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I'm building a Buffer competitor

I've started using Twitter this year and like many indie hackers, I'm trying to invest in it and grow my audience.

I've tried many tools like Buffer but they are missing some features and i never enjoyed their UI/UX. So right now im building my own Buffer competitor with Twitter-like experience to easily plan, draft, and schedule tweets and threads, and other features I think will help IHers grow on Twitter

I'm launching next month! So if you want early access head on over to hatchy.app

I would love to hear your feedback about the landing page, the app UI/UX, or any suggestions you may have!

  1. 6

    A few months ago, I did analyze this market segment, but It felt too crowded for me. There is post from the guys from oneupapp: http://oneupapp.io listing all the competitors: https://blog.oneupapp.io/social-media-scheduling-tools/

    How is your product different? (you need to achieve this, creating your own market category, for example an obvious one: Twitter automation for indie hackers)

    Regarding your landing, I agree with @zerotousers, your copy is too vague, on arrival I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Adivce: read this https://www.indiehackers.com/post/17-tips-for-great-copywriting-5d4786ddf7 for quick-help or make a deep-dive in copywriting:
    https://copyranger.com/21-incredible-copywriting-formulas-i-use/

    I think your second title, makes a better headline: "Hatchy helps you plan, draft, and save tweets to post higher quality content that will grow your audience"

    Suggestion:
    "Hatchy helps you draft and schedule tweets to grow your audience " + how your product will achieve this for your user.
    "Hatchy helps you draft and schedule tweets to grow your audience with a secret AI"

    And use the second title to further mention your target market: indie hackers for example.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot @mromanuk for your feedback and the competitor list
      I need to dig deeper into to better differentiate my product.
      It seems like a crowded space, but honestly, my main goal with this "mico-saas" is to learn. as you noticed I need to work on my copywriting skills, marketing and everything to create a successful business and not just coding and building.
      So I really appreciate the feedback and links you provided!

    2. 1

      Definitely a lot of competitors, I also know of HypeFury (https://hypefury.com/) and Chirr (https://getchirrapp.com/).

      @jamalx31 you'll definitely need to show how your app is better, or what exactly you're missing from the current competitors.

      1. 1

        I agree I need to find a unique value proposition.. working on it

  2. 3

    Been there. Threw it in the bin because I had no interest whatsoever in the product.

    You need to integrate many social media in your app to be competitive I think, and it's where difficulties will arise. Their APIs are not open, and you need to convince them to have access to what you need. Especially for Facebook / Instagram. On top, you need ways to differentiate yourself in a crowded market.

    I don't want to say it's impossible. Nothing is. But here's what I would do: finish your MVP with clear, distinctive, added value your biggest competitors don't have, and look at the feedback.

    I don't see any distinctive value here. As you say, Twitter is great to write threads, so why would I use your product?

    1. 1

      I know what you mean and I'm aware that my product may not grow beyond 20-30 users, but honestly, I want something to practice building a business since I've been stuck in the "coding" phase with so many projects before.
      and as you mentioned my main challenge here is create a distinctive value, and I would say a unique UX

  3. 2

    Keep in mind that because your app posts on social media, you won't be able to use Paddle.com:

    https://paddle.com/support/aup/

    By creating an account and selling through Paddle, you are confirming that you will not be accepting payments with any connection to the following business categories and practices:
    marketing based social media automation

  4. 2

    "Craft your tweets before you share them" is a statement. It's like I'm trying to persuade you to eat slower by saying "Chew slower after getting the food in your mouth". 0% persuasion value.

    I also fail to understand what your product is about until the part "Hatchy is more than a scheduling tool.". It's funny because you haven't mentioned anywhere that you're a scheduling tool. I didn't see any mention of the word 'scheduling previously'.

    1. 1

      Thanks for the feedback
      I agree my headline is not good enough. As i guess im still figuring out the value proposition.
      If you have any thoughts or suggestions how to improve please share with me

  5. 1

    Hey Jamal. I clicked to sign up but I'm not sure I want to give access to all those fields from my twitter feed. Any way you can pare those down?

