Summary
About 5 months ago now, I launched my little social networking experiment called you-vs-me.com. The idea was that people could create discussions, and vote on things they prefer. Using that data, I would work hard at calculating compatibility. It seemed simple to create, and it looked as though it would be a web app that would get people talking.
What went right
I was right about a few things. It was a good idea (for the most part). The design looked inviting, and I got compliments that the app didn’t look like it was made by one guy in his free time. The app was fairly simple to use, and the user interactions seemed meaningful. I was also right that it got people talking. The Twitter integration brought me the majority of my traffic, and even got me some media attention. The first month had me thinking that my idea was taking off as planned.
What went wrong
There are a lot of things I didn’t do right. One of the worst things I did was removing the invite codes too early. I found that it was way easier to market you-vs-me as a closed beta app that was invite only. The other things I did wrong was not using a service like Facebook connect, or OpenID, and not utilizing Twitter to its full potential. I spent too much time thinking about how my app would scale if it got popular, than trying to help it get popular. I think that’s probably a common mistake when a developer sees some early success, but it’s so much easier to just pay a little more for hosting (which I did too).
Unfortunately, even if I had done all of the above right, I think that the concept of the site was just too limiting. I had not given people enough reason to sign in. The app could have been better executed as a powerful API, and Facebook app. But even then, the compatibility algorithm I had created was weak at best, and quite buggy early on. My plan was to use my smoke and mirrors parlor trick compatibility calculation until I could make something compelling. What could have been the focal point of the app just wasn’t powerful enough to convince anyone.
Conclusion
I can feel pretty good that I made a quality application that gave me some great programming, business, and marketing experience. I’m still looking for the next great idea, and right now I’m still not sure what direction to go. Whether I am going towards mobile, web, or some sort of business service as my next side project, I think I learned some valuable lessons.
This entry was written by , posted on August 2, 2009 at 8:55 am, filed under Business, IRL, Web. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Why wouldn’t you consider building the facebook app now? You’re only five months into the startup, its too early to say it has gone under.
Ryan, could you email me? I want to tell you how, if you do an interview with me, you could help other entrepreneurs.
After you bounce back and are ready for another go please contact me (email in the comment, or victusfate on twitter, or messel on friendfeed).
I’ve got something cooking that I could use an additional developer/founder on and if you think the idea has traction and you could contribute, we can leverage your hard earned experience once again.
5 months and you’re post-mortem? My friend, you seem to have startup A.D.D. I think most founders will tell you that the first year to year and a half are going to be really hard. It takes time before you begin to experience that word of mouth exponential growth.
Here are some suggestions after trying your app today:
1) It was not blatantly obvious how to CREATE a new “vs.” discussion. I entered my own terms, then it said I had to be logged in to create a topic. But, I had to create an account, so instead I’d have to hit your create an account link, sign-up, and try all over again, retyping my topics.
- If the “vs.” doesn’t exist, just show the login form to create the topic, no click, if not logged in.
- If you don’t have an account, just SHOW the create an account form so I can create a topic AND my account in step.
2) After creating an account and re-creating my topic, I DID want to post it to my twitter, but I did NOT want to login to my twitter to do this, why not create a bit.ly URL for the new topic instantly, and then I click a link that redirects me to twitter with the update in the URL query string?
I think simple things can massively improve usability in social apps. Extra clicks, extra steps, extra logins will drag you down.
By the way, here is the link to my new topic:
“Release early release often VS completed app”
http://bit.ly/16fbsO
or direct
http://you-vs-me.com/release-early-release-often-vs-completed-app
First of all.
You should definitely listen to Andrew Warner, and you should definitely check out his site.
Secondly. Startups dont die because they failed, they die because they committed suicide.
So you got it wrong. Big deal, go back, figure it out and get it right.
And besides, maybe this transparency will bring you some much need inspiration.
Good luck my man.
Seriously, five months is WAY to little time to think an idea failed. Try for 5 or 6 times that and see what happens.
Thanks for sharing Ryan! Good luck on your next idea!
My advice is to have little marketing experiments and see what works best.
… this post may help the app get the additional attention it needs. Deliberate? Who cares! I love the idea. Good luck to you Ryan