- I would prefer a smoother transition to play the video, otherwise it seems I navigated to a different page. Better yet, I would prefer to see the video without "leaving" the landing page
- the screenshot with the 2x3 menu looks but, but I would love to see a drilldown to get a feeling of what kind of suggestions I can get
Anyway I would love a product like this IF the suggestions match my taste.
As a geek, I must ask: are the suggestions curated, 100% automatic or a mix? I'm guessing a mix between user suggestions and some kind of recommendation system
I can't speak for the developer, but my response to 'why not android' is generally:
- Development is easier on iOS (APIs, number of devices etc), and a higher level of quality can be achieved with less effort.
- It's hard to saturate a market of 700 million devices.
Basically until it seems like all iOS that have downloaded will, there seems no need to go Android. You're doubling the development effort, support costs etc for little gain.
I'd counter that with the fact that this is a social app, and thus depends on being able to saturate networks of people. This means that if someone that does interesting things wants to share those on this app, and happen to have Android, you could have lost a really valuable "node" that could have helped you saturate both markets more.
Yeah totally, in theory it makes sense with a social app to consider as many platforms as possible.
Though in practise I haven't seen it hurt social networks that start on iOS. Instagram is the obvious example.
Keep in mind 700million is a really big number of addressable users, and there will be plenty of valuable node / users there.
I guess my point is still that if you're struggling on iOS in the early days, it's not because your app isn't available to 'enough' people, its because something else is wrong, which more platforms almost certainly won't fix.
Some suggestions:
- Must have: Filter on tags (Tech, Gadgets, Fashion, Beauty, ...)
- I guess one might want to add a picture from Instagram to "I must have" or "you must have".
And then I want to check a picture and say: I've done that! Would' recommend.
The images/iconography appear to be @1x resolution, making things appear blurry on my MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I'm guessing it would be the same on my iPhone or iPad.
The site is clear and beautiful, as needed for a new product.
But you ask us to review your startup and not your website right ? :)
So here's my thought on your product: Having "must have" content on one platform is a good idea. It then garantees new & quality content. But my question is about this very content: How will you filter the photos in order to keep a great content while filling up your user base? is there moderators or content-filtering algorithms? Because in case you haven't thought of that, the risk for your app is to besome an lesser instagram...
Great design work though !
(sorry for my poor english)
Product's purpose is clearly communicated in the first paragraph, and as a bonus even the title bar. Bravo! I really can't complain about the website.
I can't use the app (Windows Phone) but I'd definitely try it out if it was available. Maybe provide an email notification option for Android and Windows Phone.
Slick website and an interesting idea, unfortunately I'm on android so can't check it out.
I hate to be that HN guy, but when I first went to your site, I spent nearly 10 seconds looking at a frozen image of a car, with no text or anything, wondering what was going on. Then the hero video started playing and the text was then rendered, but I couldn't actually read the text because there was so much going on behind it. I also didn't notice the play video button until I read some of the comments here too. If I was you I would ditch the hero video and go with something less distracting and less heavy on the page (scrolling was pretty laggy too). It's a shame because the rest of the page looks great and has good copy, but I'd suspect you'd lose quite a few readers in those first 5-10 seconds.
It was 30 seconds for the full landing page to show for me, and 17 seconds before the hook text flew onto the page.
The front page is over 8 megs, and even with a primed cache there are 4 megs which must be downloaded before I can even view the landing page. This will be hell for mobile users.
I agree with the parent, this will not be acceptable for many folks. After all, if your website abandon rates will rise by 5% for every second it takes to load, how many will be around after 10, 20, 30 seconds?
And while I hate to be "that guy", what value does the dynamic loading provide the end user? What could not be done with a static webpage animated with Javascript after the assets have been loaded?
- The video added nothing of value for me. I felt like I wasted 1:20 on what could just as easily have been a SquareSpace or Adidas commercial. I'm not sure why the video doesn't just...show me what the product does and why I'd want it.
- The rest of the site probably does tell me that, but it uses a wall of text to do so. Since I've already wasted 90 seconds by the time I get to the wall of text, I'm in low-fi skim mode.
