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Show HN: 597 days of iterating

15 points by alexcabrera ↗ HN
597 days ago, I posted about the project our team was developing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3183322 - here on HN, and today we're finally taking the wraps off what we've been working on since then.

At it's core, what we've been building is an end-to-end solution for creating, storing, and working with structured content in a way that's accessible to anyone. You can check out an introduction - http://team.marquee.by/introducing-marquee/ and dig into the technical/philosophical details of our approach - http://team.marquee.by/on-content/.

When we just started out and got rejected from YC's 2012 Winter class, HN provided us with invaluable feedback that greatly helped inform how we explored the space.

Today we sit a solid year and half later with something that we're not only proud of, but are incredibly excited about its potential. We've seen a lot of people enter the publishing space over that time (and seen some of them go), been through an accelerator program (TS NYC 2012), took a since-aborted stab at fundraising, launched one of Time's top 50 sites of 2013 on our platform - http://techland.time.com/2013/05/06/50-best-websites-2013/slide/narratively/ - and are starting to get a good bit of validation for where we had hoped to see the market go.

I'd love to get the HN community's thoughts on our progress and, more generally, our approach to the space.

6 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 18.6 ms ] thread
RyanZAG
Looks really good, seems like the kind of thing a lot of people need. It's not for me though - I don't have any content I want to publish yet, unfortunately.

I'm curious about how you came to the $8 a month figure though - any research behind that?

EDIT: You should also have a link to your actual product somewhere: http://marquee.by/

alexcabrera
Thanks, and I hope when you are ready to publish something, you'll consider us.

Pricing is, admittedly, a pretty by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of affair right now. We've tried to have pretty extensive conversations with our early users, assessed others in the space, and came up with something we think is reasonable. Time will tell, I suppose, if it'll need to be adjusted one way or the other.

Sealy
I just spent the last couple of minutes digging through links trying to understand what your product is and does. I would consider finding a simpler way of explaining your product in one sentence.

The blurb above and the link to your other HN post does not clearly describe your product or visions. It reads as a collection of thoughts.

The closest thing you have is this: Marquee is an easy to use, flexible platform that’s perfect for telling stories.

It looks like a kind of hybrid content management / blogging / editorial / tumblr platform. Is that correct?

Having said all of that, the site itself looks stunning. Without signing up, I have no doubt that it delivers the professional user experience that you advertise in your video guide. Focus on driving the business growth now and reap your rewards :)

jf22
I agree.

I think you are explaining your product with fairy dust and pixies at the moment whereas more useful businessy type words may convey your value better.

jwheeler79
My first impression is upon visiting the link provided, there's some text hovering over a notebook, and it just doesn't look professional. I don't know if it's because the text is not centered with the notebook or the font-family looks hastily chosen, but I didn't like it and it colored my opinion of what was probably to come.

I think also the fact that you mentioned beforehand that you've been working on this thing for two years and have tried to get all sorts of funding - that colored my opinion of your product in a negative way. It sounds like a product put together through struggle and not grace. I can't really articulate why that bothers me, maybe it's because I feel like you think that struggle might influence my purchasing decision, but I don't know you and all I care about is whether your product is right for me and going to make my life easier.

Back to your site, I spend the next 4 seconds scrolling my mouse wheel, saw a few graphics with text that I didn't bother reading, thought that it looked like the standard BS, and promptly closed the tab so I could get back to HN.

I'm not saying your product is junk. I'm telling you that you haven't persuaded me to take the time to explore it further at this point. I can't offer suggestions on how to do that, but I'm sure you'll find your way - don't ever give up.