Y Combinator Feedback on Your Site: It hurts so good

[theoneill]

it was all web designer input and there was none regarding the actual concept, business model or use of the application

That's not because the users of this site are web designers. Mostly they're developers. It was because the design of the site was so bad that most visitors got held up there. This also explains the low sign-up rate, which you explain as a property of the audience. I think it is more likely a property of the site.

[jgrahamc]

I agree. Based on this posting I went to look at the site and it's clear that this is not ready to be public. It needs a private beta with some really critical thinking going on.

Also, the main page has an it's/its mistake on it which makes it look unready.

It's not surprising that the benefit didn't pop out.

[theremora]

Yes, I did mention exactly that in the post "Granted, the blame is mostly ours, due to a less than attractive design and muddy benefit message, maybe most could not see past that to get to the business proposition."

[johnrob]

"Out of 350 or so visitors, we got 4 sign ups"

The ycnews crowd may not be your target audience. Perhaps they they are too busy hacking their own stuff to bother researching other startups :)

[sspencer]

This is dead on. A site has to be extremely innovative and useful for me to sink even the time to register into it. Conversely, even a decently useful-looking site with an overly complex registration process usually gets bypassed as well.

Extremely fast-registering sites (like Hacker News, for example) have spoiled me. ;)

[dkokelley]

I'm glad you've brought your site to be picked apart by the News.YC group. Judging by this blog post you're doing exactly what you should be doing: Listening to the suggestions and adapting as needed. Good luck with this!

[marcus]

Next time when you ask for feedback for a site that requires registration, please provide a few demo logins we can play with.

[axod]

Or just make the registration simple. Ask for a username and password and nothing more.

[Zak]

"You must log in to access FAQ"

I think the only valid response to that is "WTF?"

[theremora]

Yeah, we have some really secret and highly proprietary stuff in there. :) Sorry, that is just an oversight, not meant to be like that.

[edw519]

Wow! This is one of the most insightful and helpful posts ever. (Many of us are in the same boat.)

Your site may not be ready, but you guys sure seem like you're on the ball. Thank you and good luck!