Ask HN: Should I continue with my bootstrapped startup?
11 comments
I looked at your site and then went to usersnap. Overall, both ideas are good but usersnap is beating you in terms of landing page/design and most likely sales/marketing efforts. For example, on your landing page, there is no clear way of knowing what bugmuncher is for. Sure, I want to "Fix bugs like a boss!" but how ? Then I realize you have a small text description "BugMuncher is the best way to receive feedback on your website. With BugMuncher annotated screenshots can easily be sent along with feedback reports, making it ideal for internal use, as well as getting feedback and bug reports from your users." Why not make this prominent ? Usersnap smartly says "Screenshot is worth a thousand words" and we know immediately what it is about.
I would not throw in the towel yet. Functionality wise, your demo video is pretty cool. Other than work on your landing page, you definitely need to go out and do sales/marketing. Stop working on the product and turn your sales/marketing hat on. Get help from someone who knows this better than you do if possible.
I would not throw in the towel yet. Functionality wise, your demo video is pretty cool. Other than work on your landing page, you definitely need to go out and do sales/marketing. Stop working on the product and turn your sales/marketing hat on. Get help from someone who knows this better than you do if possible.
Totally agree that the home page needs to be redesigned. I've just started talking to a designer with a view to replace the current themeforest template with something custom and much better.
I've just cleared my trello to do list of everything but 'MARKETING'
Stop working on the product and turn your sales/marketing hat on.
I've just cleared my trello to do list of everything but 'MARKETING'
Have you even identified your target market yet?
It's not a bad idea, I just don't think you've gotten the other part of the startup right yet (sales and marketing).
I don't mind helping you with your idea (to guide you in a sense). I've given advice to a couple others before.
I think if you clearly identified your target market and then attacked them directly, you would find some success. Also, your landing page needs to become more "pretty".
Even though it doesn't look that bad, it kind of has the early 2000s Java web-tool look.
It's not a bad idea, I just don't think you've gotten the other part of the startup right yet (sales and marketing).
I don't mind helping you with your idea (to guide you in a sense). I've given advice to a couple others before.
I think if you clearly identified your target market and then attacked them directly, you would find some success. Also, your landing page needs to become more "pretty".
Even though it doesn't look that bad, it kind of has the early 2000s Java web-tool look.
Thanks for the feedback, I'm pretty typical as a programmer, little to no marketing skills. I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer.
In terms of target market, I think I'm a step behind that, I'm not even sure what BugMuncher should be used for: bug reporting on live sites, team communication during development, are cross browser issues important?
Should it be a fully featured issue tracker (crowded market) or should it just integrate with existing tools?
I kind of feel like I'm throwing features at the wall to see what sticks :)
In terms of my current user base, it's mostly people using it for bug reports on live sites, but I feel in that use case, cross browser issues are important :s
I agree the website definitely needs redoing, I bought that on themeforest, gonna work with a designer to make something a lot better.
In terms of target market, I think I'm a step behind that, I'm not even sure what BugMuncher should be used for: bug reporting on live sites, team communication during development, are cross browser issues important?
Should it be a fully featured issue tracker (crowded market) or should it just integrate with existing tools?
I kind of feel like I'm throwing features at the wall to see what sticks :)
In terms of my current user base, it's mostly people using it for bug reports on live sites, but I feel in that use case, cross browser issues are important :s
I agree the website definitely needs redoing, I bought that on themeforest, gonna work with a designer to make something a lot better.
Well any advice I give will be open for everyone to see (competitors included) and limited to the 2000 chars provided by HN.
If you'd like to discuss things privately, use http://boun.cr to hide your email and we can discuss things via email thereafter.
Otherwise, as you've mentioned about your current market, it seems like the market is pushing your tool towards the live-site part of it.
Maybe I should try evaluating your product also. I need to "play" with it to understand how I would interpret its use in the role of a customer.
If you'd like to discuss things privately, use http://boun.cr to hide your email and we can discuss things via email thereafter.
Otherwise, as you've mentioned about your current market, it seems like the market is pushing your tool towards the live-site part of it.
Maybe I should try evaluating your product also. I need to "play" with it to understand how I would interpret its use in the role of a customer.
From my experience advising other SaaS product owners, this is unfortunately a tough but common spot to be in. You have a product, a few customers, but not enough and don't know how to grow it.
Of course, like others have said, you could change your landing page and your pricing and a few relatively important things, but in my opinion these are just surface things and you need to first ask yourself a few questions:
- do you really understand your customers? What keeps them up at night? What do they look for? Do they look for solutions on Internet? Do they buy things? etc.
- go into full focus on your ideal customer. Describe it precisely. Look into personas.
- now, how can your product fix one problem for your ideal customer? Make it real, not vague statements everyone can say yes to (fix bugs like a boss, imho, is not the root of the problem)
As far as I understand, you need to shift your mindset from focusing on your product to focusing on your customers. Go interview them, get on the phone with them, look at them using your software, get a feel of why they don't use it or stop using it...
Lately, I've written several blog posts on this topic if you like, you will find it here: saasfoundry.io/blog
Of course, like others have said, you could change your landing page and your pricing and a few relatively important things, but in my opinion these are just surface things and you need to first ask yourself a few questions:
- do you really understand your customers? What keeps them up at night? What do they look for? Do they look for solutions on Internet? Do they buy things? etc.
