Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
74 comments
Great web design.
How is this different/better than GoFundMe?
How is this different/better than GoFundMe?
Hey,
thanks for checking it out. Well, it's different from GoFundMe in a way that people don't have to ask for donations; many people don't like that. Instead, they offer services in their community. Also, supporters, on the other hand, get something in return for their contributions, which I believe would incentivize them to support campaign creators.
You mention "services like tutoring, babysitting, pet sitting, transportation, home repair, and various other tasks they could carry out after their working hours.". Anyone looking for a babysitter will firstly need someone local and someone they can trust their baby with. And there already exist several services catering such needs. Your first users will all have to be from same neighbourhood for the app to be useful for any of them.
Exactly, creators should offer services in their community to people they know and people their friends know. I know there are multiple platforms that give people the ability to offer their services but they are based on good reputation and ratings which takes a long time to build. The idea behind Taskwer is to have a place where people who need to raise funds quickly, can come, create a campaign, offer services mostly to people they know and raise funds for their cause that way.
I am failing to see why would anyone choose to bypass all the existing options with ratings and reputations, to find a service provider. It's going completely opposite to the customers' interests.
Also "offer services mostly to people they know" conflicts with your business. If I am offering services to people I know, I message them, and they pay me cash. Why would a 3rd party be involved in it ? Unless you're offering some sort of checks / security, at which point you're competing with the existing services.
Also "offer services mostly to people they know" conflicts with your business. If I am offering services to people I know, I message them, and they pay me cash. Why would a 3rd party be involved in it ? Unless you're offering some sort of checks / security, at which point you're competing with the existing services.
> Great web design.
No idea about how viable the idea itself is, but the design is indeed great and makes everything feel a little bit more trustworthy, good job on that.
No idea about how viable the idea itself is, but the design is indeed great and makes everything feel a little bit more trustworthy, good job on that.
Thanks man, design is something that I struggle with as I'm a developer so it took several iterations to create it this way.
I concur, web design is great! If the whole user-finding is too daunting or will not work, you can still sell your assets on things like Microfounder or acquire.com.
My first thought was that the service has great overlap with community currencies and LETS systems where people issue social credit for tasks performed. I take that overlap as that the idea is viable when executed superbly, like the web design.
It also reminds me of stuff like https://www.taskrabbit.com/
My first thought was that the service has great overlap with community currencies and LETS systems where people issue social credit for tasks performed. I take that overlap as that the idea is viable when executed superbly, like the web design.
It also reminds me of stuff like https://www.taskrabbit.com/
I must agree. I immediately thought "this webpage _feels_ great." Typography, everything. Great work.
What's the point of those smiling fake-y faces of people sliding by?
> there should be a way for people to raise funds quickly in those dark moments when they need it the most
gofundme
> an app that would enable people to raise funds by offering services to their community
Taskrabbit?
> creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm that the task has been completed, and creators would get paid
Kickstarter, except kickstarter fronts the money which is often necessary for completion.
You have built a two-sided market. This is very difficult, because you need to recruit both sides of the market. And you need to convince them that you can handle money.
> I'm an introvert. I have a small group of friends, I work remotely, and I don't use social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Unless you get a co-founder who does, or some sort of marketing lead, your chances of success are zero. Your best hope is to find some sort of community which needs this service and persuade them you can help. I think Kickstarter got started with comics and board games: raising money for printing costs. You will also need to decide what you want to do when the "community" who want to exchange money for "services" is sex workers.
Work out your route to market before writing any code, if you want to make any money.
gofundme
> an app that would enable people to raise funds by offering services to their community
Taskrabbit?
> creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm that the task has been completed, and creators would get paid
Kickstarter, except kickstarter fronts the money which is often necessary for completion.
You have built a two-sided market. This is very difficult, because you need to recruit both sides of the market. And you need to convince them that you can handle money.
> I'm an introvert. I have a small group of friends, I work remotely, and I don't use social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Unless you get a co-founder who does, or some sort of marketing lead, your chances of success are zero. Your best hope is to find some sort of community which needs this service and persuade them you can help. I think Kickstarter got started with comics and board games: raising money for printing costs. You will also need to decide what you want to do when the "community" who want to exchange money for "services" is sex workers.
