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Show HN: My first start up (30 days in)

29 points by whiletruefork ↗ HN
I quit my job a month ago and have been heads down working on my startup. It's my first time working with Ruby or web development at all. I launched on the 7th - http://www.onefatpig.com

Now I'm done with the easy part (code) and working on the substantially harder part (getting users). Any advice?

34 comments

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atomical
I like the idea. I have been debating whether the name is too derogatory. Can you see a parent saying to another parent, Jane, have you heard about this new website called one fat pig? Maybe onebigpig.com would be better. Not sure about that.
whiletruefork
I have been looking at whether or not to rebrand. The initial branding was PiggyBanks. But all variations of that as a domain are parked by miserable squatters. One of them offered to sell at the 'reasonable' price of $16k.
Mz
I would try to find some means to convey that it's a virtual/online piggy bank. You know, the hip, modern piggy bank for the plugged in kid. I have no idea what terms to suggest but I think that's a key piece you need to convey: Allowance in the digital age for the really cool kids.
templaedhel
Perhaps something along the lines of "bringing home the bacon" could be used too. I hear people say that all the time.
nmaio
Agreed. OnePinkPig? ChubbyPiggy.com? KidPiggy.com? PiggyPlease.com? I don't know - just suggestions that are available as of now.

Nice design and layout by the way. Works well on the eyes.

mgkimsal
ourbigpiggy.com is open, and would signify the group/family aspect with the 'our' in it.
dholowiski
bankofmom.com ? It's taken but maybe the owner will charge less?
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dholowiski
I agree with atomical - I would change the name. I actually like it, it's quite clever, but I don't think 'typical' parents would enjoy their children talking about 'one fat pig'.

Can you whitelist or blacklist products? I imagine many parents won't want their kids saving up for a hello kitty vibrator: http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Kitty-face-Massage-Roller/dp/B00...

Getting users... yup, thats the hard part. Talk to some moms you know, give them some free accounts. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the world, can beat the value of word of mouth from a happy mom, and that's who you are targeting anyway.

This may seem crazy, but go to your local coffee shop, grocery store, restaurant, and see if they have a bulletin board that you can put flyers up on. Another prime mom location.

Check itunes for mom or parenting podcasts. Contact the hosts and ask if you can come on their podcast to talk about your site. Offer some free accounts for listeners.

Target geek moms?

I think you're getting the point... target mom!

whiletruefork
There is product filtering - but it works best for items with ratings (Video Games, Movies). All other products go through a blacklist - filtering out specific words (but the list itself needs improvement). The parent has control over the filtering, and can increase its restrictions with a paid account.
nmaio
I feel like the Features page should be condensed somehow. There's a lot of text and images... But I like how the UI looks on those screenshots. Good stuff.
tworats
Not sure why, but I immediately understood what the site does. Congrats on that, that's one of the most difficult parts.

Suggestion: I'd want the service to allow kids to claim things they've done to earn points, for which they'd get their piggy bank filled. Eg. did homework, cleaned room, washed car would translate to x piggy dollars, which I'd then translate to real money in their bank.

indrax
Similar immediate click, I think it's a good choice of images.
meursault
Love the idea. Chore tracking would be a really cool feature I think.
artsim
Love the idea and the design
SHOwnsYou
Great idea, can't praise it enough.

I'm wondering if you would actually make more money by only having free accounts.

You already stand to make a ton of money from affiliate commissions AND heavy cash on hand.

The value of a customer is way over $7/month just based on these two income sources alone.

Free accounts might help getting the on the fencers to sign up, while you still capture the users that would have signed up for $7/month.

Something else to think about -- If you decide to definitely go freemium, consider having a third option. There is a ton of research showing people are most likely to take the second best option given a menu of choices. Three plans makes the second best option still one that gets you paid each month.

julianc
Like SHOwnsYou said, you will probably make more money from affiliate commissions, so I would completely remove the paid plan and only leave free accounts/signups (with the current premium features included too), it will be much simpler this way and you won't have to deal with the subscriptions hassle.
revorad
How much money can Amazon affiliate commissions generate? A lot of bloggers say they don't make much off Amazon, but I'm wondering how much dedicated sites like this could make. Do you know of any good examples?
SHOwnsYou
If your entire business model is such that you can basically force people to use affiliate links, it isn't too bad.

