Ask HN: Review my bootstrapped startup, Moment Garden
My co-founder and I created Moment Garden as a simple and secure site for parents to save and share memories of their children with their close family & friends.
We allow parents to save stories, photos, and even video by simply emailing their moment to their child's custom Moment Garden email address (e.g. billy.smith@momentgarden.com), much like Posterous does for blogs.
All data is private by default, and parents have complete control over which family and friends have access to view their Moment Garden timeline and receive updates of new moments.
We have not officially "launched" (as in sought out press), yet through word of mouth we have seen some good, early growth.
We'd appreciate feedback from HN regarding the site, the messaging, usability, and usefulness. Any other ideas are welcome and appreciated as well!
http://momentgarden.com
28 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 21.8 ms ] threadAdditionally, we're exploring a premium version with more advanced features that our users have asked for.
Currently we use a combination of Facebook and email to get stories and pics out to people. So it would be nice if we could continue using them that way (ie. family members subscribe via email, and when we post something it automatically emails them the new text/pics AND it also posts on our facebook accounts)
My husband's response when I showed him the link: "thats brilliant / why didnt i think of that / damnit / its awesome" (over IM)
We hope you like it, and feel free to send any comments/questions our way!
Question: on the technical side, what languages/frameworks do you guys use?
In addition, I'd love to talk to you about providing outbound transactional emails.
Good luck with this, cheers!
Great feedback and we definitely need to make that more clear on our site! Thanks.
We're working on a "family" view so you can see all your kids in a single timeline. If a user wants to email a moment for two kids, they could add them both to the "to:" field and we'll show it in each of the recipient's garden and eventually combine them in the family view. However, you're right - from the web, this is not possible yet. We tried to keep things as simple as possible, but this is something we'll have to consider going forward.
I have a pretty horrible memory, and I'd like a simple site what I can email or SMS or enter posts about things I do, or random memories from my childhood. When I get older, I'll wish I had entered them all somewhere.
Privacy would be my main concern - I'd want to permission it only to my wife and children, and maybe a few others. I'd want my data encrypted, so admins can't even see it.
Something like this would also be great for couples - documenting relationships over time and being able to look back on them later. Emails could automatically go out on a certain date every year to remind you of something that happened on that date.
Also important would be getting my memories out. If the system ever went defunct, I'd want my data emailed to me or something.
Privacy is a big deal for our users and we take it seriously. Only the people you elect to see your garden will see it. Data encryption for storage and transportation (SSL) is on the horizon.
We're currently working on an export feature to automate the retrieval of your moments but in the mean time, if you email us we'll zip them up for you.
It's funny you mentioned the relationship use case since we have a few users that are already using it for that. One of them is using it like a time capsule and giving it to her boyfriend for their 1 year anniversary.
I would love an ipad app so stuff I shared would show up on a dashboard for grandma and grandpa who arent competent at using the internet (i.e. picture frame which shows the newest stuff from the kids)
I also saved a bunch of events like first food etc that I lost during a hard drive crash, love the idea of emailing to mark the events.
One suggestion: Put up a real example, so people can play with the app immediately.
And I really like your idea of putting a real Moment Garden on the home page to allow interaction. You're right, that would help visitors grok the concept.
i) They loved the idea - first impression: Aww cutee!! (Which is awesome!)
ii) They didn't know what to do with the main page, how to get started - they missed the big orange join now button. Drive the getting started process harder.
iii) Felt confused by so much info about apps and such in the bottom - get them in first then go into benefits. They said you could totally do away with "Why you'll love Moment Garden..." on the main page - they were sold at "Create and Share your Child's Story". Just say how it’s easy and private – sold!
iv) They thought it might be hard to maintain, tell them quickly on main page how it’s easy to keep updated with emailing. Upload a short video maybe?
v) They have already had their kids, and thought "I missed my first child's Moment Garden, so I will start with the next one I guess", if someone ever says I’ll will come back later, they are never coming back, promise! I think this is because you start with conception in your main page image, most parents don't think about this stuff till they have a baby, my suggestion is to start with first steps, so you don't alienate existing parents (many) at the cost of trying to capture future parents (few).
vi) There is totally a need! If you don't succeed it’s your own fault. So never back off! :)
We're working on a few of these now, based on your feedback. Do you mind sending me an email? zack@momentgarden.com