I stole Courtland and Pieter's philosophy. OttawaTech on PH today.
Hey guys.
It’s crazy.
8 months ago I started to learn web dev, today, I am launching my first side project on Product Hunt.
My name is Daniel, I moved from Spain to Ottawa (Canada) 2 years ago.
After studying in my spare times these past months, I have been feeling confident about applying for junior dev position.
I keep finding new companies in my area to the point that I started to lose track of them.
I started to gather data about companies, and then I heard the interview with Courtland and Pieter Levels.
On the Interview Courtland said:
... but I think for any topic that people really care about but where it's also hard for them to do research, you can do all of that research for them and put it in one place, and essentially create a site like Nomad List or Indie Hackers.
It took me a * lot of time to gather all the data about the companies.
It was a nightmare, I spent days browsing corporate websites looking for the filter for their Ottawa location.
In an open mentoring on Twitter, I asked Pieter if I should scrap all the company's websites, I was concern about how long it would take me...
He answered:
Don’t be lazy!
It’s true.
Not too many people want to put the time, I do.
I tried to format the info in a way that is easy for people to search for a company and access de careers web directly.
I am launching OttawaTech on Product Hunt today.
It would be awesome if you can give me some feedback, especially on the design and copy side.
Also.
There was another paragraph in the same interview with Courland and Pieter that blew my mind.
Again, I think what's great about this is that anybody can follow the strategy so long as they pick the right topic and they find a valuable way to compile and display that data. >
I am not sure if this is the right topic, or if the people will find it valuable 🤞.
But I shipped, and it feels great and awesome. I spent the week sleeping less than I should and even tho, my website probably sucks atm, it’s mine. I created from the ground, and holy moly it feels powerful to being capable of doing it.
Next, do my first 100$💰 looking for a sponsor for the website and launch a mobile app.
Wish me luck!
If you have time to give me some feedback leave a comment below.
PD: Thanks to Courtland and Channing for the hard work. Also thanks to Pieter and Mubs for the inspiration. You are awesome.
welcome to ottawa... i moved to ottawa recently too... something like this is super good for our city... upvoted on product hunt as well... great start..
Thanks!
Good job and congrats on your launch. I like your website! I'm from Montreal area and it would be cool to see something similar.
What are the possible ways to make money from a website that list something? I have an idea that I would like to develop and publish but I'm not sure how I could make money out of it. Is there any resources I could read?
Listen to Courtland episode with Pieter. They give awesome info.
Hey Daniel!
The page looks awesome, but it would be awesomer to be able to search what carreers are available, especially since I work in a field that isn't usually advertised as much as devops/development work.
Solid advice, I think I will be able to scrap the jobs and show the data on the main page soon.
Thanks!
Feedback:
Clicking on the login, after the modal comes up, there's no way to close it.
Options:
Also, keep in mind sometimes people use the "esc" key to navigate away from modals.
*Just realised it's a separate page, but the UI felt like a modal, also a good data point ☺️ In that case, keep the logo visible somewhere, so people can click on it to go back.
I also saw that the favicon is the react one, you might think about adding your own custom one. Less confusion and would help build some brand and consistency.
All the best!
Thanks Julian, I did like a thousand things but I still forgot to change the favicon.
I don't know if it's a good idea to let people go back in an easy way on the login screen if I want to increase the conversion. I will test it!
Don't guess it, test it 👍
Good thinking!
Congrats @danielgg !
Hard work pays off and feels sweet 👍
All the best with the website!
Hi Daniel, and congrats on the launch!
I'd add styling to the "careers" link with an underline or something. It wasn't immediately clear to me that it was the link to the career page. Or just make the whole box link to the career page instead. People will always manage to find the homepage on their own.
Also consider adding _blank targets (new window) so people still stay on your page after being redirected.
I'm not entirely sure what the numbers at the bottom of each box is? Is it some kind of score? I assumed it was the number of available positions, but you have a alot of 4.1, 3.7 etc.
See if you can reduce the number of steps in your Typeform? I didn't click through to the 2nd part, but 8 steps seems like overkill? For instance, "Ey! This is awesome, thanks for helping create the best directory of Tech Companies in Ottawa" can be the final confirmation. It doesn't need to be its own step imo.
As for monetization, you could probably just list the sponsored companies first. So lets say you sell 3-5 sponsored spots to be first in the list. Maybe with a slightly stand out color.
Good luck :-)
Awesome feedback, working easier the ranking and the form.
Out of curiosity, do you find the copy on the forms interesting? Or meh 😲
Thanks jrn!
Congratulations on shipping!
Three small remarks:
Again, congratulations! You're further along than I am :)
Thanks Thomas, the mobile app is not related to the product.
The ranking is a tricky, I believe people can find it useful but I need to figure out a better way to show it.
Congrats on launching your first product, and the PH launch. The site looks great!
Some feedback on the site:
Overall the site looks and feels awesome... Congrats again!
Awesome feedback, I am planning to add a modal to each card where you can find more info.
It really feels good to ship something.
Awesome work mate.
Best of luck with it!
Thanks man. I know this is the start, but it feels good to ship.
I was very inspired by this idea too – led to the launch of this project today – https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-which-marketplace-discover-new-project-opportunities-in-50-software-marketplaces-fb475940ec
Nice! Where did you get the icon for your logo? :)
I create the logo with canva.com, awesome tool for people who don't know much about design.
Hello, did you register a company? I am concerned with the legal issues of my projects and always I am afraid to ship.
I am not making any revenue yet, so it doesn't really matter.
Hey Daniel. Congrats to your launch. Seems like a nice idea.
One thing that surprised me was that I'm being redirected to the companies website when clicking on their listing. I think it would be nice to have a profile page for each company. This way it would be a lot easier to compare companies and their job offers. Probably more people would stay on your page as well
I also found one bug on mobile Firefox (actually a lot of sites have bugs there, so don't care to much): clicking on one of the listed company does not work.
But all in all it looks good and the value for the users is understandable at one glance. Keep up the good work
Thanks for the feedback joke. Working on the companies profiles right now.
Looks great, congrats! What did you build the product on?
React for the front end, firebase for authentication, hosting and database.
This comment was deleted 6 years ago