69
147 Comments

I will brutally shut down your idea and tell you to get a real job 😈

We all need a little criticism sometimes.

Not enough to make you jump off a building, but at least enough to make you realise some mistakes, or give you a fresh set of eyes to check out your idea.

Post your website and I'll tell you whether or not I would actually part with my hard earned cash or not.

I'm not doing this to hurt feelings, im doing this on the back of my own experience.

I had an idea, my family told me it was awesome and my friends told me it was awesome. I put 6 months hard work into it, $20k USD of my own money, and I never made a cent.

I wish I had a community to set me right on day one and get me to focus on something else!

Side note: I have a demanding pregnant wife to cater for 😂 so I'll reply as fast as I can!

EDIT: Yikes! This was more popular that I expected, I'm working my way through it a few a day, everyone will get an answer eventually!

  1. 10

    Here's the landing page to my product: www.ruttl.com
    Since it's going to have a free version, if you want to actually use the product, visit this link.

    I will be launching my product officially very soon. Looking forward to your review.
    Cheers!

    1. 6

      What did you use to record and zoom in the top video? Loving it

      1. 3

        I'd love to know this as well. The top video is awesome.

      2. 2

        Haha I'd be happy to share with you guys!
        @aalimovs @eleezzheng @pedrolaguna @Squb

        The video you saw was a screen recording. Once we had the recording, we used after effects to touch up the animations and compile along with the sound effects. As far as the person speaking goes, we hired a voice over artist to talk in the video.

        If you have any questions, keep them coming!

      3. 2

        It doesn't seem to me that's an actual video recording. More like an animated mock up using product screens.

        But I'd love to be wrong. Wanna record with that cute purple cursor too!

        1. 1

          Yes all those cherries on top are through Adobe After Effects!

    2. 4

      this is doooooope.

      design and execution on the page and demo is 🔥🔥🔥

      concerns:

      1. not a fan of the name
      2. overlaps a lot with figma for me in terms of sharing and collaboration. i know ruttl is for websites, but it seems like if this collaboration happens before implementation then it reduces the need for doing the collaboration on a publicly deployed site.
      1. 1

        @ezl Thanks for the appreciation!
        The biggest difference between ruttl and figma is that ruttl is extremely useful at visual collaboration between different stakeholders like designers and clients.

        Also, the inspect feature we have inside the application is a unique ability that allows to change the entire code through drag and drop interface only.

    3. 4

      Get a real job!!!

      Only kidding. WOW what a landing page! Love it. That heading nails it, and the above the fold video showing me what it does... perfect!

      Have you seriously built something that would allow my non technical members to go into sections of our website and edit as they please? If so.... TAKE MY MONEY

      WOAH, just tried the demo - you have!!! Mate, this is epic!!

      The sign us was sooooo smooth. I didn't need any instruction, I did what I wanted to with ease.

      Seriously - are you looking for any investment? What's the plan here? How close are you to launch?

      Have you got a launch plan? What is your pricing looking like?

      Please, don't jump off a building. Or if you do... write Chris Collins into your will first.

    4. 1

      Hey @harshvijay you are gonna need to share how you recorded that demo video or ELSE! haha

      Seriously, I am gonna run you down to ask. 😁

      1. 2

        Haha @Squb, I am really happy to see that its doing so well! I have tagged you above in the answer, do check it out!

  2. 4

    @ChrisCollins405 hope I am not too late on the train.

    Shoot me on Automatio.co 😑.

    To put 🛢️ on the fire 🔥, I am building this for the last ~3 years, still not publicly released.

    Hit me as hard as you can 👊.

    1. 4

      Three years? Get a real job already! You missed a great opportunity to use the domain automat.io. The "In Action" video is too long. I only have 5 minutes.

      (But honestly, this is a great project. Why is it still early access?)

      1. 1

        Yeah, the video is too long, but it's the MVP landing page, so that's what I got.

        I am getting a real full-time job, and its called Automatio :D.

        I am aware of that domain but needed to focus on other stuff. Will take care of domains later on when have funds to buy it out from people.

        (But honestly, this is a great project. Why is it still early access?)

        Boostraping, complexity, life, etc

    2. 4

      I don't have a demanding pregnant wife like Chris and this thread's become too popular so I'll help out:

      Just get a real job, man. The design on your website is too good. I don't trust websites with great design. It feels like they're compensating for lack of functionality.

      So just get a real job. I dare you. I dare you to change that button from "Get Early Access" to "This Is My Real Job Now Sign Up Here".

      1. 1

        @bober, definitely gonna listen to your advice, this will become my full-time job. I mean it's already it for a long time, but soon will be launched and been monetized.

        Thanks for the comment :D

    3. 3

      This is cool. I've been digging deep using SimpleScraper.io, which is also a chrome extension that scrapes and runs in the cloud so you can schedule. They also have a API functionality so once you create a "recipe", you can call it externally from other applications.

      How does your compare?

      I am in the market for such a tool so I am researching.

      1. 1

        Well, Automatio is not just another web scraper. It's actually a web bot builder. So you can automate complex scenarios on the web, like: "go there, collect this data, use this data and input in this website, then click here and do something else" etc.

        SimpleScraper looks good, but its indeed just for simple scraping.

        1. 2

          Good deal. I need exactly what you are building.

          I signed up. Looking forward to using when you launch. Any idea on pricing?

    1. 2

      I'm not the reviewer you asked for but my first impression is it's very cool, but you're caught in between that rock and a hard place of those people who rarely/never update their copy so wouldn't need your tool, and those that update it often who would just use a CMS and not need your tool. It's going to be tricky to find that audience who just makes some tweaks here and there, but often.

      1. 1

        Fair enough! Would you fit in either of those?

        Codebird is a 1 person project and I plan to keep it that way so I don't need the largest market :)

    2. 1

      This is pretty cool. How does it know what text to update in Github?

      1. 2

        Good Q! At a basic level it does a fuzzy text search.
        I have a couple techniques to resolve no results and multiple results and these will be improved up in the future. Multiple results is quite common in larger projects and is quite a tough problem to solve for any framework/pattern

    3. 1

      As a dev, I was looking for something like this. However I wonder if I would choose it over tinacms.

