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Ask HN: How should I find customers for my product?

7 points by k00b ↗ HN
I’m having trouble determining whether I’m selling my product wrong or I’m selling my product right enough and I just need to remain persistent.

What I’m trying to sell is https://choremate.co. I explain how it works in depth here: https://keyankousha.com/the-best-chore-chart-in-the-world.html

So far I’ve tried a few things: 1. talking to local student housing coops 2. sitting on the UC Davis campus with a sign “free candy for advice” and asking for their opinions on the product/pitching it (I’d get ~5-8 people/hr coming up) 3. reaching out to people looking for roommates on craigslist (but I was understandably banned for doing that)

I was able to iterate quite a bit from the “free candy” approach as that had the most signal but it isn’t viable anymore given the pandemic, and it still didn’t result in any sales. Similarly the student coops are empty now.

Basically, am I doing this right? Am I supposed to feel this uncertain? Any advice? I’m a programmer by trade and temperament, doing this without co-founders or mentors, so it’s hard to know what to do or expect.

10 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 17.3 ms ] thread
helph67
How about providing demo versions to a few purposefully chosen sites (widely distributed geographically)? These would automatically require being updated to the PAID version after X months. If the money starts rolling in, you're on a winner otherwise you should have many users with plenty of feedback.
k00b
First of all, thanks for the help!

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what you mean exactly. Do you mean finding someone to white label the product?

helph67
No, just that distributing the current form of your app (requiring update after X months) to a few sites may generate potential customers and should also provide plenty of feedback from those users. I do find it useful to actually watch a novice user trying to use an app without my immediate assistance. You can learn a lot by doing so, some of it may be useful!
k00b
I see, thanks!
anthony_franco
Well, did you improve the product based on what the "free candy" people said? Were you able to determine the reasons they didn't buy and then improve your product accordingly?

Seems you should be improving your product/product positioning more. That would make marketing a lot easier.

k00b
Thanks for the questions!

Their feedback wasn’t terribly direct, but what they did say I addressed. They mostly seemed disinterested in a solution while very much agreeing about the problem. From what I gathered they don’t buy because they can only buy if their housemates more or less unanimously agree to buy too, and their housemates weren’t present. They also have the normal sign up skepticism I assume any product might face.

I’m not sure what features I could add to more easily attract customers, given I have a hard time just getting people to sign up and add housemates. They aren’t trying and churning yet unfortunately. Sign up friction is low: your email address and your housemates’ email addresses and you’re ready to go. It makes more sense to me it’d be a positioning issue at this stage.

I haven’t really tried any online marketing channels yet which might allow me to discover better positioning.

That was helpful, thanks!

wmeredith
Giving you my email address and then someone else’s email address, one that I probably have to look up, and one I should definitely go get permission from before sharing isn’t low friction.
k00b
Good point, thanks!
Jack000
This seems like a difficult niche because you're selling to a demographic that doesn't have a lot of disposable income. There are monetized chore apps, so it's certainly not impossible though.

I would make the app free, try to climb the ranks of the SERP page for "chore chart" or similar. When you have more users there are a lot more options for monetization, including freemium/affiliate products or even just ads.

I'd also change the messaging a bit. Everyone says their widget is the number one widget, it's just kind of meaningless. It would be good if you can provide social proof - real users of the app and the benefits they received after using it.

k00b
I've thought about monetization a bit. I think the move is "you only pay when you don't do your chores." Choremate's big differentiator is small and gradual punishments. The site would collect the financial punishments. As you say, charging money in a form like a subscription might be a nonstarter for the demographic.

I haven't explored SEO in choremate much but I know its a fantastic acquisition channel based on one of my other projects.

The tagline used to be "The Chore Chart for Adults" but I think it read as a practical joke for some people. The big differentiator of choremate is small and gradual punishments for not doing chores, but putting this forefront when talking to users turned them off. They don't want a picture of the sausage being made on the package.

Social proof would be great and I'll definitely leverage it when I have some. My household is the only household using it right now though lol.

Solid suggestions all around, thanks!

P.S. Checked out http://jack.works and http://jack.ventures. Very cool!