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Ask HN: Built a nice iPhone app, built a web app now what?

4 points by raimille1 ↗ HN
I'm sure this is where many of us are or have been at some point, especially engineer-entrepreneurs, since we are all about the technology and the product. Would love to hear your comments.

I posted a few months ago we released www.heynay.com. We're 2 engineers, a designer and a lawyer with a common problem we wanted to solve: I need X, I only need it this weekend so I don't want to buy it, I need to pick it up locally and I'd like to pay my neighbor for the trouble.

What is heynay? It's a way to securely, conveniently, and inexpensively rent the thing you need when you need it, from your neighbor or someone who lives close to you.

So we build just that; a fully functional end to end neighbor to neighbor, location based, rental platform with integrated payments.

I literally finished the webapp 2 days ago and we're realizing the "build it and they will come" quote is not quite true. We've reached out to our local friends and have seen some engagement, but not the one we expected. People are too busy, and the ones that would use the app probably don't know about it.

We start wondering, did we not build the right solution? Do we explore pivot options? Do we pick our pockets and pay for local marketing? Do we go out on the streets and advertise?

Would love to hear those of you that have been in this spot and some of your comments, I'm always inspired by this community.

8 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 47.0 ms ] thread
josho
Yup, I've thought of building that system many times myself.

May I suggest attending events put on by local community associations. Run the idea by folks you meet there, see if any will sign up on the spot (use a paper signup form to keep it really simple), if they don't immediately signup find out what their reservations are. Rinse, Lather, Repeat and you will either find out how to position the product, get an idea for a direction to pivot, or give up.

Good luck.

raimille1
I think you're answer is go put boots on the ground, get off the keyboard and start marketing it. Thanks for the response!

+1 for community outreach.

wnoto
Thanks for your note. That's exactly what we are doing. I am hosting a table at a local strawberry festival tomorrow in Niskayuna, NY. Thanks again for your reply.
sjs382
Well, your #1 obstacle is to saturate your "market" with things that your users want to rent.

So, start by focusing on a single location. Also, focus on a specific niche that is often borrowed. Tools, maybe?

Allow your users to list other things, but focus on that specific niche. Hopefully you'll grow organically from there. Once your organic growth starts, kick it into gear with some advertising (especially location-based, focused on markets where you're more saturated).

raimille1
Great thank you, we really want to grow organically first.

I think you're absolutely right, no items, no users that can rent. Our main focus is to grow the database of items available, funny enough, our color is orange because we started as tools only, orange triggers a tool like feeling (thanks to home depot) ... We did think about broadening the categories to anything at your house, but focusing on a couple of local communities. Shouldn't make a difference if you're listing a chair or a hammer, the thing is we want to make you list something at your house.

Thanks for the feedback!!

PaulHoule
At my startup incubator they are always reminding me to talk to customers.

Why not try to track down 25 individuals and get them to sign up and offer something?

Once you apply what you learn from that and have a decent product then you should think more of the advertising and marketing, everything from posters to ads on local cable tv. "Organic growth" is not enough because you have to get a large amount of participation to make something that is (i) self-sustaining and (ii) replicable in other areas

PaulHoule
Note that it is fair to use "unfair" tactics here. If you can get one person to list 100 pieces of tools that they would want to lend out to get things working, do so. "Two sided" markets have a large hump to get over to sustainability, but boy do they give you a moat.
raimille1
Great tip! We'll keep it in mind ... I've even considered buying a couple of things to list that would be perfect to 'heynay'. Yeah, we want it to catch up as a verb ;) ...

Thanks for your comments, I think so far we have been confirmed that we have to engage users in non-traditional manners.