      1. 1

        Fair! Could you help me out with a reason?

        1. 2

          Integrations, documentation and UX.

          Perhaps you need to create more videos and talk about edge cases (what if I don't choose a github repo, what kind of github repo are supported and so on). What about gatsby, jekyll, hugo and many other type of static site builders?

          1. 1

            Great thanks for the feedback! Will definitely elaborate around different stacks on the page

    4. 1

      The demo isn't showing/loading for me.

      1. 1

        Hm strange could I ask for a favor and know which browser and operating system you're on? Does it work in incognito? Thanks :)

        1. 3

          It's Safari. Works in chrome, but not in Safari private mode.

    5. 1

      I'm conflicted here. Its a very cool tool - but would I use it? No.

      I love the idea, its very clever, and I see the benefit to larger operations where a text change would bother developers and distract them from getting the main technical challenges done.

      But...

      I build all of my products in some sort of permissions based framework. I give people in my companies accounts with roles, permissions and revisions, and they can just simply edit our front end websites.

      I love your branding, the demo tells me everything I need to know, the "1, 2, 3" steps making it very clear and simple, I love the tone of voice ("screw those people"). But... here I am, probably your target audience - and the effort of connecting the github repository and getting the staff on board with the extension installed seems like more effort than just batching the text changes the next time I'm editing the site. I don't even do that - they just log in and submit a revision in the frame work I'm using - or one of my developers makes the changes because that's their job.

      That's just me though. What has your feedback experience been so far? Have you had a lot of good feedback? Have you got a good number of paying users? Maybe there is something I have missed?

      1. 1

        Thanks for your detailed feedback Chris! Seems like maybe its not the best fit for your organization w/ regards to permissions and revisions. I haven't launched yet so not much feedback. 0 paying users, I don't even have a payments setup. Launching tomorrow 😅

  3. 3

    Thanks for doing this, Chris!
    Looking forward to hearing your kill-pinion on Howitzer - a marketing tool for Reddit

    1. 4

      I love it. So much so that I signed up. I think the $90 plan will suit me well.

      • Your header was clear, but the image made no sense. I think a video of the product working would be way more valuable here.

      • You solve the WHY, and you do it for me, and for you. Great stuff.

      • By the time I got to the bottom of the site I fully understood what you do, and why I need it. Its hard to get people to see the value in it on just the first page, but you nailed it.

      Good job!

      1. 1

        Thank you very much!
        Glad you like it!

    1. 2

      I like that the placeholder of this comment box is "say something nice to triangle..." - that's not the point of this post, but OK.

      • I like the gradient.

      OK now that we've got that out the way...

      • There's something weird going on with your headings & divs. Looks like a vertical scroll issue as I'm seeing scroll bars everywhere. You have a wildcard declaration in your CSS that's causing it... *,body {overflow-x: hidden;}

      • Your landing page is pretty good. I like the screenshots next to the explanations. By the time I got to the bottom of the page, I feel like I fully understood the product and saw value in it. Good job!

      • I think you need some stats or testimonials. Prove to me that I'm not the first person to buy from you, and that there is a history of proven results.

      • Also like that you have FAQs, as they help remove hesitations from buyers. But I think they could be more prominent. My first thought was "so will this cause any damage to my Instagram account if it goes wrong", and you do answer that in your FAQs, but a lot of people won't click on that. I would maybe feature 2 or 3 of your top FAQs under the pricing, with a link to view more.

      Fix the hideous scrolling thing, and I think you are onto a winner!

      1. 1

        Thanks so much for the solid feedback! I haven't actually launched this yet, so... no testimonials. Any suggestions for how to best handle that chicken & egg situation? ...and as for the 'hideous scrolling thing', noted!! Looks like I need to do some cross-browser-device testing this week :) Thanks again, appreciate it!

  4. 3

    MarketPain.co, a two sided customer discovery focused marketplace that connects early stage founders to early adopters who give founders feedback on their ideas/product to help them iterate until they reach problem/solution fit

    1. 3

      First impressions....

      • I don't like the site. It looks very amateur and doesn't give me much hope for the final product. The horizonal alignment is off, the logo and menu aren't inline.
      • "For developers" doesn't go anywhere
      • Neither does "Early adopters"
      • Why do you link to your own site in the header?
      • gameify should be gamify
      • The whole thing looks like it was built in 5 minutes as an afterthought.
      • I can't sign up, or register interest - there is no call to action. EDIT: I just found it hidden in the bottom corner in a pop up. This is bad, the sign up should be front and center, directly under the header section.
      • The screenshots look nice, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.

      The whole thing needs a lot of work. I would focus on....

      • Making sure links & functionality works.
      • Perhaps start with some sort of layout or theme to make it easier to build more of a structure into the site?
      • Make a clear CTA in the center of the page.
      • Add testimonials, human faces, and feedback.
      • Tell me more about the product, break up the screenshots and explain HOW it works.

      I would also click on some of the other sites posted in this thread for inspiration, there are a lot of fantastic landing pages here that you could learn from.

  5. 3

    Looking to get my idea destroyed lol Thanks for doing that
    https://www.haiperlinks.com

    Website is basically a tool to share links about specific subjects with others.

    1. 1

      There is nothing on your home page that makes me want to sign up. If you hadn't told me what you do when you posted the link, I would have no idea what your website does. I'm still not 100% clear.

      I think you need to take a completely new look at what you are trying to achieve with your website.

      Your website is your shop window. If you don't have something intriguing or shiny on display, I'll walk right past.

      I would add...

      • Features. What do you do, what can I do using your tool.
      • Benefits. Why should I use your tool? How will it make my life better?
      • Testimonials. Who is already using your tool? How did it make their life better?
      • Call to actions. Give me a reason to sign up. Tell me why I should do it.

      Nothing a day or two can't solve. Let me know if you update it and I'll take another look!

      1. 1

        Thank you so much for the feedback!! I really appreciate it. I will work on it and let you know.

      2. 1

        tldr: "get a real job"

  6. 3

    Haha. https://automations.io, launching shortly. You can grab a private beta access now and get a discount once we go live here (this form was actually built using Automations.io)

    1. 3

      You've put too much time into this, lets hope it sells!

