Launching my bootstrapped start-up. Please cross your fingers for me.
Launching my bootstrapped start-up. Please cross your fingers for me.
I just launched my start-up and am a little freaked out. Everything works (so far) but I've been so focused on getting the app up and running that I'm feeling a little lost on what to focus on next and second guessing some early thinking/research.
Anyway, I could use some advice (and/or moral support). 1. Does this app have legs? 2. Do I need to tweak/change anything? 3. Where do I go from here?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Link: https://www.TheWisdomofOthers.com
Published in 2011, this chronicle by @TWOO details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
I like it and I agree that there are other niches you could target - weddings, baby showers, graduation, confirmation, retirement, etc. Anything that's sort of a life-changing event or entering a new stage in life would be a good time for this as a gift.
I've see us do a similar thing (but low-tech) at church. A bunch of parents contribute stories or advice and then copies are handed out to each graduating student. Or I think we've done something similar with a collection of a bunch of favorite Christmas traditions, then copies were handed out to the whole congregation. Or it's similar to recipe books where a couple dozen families contribute their favorite recipe then copies are sold as a fund-raiser. Not quite the same as what you're doing but it could be an easy follow-on product.
Curious why ePub is 50% more than PDF.
First off, I am really impressed with your design. Where did you derive the inspiration for it? It seems like a nice service to me, quite unique. Have you considered a white-label service for wedding/event planners? I imagine that is where your market will be, just as your anecdote indicated. The other area where this might be cool is for seminars and/or self-help type events where the crowd's wisdom and shared experiences might be leveraged to provide meaningful takeaways from the event. I'll noodle on it more and report back if I think of anything else. All in all, looks good so far, keep us updated!
Nice! I like it.
Couple of thoughts perhaps on how you could better close a sale.
It wasn't immediately clear to me what exactly I'd do with this. Would I create a book for myself with things other people have told me? Would I put my wisdom in a book and give it to someone else?
Lets say I've got my mind around it and I think this is a good idea that I plan to do. You need to convince me pretty quickly that I shouldn't go and look for other online book publishing sites that are cheaper/easier.
Very cool. A few weeks ago my friends and I put together something like this using google docs for a friend's 30th birthday and had it printed. This would have been perfect!
A few suggestions: 1. It wasn't clear to me what you do right away. The book image is what helped me. Then I still wasn't sure if this was a digital book or not till I read the "How it Works". 2. I think having an example for a wedding book would be useful.
Good luck!!
Edit: Just found the examples :)
This is really cool! Very good website design. I noticed on https://www.thewisdomofothers.com/how-it-works in firefox 6.0.2 that step four wraps around in the right column. Here's a screenshot: http://imgur.com/KAstV
I especially like that you donate some of the profits. I'm looking forward to doing exactly the same.