My takeaway: it's some kind of photo-sharing app. I'm not sure why I'd want it.
Don't have a video playing in the background. Even if there's no audio, it makes foreground text harder to read than it should be.
If you're going to play a video, however, play something useful. This video was so bland that I have no reason to believe that it wasn't stock footage. Ask yourself why you wanted to include the video and give it a very long, very hard second thought.
I personally wouldn't use it. It isn't a huge step up vs. sharing something on Facebook/Twitter. Doesn't justify me installing a whole new app and evangelizing my network to join it.
That seems unfair. Those platforms don't even attempt the functionality being posed here (from what I gather).
All those platforms allow photo sharing, true. But the ability to categorize photos into experiences for reference isn't even covered in those other applications.
It's like saying snapchat isn't a step-up from twitter. It doesn't have to be... it isn't the same category.
How are you going to sell it? There's an age-old issue with making money with social networks. Either you allow people to be free-loaders and make it totally free, or you sell your users to keep it afloat.
Why do I want it? It seems like... Instagram. Just, that. Let me illustrate by analyzing the main value prop:
"Must is a free lifestyle photo recommendation app for discovering, capturing, and sharing new experiences across the world."
So:
* free: (above)
* lifestyle: so like, anything from awesome to anodyne? I would think you'd only want to reward things that other people think are cool, as a social network.
* recommendation: you can't sell personalization as a product. You can try after five years of having a product, maybe. But as an MVP you have *literally no data.*
* capturing, sharing: so, Instagram.
* new experiences: so, just photos? Or do you have a cool trick up your sleeve? This spot could be your saving grace: if you find a new way to capture events like Snapchat did with 7-second videos, then *everything else written here is invalid.* Otherwise, *yawn.*
* across the world: these three words are wasting my time. Don't waste time. With the advent of the Internet, basically every startup could say this. Why don't they? Because it's a waste of time.
Hopefully this doesn't come across as ranty and horrible because I would like to see you succeed. (In fact, I'm being somewhat nice. If you caught a YC partner on a bad day with something like this, you might get something a little worse. ;)
Maybe it's just me, but I found the copy insufferable. I don't think I'm the target audience, but there's some irony in hitting a wall of text complaining about how people write too much and think they're Shakespeare. It could be a lot clearer and more direct.
Agreed. Worth taking the whole thing and first running it through the filter of 'WIFM' (i.e., the first question you answer shouldn't be 'What type of app is Must?', but instead, 'What does Must do for me, the user?').
"OOOHH, that's how it's NOT Instagram. Why didn't they say so earlier? That weird copy about Shakespeare and 'trailing' [sic] wasn't actually an ad for Instagram."
Be direct and get to your value proposition much sooner than 3 pages down or whatever. I actually could see myself using this app, or at least trying it, but not when the entire hook upfront is "share photos."
Also, the name is very bad. I get it, "must do, must drink, must see," etc. The URL alone makes me twitch.
Website looks neat, but am I the only one who, when they see a website that loads as you scroll, scrolls all the way to the bottom to pre-load everything then go back to the top and start again. There should be a plugin to pre-load websites like this.
You need to do more, sooner, to emphasize that it is not a photo sharing app. The recommendations aren't the photos, but what's in them. It is for experience-sharing. It is closer to Pinterest than Instagram, but the impression you give is the latter.
You would do well to emphasize this through features in the app. The interactions you need people to have with the app are a full cycle: save, do, respond and do, share, get feedback (not just save and share). Reward users for coming back and checking off a saved experience, and reward users when someone does an experience they recommended.
Or whatever actual, better feature you have in mind that emphasizes experiences over photos and encourages the full cycle. But do it soon, and simplify.
The pictures on the front page seemed like they should be static as opposed to stuttery and changing. (Version 41.0.2272.89 (64-bit) MacOS-X)
I think the video needs to explain the app a little more too. I agree with the sentiments of the video though and love the design.