Work out your route to market before writing any code, if you want to make any money.
> gofundme/Taskrabbit?
Yes, Taskwer has elements of both. As I said in my previous comment, it's different from GoFundMe in a way that campaign creators don't have to ask for donations, instead, they can offer services to people in their community. Taskrabbit gives taskers the ability to offer various tasks and people go there in a search of someone who will perform those tasks. Rating system is very important there and taskers with best rating will get most of the jobs and new members will have much harder time getting them. It takes quite a while to build a reputation and this is what I wanted to avoid with Taskwer. Taskwer is for people who need to raise funds quickly by offering services to their friends, friends of their friends etc, much more similar to GoFundMe in that way.
Thanks for advice on marketing, that is something I don't know how to do but I will have to learn obviously.
Yes, Taskwer has elements of both. As I said in my previous comment, it's different from GoFundMe in a way that campaign creators don't have to ask for donations, instead, they can offer services to people in their community. Taskrabbit gives taskers the ability to offer various tasks and people go there in a search of someone who will perform those tasks. Rating system is very important there and taskers with best rating will get most of the jobs and new members will have much harder time getting them. It takes quite a while to build a reputation and this is what I wanted to avoid with Taskwer. Taskwer is for people who need to raise funds quickly by offering services to their friends, friends of their friends etc, much more similar to GoFundMe in that way.
Thanks for advice on marketing, that is something I don't know how to do but I will have to learn obviously.
When you start to validate the idea, you’re going to keep hearing “we use in person networks to solve the problem”. I can’t see a good way through that objection while earning revenue. Can you?
> Yes, Taskwer has elements of both. As I said in my previous comment, it's different from GoFundMe in a way that campaign creators don't have to ask for donations, instead, they can offer services to people in their community.
There are two clear ways to do this: charity or work. GoFundMe is charity, TaskRabbit/etc is work. Unless you can communicate very clearly why the middle ground of not-charity-not-work is better, I don't think you'll be able to compete with service that have a much clearer proposition.
I've read your post/comment and I don't really understand the difference between this and GoFundMe/TaskRabbit. It seems some users would use it as basically a TaskRabbit replacement, and some would over-value their time because it's sort of a donation platform. If I (and others on this thread) have read a lot of detail about the platform and don't understand the core value, I don't think someone reading a ~10 word advert will on Facebook will, and that's the format you'll need to be able to win on.
I suggest coming up with a very succinct way of pitching the service that makes it obviously better than a job or charity (both of which have many existing solutions). I wish you the best of luck with that.
There are two clear ways to do this: charity or work. GoFundMe is charity, TaskRabbit/etc is work. Unless you can communicate very clearly why the middle ground of not-charity-not-work is better, I don't think you'll be able to compete with service that have a much clearer proposition.
I've read your post/comment and I don't really understand the difference between this and GoFundMe/TaskRabbit. It seems some users would use it as basically a TaskRabbit replacement, and some would over-value their time because it's sort of a donation platform. If I (and others on this thread) have read a lot of detail about the platform and don't understand the core value, I don't think someone reading a ~10 word advert will on Facebook will, and that's the format you'll need to be able to win on.
I suggest coming up with a very succinct way of pitching the service that makes it obviously better than a job or charity (both of which have many existing solutions). I wish you the best of luck with that.
...having read the site a bit more, it seems there's another angle – the project. This doesn't really change my point, but Kickstarter does fund projects (not products), so again I feel that it needs to be explained why Taskwer is better than Kickstarter for a project.
Building stuff is always impressive so well done on that. For me it feels a bit like you are saying the audience for this is 'people who want their friends to pay for them to do stuff'? My question would be if I know these people socially, why do I need a website to handle this?
As others have said, I think there are fairly clear mental models for exchanging money: charity or jobs. At the moment, what you seem to be describing is a jobs model, but with added complications such as a campaign and a set end date?. Its not clear me what value I get as a person paying things as a result of these added steps, so why would I use this over another market place?
As others have said, I think there are fairly clear mental models for exchanging money: charity or jobs. At the moment, what you seem to be describing is a jobs model, but with added complications such as a campaign and a set end date?. Its not clear me what value I get as a person paying things as a result of these added steps, so why would I use this over another market place?
