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Rate My Startup (Weekend Project): LaunchRock

19 points by jaymstr ↗ HN
http://launchrock.com/

We're wrapping up the Philly Startup Weekend project, and I wanted to get feedback on our project. I got inspired by the viral sign-up pages of Foodly and Hipster and decided to build a service for doing just that. Really, I wanted a simple idea to go into the weekend with and see if we could actually sign up a bunch of people before the presentation.

Love your feedback. Would you use this for your own startup?

30 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 97.4 ms ] thread
JalemGetz
I like the concept, looks like a great way to promote a new startup. Of course, the startup needs to be good too ;) Since I have a startup is there a way I can use your service/code? Note; we’ve already gone the hipster (I mean USEhipster) route with some success, but showing people their stats is a cool feature.
jaymstr
Ya, sign on up and refer some friends. ;) We're letting people into the WYSIWYG editor in the next few days. We've got the first few sites built on our platform launching soon (hopefully tonight). We're also creating a widget for you to use if you don't want to use our site builder/hosting.

The basic formula is very similar to the Forkly/Hipster strategy, but we've got some more ideas that we're going cooking up as well. We want to create a tool to help people launch, recruit, retain and build relationships with users.

JalemGetz
I’m liking the widget idea. Good luck with it.
seanMeverett
I want this now! I've signed up and pushed it out. Then had my biz partner do the same. Want to use it for our clients too. Pow.
nedwin
I was actually in the process of building something like this though for myself rather than as a service.

Have shot out the link, looking forward to setting it up in the lead up to our launch.

jaymstr
Awesome, what's the site? I'll look out for it.
nedwin
The landing page (which looks awful) is maxdandy.com. Shoot me an email off list and I'll shoot you what we've built to date - looks very similar to what you guys have done though my CSS is a little screwed at the moment. ned@nativedigital.com.au
cabalamat
I entered my email address and got this:

> Invite at least 3 friends using the link below. The more friends you invite, the sooner you’ll be able to use LaunchRock!

This reminds me of facebook apps that require you to invite your friends in order to get the full functionality. I'm not a big fan of this practice.

jaymstr
The point is to provide this functionality for other sites. We're using ourself to launch ourself. Once we're out of beta, you won't need to do the referrals. We think it's a good way to create hype about your new startup.
nhangen
A bit too MLM for my tastes.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
avree
Concept is reminiscent of http://unbounce.com/.

Since right now it's really just a copy of usehipster.com (as you say), it's difficult to 'rate' - what feedback are you hoping for?

jaymstr
We'd love to know what you think of it as a concept, and if you'd want to use this for your own site. Also, love to hear about any other features you'd like, other types of game dynamics that we might employ. We're trying to figure where to go from here.
strager
Does not accept my valid e-mail address: http://i.imgur.com/0mGgT.png
jaymstr
We do that so that you can't game the system with the same email address. + are invalid.
ThinkRob
> We do that so that you can't game the system with the same email address. + are invalid.

I'd urge you to reconsider.

I can understand why you'd do that, but honestly I don't think it'll help much. Anyone who wants to "game the system" will probably just use a couple throw-away addresses from a disposable address service or something similar.

Further, blocking the use of that character is an inconvenience to people like myself who use it to track where their mail comes from (i.e. if I get spam to 'mybox+launchrock@example.com', I know exactly who leaked/sold my address.)

johndbritton
Plus addressing is not very effective at preventing spam. Any spammer knows to throw away everything after the plus sign so that you can't track it.

I use multiple email addresses on my domain to track this kind of stuff. Also makes it so that you don't have to worry about sites not supporting plus addressing.

jaymstr
True, we definitely didn't think through this. We'll change that.
feedbackfred
I like the concept. Could be tweaked a bit. Now for a shamefully shameless self promotional plug, filled with extra shame and shame on top: I just a built a site where startups and other businesses submit their site in order to receive fast, actionable feedback from potential customers. The kicker is that the Top Feedback providers get a cash award for their insight, keeping the comments thoughtful and motivated. I'll foot the bill on the cash award for the first 10 companies that submit for the beta launch this week! Now, wasn't that the most awful, self indulgent shame filled promotional plug, ever?

- Fred http://feedbackfred.com http://twitter.com/thefeedbackfred

jaymstr
Fred, how do you think we could/should tweak it?
feedbackfred
In the case of Forkly, the benefit offered in exchange for the email is being on a "priority access list". That may be perfectly adequate in many cases, but I would simply build in the flexibility to allow each startup to define the number of people needed to sign up as well as the benefit for doing so.
ohadpr
actually needed this today, signed up, got some clicks on my invite URL, no feedback/response/login/invitation.

had to build my own eventually today.

jaymstr
We're rolling out people slowly from the top of the list since we're providing hosting. We should be starting with the top of the list.
veb
Would I use it for my startup? Probably not... because I've already made my own: http://www.lifelitup.com - it didn't take very long to make.

I do not have the viral parts, (invite 3 people) because as cabalamat said, it reminds me too much of Facebook Applications. I didn't want people spamming their friends.

Don't get me wrong, I think your service would be beneficial for sure, just make sure to include heaps of features, (i.e. no viralness) :-)

jaymstr
We're thinking about a lot of other types of game mechanics as well as features that don't include any game mechanics. Things like A/B testing of your messaging on the front page, in your tweets, on Facebook, etc.
whatevers2009
Can't see why I'd need a service to implement something basic like this?
cuppster
I've made one of those for practice at http://redlandsbuzz.com (my home town). It's backed by MailChimp. What I should do is place a unique cookie, then on the confirmation page, use it to provide referral links. Mine's running on WordPress...

MailChimp takes forever to redirect after submitting the form. They're API is faster...