      Joking, but also slightly serious. I can see you have put a lot of work into this, and it looks gorgeous - I would love to dive into this and see what's possible.

      I just spent the last 6 months building an automations suite for one of our existing saas products. Triggers, Schedules, Conditions and Actions. Its amazing how much goes on behind the scenes, and how difficult it is to simplify it enough for the general public.

      So just to be clear here - you have essentially built a zapier/integromat alternative, but you also gather and store the user data?

      So for me as a full stack lead dev - I just need a pretty brochure site with a few of your forms, and my non-technical sales and marketing team can take it from there while I lock myself in a dark room and complete the actual product?

      Damn, where were you 6 months ago?

      No seriously, where were you? And where will you be in 6 months time? What's your plan for finding people like me working on their next thing and pitching to them/me?

      If you had caught me in early development for my current project, I would have likely put in my card details already... although I haven't seen a price. How much are you looking to start at?

      I think I'd happily pay $50/month for it, and probably be convinced to pay $75 - $100 a month or more if its as good as you say it is.

      Good effort. You've got something really exciting here!

      1. 1

        Thanks for the honest feedback. 6 months ago we're preparing to launch a private beta, too bad we didn't know each other!

        So just to be clear here - you have essentially built a zapier/integromat alternative, but you also gather and store the user data?

        We're similar, but we're focusing on different market and different problems - business process management and automation. We're launching with workflows, built-in form builder and task management. So you can build things like, a form for customers to upload documents, that get manually reviewed by people via tasks, and then once approved/rejected can end up in Google Drive.

        We're looking to start without a free plan at launch (but it'll be there later) and $99 p/m cost.

        I would love to give you access to hear your thoughts! Could you drop me an email to alex [at] automations.io?

        Thanks again!

  7. 3

    Great, I need this, brutal and honest feedback😃 https://www.thisismylaunch.com

    1. 2

      Get a real job!!!

      Only joking, first impressions are that I love the look. Even the little details like the blue splash of colour behind the graphic in the header just show that little attention to detail that you don't see so much these days.

      As for the premise. It speaks to me - I'm currently launching my 6th product, and ive made the same mistakes again - getting too caught up in the perfect MVP before making any money.

      My honest reservations about the idea are....

      • Who are these guys? Are they just looking for my good ideas so they can build them?
      • Who is reviewing my product? Is it just people I tell about it, or is there a community of people to review it? And if so, who are they, and why should I listen? If its just my friends and family, why don't i do a facebook post?

      LOVE that you make people post their story. Building a story brand by Donald Miller is one of my favourite books.

      Not seeing any pricing on here - maybe you could be a bit clearer about what im signing up for?

      My main suggestion would be to add some FAQs - be completely transparent about the answers, and try and squish as many reservations as possible

      A book I read recently said that for every feature you mention, you should end it with "which means....". For example, "we offer 5gb storage.... which means.... you can store more family photos, and access them easier".

      Sell the benefits.

      As for "would I buy?" - not sure. You'd have to squish some of my hesitations, and post a price ;-)

  8. 2

    Here it is the landing page of my new project:
    https://astroip.co
    It is an IP Geolocation and Threat Intelligence API.
    What you think?

    1. 2
      • I'm really struggling to read the font on the homepage. Its a "thin" font and its too small.

      • I like the idea of the product, but the whole style feels quite outdated like I'm looking at something from early 2000's. Marketing agencies like to feel like they are using the best tool for the job - a few days overhauling the CSS on this site could make a real difference. Keep the elephants theme and the yellow, but space things out a bit more and go for a cleaner minimal look.

      Honestly, I think my biggest issue is the styling and font size. I hesitate to sign up because my first thought is "this looks old, I bet I can find a more up to date / modern alternative".

      1. 1

        Thanks! Ok, you quite confirmed something that we are currently already managing to fix... hope to release a "revamped" version soon!

    1. 1

      First things first, you spelled lama wrong. Its "Llama".

      As a potential buyer, my biggest reservations were....

      • Doesn't my google calendar already send notifications?

      • Do I really need more than 5 event automations? If so, tell me what they are and what else is possible. You only really talk about a reminder and a feedback form. That's 2 automations, most people would happily sit on your bottom plan unless you give them reason not to.

      • Zapier is free, and that can send emails before and after the calendar event. What have you got that Zapier doesn't? What is your USP?

      1. 1

        Thanks for your great feedback!

        A funny clarification about the "LAMA": it originally came from L.A.M = Less Annoying Meetings .... plus, the CoFounders ( @tibozaurus and me ) , we are French and Italian and in both our languages we spell it "Lama" .... but we agree it can be confusing for an english speaking audience!

        Regarding your points, we'll try to focus on them to improve our value proposition, just quickly I would comment:

        • Google Calendar send notifications depending on the settings of each user; they are just alerts, our idea is to send proper personal emails with useful information that can actually improve the meeting

        • We are just experimenting with limits of automations and pricing tiers; however even a single user can have really different type of automations depending on the type of meeting (Team meeting? Sales pitch? Product DEMO? etc.), then for each type of meeting different templates can apply before and after the video call, either to share an agenda for the meeting, collect feedback, follow up a sales opportunity etc. And consider that the APP could be for an entire team, so with an account you could manage multiple users/calendars and therefore multiple automations.

        • We love Zapier! Still we think that a lot of people are not really inclined to set up a Zapier automation, since it requires some degree of "geekness" that it is not for everybody. Also we try to offer automations that are really personalized, avoiding to spam the same person multiple times etc. , something that with Zapier would be quite difficult to control, at least with the free tier.

        1. 1

          "Still we think that a lot of people are not really inclined to set up a Zapier automation, since it requires some degree of "geekness" that it is not for everybody" - I was hoping you would say this. So your USP is creating awesome calendar based automations without needing advanced technical knowledge. Maybe that should be part of your pitch? Letting non-technical users know how easy it is to boost conversions without code.

          That makes sense about the "Lama" spelling, and the automation limits.

          Awesome, good luck with your product! :-)

          1. 1

            Good point...we could stress that it would be "plug & play" with no "geek setup" involved ! Also, mainly , our mission is really to offer value with these automated emails, including list of tasks, agenda for the meeting, collecting feedback, something that frankly it would be quite difficult (if not impossible...) to reproduce with Zapier.

