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Ask YC: Review my startup, Voicendo

40 points by gwil ↗ HN
Check it out at http://www.voicendo.com/

In short, Voicendo is a virtual phone system for small businesses and independent professionals. We support all the stuff like call forwarding, menus, conference calling - even SMS. You can use local or toll free numbers, each at $5/month. All usage (incoming/outgoing minutes both local and toll free, and SMS) is billed pay-as-you-go at $0.03.

It's all drag and drop, I feel anyone could use it.

Would love your feedback on the idea and its direction!

23 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 48.5 ms ] thread
leftnode
Clickable: http://www.voicendo.com/

Very professional looking. I didn't try the service out because I don't need it for the time being, but I'll save it for later.

Are you bootstrapped or angel/venture funded?

gwil
Thanks! Bootstrapped by far!
catlike
Twilio based?
gwil
Built using Twilio and a few portions of OpenVBX, yes!
dclaysmith
Looks like a great service and a good pricing structure. Will definitely dig deeper into it. Good luck.

(Designwise, the gray text is hard to read in Firefox--not so bad in IE).

patd
The font on the homepage doesn't look good on my Windows XP machine under Firefox 3.6.12, it's nice-looking using Chrome though. Maybe due to the font you're using (museo), I don't have it on my system.

Strangely, the weird looking font (as if it was not antialiased) occur on the signup page using Chrome.

Other than that, it looks really good. Is it US/Canada only ?

gwil
Currently yes, only US/Canada. Fonts by Typekit, I'll have to check into it a little more!
cothinkit
Just curious how are you differentiating from http://www.twilio.com/ and their product http://www.twilio.com/openvbx?

It appears you are an expensive option in comparison. Good luck!

nickbarnwell
Twilio is targeted towards developers, while this appears to be something I could point a less technical client to and say "Go to town!". As developers we often fail to take into account how much usability can effect product uptake, and there that seems to be the prime differentiator.
edash
This IS Twilio and OpenVBX - hosted and dressed up a bit.

It's a nicely executed, simple idea for anyone who doesn't want to worry about an OpenVBX installation / updates / support etc.

jawartak
Is there a cost associated with transferring a 1-800 number?
gwil
No cost. Will add that into the FAQ.
Stronico
I am in the market for this service right now.

A few quick first impressions (I'll have more later)

You need an FAQ section, I had the quick questions of 1) Can I get an 800 number? 2) Can I get a vanity number, i.e. 1800-Stronico? 3) What credit cards do you take (I put everything like this on Amex).

Beyond that, quite good - more thoughts later.

Addendum --- I missed the toll free bit of text on the home page before

gwil
Working on the who FAQ and Help Center, will add those questions in there.

1) Right now, not an actual "800" number unless you port it over.

2) Same here, we can search for vanity numbers and help you find them, and then use them with the service.

3) Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover!

tgrass
Just signed up, very easy and intuitive. Great design.

One question (for personal needs, not necessarily a site criticism): do you offer bulk SMS? Couldn't tell if you offer automated outgoing services.

gwil
It's an idea for sure, but kinda out of the target product at the moment! So, at the moment, no :(.
jonschwartz
Looks good overall.

Here's my thoughts:

1) A Small inconsistency (well maybe not so small)

"All accounts include $10.00 in free credit! That's up to 30 days for free! Signup now →"

"We're changing the way your business handles calls – all for a mere $5/month per number."

Is it $10/Month? or $5/Month?

2) The Features page

    a) It's really wordy.  TLDNR

    b) Make the get started with a 30 day trial bigger and more prominent (maybe center it).  That's your call to action so make it pop.

    c) The footer is slightly confusing.  If you're going for non-tech savvy people, don't have things like "@voicendo" as the link to twitter.  Just say Twitter.  People who don't use twitter will be confused.  Also, the popover box for twitter loaded noticeably slowly the first time.  I'm not sure it's necessary in the first place and I would get rid of it and just link straight to your account in a new window.
3) The pricing / signup page

    a) get rid of the cancel button.  It's working against you and really does nothing that's not already on the page.

    b) Ohhhhhh this page explains the problem I was having where $10 = 1 month but $5 also = one month.  That needs to definitely be re-worded.  While I just figured it out from your text, it's still not hitting me in the face.
4) Knowledge base

   a) I recommend you seed this with anticipated questions.
5) The front page

   a) the grey text is hard to read.  It's very close to the background color.

   b) Again, Too wordy.  I almost think you don't need descriptions.  Your headings are pretty self explanatory for the most part (maybe).
Good Luck!
gwil
Thanks Jon, noted!
jonschwartz
ooh one other comment in addition to what I said below, use the questions people are asking here to seed the FAQ
Abid
Small UI issue that stood out: the grey text in the features area on the bottom of the home page is almost blending in with the background making it almost illegible. I'm on Firefox.
wilhelm
I'm currently in Asia on a rather crappy Internet connection. Your 2MB front page took more than a minute to load. I'm glad I didn't load it on my pay-per-megabyte phone.

You might want to slim that down a bit.

kirpekar
Feedback: Positive: Great simple design with easy to understand concept. Good headline & good job of marketing the message on the front page.

Negative: Font looks crappy on Windows/Firefox. Gray color is too light. Skip the Olark box (adds clutter).

subbu
For a very brief period this submission was killed. So I was wondering what was the intention behind killing this one. But it got restored immediately.

Edit: Its deleted again. It looks like any other 'Review my app' kind of a submission. Anybody knows why this is killed?

Edit2: PG posted an explanation for why this story was killed. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1861577. According to it, 'Rate my startup' submissions must be from older accounts. Submitter of this story is just 5-day old.