building, hiring, competition, scaling, raising money, etc.)

      Is your idea similar?

      1. 1

        It's less specific in that it's not specifically interviews based on companies. Just general interviews, for anyone and all. Sports athletes, startup founders, scientists, politicians, podcasters.

        1. 1

          Nice! Do keep us updated :)

    2. 1

      I'm interested to hear more about this!

  42. 2

    Account Explorer for the XRP (Ripple) cryptocurrency - https://www.ripplescan.com/

  43. 2

    Service for monitoring wallet activity.

    https://getlatched.net

  44. 2

    Gamified blockchain powered social media network that rewards with cryptocurrency.

    www.yuser.co

  45. 2

    New free programming courses every day

    www.quickcode.co

  46. 2

    StripTogether: The Collaborative Online Comic Drawing Game

    https://www.striptogether.co

    1. 1

      Super cool 👌

      How long have you been working on this? What are your future plans for Strip Together?

      1. 1

        Thanks!

        From the time I first came up with the idea and built a prototype...it's been five years - that blew by fast. But work on the project has been very sporadic. I've left it for months to years at a time, and then worked in sprints. (I came up with the idea as a school project in my second year of college, then produced the website as my final graduation project two years later.)

        After grad, I was burnt out - and still not happy with the product, so I shut down for a year until I revisited and redesigned to launch May of last year. Then I worked on it hard for another six months, but by then I had to get an office job. So I left the project behind for a few months as I got settled into my new routine...and now I'm back to working on StripTogether on more time!

        It's been a real journey. But, even after I left for months I found the StripTogether community was waiting for me. So that's convinced me that there's still something worthwhile with this project. What's next? Learning Android over the summer and getting an app out so we can finally reach a wider audience.

        1. 1

          Amazing story! It's good to know that the platform is going strong despite you not devoting much time in the past. Are there competitors?

          What's next? Learning Android over the summer and getting an app out so we can finally reach a wider audience.

          Hasn't the response to the Instagram story put you in a tight spot? 😂

          1. 1

            Haha, it absolutely has - that's true. While I think it would be great on the iPad, I think I'll have to keep things lean and for Android first just because that's what I have.

            1. 1

              Android first just because that's what I have.

              Same here 🙋

              Good luck and do keep us posted about your project, on earlystagenews.com

              1. 1

                Thanks Adith!

                We'll be hitting that milestone of 1000 signups soon :)

                1. 1

                  That's amazing! Do submit an update when you hit that milestone > https://earlystagenews.com/#submit

    2. 1

      Awesome idea!

  47. 2

    Entrepreneur groups to exchange insights and support each other. // linhub.co

  48. 2

    Curated Directory of marketing related statistics and data

    https://statsified.com

  49. 2

    AUDITWOLF:

    The Cloud Threat Protection platform for your Microsoft Azure resources

  50. 2

    Mobile application that allows you to create fully customizable workouts.

  51. 2

    HostedMetrics.com

    Metrics platforms, fully hosted & managed. InfluxDB, etc. Includes Grafana & alerts.

  52. 2

    Unlimited content for your travel website for a fixed fee.

    TripEdge

  53. 2

    Website that provides real-time emergency room wait times

    http://www.erticker.com/nova

  54. 2

    real estate sales force training www.p2s.me ( we are a Brazilian startup so our website is in portuguese )

  55. 2

    https://trafficticker.com - extension for real time users on your website.

    😊

  56. 2

    Meet people going to music festivals

    https://www.festtribe.com

  57. 2

    A beautiful way to share your 🛠maker 📖story.

    http://makerstories.io/

  58. 2

    Receive customised newsletters for Reddit and HackerNews

    https://boardlerts.com

  59. 2

    Product feedback community that uses a karma-like currency.

    MVP in the works. Viable product? Probably not. Sometimes I just get tired of ideation and just want to build something.

  60. 2

    Version control for lawyers

    1. 1

      Interesting. I looked at family law a few years ago to build out some case management apps. I plan on revisiting this area sooner or later. I could see something like your idea being folded into my offer.

  61. 2

    Undo sending emails in Outlook.

  62. 2

    The best stuff from leadership books categorised for easy reference! - https://www.newleaderlist.com/list

  63. 2

    Platform to find, share and publish quality academic research work

    https://acadastack.com

  64. 2

    Eposo , A minimal content curation theme to make your own directory.

    Engigogo , A community-curated directory of resources and tools.

    1. 1

      What's the CMS?

      1. 1

        WordPress

  65. 2

    Competitor email monitoring tool

    https://inboxflows.com/

  66. 2

    A service to review software projects.

    https://www.mijjimo.com/

    1. 1

      I see that you've rebranded. That's an interesting name. Why did your choose it?

      1. 2

        Made a lot of mistakes on my previous one. So I started again.

        1. 1

          Everybody does :) It's the best way to learn.

          I was only curious to know why you chose the name 'Mijjimo'? Does it mean something? Did you choose it because the domain name was available? What's the significance behind that name?

          1. 1

            No, just the first name came to mind.

  67. 2

    Website uptime, ssl, content checks, find broken links, data leaks

    https://www.websitewatchdog.io

  68. 2

    Share your map. Discover others. Bibimapp.com

  69. 2

    (Work on going, not live yet, mobile app)

    Unified amateur foot field reservation platform.

  70. 2

    Beautifully simple website visitor analytics - alanmmurray.com/flowmetrics

  71. 2

    Dinosaur flash card app

  72. 2

    Three Words!

    Better DigitalOcean Backups

    https://snapshooter.io

  73. 2

    Create customisable newsletters from HTML email templates

    https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/emailotter/messages/update-from-emailotter

  74. 1

    Observe anything you want, get notified instantly

    https://obserwise.datapare.com/

  75. 1

    Blockchain based market research platform

    https://survey.expert/

  76. 1

    Track your competitors every move on the web

    https://datapare.com/

  77. 1

    Find usability issues on your website

    https://getulmo.com

  78. 1

    Accountability app for entrepreneurs to level up their skills.

    www.tribefive.me

  79. 1

    Growth Model to help you prioritize growth experiments

  80. 1

    phone app for conversation exercises