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Would you consider this marketing or straight up deception?

Over the weekend I launched https://trysimu.com. After all the recent discussion in the React community regarding server components, deploying to the edge, keeping your database and server as close as possible to reduce latency, etc. I decided to pivot a basic web template that I and a few friends used into a boilerplate designed to stay ahead of the pack in terms of innovation (while abstracting as much of the pain points of using new tech away from our end user as possible).

My friend and I decided to run some ads to see if there was a general interest in our product and perhaps make a sale or a connection. To our surprise we sold 8 copies. The issue is, it's very early. We honestly didn't expect to make a sale and not refund someone.

In hindsight, we're suspicious we over-marketed on our landing page. It lists out our planned features and what we eventually want Simu to become; currently however it lacks 80% of that. Are we blatantly lying on our landing page in this case, or are we accurately conveying that our goal is garner early support.

As hackers, I'd love to hear thoughts on this, and feel free to call us out so we can shut this down until we make more progress.

on March 11, 2023
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    Hey,

    so if anything that is included in the "What's included" section does not work (yet), then I would consider it a blatant lie.
    That section basically says: Here is what we currently offer.

    Yes you got the (small) link to Trello above, but that seems like additional features yet to come.

    If the features mentioned in "What's included" do indeed work right now, you're good in my opinion.

    Hope that helps.

    1. 1

      Great feedback! I do wonder how we can do a better job of messaging here. The goal is to essentially sell "early supporters" on the idea at a discounted rate in exchange for lifetime access. Once all those features are complete we'll remove that discount. Maybe it involves a "coming soon" state to the features that are currently not supported.

      Thanks a ton for giving me some outside clarity on this

      1. 1

        Great reply, so instead of one feature section, make two.
        "Currently available" & "Coming soon".
        And then go big on marketing that every feature that is listed under "coming soon" will be available to every customer even if they join now for the reduced price.

        Sort of a package/bundle thing: "Buy access now, get all features soon. But instead of paying X later down the road, you help us develop and grow and only pay Y now".
        Someone with better marketing skills can possible make it sound better ;)