    1. 1

      Also, a lot of the other feedback you're getting sounds discouraging: "Buffer have brand, and currently you not". "0% persuasion value".

      I think you can safely disregard a lot of the comments on competition, market size, differentiation and language clarity. These people are using the wrong part of their brain when reviewing your page.

      You got a persuasive use case with your twitter-ui familiarity and your support for threads. I myself was looking for a buffer-like tool that did threads and came up short in my quick research (who has time to research all the products?).

      Keep at it. You got something here.

      1. 2

        Thanks a lot @pascallaliberte for the encouragement and the kind words!
        It's a very interesting article and an eye-opener! thanks for sharing.

        I'm still working on Hatchy and not planning to stop any time soon. I believe I create something different from existing solutions.

        reg the permissions unfortunately I can't do anything about it, it so silly but twitter only has 3 levels of access, and since Hatchy needs the write & read access you will see that long list, it's a bummer :\

  6. 1

    As @mromanuk said it's unclear how you differentiates from other competitors. Buffer have brand, and currently you not. So even if your copy will be compelling (which is not), you should clearly state differentiator. And it shouldn't be some huge thing, it may be: "Like Buffer, but without complexity", or "Automatic scheduling based on best convertion rates"

    1. 1

      Thanks @slavaGanzin. my product is far from ready or being unique. but I'm glad I decided to post here because this is the kind of feedback I need to improve.
      ATM I'm trying to figure out my unique value proposition and a way to differentiate Hatchy from the competition. and thanks for the headline suggestions, I really like them, I may use one of them in my landing page

  7. 1

    There is another free competitor in addition to the umpteen ones mentioned here. The developer is open about his ambition and is following the tawk.to model to build a business built around his agency. You can get at Socialit.io

  8. 1

    I signed up, but more out of curiosity, I don't even use Twitter. Perhaps some day I will :)

    1. 1

      Yes should definitely use it more often, as an indiehacker it's a great platform to connect with others, share what you build, and grow an audience

  9. 1

    I wouldn’t leave mobile responsive styles out for too long, if your out and about and you want to stop 🛑 tweet going out you’ll want a mobile friendly UI

    1. 1

      yes I totally agree, it's the first thing on my todo list right now and I from now on the development will be mobile-first

  10. 1

    That's cool!

    How are you going to implement the Tweet to Instagram feature?

    1. 1

      I was thinking of integrating https://www.bannerbear.com/ to automatically generate a photo tweet and post it. what do you think?

      1. 1

        Well, you can use my service https://pikaso.me for that :)

        1. 1

          oh wow that's cool!

  11. 1

    this is a great idea.... Buffer is an amazing business and there are certainly many features they will not get to.

    excited to see where you take it

  12. 1

    Typo in landing page "audiance"

    1. 1

      thanks! missed that one

  13. 1

    This market is too much crowded. Btw good luck for your project

    1. 1

      seems like it, but I hope I will learn a thing or two trying.
      I know it will not make my millions but I need to start somewhere

  14. 1

    Really cool, great work so far. Love the interface & colors.

    I'm guessing schedule functionality is work in progress?

    One quick thing: the "save" button is ambiguous. I didn't want to press it because I was scared it would send tweet.

    Otherwise awesome!

    Note on strategy: I think a free tier would do really well in this space. I would pay for an upgrade, but only once I'm getting a lot of value from Twitter. You can get a lot of adoption this way since the OneUp and all the other guys don't have a free tier.

    1. 2

      thanks @Christpetron
      yes still working on scheduling and figure out a better UI/UX to do it
      for the "save" button I think I need to add note to make it clear it won't post anything.

      I also agree with the strategy, a free tier could be a great way for user acquisition

      1. 1

        Nice. Keep me posted, I'll be a user

  15. 1

    sounds cool. there's an app used in china called KAWO, for wechat/weibo that may provide some ideas for you outside the bubble here.

    1. 1

      very interesting, I will check out.
      Thanks!

  16. 1

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