            The "Lama-spelling-gate" definitely deserves a section on our web "Why Lama and not LLama?" .... with the story of the origin of the name 🤪

            Thanks again for all your useful feedback....

            and, since you always have such beautiful feedback to offer, I would ask: Aren't you flooded by too many unproductive meetings? What are your pain points regarding meetings?

  9. 2

    I love it! Mom's test at its best.

    Be brutal. https://linkush.com

    1. 2

      I hear Walmart is hiring ;-)

      • The test drive didn't work because my site sets the X-frame-options header. That's a shame - does that break your product for those users? Or just for the example? If its just the example, I would be clear about that, as you would have just lost me as a sale.

      • I just signed up, and it looks like I can't use the product for any of my sites. This is a serious deal breaker, I would imagine the majority of security aware developers set that header to avoid phishing attacks. It might be time to go back to the drawing board and think of an alternate method.

      • I created a CTA.... now what? I have no idea what to do next, how it works, or how to use it. I think you need to add more info into the app to help users.

      Help me help you. I think your whole onboarding flow needs more explanation.

      1. 1

        @ChrisCollins405 - Lucky me we don't have Walmart in Israel ;)

        I just watched your session usage in Hotjar and guessed it's you before reading your reply :)

        I totally agree with all the points!

        • The test-drive makes the same validations on the URL you input when logged in. The test-drive should be used (in my opinion) with websites you don't own and want to take advantage of their content (like foxnews, bbc, youtube etc).
        • We use iframe technology to present other websites, so as you said - if a site has specified headers to block being iframed, we can't do much about it. I noticed most users using the Linkush are using it with third-party websites, adding a CTA on articles related to their website/niche.
        • If your sites are using headers to block from being iframed and you still want to use Linkush, the only way you can do it is to modify your site to add an exception to linkush.com and its short domains (linku.sh only currently). This way, you could use the product and add a call to action on your own websites.
        • You created a CTA and got lost - I totally agree, I'll make an onboarding for new users to take them step-by-step for creating their first CTA + Link. That's a good idea which will drastically reduce churn upon signup!

        I'll update here once I improve the product for a second review if you'd be interesting in humiliating again ;)

        Thanks for taking the time to test the product and writing your review!

        1. 1

          Awesome! Yes please do let me know when you've made the changes and I'll get someone else in my team to test it with a fresh set of eyes! :-)

    1. 2

      I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at.

      The "submit build" button doesn't work, and there is zero explanation of what the website is, or what it does.

      Is it just a feed of pictures of keyboards!?

    1. 2

      There will be no crushing today!

      • I like the word "advantages" instead of "benefits". It makes me feel like I've got a secret weapon using your tool.
      • Its clean, clear and talks about the "Why" - so many people miss this vital step. You have to tell people WHY they need your product, and you do that. Have a gold star.

      OK, I lied. Some crushing...

      • I don't believe you. There is nothing to convince me that your product will do what it says. Give me some data, some testimonials, some stats that prove that life better after using your product. I know you are just launching, but you must have tested it right? Or used it on your own workplace first? That data is gold - show some stats like "We found that developers capacity improved over the latest sprint, and we were able to produce 18% more lines of code" or something like that.
      • Testimonials. Same sort of thing, I want to see a picture of a smiling person that has had their life improved by your product.
      • Videos - show me how it works. I'm not going to enter my email until I know a bit more about it. Everything on your site could be an empty promise - you might be harvesting my data and selling it, you currently have no proof that "Startblock" actually exists.

      Good effort though. Don't jump off any buildings just yet.

    1. 3

      First things first - nice looking site. Its clear to look at, and the code example playing makes it very obvious what's possible.

      OK, now onto the good stuff...

      • Clicking "get started" gave me a FOUC (flash of unstyled content) before the form loaded which completely destroyed the smooth looking experience I thought I was going to have
      • The four sections "competitors", "actionable data", "customers" and "cloud sync" all have a hover event and pointer cursor, but don't actually do anything?
      • Under "key features", the links for "data" and "research" don't work
      • I think "Advance searches" should be "Advanced searches" - in fact you use the word "advance" a lot over the site, API docs and blogs, and it doesn't read well.
      • I thought the whole premise was an API I could use to get search results without Google blocking my IP after too many attempts, but on the features page under "everything is managed" - you speak about payments, client management, invoicing etc - why was none of that mentioned on the front page? Why can't I click on them to find out more - now I have no idea what your product does or what I'm signing up for.

      I like the idea, but would I sign up right away? No. There isn't enough content, you aren't clear enough about the exact service you offer and what I can expect by signing up. There's also no use case examples, or explanation of how my life would be better with your product.

      I don't like companies that aren't completely transparent about the service. You talk a lot about you, and not enough about the potential customer. I think if your focus shifted to the "WHY" of the product, it would be much more inviting.

      • "Get the data you need to grow and build your business."- How will it build my business? Why do I need this data? (think about your target market and their key SEO search terms, why are they searching for a tool like this?)

      • "Get search results in real time so you can focus on turning search results into actionable data." - Why? What am I building? Who is this for? Is it just for marketing companies to check that the SEO work they are doing for clients is working? If so, say that. Something like "Give your clients actionable reports to prove that their marketing spend is working", or "Build your clients confidence with regular automated ranking reports that show you are putting the time in, and getting results"

      1. 1

        This is by far the most constructive feedback I've ever received. I will work on addressing the issues you pointed out. Appreciate the help!

    1. 1

      Nice landing page. Looking forward to seeing the end product.

      I know its just a landing page, but "how did things change"? "What did they let happen?"

      Perhaps you are not looking to give too much away before you launch, but in order for me to request an invite, I like to know a bit more about what I'm being invited to.

    2. 1

      I feel like you at least need to include what your free speech policy/removal policy will be since that seems to be what you're basing this all on. Where will you draw the line?

      1. 1

        The policy follows US law. This will all be heavily documented when the platform goes live.

  10. 2

    Good initiative Chris!

    Would love to have your feedback here - https://streambee.io/ Thanks.