After I went through the tutorial in-app it took a while to load just showing me a white screen. Some sample data would be nice to start with. A bit more direction in-app would be helpful.
Overall I like the concept and the idea but the implementation needs a bit of work. It's a very compelling concept and it sounds like something I would use while travelling.
A few brand things - If you take the "getmustapp" apart, your app is named "Must". So your domain, should, probably, be "must". Similarly, "must" seems to remind me of the phrase "musty".
Your website photo loads before the text, and describes a "recommendation app" that "speaks with photos". My brain has a hard time merging these two to understand it.
What is even a photo recommendation app? Do I take a photo of milk and say "this is good milk?"
The photo at the bottom that discusses "must have" and "must drink", makes it seem a bit like a pinterest?
The valuations of all of these companies are based on massive userbase turning into eventual profit per user. Your whole usage then will depend on getting massive amounts of people to use this thing - instead of the existing things.
Instagram (or Flickr, etc) are a bit more open ended, and not so consumer focused... so they can also be used to say "this is about my style" or whatever, versus consumer buying. Which to me, is more interesting, rather than bragging about what someone bought or where they ate.
39 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 97.8 ms ] thread- I would prefer a smoother transition to play the video, otherwise it seems I navigated to a different page. Better yet, I would prefer to see the video without "leaving" the landing page - the screenshot with the 2x3 menu looks but, but I would love to see a drilldown to get a feeling of what kind of suggestions I can get Anyway I would love a product like this IF the suggestions match my taste.
As a geek, I must ask: are the suggestions curated, 100% automatic or a mix? I'm guessing a mix between user suggestions and some kind of recommendation system
And why U no android? :)
- Development is easier on iOS (APIs, number of devices etc), and a higher level of quality can be achieved with less effort. - It's hard to saturate a market of 700 million devices.
Basically until it seems like all iOS that have downloaded will, there seems no need to go Android. You're doubling the development effort, support costs etc for little gain.
Though in practise I haven't seen it hurt social networks that start on iOS. Instagram is the obvious example.
Keep in mind 700million is a really big number of addressable users, and there will be plenty of valuable node / users there.
I guess my point is still that if you're struggling on iOS in the early days, it's not because your app isn't available to 'enough' people, its because something else is wrong, which more platforms almost certainly won't fix.
Some suggestions: - Must have: Filter on tags (Tech, Gadgets, Fashion, Beauty, ...) - I guess one might want to add a picture from Instagram to "I must have" or "you must have".
And then I want to check a picture and say: I've done that! Would' recommend.
The images/iconography appear to be @1x resolution, making things appear blurry on my MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I'm guessing it would be the same on my iPhone or iPad.
But you ask us to review your startup and not your website right ? :)
So here's my thought on your product: Having "must have" content on one platform is a good idea. It then garantees new & quality content. But my question is about this very content: How will you filter the photos in order to keep a great content while filling up your user base? is there moderators or content-filtering algorithms? Because in case you haven't thought of that, the risk for your app is to besome an lesser instagram...
Great design work though ! (sorry for my poor english)
I can't use the app (Windows Phone) but I'd definitely try it out if it was available. Maybe provide an email notification option for Android and Windows Phone.
I hate to be that HN guy, but when I first went to your site, I spent nearly 10 seconds looking at a frozen image of a car, with no text or anything, wondering what was going on. Then the hero video started playing and the text was then rendered, but I couldn't actually read the text because there was so much going on behind it. I also didn't notice the play video button until I read some of the comments here too. If I was you I would ditch the hero video and go with something less distracting and less heavy on the page (scrolling was pretty laggy too). It's a shame because the rest of the page looks great and has good copy, but I'd suspect you'd lose quite a few readers in those first 5-10 seconds.
The front page is over 8 megs, and even with a primed cache there are 4 megs which must be downloaded before I can even view the landing page. This will be hell for mobile users.
I agree with the parent, this will not be acceptable for many folks. After all, if your website abandon rates will rise by 5% for every second it takes to load, how many will be around after 10, 20, 30 seconds?
