Ask HN: Review My Startup: Szpil

But maybe I'm just not your target client. What's you target audience?

The first interaction is for me to type in some pretty sensitive information (email, phone number, etc.), which I am simply not going to do until I feel it's worth it.

Also: your site breaks in weird ways in Opera (10.60).

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Security error" code: "1000" nsresult: "0x805303e8 (NS_ERROR_DOM_SECURITY_ERR)" location: "https://szpil.com/javascripts/application.js Line: 7562"]

Firefox 3.6.6, OSX 10.6.4

$10/month for contact synchronization is too high. Dropbox's 50gbytes is at that level and I think that's over priced.

Here's some helpful criticism. I hope I don't come off too harsh, since I really actually like this app.

Some questions:

- What are your unique features? It seems to be very javascript centric and it feels fast, I guess that's a good feature.

- What is "an account" in szpil?

- Is there some list of all contacts? I just found "Today" - but that feels like everything I've done today, not everything ever

What I like:

- It's fast to use.

- It's simple

What I don't like:

- The single-colored interface - some icons might help

- The full width layout (uncomfortable on a widescreen display) - you should at least use max-width

- It was confusing that I didn't have to sign up and I didn't realize I had started.

- I didn't realize that my name when I signed up was my username, so I put my long name with all the icelandic chars...

- You could do better with the feedback button. Some simple feedback form or something like that.

Bugs:

- My name got formatted in a weird way: "ArnóR HeiðAr SigurðSson" (Should be Arnór Heiðar Sigurðsson) - that also had complications when I logged in/out again

- My stored password seems to not be bound to username, it's just always filled in - probably because you're not using a regular login form, but a javascript method that takes the variables and submits... too bad :/

- When I logged in again, everything I did "today" was gone. So now I can't find the contact I created.. :P

Good luck and keep up the good work.

You should go read "Sign up and ramp up design patterns" by Adaptive Path:

http://j.mp/dynuJs

I think you'll find it really helpful. Good luck.

Importing means basically scraping most of the context and content of email, contacts, notes and appointments.

To me this sounds like a CRM system, and if someone came to me and said, I want to build a CRM system, I'd ask what they could bring that would persuade me to use their system instead of something established.

Typing my details manually into a web form would not make it past that bar.

I may be missing something here, and I don't want to be gratuitously harsh, but it doesn't really seem like the basis of a viable startup.

What I would advise is this, visit 37 signals and copy the format of their apps like BaseCamp. It is pretty the industry standard for productivity software.

Best of luck.

2. As a potential customer, I need a screencast that shows me what your service does, how it will help me accomplish X and Y better than my current system, and why I should spend time exploring it. See dropbox for an awesome example.

3. You should come right out and name your competition and explain what you do better. It's a giant pain in the ass to switch CRM midstream, and yet there's so much room for improvement.

4. The name is atrocious. It fails multiple tests (can your users pronounce it? spell it? remember it? understand it?). You should really consider changing it.

Good luck!

With the foundation of your application right now, you can extend it to support CSV (or sources other) import in no time, or adding a bunch of new functionalities. The biggest question is to find out how to charge people for your service. I truly believe in startup that aims to make money on day 1 and this is the only future-proof way to keep your service running for the long run.

Also, get at least IE7 support. IE is a must for serious businesses, not like this:

    if (Prototype.Browser.IE || Prototype.Opera) {
      var safari = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.apple.com/safari' }, 'Safari');
      var chrome = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.google.com/chrome' }, 'Chrome');
      var firefox = Html.a({ href: 'http://www.mozilla.com/firefox' }, 'Firefox');
      var links = safari + ', ' + chrome + ', ' + firefox;
      Notice.error('Your browser is not supported. Please use:', links);
    }