    1. 2

      My wife was looking over my shoulder as I reviewed your site, and her first impression was that the yellow and purple clashed too much.

      So I read it from the top down, and it wasn't until I got to the first feature that I realised you had built a tool to integrate with Twitch. I now see it in the header CTA, but I think it should be made more obvious in your header.

      I'm not your target market, so no, I wouldn't buy from you. Putting that aside, here's my feedback...

      • I actually prefer the pages with the black BG instead of the white. It does more for the yellow.
      • You don't have many CTAs going down the page - but you do have one in the floating header so I guess its ok.
      • On your features page, you don't really explain the benefits to me. How is my life better with your tool? Yes I know it will optimize my online presence and support my growth - but what does that MEAN? I think you need to spell out the end goal benefits and paint a pretty picture of what someones life could look like if they used your tool.
      • I like the story/team page. I like the green/eco vision statement. I like the happy smiling staff.
      • Why are there no testimonials? People are inherently wary of being the first one to buy something. They want to know that others have bought and its turned out ok for them. I would highly recommend some case studies, with real facts and figures, and a review from the streamers. At the moment, I don't feel I like I trust you enough to sign up. Even if you are just launching, you must have tested it with some people, why not ask them for a review and a picture?
      1. 1

        Thanks Chris!

        We have had similar feedback about our home page, so it's time to transform it. Good points about benefits. Even though we were trying to use FAB model when creating copy, I guess there is still room for improvement.

        Testimonials are a must! We will add them.

        Thanks a lot for your time :)

  11. 2

    Thanks for taking the time to do this Chris!

    Always welcome feedback, more brutal the better!

    https://accordably.com

    1. 2

      Give up!

      lol, joking. You sneaky bastard! I LOVE this idea.

      As I'm sure you are well aware, anyone launching a new product into a saturated space spends a great deal of time worrying about competitors, and you just built a tool that will do the searching for me, let me get back to being a terrible new parent, and getting a daily digest of what my competitors have been up to! Excellent.

      I'll be honest, 10 seconds on your site, and I was sold. I didn't even care too much about pricing - then I saw your prices, and was happy with them.

      As for UI - I like the purple and orange, and the falling circles. I instinctively clicked on the header screenshot to get a better look at the dashboard and it didn't do anything. I guess I'm a very technical user, so I like seeing how things work - but I can't be the only one wanting a closer look at the dashboard before I sign up - so perhaps that can open in a pop up? Or even better, take me to a video showing me what my daily log in might look like?

      My only issue would be that its actually quite a negative thing to spend all your time worrying about what you competition are doing. Perhaps you could give me the competitive edge with some very simple add ons?

      • Weekly digest email with marketing & promotion tips to be better than my competition?
      • Book club and reading recommendations
      • Tips and techniques for improving conversion etc

      ....now imagine you send that digest and highlight what my competitors ARENT doing. That would be gold.

      Great idea though. No rock climbing, or sky diving for you. Stay safe and launch that awesome product!

      1. 2

        Hey Chris,

        Thanks again, looks like you've been busy with all the replies to your post, well done!

        Great suggestions and I really like the idea of highlighting what the competition aren't doing. We are now mulling that over to see what we could potentially do with the idea prompt.

        Cheers!

        Alex

  12. 2

    I'm currently exploring the possibility of building Engageful.app, a SaaS app where you can trigger event-based in-app messages to engage, retain, and upsell more users.

    This is nothing new, but in-app communication with users is often ignored. Usually a user is asked to upgrade their plan once, they get a single welcome message on sign up, or some boring chat messages triggered by Intercom when they visit a specific page.

    Instead, I'm presenting a solution where you can display beautiful, targeted and unintrusive messages to the right customers, at the right time.

    You could tell people that they are getting value from your software, by showing them a mini message when they reach the "AHA-moment".

    You could upsell users with this modal that triggers when action A and action B are performed three times within a week, highlighting the exact set of features that they will benefit from by upgrading to a higher teir plan.

    Engageful should be really ease to use, even for non-technical users. Some use cases include announcing new features, asking users to upgrade to a paid plan, promote blog posts, suggest annual billing, inform about billing failure, ask to join Facebook group, etc.

    Here's a bunch of example messages that can be sent in-app.

    Let me know what you think!

    1. 1

      Nah, get a real job!

      Jokes. I love the idea. I've been lead dev on over 200 products in the last decade, and the focus always seems to go into the nitty-gritty part of the app, and never on the upsell and retention focused parts.

      I think you hit the nail on the head with "should be really ease to use, even for non-technical users" - this is SO important.

      I'm thinking a single JS snippet I put on every page. It tracks every unique user, and at certain times either on-session or off-session I am able to pass events to your API.

      Then, in your gorgeous, easy to use UI, I am able to create page rules, event rules etc to enable prompts, and leave it up to your JS snippet to do the rest.

      Any more complex that, and I would honestly just build it myself - so I think if you can make it stupidly, ridiculously simple, you might be onto something.

      Your mockups look good. Love that sexy upgrade banner - I'd put that in my app.

      Good effort. Stay away from high ledges, and always use the hand rails!

      1. 2

        Read through your comments, you're too kind ha!

        The workflow you described is exactly what I had in mind, nothing too complex for me as the developer and for the end-user.

        I'm currently testing it out on gonimble.net (main project), if you want to implement banners, let me know!

  13. 2

    Wow I love this idea! Thank you so much for doing this!
    I guess it's the first time I'm looking forward to have my idea destroyed 😂

    Here is the link: https://valoresports.com

    1. 2

      Get a real job!!

      Lol, I'm hoping when people get notified to a response, that's the first thing they see.

      OK, so landing on your landing page - its clean, and I like the photo of the happy gamers. It immediately adds that human connection a lot of gamers are probably looking for.

      Before I get started: I used to be a big gamer, but as the years go on, I've spent more time with business, family & friends, and once a fortnight I get to drop into warzone to get my ass handed to me.

      My first tip - add more Call to Actions. Aside from the blue bar with an email on it, you are not making it very easy for me to reach out. You content is great, reading each paragraph, I was sold more and more on what you do.

