Show HN: I learned to code to launch my new startup (uncover.com)
Please check it out. I spent all of 2012 learning to code to launch what would eventually become Uncover. I'm super excited to announce that we're finally live.
Here's a blog post I wrote on how we got there and a little story behind the startup: http://spencerfry.com/introducing-uncover
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 141 ms ] threadWould love to read more about your pathway towards the launch, e.g. how your coding came along, etc.
But I am on the struggle, "is this worthy", full of doubts stage. I hope I can learn a thing or two from you...
I remember Paige Craig was working on something similar. There was a business there but then when they scaled up sales it didn't seem like the model worked (not enough demand). Maybe there's something different here or will be executed on better?
Either way, it looks nice and it's awesome you learned to code to start your startup! I'm only in the beginning stages of learning to code, but it's already helping me interact with the developers and designers I'm working with. It's hard to juggle learning with working.
With Uncover, you can provide both ongoing perks as well as individual recognition. We call those two products "Benefits" and "Rewards".
http://spencerfry.com/why-and-when-to-learn-to-program
I'll follow up with some more code posts in the future. I wanted to keep the "Introducing Uncover" post to be focused on the startup.
One minor thing - it took me about 7-10 seconds to understand what your product is. I should be able to understand within 2 seconds. You should put in big letters towards the top: "Employee Recognition Program" or something a little more sales-y.
RE: url Even in 2006-2007 that domain wouldn't have been cheap. Kudos for sitting on it that long without getting ants in your pants.
We have a feature called Rewards that allow employers to reward employees for going the extra mile. With that feature you can reward one or more employees and tailor the gift and message to them.
In the true spirit of "Show HN" though, how about sharing some code?
http://spencerfry.com/why-and-when-to-learn-to-program
I wanted to keep the most recent blog post solely focused on Uncover. I'll follow up with more coding posts shortly.
One thing that caught my attention and raised a red flag though was the $5 per employee mention on the how it works page. Why not state that upfront elsewhere, maybe even having a pricing page?
http://spencerfry.com/why-and-when-to-learn-to-program
I started learning to code in February, 2012 and have been going at it ever since. I've had great mentors and it's taken what feels like a long time to get to where I am.
Could you maybe test switching the left and right part of the above the fold part?
When I visited I started reading something about Sushi making and assumed you were teaching sushi classes.
suggestion - I'm not sure if you have this as a feature (I'd suspect you do) -- but allowing employees to vote on their perks would be great. Like if when company HR managers (or who ever sets team budgets) set the budget, they could go to your site, input that data, and know how many "points" (essentially dollars) worth of perks they can afford. Then employees could log on, and vote for which perks they like the most, and that's how the company could decide their perks plans
That's a very interesting idea. We've had some similar thoughts that I think we'll begin to start incorporating over the next few months. We want employees to have more involvement in the benefits, but at the same time make sure that the employer can customize Uncover for the type of culture they want to create. For example, we have some beta customers that have books clubs at their company and are now using Uncover to facilitate that.
That would fit in perfectly with the book club -- employees who want to fund something like that have two avenues -- get their club recognized by HR in the budget, or if interest is high enough they can get enough votes to put it in the employee perk budget.
I could see the program working in certain businesses, but managers need to be trained to use it correctly, especially in creative fields: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html