Why do I need to share my 'creator' story online? If they supporters pay cash, how will the system show the cash target being updated?
Order details are discussed between creator and supporter before confirming the order. After the task has been completed, supporter has to confirm it and then the funds are updated. When cash payments are involved, it's about tracking the campaign progress.
Here's my 2 cents (I never did something like this so I don't know if it's good advice):
See if you can ask for feedback on forums online (like this one here, but maybe also reddit, you can also ping some accounts on the fediverse).
Explain what you did where people will see it (fb groups, discord servers, plain ol' forums).
Write blog articles on how you did this or that, and post the links here.
See if you can ask for feedback on forums online (like this one here, but maybe also reddit, you can also ping some accounts on the fediverse).
Explain what you did where people will see it (fb groups, discord servers, plain ol' forums).
Write blog articles on how you did this or that, and post the links here.
No matter the result, you have done an amazing job! I'm seriously impressed with the site. Even if nothing comes out of this, you can be proud of your work.
The classic two-sided marketplace is a chicken-and-egg situation.
Common advice is to synthetically boost at least one side of the marketplace to start the flywheel effect.
Common advice is to synthetically boost at least one side of the marketplace to start the flywheel effect.
Looks great! I've had the same issue as you with many projects - so many people leave the marketing till the end so don't beat yourself up about it now. (Hopefully you will have learned a lesson haha!)
Lets look at what you could do:
- Start in one local area - ideally one near you or one that you know. Make it work there and then expand.
- See if you can engage any local groups which might engage with the idea - I could see local city/town facebook groups liking this. Or maybe on nextdoor.com.
- Check out the book "The cold start problem" by Andrew Chen. He goes into many examples of lots of companies that had this issue and how they over came the issue and got their first customers - http://andrewchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ColdStartPr...
Lets look at what you could do:
- Start in one local area - ideally one near you or one that you know. Make it work there and then expand.
- See if you can engage any local groups which might engage with the idea - I could see local city/town facebook groups liking this. Or maybe on nextdoor.com.
- Check out the book "The cold start problem" by Andrew Chen. He goes into many examples of lots of companies that had this issue and how they over came the issue and got their first customers - http://andrewchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ColdStartPr...
> After the campaign is launched, creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm that the task has been completed, and creators would get paid.
So it sounds like of like Upwork/Fiverr/etc, but with a story about why the person is trying to raise money, and an end date/amount for their offer? As an end user, what is the advantage to me of using a smaller platform like this (with far less users) compared to one of the established ones that have a much larger number of potential buyers? And if I'm making decent money through your platform, why would I want to stop when I reach the $1000 goal (or whatever I set)?
And as a buyer, what kind of checks and verification do you perform so that I can trust the service I'm buying? If I hire a babysitter or a tutor, have you done background checks? Are you going to be liable (or get sued) when something goes wrong, or the builder I hire does a shoddy job? Can I get a refund if I'm not happy or the service isn't delivered? What happens if I don't pay - is the seller just left out of pocket or will you cover that?
If you're pushing the local angle (which quite a few of the examples you give are), can I easily see all the local services being offered without having to sign up? If you're trying to go down that route, then you might want to think about marketing locally and trying to get a load of people in your own local area involved, before trying to launch to the wider global market.
So it sounds like of like Upwork/Fiverr/etc, but with a story about why the person is trying to raise money, and an end date/amount for their offer? As an end user, what is the advantage to me of using a smaller platform like this (with far less users) compared to one of the established ones that have a much larger number of potential buyers? And if I'm making decent money through your platform, why would I want to stop when I reach the $1000 goal (or whatever I set)?
And as a buyer, what kind of checks and verification do you perform so that I can trust the service I'm buying? If I hire a babysitter or a tutor, have you done background checks? Are you going to be liable (or get sued) when something goes wrong, or the builder I hire does a shoddy job? Can I get a refund if I'm not happy or the service isn't delivered? What happens if I don't pay - is the seller just left out of pocket or will you cover that?
If you're pushing the local angle (which quite a few of the examples you give are), can I easily see all the local services being offered without having to sign up? If you're trying to go down that route, then you might want to think about marketing locally and trying to get a load of people in your own local area involved, before trying to launch to the wider global market.