      This is the same for your users. Imagine every person who lands on your site has 0% intention of buying from you. Every paragraph they read boosts that by 10%. If I am half way down the page, and a paragraph I just read has sealed the deal - there should be a really easy way for me to hand over my data before I get distracted, or read something I don't like.

      Maybe a button under each paragraph that launches a pop up form? I don't like emailing companies. I need a form to guide me - what info do you need? Make it as simple as possible for me so I can give you my details and move on until you reach out.

      As your visitor, I'm also not 100% on what you want me to do? You're telling me to reach out if I have a question, but I need to you LEAD me. Tell me what you can do for me, and what you want me to do about it.

      How much is it. Can I do it virtually or do I have to travel? Do I need any equipment? Do I need to be part of a team? My K/D rate is 0.00000001, is that OK? can you help me become pro?

      All in all - it just feels like you want to tell me about yourself, but you're not that bothered about whether I reach our or not.

      Sell me the sizzle, not the sausage!

  14. 1

    customerdiscovery.co we connect early stage founders to early adopters for idea validation and alpha user testing

  15. 1

    Hi there! Love this thread!

    We just launched Kbee.

    Would love to get your feedback.

    Thanks!

  16. 1

    The Mom Test is a great book to read to ensure you don't fall in this trap.

  17. 1

    I'm really late to the party here (and very early days in figuring out what my concept will become) but I'd still love the independent feedback if you have time.

    My eventual aim is something like "duolingo for management skills" but I've got a way to go. Take a look at Serve The Team

  18. 1

    Man! The stuff people are posting on here is incredible! To think, I thought I was pretty good 😄 Well, here's my very first attempt at a SAAS. Still in BETA so don't laugh too hard 😄 http://apistacks.com/

  19. 1

    I could use some honest feedback! :)
    Status reporting tool for remote teams: https://donemybit.com

  20. 1

    I've just launched a super-basic landing page for my API remr.io. It lets you store small pieces of data such as configs or sensor data etc for a very low price, and with no concerns about servers, infrastructure, or overheads. Let rip! ;)

  21. 1

    Hi Chris!

    https://piky.me

    Let me know what you think!

  22. 1

    Me and my buddies Steve and Woz are planning to solder together our own brand of computers which we will sell at electronics stores.
    Planning to call it orange.com

    What do you think?

  23. 1

    Great title Chris :)

    Here is my idea: https://www.hiringful.com/, kill it :)

  24. 1

    This is awesome :) Brutal feedback is the best feedback. Is the building an option? https://stormkit.io

  25. 1

    Hey, that's the landing page of the product: https://getmoni.io/ . Blow it up!
    Also, you can check the newsletter https://talks.getmoni.io/

    I'll be launching a product in 3 weeks from now, and will provide an access for first 300-500 users from waitlist.
    Let's get party started :)

  26. 1

    Hey Chris, thanks for this. We all need it.

    My product provides the ability to annotate thoughts, reactions, expertise onto online news and articles through a web extension. Those annotations go live on my company's website. Readers subscribe to authors, and use the author's profile as a way to discover what the author is reading, how they're reacting to it, and can read the article themselves for more detail. www.annoup.com

    Looking forward to healthy criticism. Thanks!

  27. 1

    This idea was great, but now you should get a real job, don’t waste your time to do this :)

  28. 1

    Just spend the last weekend on this : https://bookmarklite.com (Twitter bookmark categorization and search), I have a real job already no worries 😂, just wanted to know your opinion on this

  29. 1

    Hope I'm not too late for this.

    I'm making https://www.bygourmand.com, a recipe service that will help its users eat better and more interesting dinners, by sending them 4 suggestions everyday.

    I plan to extend it by letting users choose what types of food they want and possibly adjust recipes to their fitness goals (MACRO numbers)

  30. 1

    Hey Chris, let me know what you think of Abstra, we're in the no-code/low-code space:
    https://abstra.app

    It's a "Bubble for weak and rusty coders in a hurry" (our LP messaging is changing soon).

  31. 1

    Be as brutal as a hangry hulk 👊 https://turboapi.dev

  32. 1

    Thanks in advance - I hope I'm not too late for the party! :)

    renetal.com

  33. 1

    Here's the landing page for my next product: www.uption.io - as soon as Heroku gets around to responding to my help ticket for SendGrid I'll have the MVP live.

  34. 1

    My website is relaxingsleepsounds.com. It is only a splash page that I threw together in a couple hours. My real business in mainly Alexa skills and some Google Assistant apps and almost all of my traffic comes from the Alexa skill store currently.

    I started building this business 13 months ago and make about $2500/month in profit now at about 5 hours/week in time spent on the business. It was a lot more effort upfront, but it is pretty chill now.

    1. 2

      Well good on you sir! That's a nice little monthly revenue there for something that is now pretty much hands-off.

      If I wore a hat, I would tip it for you.

      Things I like....

      • You told me WHY, and right that the top! That just made your site better than 90% of the ones linked on this page. Gold star for you.

      • I like the little soundcloud embed. Super simple, very useful.

      • Questions and answers. This is the simplest form of squishing hesitations, and you do it very well. My first thought was "wait, how do I get my Alexa to use this", and that's the first thing you tell me.

      Things I don't like....

      • Not much actually. Its simple, it does what its made to do.

      • The design could be refined a bit. Just to make it feels a bit more premium. You really don't have to do much here - just some spacing and font choices. Check out something like https://www.awwwards.com/sites/kuverta-minimal-theme for inspiration.

      1. 1

        Thanks! Success was mostly getting lucky, gaining organic traffic on a fun little side project, haha. But I'll take it!

        I will go through and try to make the design feel more premium. I appreciate the link and will see what I can do! In the long run, I might add a bit more content to the site with a blog, etc., to get better SEO. I hope (fingers crossed) to get some unpaid interns who get college credit and put them to work on that kind of stuff.

        I'll let you know when I get the site updated!

        1. 1

          Nice growth, where do you get the sounds from, are there any copyright issues?

          1. 1

            I have full ownership rights over all my sounds. Most of them I've created or paid to have someone help me create. :)

  35. 1

    Kill it: www.DeDour.com

    You plan out a goal into small tasks that you add through our frontend. I.E. I want to gain muscle so i will work out M/W/F at 12:00pm. We print out your agenda with your tasks and mail it to you.

