Soft launch epic fail, landing page feedbacks needed for startner.me :)
http://startner.me
Soft launch epic fail, landing page feedbacks needed for startner.me :)
Hello Everyone, few days ago I wrote a post about an MVP I created with a friend that helps indie makers connect with each others.
Last Wednesday we decided to post it on Hacker news and a subreddit I like (r/sideprojects). You already read the title of this post: that was a big fail!
Many people came to the landing page but didn't enter their email. At the same time, a lot of people registered following my last message on indie hackers. Was the target audience on hacker news and reddit not the right one? Is the landing page not explicit enough?
I need some #landing-page-feedback to understand a little bit more the situation, so... What do you think?
Thank you ! :)
I felt like your landing page is pretty good. It's pretty clean, I clearly understood what to do, and the call to action was prominent with low friction.
Do you think there are other reasons people aren't submitting their email?
Disclosure: I did not submit. It wasn't clear to me what I'd be getting (therefore, the incentive wasn't strong enough). Why would I want an unknown person to connect to me, when I can meet and -select- appropriate people on product hunt, angel.co, cofounderslab, indiehackers, hacker news, reddit, Linkedin, and elsewhere with large user bases? I'm not trying to discourage you. The value proposition just didn't resonate strongly for me. It feels like "enter your email to receive a blind date" - but you know absolutely nothing about what's going to happen.
There is an underlying need for something like this. Otherwise cofounderslab wouldn't exist.
I felt the same as @stevengraham. I would probably like to meet people, but not like a blind date. I would probably try it if you asked some info like stage of the venture, industry etc etc end then show me list of people who are similar by ranking top down.
@prasadpilla I like the idea of asking / adding more info and then show a list... Will look into that thanks :)
Thank you for your feedback:) I think the incentive is not strong enough for most people. Or not well enough formulated.
The advantage of registering on startner.me is to be put in contact with people who have done exactly the same thing (same mental process) on their side. The chances of a very constructive conversation occurring are therefore greater. When I created the MVP I was thinking of the Shapr application, which allows to meet people to network in the same way as Tinder. It is possible to do the same thing via Linkedin for example, but being on an interface dedicated to collaboration helps to bring people together.
In short, there is still work to be done, I will think about how to improve the service. Thank you very much! :)
The tinder analogue is an interesting concept. Some food for thought: To fulfil a user desirable outcome for its users - tinder is implicitly facilitating potential pair matches based on several underlying user attributes (e.g. present profile with attribute:male to profile with attribute:female) to provide relevancy, while surfacing the content based on an effective selection mechanism (profile photos) to allow for selection (match).
Some other questions for you to think about. What is the single most effective attribute to use to potentially pair people up? Is it something like the problem domain? Skillset? (e.g. technologist or business) the project?
And then what is the primary decision making factor to make a match? availability? accomplishments? something else? Then what happens?
Also, think about the strong network effects of existing social networks and forums for entrepreneurs. How can you differentiate and compete with them?
I don't have all the answers for you, but hopefully this helps you think about it.
That is a very great help Steven, thank you very much. We got a lot of questions to answer now ahah. And you're right I think we need to find a way to differentiate startner.me from this kind of networks. @
I got hit with a "please don't leave" popup as soon as the page loaded, then Drift popped up, then I left. I ended up coming back so I could provide feedback, but that initial experience was a major turn off for me.
The two value props listed aren't things I personally need help with, so I'm not going to be a signup. "Stay motivated" and "Share experience and best practices" aren't really doing it for me. If I were you, I'd try to focus on stories our concrete outcomes that people have had from doing a program like this. Something like, "Only needed 2 weeks to finish an app I'd been noodling on for 4 months thanks to the Startner effect" is much more powerful than listing product/service features.
This popup was definitely a terrible idea, I remove it right now ahah. I will think about more "concrete benefits" to put on the landing page. Thanks for coming back to give your feedback :D
Few points of feedback
Thank you for this well structured feedback jlogic :)
We just closed the exit intent pop up. That was a terrible idea. About matching, as it is a mvp for now we use a very simple system. People match according to their category. We manually look at the comments about the projects in order to try to make people match as well as possible (we don't have a lot of people registered anyway!).
Concerning reddit, hackernews and others, I know that many people don't dare post on these platforms because they don't have a project advanced enough and are afraid of not having anything to bring in terms of value to the community. Startnerme allows them to contact another person who has done the same thing on their side (without posting something "publicly"). I have taken into account all your comments. They will be very useful to me so thank you !
There is still a lot of work to be done but this is only a first version anyway. We'll see what happens next :)
Would appear your service depends entirely on the quality of the partner. Don't know if I trust some random person to be a good partner. :) That is my initial feedback.
Thank you for your feedback ! I realize from reading the comments that there is a big communication problem on the landing page. The service is not designed to find a "co-founder" or someone to start a business with. It simply connects people who do the same things every day and face the same challenges:) This allows you to share your doubts etc and thus feel less alone in the face of the marathon that is the creation of a company / side project! I got lot of work to find how improve the message.
The idea looks interesting but...
In fact at the moment (as it is a really simple mvp) we simply match people thanks to the "interest" they put and the description of their projects. After reading all the comments I think we need to add more options to customize the profile and improve the matching system :)
Well done on getting the page up and tackling a problem I believe is meaningful... but I agree with stevengraham.
I am squarely in the target audience for the app you're building but the value proposition is off the mark... I think you've overlooked one key thing (especially in your comparisons with Tinder and the like). Your landing page says:
"We will then find a matching buddy you can talk to and share."
I want to choose the person I partner with. I don't want you to choose for me. You don't (and probably can't) know me well enough—my quirks, my business philosophy, my ideologies, my personality etc. It is not enough to know what my business is about—that's like expecting Larry Ellison and Jeff Bezos to get along simply because they both run cloud computing companies. My business is one of the most important things I've ever done in my life, I'm not going to entrust such a critical decision to an algorithm or someone else.
That being said, if you could somehow build an algorithm that shows a feed of potential "matches" (and critical profile information) based on the info you collect, that could be more interesting. Show me a menu and I'll pick the dish. That way, my agency feels intact. That's important because entrepreneurial people trust their own judgment very much (hence the willingness to risk everything for it)... and they certainly trust their judgement more than they do a stranger's (which is, unfortunately, what you are to your site's visitors) or an algorithm's.
Thank you for your feedback. I think you are totally right. Maybe showing a list of 5 potential buddies could be a great option ?
I think that would help. I'd also ask you to consider changing the headline above the form of the page, which says, "Give us information".
Lead with the benefits. Don't just order people to give you information. Try something softer, value-led and more persuasive. How will filling out your form help people? Lead with that.
Hope that helps.
I see what you mean, thank you :)
I agree with others, everything seems too big, the email popup immediately is a turnoff. And lastly, I always read your name as "Shartner.me" rather than "Startner.me" and I can't get it out of my head. May want to think of a different name.
Thank you for your feedback Krazier :) I don't speak english natively so I need to ask : what does "shartner" mean ? I don't know this word. I put it into an online translator and it says that it is a synonym for "partner" (in french). Is this false ?
"Shart" means to Sh!t/Fart at the same time.
Ahahah P.E.R.F.E.C.T
Salut Maxime!
Your landing page looks pretty good to me! One thing I would add is a product preview/mockup: I think people love those, it triggers curiosity to see more.
Well noted for the preview ! Thank you for your feedback Jean Philippe :)