> So it sounds like of like Upwork/Fiverr/etc, but with a story about why the person is trying to raise money, and an end date/amount for their offer?
More like GoFundMe because there is a cause and Taskrabbit as people are offering services.
> And if I'm making decent money through your platform, why would I want to stop when I reach the $1000 goal (or whatever I set)?
Right now, the focus is on raising funds for a cause with a time limit. There may be option to offer services indefinitely, like TaskRabbit, in the future, but that's not something I'm thinking about right now, I have to get some users first to see if this whole idea even makes sense and iterations in any direction can always come later as the project grows, if it grows.
> If you're pushing the local angle Yes, I'm pushing the local angle, I think this platform would work best if creators and supporters know each other directly or through people they know. That way a lot of scams could also be avoided.
In case the service isn't delivered, or you're not happy, you can report it using the support system and we'll try to resolve it. If you paid with card, there will be an option to get a refund and if you selected cash payments, you would have to resolve that with the campaign creator on the spot.
And yes, you will be able to see current campaigns in your area but first I need to get some users and campaigns. :) Published campaigns are just placeholders so people could see how campaigns should work.
More like GoFundMe because there is a cause and Taskrabbit as people are offering services.
> And if I'm making decent money through your platform, why would I want to stop when I reach the $1000 goal (or whatever I set)?
Right now, the focus is on raising funds for a cause with a time limit. There may be option to offer services indefinitely, like TaskRabbit, in the future, but that's not something I'm thinking about right now, I have to get some users first to see if this whole idea even makes sense and iterations in any direction can always come later as the project grows, if it grows.
> If you're pushing the local angle Yes, I'm pushing the local angle, I think this platform would work best if creators and supporters know each other directly or through people they know. That way a lot of scams could also be avoided.
In case the service isn't delivered, or you're not happy, you can report it using the support system and we'll try to resolve it. If you paid with card, there will be an option to get a refund and if you selected cash payments, you would have to resolve that with the campaign creator on the spot.
And yes, you will be able to see current campaigns in your area but first I need to get some users and campaigns. :) Published campaigns are just placeholders so people could see how campaigns should work.
Please add tags and categories as well for topic-based discovery.
I was in your position a few years ago. I believed that my idea was great and that that meant I will easily be able to grow organically.
Couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry.
You've already recognised this so I won't dwell on it too much. What are your options from here: IMO, "guerilla advertising", AKA promoting your work on Reddit and Twitter communities. Don't overdo it. But without cold hard cash for marketing I don't know how far you'll get.
As for the actual idea... eh, I don't get it. At first I thought it's just crowdsourcing but then I read that people offer a service in return. Isn't that just... you know... a job? There was a similar idea that appeared on the UK show Dragon's Den (aka Shark Tank in the US), but it was more for getting a loan from family and friends.
I like the website design, very friendly and approachable.
PS: the example campaigns on your site are too obviously fake: way too much production value in those photos!
Couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry.
You've already recognised this so I won't dwell on it too much. What are your options from here: IMO, "guerilla advertising", AKA promoting your work on Reddit and Twitter communities. Don't overdo it. But without cold hard cash for marketing I don't know how far you'll get.
As for the actual idea... eh, I don't get it. At first I thought it's just crowdsourcing but then I read that people offer a service in return. Isn't that just... you know... a job? There was a similar idea that appeared on the UK show Dragon's Den (aka Shark Tank in the US), but it was more for getting a loan from family and friends.
I like the website design, very friendly and approachable.
PS: the example campaigns on your site are too obviously fake: way too much production value in those photos!
The idea is to give people a place where they could offer their services like tutoring, babysitting, home repairs, etc, services that they can provide after their work, like a side jobs to raise some extra funds for their cause.
Regarding example campaigns, yes, they are placeholder campaigns, just to show how they are supposed to look.
Regarding example campaigns, yes, they are placeholder campaigns, just to show how they are supposed to look.
I would put a big prominent thing about yourself at the bottom that looks like a traditional recruit-me thing, then open source it all since it's Elixir and that's kind of niche.
I see people posting on Facebook offering services in local neighbor groups. My suggestion would be to find your city's / neighboring city's local Facebook groups and post there. In particular, lower income communities are likely to have more scrappy business type of folks who sound like your target audience.