    It is an extremely rough prototype, so it might kill you first ;-)

    1. 1

      So at first I thought - this is stupid, why would I not just buy a diary - especially when this is trying to charge me $35.

      Then I realised you are basically letting me create my own prefilled diary where I don't have to enter all my goals every week.

      I like it.

      What I don't like...

      • The design. Its early days, so don't throw yourself off a building just yet. But do work on the design.

      • Creating the list was tricky. Space it out more, use some of that whitespace to make my life easier.

      • I think your market here is people who need to create default diaries for their clients. Imagine a personal trainer who needs to get their clients to follow routine. They could order 20 diaries, all with their logo, contact info and schedule in it. That might be a good market for you to consider.

      • What does dedour mean?

      • Again, tell me WHY. Why does no-one tell me why? The recurring theme here is that everyone likes to dive into HOW to use their product, but no-one tells me WHY I should use it.

  36. 1

    http://axomark.herokuapp.com/

    It's free for now, but a premium tier is planned, for $8/year. Anyway, looking forward to getting roasted.

    1. 1
      • Sharable is spelled Shareable

      • What is your USP here? How is this any different to my Chrome bookmarks? May account is synced on all my devices, so when I add link in the office, its automatically on my home desktop too, that doesn't sound like a problem that needs to be solved.

      • You dive straight into the "HOW" but you don't tell me "WHY". That's great that its free, but I still wouldn't use it because I don't know why I need it.

      • Case studies. Perhaps you can share a use case, or reasons for people using this product?

      1. 1

        Valid points, thanks! I get why you didn't understand the use case, and I'll add an explanation into the app.

        The main use case is actually for multiple people. Think of it like Pocket / Instapaper but with the ability to share your collection of bookmarks with password protection for individual collections. One of the reasons for this website is to replace GitHub's "awesome-something" repos. Instead of having a GitHub repo which requires Git abilities (it is trivial to tech workers to use command line but not to others), I provide a simple interface for them to share bookmarks.

        One of the use cases is for course resources - the professor can simple provide a link to a collection and update course readings / other resources there, and students will be able to access the most updated information. (The anonymous part is actually inspired by sharing of protest resources)

        1. 1

          Aha! Now I see the value in it, because you've told me WHY I would need it.

          That definitely needs to be very clear on the website, and perhaps backed up by some reviews that also hint towards use cases.

          For example... "Since we started using product X to do job X, we've seen X number of improvements"

          Awesome stuff, let me know when you've updated it and I'll check it out.

          1. 1

            Definitely! Thanks for your comments!

  37. 1

    Hey guys, this is my first appearance here. Anyways here is my project. Please tell me honestly :). It is a hardware project.
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ziontech/499209122?ref=d10bjl&token=132ffd2d

    1. 1

      Starting off nicely...

      • I like the look of the product

      • Love the mockup you have done of it sitting under a TV

      But...

      • As a portable gaming computer, that's a big price, why would I not just buy an Xbox series X? Its a third of the price with similar stats, an extensive game library. The size of your system is nice, but that would never convince me to part with that much extra money.

      • As an editing machine, that's still a big price. 1600 euros for an i5? I can get better laptops for that price, and they come with a screen.

      What makes Hyperlink technology so special? Is it not just a better onboard graphics chip?

  38. 1

    🎯 https://teamsharq.com (EdTech/SaaS/Marketplace) - pre-launch stage

    The product
    Our solution is a platform for online courses that allows instructors to conduct live classes based on professional desktop software in a web browser.

    🎯 2 min. MVP Tour: https://youtu.be/fSMV3ZeyvMQ

    Problems we want to solve
    👉Many expert courses require professional desktop software (eg. IDE, Adobe, AutoCAD etc.). Beginners do not have the hardware and software to participate in a course, advanced students do not have time to configure the course environment by their own.
    👉During live online courses, instructors struggle to supervise and help students.
    👉No tools to support the entire learning process in instructor-led courses (like Udemy or Pluralsight for video courses).

    Market
    👉Education>Online>Real-time instructor-led courses

    Our niche
    👉Courses based on desktop software

    Unique Selling Points
    👉 All platform features available directly from a web browser for the duration of the course, students do not have to install or configure anything.
    👉 Instructor has full control over hardware and software configuration of each workspace and can easily replicate them.
    👉 Students can freely switch between their workspaces and, almost like in Google Docs, work together at the same time. Workspaces are separated from their personal computers.

    How it works?
    1️⃣ An instructor chooses a subscription plan based on the maximum hardware configuration (e.g. 16 vCores, 32 GB RAM, 200 GB Disk Space) and then - how many workspaces snapshots she/he wants to keep.
    2️⃣ An instructor sets up all course's details, uploads course materials, plans classes etc.
    3️⃣ The last step is to assign a workspace snapshot / create a new workspace. During the new workspace configuration an instructor chooses the workspace hardware specs (up to a subscription plan) and installs required software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator etc.), then builds a snapshot and assigns it to the course. Every student has exactly the same course environment at the beginning of the course. No more “it doesn’t work for me”.

    Who are we?
    We have been operating on the IT training services market since 2017. This solution is created as a response to our experiences and needs.

  39. 1

    http://gibjab.com/ Earlier MVP (view on desktop, not mobile). Looking to make the news more fun, current idea: translate news to gifs. I do not like the negative sentiment from local cable news, so want to relay the news in a fun way.

    1. 1

      I agree with you 100% - the news has such a negative damaging impact on all of our lives, without the majority of us even realising it they are adding anxiety, panic and stress into our every day lives.

      That being said, I also found the GIFs stressful. This isn't a site I would come back to on a daily basis to get the daily news. Its a fun idea, but I think it really needs polishing up to make experience smoother.

      What's the end goal with this? is it to build an audience and make money through ads?

      1. 1

        Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I need to polish it more. I am working on putting the gifs for each story in a carousel, which I think will make it a less stressful experience.

        What would make you come back to it? What would you like to see added/changed?

        The goal is to be a primary source of news. Yeah, ad revenue would probably be the way to generate money unless I used a subscription based model.

    1. 1

      OK, so first impressions were that it was slooooow to load.