Assuming 1000 piggy banks at $10/week allowance puts your monthly take at 40k. Virtually all of that money eventually gets spent.

At the lowest level of amazon commissions (4%), you're looking at $1600 per month. If you were at the highest level (8.5%), you're at $3400 per month.

It's not awesome at 1000 users, but it pays some bills.

dholowiski
If your only source of income is affiliate commisions, then it is extremely risky. What happens when amazon decides they don't like your site any more,and cancels your affiliate account? Im sure you don't want to be posting here 6 months from now saying "amazon killed my startup"
jordan0day
If OneFatPig is bringing Amazon revenue, why would they try to kill it off? I mean, certainly there's ways to make someone mad at you, but from a business sense if OneFatPig "plays nice" I don't see why Amazon would arbitrarily do that.
dholowiski
Sure, Amazon shouldn't want to kill it off, but what if they do anyway? Remember the guy who posted a few weeks ago on HN about how 'google fired me'? It's pretty easy to make a small violation of the TOS without realizing it.

I'm just making a suggestion - don't put all of your eggs in one basket. If you depend on one company for 100% of your revenue (Google, Paypal, Amazon etc)that's a huge risk.

epynonymous
very nice, very simple, good luck, congrats on quitting full time!

some hopefully constructive criticism, i think the name is a bit tongue in cheek and could offend some people, not that big an issue, perhaps it has value to help you remember the brand.

the yellow banner doesn't stand out enough on the front page, perhaps find a larger font that doesn't blend into the page so well, this is your focus point for describing the service, make sure it stands out.

HackrNwsDesignr
I would try to go anywhere where parents/kids are. Maybe you could work with a local book store that often does story time type things for kids, or even schools. We had a virtual bank in elementary school to learn about money, why not work with local schools that may or may not have it already, and supplement with your app or offer it?
mgkimsal
If you ever get the money to advertise, get this on the Dave Ramsey show. I believe he costs a pretty penny to hawk things, but this is right up his street (especially if you have a mode for 'no allowance' and go 'straight commission'). Clark Howard would love this too.
notahacker
I seem to be in a minority here because I actually like the name (grab 1fatpig.com whilst you're at it)

Impressive concept and execution even without you being new to web development and only working on it full time for being a month. Look and feel is great for the target audience, though I'd lose the script fonts though due to inconsistent rendering across browsers (they look awful on Firefox/Win for example) and I can't see you losing anything by changing them to something standard like italicised Georgia.

My gut feeling is that parents might baulk at the paid plan unless they're particularly generous with their allowances, but the great thing about your business model is that you should still earn off free accounts in active use via affiliate programs.

HeyLaughingBoy
It's pretty rare that I see a startup demo'd here that I think is actually useful as opposed to just being a fad/gimmick that will disappear in a month or two. This is a really great concept and the execution really draws me in.

Congratulations on your launch. I hope you're wildly successful.

olegious
Just wondering, what is your background? You say you've never done web development- have you done other types of dev work?
whiletruefork
Yes. I've got a BS CS & worked in industry as a developer for 4 years - mainly C & C++.
jordan0day
Really nice site, the idea makes a lot of sense and it seems like if you can get users, it should really take off. The design seems quite good, but like some of the other commenters, the small "notice" area at the top of each page seems like it could use a little more love. I think the name is memorable, and that's probably more important than any potential offense someone might take at the name.

Out of curiosity, could you explain the different services/apis you're using to get the list of products the kids search for? Are you just using the Amazon Product API or are there other services you're hitting too?

whiletruefork
There is some mixing of data sources, and in my opinion that is the 'core value' of the software. By aggregating item data from many sources I can generate a much clearer opinion of what an item is - and whether or not it fits with a specific kid. Not all of this is visible in the UI however, and a lot of the code was just me being a CS Nerd and probably won't materialize into the visible portions of the site in the near future.
jordan0day
Would you mind expanding on what other sources you're using? I ask in part because I'm taking the first steps on something similar (trying to aggregate product data from various sources). My email is in my profile if you'd prefer to discuss it there.