Video is also available at http://www.vimeo.com/1594866
Let me what inner workings of the system ud like to know. App is on PHP, MySQL. Most of the JS/CSS is coded by ourselves.
Documentation, there is some and there is PRD as well that explains how things are supposed to work.
About it being easily translatable, I don't know because we never thought of outside US market while developing it. So seriously I don't know. I assume there will be work.
Thanks, Talking to Partners and see how we can sell it.
We never sold sites in past and coded most of this ourselves, so were not sure if it is worth anything.
But yes, Seems like we should at least give it a try.
Need to find out how we can transfer domain names as well.
Certainly.. I do plan to write all my experience on what we were trying to do, what went wrong and what I myself will correct when I build next startup.
About pulling the plug, We are thinking around couple of months process. Like putting announcement as you suggested, and informing users and then pulling the plug.
Thank you so much. Exactly what I was thinking. The great thing about hacker news is the feedback and wisdom that we can get from other like minded and smart folks.
We are pretty flexible in changing ideas to make sure we build something that people will like and use.
About the design, yes all points taken. Actually we are programmers and tried to do as better job at design as we could. May be we need to get professional designer and I surely hope to generate enough business to be able to afford that.
You are right, we need to reword lot of content to express the exact message. I did 4-5 rounds of user-testing from usertesting.com and redesigned, but sure there is lot of room for improvement.
I think we need to do better job at explaining that we are not auction site and we are not trying to attract users who like auctions. Rather we are trying to attract people who like the price-negotiation and also Alibaba model. We tried to explain that in the demo video, but seems like we need to do better job.
Thanks for the feedback. This is what I love about hacker news. Very good and honest feedback.
We are charging 3% of the closing value for each product that is sold.
We also offer optional premium services (like eBay) that enhances look of the listing. There is some charge for showing product in "featured products".
In future we also plan get some ads but nothing decided on that yet.
Thanks a lot for great feedback. Soon I will change the page using all your suggestions as they perfectly make sense.
As far as design goes, there are only 3 of us working on this app on part-time basis and work includes design and coding.
Great suggestions. We just came out of coding phase last week and now we are going to give our best shot to get sellers and buyers. Suggestions like these really help a lot. Thanks again.
I think you can take money by giving investor a convertible note.
Here is what I found on web regarding Convertible Notes.
-------------------------------------
Convertible note is a debt instrument that can be converted into stock at the option of the holder or the issuer. More specifically, the investor can choose to convert the total amount of the note into equity when an institutional investor (such as a Venture Capitalist) makes an investment.
---------------------------------------
but off course you should talk to Lawyer before making decision.