      Once I clicked on the first button and "started", it didn't register my first 3 or 4 clicks on the "start" button - it was still loading and my cursor didn't turn into a pointer for 5 or 6 seconds.

      User initialization failed TypeError: Cannot read property 'account_type' of undefined

      I see that its a jotform, so perhaps there's an embed issue somewhere?

      Click on "about" and "services" I can see prices - but until you dig in, its really not obvious that this is something people can buy or use for their own business.

      It might be better to have a separate the landing page and the app so you can really sell the service on the main domain, and then users can access the app through something like user.livform.app

  40. 1

    HI @ChrisCollins405, I see that you are being very kind.
    Could you please provide some "brutal feedback" on my product.

    I'm just getting started and would love to get some positive feedback, if that's the case.
    Thanks, kindly!

  41. 1

    we're tuning things down but go for it: https://nurtureapp.co.uk/

  42. 1

    LOL talk about a title. Love it!

    Rip away https://remoteworkly.co

    1. 1

      OK, so I signed up, and I'm in the app....

      • The pop ups are SO annoying. Every time I go to click something, edit a template, or move my mouse, my click is blocked with another popup. When I click the X on a pop-up, I would hope it would disable all pop ups. This was seriously enough to make me quit the app and find something else.

      • I found the templates section very confusing. I was trying to edit a template, to add text over the video and couldn't figure it out. I think perhaps some sort of wizard, or a cleaner UI and layout would make a big difference here.

      Would I buy?
      I Love the idea, and really see the benefit in it, but after 5 minutes of using the product, No, I would not buy. Getting around the app was frustrating, trying to figure out templates was tough. The app should be easy to use, I shouldn't need to watch a video on every page to find out how to use it.

      I would be interested to hear what your current conversion rates are for trials turning to paid accounts? Is there a big drop off?

      What could you do to make the onboarding and template set up much easier?

      1. 1

        Thanks for your feedback, Chris! I'll gather some more feedback regarding the popups. I've been A/B testing a few things and will probably remove half of them.

        Regarding the templates, you are 100% right. This is a new section, as until now templates were custom-made for our clients. We recently launched a visual editor to create templates (in beta still) and have a mature tool (for developers) to create templates.

        Most of our clients use custom templates, not really the gallery, but this will probably change because of the new markets we are targeting.

        Still have a few months ahead for this.

        In terms of conversions, the "done-for-you" service works well (but need to work better :-p). Trial to paying customers not that well yet, although that has been recently launched.

        If you ever want this done for you (in the meantime), simply let me know and I'll make it happen.

  43. 1

    Formito.com

    Shall I continue or stick to my job?

    1. 1

      I like the landing page, its clear and gets to the point.

      Last year I employed someone to build out a chatbot for our product with the aim of reducing support. We used chatbot.com because we like that it would switch over to live chat if the customer was getting frustrated. Ultimately though, we found that the chatbot caused more grief and frustration than just submitting a support ticket, and it ended up being a waste of time and money.

      That being said, it looks like you focus more on the data capture for new leads, rather than supporting an existing client base.

      I think you've put a lot of time into your site, and it shows. You've got reviews, examples, benefits, a good knowledge base, and really nice UI.

      Good job, I would continue!

  44. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  45. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Can you give a brief summary how this works under the hood? Is there any manual curation involved or is it all based on citations etc?

  46. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 2

      "Seemlessly" is spelt "seamlessly" - for a software based around educational learning, I would imagine a spell check might be a good idea? ;-)

      Nice idea. Seems simple to implement.

      How big is this market? What do the major players currently do to validate students?

      • I like that in order to get the 50% student discount, I have to verify that I'm a student! haha.
      • I like the look of the site. It suits the API driven business style.
      • I tried to upload a 28kb image and it stuck on the upload screen, I couldn't get any further. "Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: Cannot read property 'getIdToken' of null" on this line....

      return c.a.wrap((function(e) {
      for (; ; )
      switch (e.prev = e.next) {
      case 0:
      return e.next = 2,
      a.getIdToken(!0); <----

      • I also entered a fake email, uploaded a picture of a piglet running through a meadow, and still got this message...
        Successfully Verified
        Congratulations! You can now use your verified student status to receive discounts at any online provider that uses our verification system. Your verified student status lasts for one year.
        You may renew your student verification after .

      Like the idea though, I'd be interested to hear what market research you've done and how many target customers are on your radar.

      1. 2

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

        1. 1

          This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  47. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 2

      Get a real job!!

      Kidding. OK first things first - love the landing page, but if you're going to post your business in forums, you better make sure the link works ;-)

      So my new business is launching right now. We've got some partners we're working with, but now need to start sourcing the data for small business owners.

      I'm not sure your product is the 100% right fit for me... BUT... you've got so much data there, for such a tiny price, I probably would go ahead and buy it just to see what it was like.

      My first thought was ... twitter names? What good is that to me? Do i have to manually search them and find the ones I want to speak to? Isnt that what twitter search does?

      But then I saw your little section where you've got "so what?" as the title. I love this - it goes right into the "why", and immediately addressed my main concern.

      It made me think of a CSV parser I was looking at the other day, when you scroll down to the Questions and Answers section of https://www.papaparse.com its hilarious.

      My main hesitation to buy is what I would do with that data. Perhaps if you could provide even more examples of ways to use it, and whether it breaches any GDPR rules I would have jumped to the buy button much sooner.

      Its a shame you dropped the price so much, as its not a recurring thing. My concern is that your audience isn't massive, and if you can convince people to buy, it should be for what it is worth. Or maybe your audience is massive, your landing page just hasn't told me how or why yet.

      Good job though, don't go throwing yourself of any buildings just yet - see how the sales go for the next few weeks ;-)

      1. 2

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

        1. 2

          Awesome! Happy to help!

          And yeah, I must be going soft... Stop pissing about gaming, and go make some dollar! ;-)

Trending on Indie Hackers
Yayy! Made my 2nd sale in one month 43 comments Help me positioning my SaaS product 24 comments Need feedback about the landing page 22 comments 🤯Blown Away, Everyday. 20 comments Productized service: Got my 1st client (€2500/m) with 100% upfront payment 17 comments Need Feedback About My Landing Page 14 comments