- go into full focus on your ideal customer. Describe it precisely. Look into personas.
- now, how can your product fix one problem for your ideal customer? Make it real, not vague statements everyone can say yes to (fix bugs like a boss, imho, is not the root of the problem)
As far as I understand, you need to shift your mindset from focusing on your product to focusing on your customers. Go interview them, get on the phone with them, look at them using your software, get a feel of why they don't use it or stop using it...
Lately, I've written several blog posts on this topic if you like, you will find it here: saasfoundry.io/blog
Thanks for the great advice, I've been considering this a lot. I'm currently working on a whole new landing page that will focus more on the customer and what they gain from BugMuncher.
I'll definitely check out your blog.
I'll definitely check out your blog.
Don't give up! You have a lot to improve on your website, marketing & UX.
Here's what I think: 1. I only saw the "Feedback" widget AFTER seing the movie. Either make it bigger or point a big arrow on it. 2. I'd love if I could adnotate highlights with some text. 3. Your prices are too close together, so the cheapest one still seems expensive. Try testing with 2x price for Start up and 10x for enterprise.
BTW, I am using http://www.criticue.com to get feedback on my websites, you can use that too.
Good luck with the project!
Here's what I think: 1. I only saw the "Feedback" widget AFTER seing the movie. Either make it bigger or point a big arrow on it. 2. I'd love if I could adnotate highlights with some text. 3. Your prices are too close together, so the cheapest one still seems expensive. Try testing with 2x price for Start up and 10x for enterprise.
BTW, I am using http://www.criticue.com to get feedback on my websites, you can use that too.
Good luck with the project!
This might seem insignificant, but it's a good example of how you could improve your marketing with little tweaks.
On your pricing page, the 'Personal' plan has one check mark and three red "X"s. Why have the Xs at all? It's not that your personal plan is bad, it's just that the other plans are better. It makes me feel like I shouldn't be clicking "Start Free Trial", because it's right below three symbols of negativity.
On your pricing page, the 'Personal' plan has one check mark and three red "X"s. Why have the Xs at all? It's not that your personal plan is bad, it's just that the other plans are better. It makes me feel like I shouldn't be clicking "Start Free Trial", because it's right below three symbols of negativity.
My name is Florian, I'm one of the co-founders and CEO of https://usersnap.com
Since we're competitors, I won't add specific advice. However I'd like to encourage you to stay in business as I'm absolutely convinced that the market we're in is big enough and that the idea behind the products we're building is a great idea.
The app is not that bad,but don't get your hopes up just yet. You really need to work on your sales and marketing and measure everything from engagement to what each user does within your app. Also my feedback is that the prices are high compared to other competitors that offer more features.
Thanks for the reply. I have wondered about my prices, yet I seem to get less signups now BugMuncher starts at $15 than when it only had one plan for $19 :s
Out of interest, how do you think it should be priced, and what do you consider my competitors?
Out of interest, how do you think it should be priced, and what do you consider my competitors?
I'm one of that poor guys who has to work with IE and I have to detect IE issues, so for me it's very important that when I'm using a tool like bugmuncher that I get what the user sees!
Don't throw the towel yet, You can sell the technology behind your site. You can package the whole thing and sell it so that people with big software QA shops can use this on their own sites.
I've started down this road a few times, with some fairly high profile companies, but it's never come to anything. Probably because I have zero experience selling enterprise software.
I'd focus Bugmunches on a very important piece of that is buried:
Send feedback reports directly to GitHub, Trello and others
I'd also add many screenshots of what it does. Don't talk about what it does, show it. Check sites like mixpanel and intercom to see how they present stuff.
Also, make the video shorter and more entertaining (check crazyegg video)
Also, make the video shorter and more entertaining (check crazyegg video)
Thanks for the feedback. Updating the homepage is now top priority, as it seems to be the most common advice here. I'll be sure to make the third party integrations more prominent.
it might be something as simple as the name, BugMuncher, which is unappealing IMO. Munching doesn't have a positive connotation, and munching bugs really sounds bad. you might take a weekend to do some rebranding and push through with another round of seo
I've put a lot of time into BugMuncher, going from MVP to full app, but I'm only making $200 / month. I fear people are impressed when they first see BugMuncher, but no one needs this tool. I dogfood BugMuncher with my own users, even they don't use it much.
I think it could have more use for reporting cross browser issues, but all screenshots are created with webkit, so it's pretty useless for that. I've looked into using VM's to create screenshots for different browsers, the only service that would work is crossbrowsertesting.com, but they're prohibitively expensive. I'd either have to put my prices up a lot, or cut the monthly report limit by 70%
Which brings me to my only competitor, Usersnap - https://usersnap.com. They launched after me, but got VC funding, and use VM's to take screenshots in the same browser/OS as the user. Based on their pricing and report limit, I think they use crossbrowsertesting.com for screenshots, and the last time they posted a show HN, people complained 50 reports is not enough for $19 / month.
I'm now wondering if BugMuncher will ever be my full time job, I've got other things I'd like to work on, and I'm doing well freelancing. I don't feel like I have time for BugMuncher unless it can bring the majority of my income.
- Would you use BugMuncher as it is now (webkit screenshots)? - If not, would you use it if I used VMs to take screenshots with the correct browser, if so, would you want higher prices or lower limits? - Should I consider funding? - Should I stop, and sell BugMuncher or open source it?