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Ask YC: Review my webapp (crm/notebook/toy)

1 points by izak30 ↗ HN
This is a very lightweight CRM/Notebook.

http://www.mucrm.com

A couple of weekends ago I built this (~20 hrs). It was at first for myself (just a notebook really) and it evolved into a bit more.

It now has some import features (gmail contacts via most recently updates, and plaxo contact widget, which will work with anything) twitter integration, and OpenID, which I think makes it very useful as a tool.

I plan on charging $1.50/mo, but I'm going to open it up to HN users this week to signup forever for free. (thanks for being beta users!)

I know some things that you're going to say, so I'm going to address them already:

-Yes, you can signup with openID.

-Yes, you have to signup before you can use it.

-Yes, it's going to get a complete makeover by a pro designer before anybody pays to use it.

-If you want to use OpenID, it will take you to the buy page, once you're there, e-mail me (mucrm@mucrm.com) and I'll activate your account manually.

If you want a regular un/pw account, just use the buy code 'hackernews' to by-pass the paypal stuff.

Thanks in advance

7 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 22.7 ms ] thread
pedalpete
the main page leads to "The page you are looking for cannot be found". So, not a good start, but these things happen.

Then i tried logging in with openid, and that failed too.

So, i can't try it. and I can't say your description of 'CRM/Notebook' really gives me a good idea of how you are differentiating.

A demo video would be great, and is pretty much a must have for anything that a user doesn't understand in two seconds.

I think you spend more on managing a $1.50/mo charge than it is worth. I think you need to take a closer look at your business model and pricing. You should be able to figure out a way to provide a service and a way to monetize it where it is either free, or the user finds enough value that they would pay more than $1.50 for it. To me, $1.50 says that you aren't really valuing the app much.

Don't think about how much time you put into the app, or how much you'll make if you got 50,000 users. Think about it as how much value you are adding to your users and charge accordingly.

Are you the next SalesForce.com? I did a quick google search on CRM licensing and it seems companies are charging $10-40/month. So why are you so cheap?

izak30
RE: Main page... Whoops: fixed (my session was preventing me from seeing that..)

What issue were you having with openid? what provider? I've tried clickpass and myopenid.com, as well as a custom server built on the JanRain Library, and they all worked. (What should happen when you try to login with oid is to get the 'buy' page.. at that point, don't subscribe, e-mail me and I'll manually approve your account.)

The video idea is good, as a 15-30 sec video could explain just about everything, but I'll probably wait until the design is finished.

I don't plan on managing this much, other than possibly adding the most requested features, and upkeep. It's 100% a side project.

I feel like I could charge more, but I don't really have reason to. The differentiator is that it is cheap, simple, and light on features.

I don't need to make money on this, I just made an app for myself, and then decided to let others use it.

Thanks much.

pedalpete
SO i took a look at the video you posted, and because it says "screen replay demo" across the screen and you didn't do an voice over and even at full screen, the whole thing is so small, it is impossible to understand what you are offering and why I would use it.

My point about the price was that it is such a small amount that it is probably going to be more trouble for you to charge it than it is worth. If this is just a side project and you don't need/want to make money from it, then give it away. If you want to make a bit, I would charge more if you can justify it.

The openid issue was my error, sorry about that. I just tried logging in with openid and it takes me right to giving you my paypal details to charge. Nope, not gonna happen. I don't think you'll get any users like that without documentation, demos, trials, etc. Saying I can cancel at any time up to two weeks and not get charged just doesn't cut it.

No more for you!

hedgehog
I second pedalpete 100%.

Additionally, I would like to be able to see what the app does for me before signing up. Maybe that's a live demo, at least a good intro video, but so many new apps roll by on HN and other sites that I usually won't make an account unless I'm already really interested. I suspect that last bit is true for a lot of people.

izak30
Yeah, I'll definitely do a video, and a live demo wouldn't be too hard.

If there is any real interest (i.e. other people would use this besides me) I'd consider a live demo.

izak30
While I can't edit the main post anymore: I've re-worked OID so that for the time being, using your OID takes you directly to your account, no e-mailing me required.
izak30
I've now posted a _very_ provisional video without sound that shows baseline functionality.