And while I hate to be "that guy", what value does the dynamic loading provide the end user? What could not be done with a static webpage animated with Javascript after the assets have been loaded?
1) Redirect http://www.getmustapp.com to https://getmustapp.com, with www or without, with https or without
2) Cursor: default, not text
3) The second image of the mobile example is clickable and goes to the image "zoom"
4) The email subscriber it's not clear enough to me, where should I enter de email?...
5) Not favicon
- The video added nothing of value for me. I felt like I wasted 1:20 on what could just as easily have been a SquareSpace or Adidas commercial. I'm not sure why the video doesn't just...show me what the product does and why I'd want it.
- The rest of the site probably does tell me that, but it uses a wall of text to do so. Since I've already wasted 90 seconds by the time I get to the wall of text, I'm in low-fi skim mode.
My takeaway: it's some kind of photo-sharing app. I'm not sure why I'd want it.
Hope this helps.
If you're going to play a video, however, play something useful. This video was so bland that I have no reason to believe that it wasn't stock footage. Ask yourself why you wanted to include the video and give it a very long, very hard second thought.
All those platforms allow photo sharing, true. But the ability to categorize photos into experiences for reference isn't even covered in those other applications.
It's like saying snapchat isn't a step-up from twitter. It doesn't have to be... it isn't the same category.
Snapchat on the other hand is vastly differentiated from services such as twitter.
Then I scrolled down and skimmed through. It's Instagram with categories or something I think?
Why do I want it? It seems like... Instagram. Just, that. Let me illustrate by analyzing the main value prop:
So: Hopefully this doesn't come across as ranty and horrible because I would like to see you succeed. (In fact, I'm being somewhat nice. If you caught a YC partner on a bad day with something like this, you might get something a little worse. ;)I wish you luck.
Then, worth taking all the copy and running it through http://www.hemingwayapp.com.
"So, Instagram?"
"Instagram... This is Instagram."
"OOOHH, that's how it's NOT Instagram. Why didn't they say so earlier? That weird copy about Shakespeare and 'trailing' [sic] wasn't actually an ad for Instagram."
Be direct and get to your value proposition much sooner than 3 pages down or whatever. I actually could see myself using this app, or at least trying it, but not when the entire hook upfront is "share photos."
Also, the name is very bad. I get it, "must do, must drink, must see," etc. The URL alone makes me twitch.
You need to do more, sooner, to emphasize that it is not a photo sharing app. The recommendations aren't the photos, but what's in them. It is for experience-sharing. It is closer to Pinterest than Instagram, but the impression you give is the latter.
You would do well to emphasize this through features in the app. The interactions you need people to have with the app are a full cycle: save, do, respond and do, share, get feedback (not just save and share). Reward users for coming back and checking off a saved experience, and reward users when someone does an experience they recommended.
Or whatever actual, better feature you have in mind that emphasizes experiences over photos and encourages the full cycle. But do it soon, and simplify.
I read the copy, watched the video and until I scrolled down, I didn't get what it was all about, and why "must".
I think the video needs to explain the app a little more too. I agree with the sentiments of the video though and love the design.
After I went through the tutorial in-app it took a while to load just showing me a white screen. Some sample data would be nice to start with. A bit more direction in-app would be helpful.
Overall I like the concept and the idea but the implementation needs a bit of work. It's a very compelling concept and it sounds like something I would use while travelling.
Your website photo loads before the text, and describes a "recommendation app" that "speaks with photos". My brain has a hard time merging these two to understand it.
What is even a photo recommendation app? Do I take a photo of milk and say "this is good milk?"
The photo at the bottom that discusses "must have" and "must drink", makes it seem a bit like a pinterest?
The valuations of all of these companies are based on massive userbase turning into eventual profit per user. Your whole usage then will depend on getting massive amounts of people to use this thing - instead of the existing things.
Instagram (or Flickr, etc) are a bit more open ended, and not so consumer focused... so they can also be used to say "this is about my style" or whatever, versus consumer buying. Which to me, is more interesting, rather than bragging about what someone bought or where they ate.
(Also, I'm boring.)