The site looks great! It shows that you've put a lot of time and effort in it. I have a few questions:
1. It's basically a marketplace of people willing to exchange a service for cash, right? How is that different from Craigslist?
2. Why the whole Kickstarter-like progress bar showing how much of the goal has been achieved? This works on Kickstarter because it generates a pressure on the supporters to support the project before the stipulated time ends. I don't see why that would be relevant here.
3. What would make people come to Taskwer rather than any other classified advertisements platform that have a much larger use base and probably more competitive prices?
1. It's basically a marketplace of people willing to exchange a service for cash, right? How is that different from Craigslist?
2. Why the whole Kickstarter-like progress bar showing how much of the goal has been achieved? This works on Kickstarter because it generates a pressure on the supporters to support the project before the stipulated time ends. I don't see why that would be relevant here.
3. What would make people come to Taskwer rather than any other classified advertisements platform that have a much larger use base and probably more competitive prices?
1) The idea itself is fine, and for an MVP the site is attractive. Though the general concept should probably should be polished up significantly with more FAQs and explanations and many other things.
2) Your website seems optimized to do sort of a "startup elevator pitch" rather than focusing on the real usage that average people can get from it. Seeing stuff like "Kickstarter is for Projects Taskwer is for people" at the top does nothing for me, but "Raise funds for your education, business venture, emergency, rent, and more" is closer to the right message to focus on IMO.
3) I don't know what normal people would think of your website, but to me it seems glaring that the example stock images you use on this site aren't real users. From a technical/nerd perspective, it feels inauthentic and I'd rather see real phone photos than obvious stock imagery, even if stock photos technically looks nicer.
4) If you're committed to a free service, perhaps a .org domain might work better, though check on the legality and potential issues with that. That really hits home the message that you're not a mega-corporation, and potentially look into seeing if you can figure out non-profit status if that's something that you're genuinely serious about.
5) One glaring omission is the lack of an About page that tells us who you are. You're obviously somebody. Do I trust you with my info with no name attached to it? It would be great to tell the world who you are for the sake of credibility and some measure of assurance that you're not giving private info to a scammer.
6) Besides social media, I'd say to try and approach people on Craigslist begging for stuff to post their stories on your site and help guide them in posting the right way. Hell, you can even offer to write up and polish their content for free. There are also subreddits associated with personal poverty, finance, and other things you might want to see if you're able to reach out to people on.
7) Why are there no social media links on your site? You should consider a Facebook, X, Insta, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, etc to show off some credibility, as well as connect with people looking to raise funds for their projects.
2) Your website seems optimized to do sort of a "startup elevator pitch" rather than focusing on the real usage that average people can get from it. Seeing stuff like "Kickstarter is for Projects Taskwer is for people" at the top does nothing for me, but "Raise funds for your education, business venture, emergency, rent, and more" is closer to the right message to focus on IMO.
3) I don't know what normal people would think of your website, but to me it seems glaring that the example stock images you use on this site aren't real users. From a technical/nerd perspective, it feels inauthentic and I'd rather see real phone photos than obvious stock imagery, even if stock photos technically looks nicer.
4) If you're committed to a free service, perhaps a .org domain might work better, though check on the legality and potential issues with that. That really hits home the message that you're not a mega-corporation, and potentially look into seeing if you can figure out non-profit status if that's something that you're genuinely serious about.
5) One glaring omission is the lack of an About page that tells us who you are. You're obviously somebody. Do I trust you with my info with no name attached to it? It would be great to tell the world who you are for the sake of credibility and some measure of assurance that you're not giving private info to a scammer.
6) Besides social media, I'd say to try and approach people on Craigslist begging for stuff to post their stories on your site and help guide them in posting the right way. Hell, you can even offer to write up and polish their content for free. There are also subreddits associated with personal poverty, finance, and other things you might want to see if you're able to reach out to people on.
7) Why are there no social media links on your site? You should consider a Facebook, X, Insta, YouTube, TikTok, Snap, etc to show off some credibility, as well as connect with people looking to raise funds for their projects.
You built Patreon, even that stock photos carousel you have above the fold is ripped from patreon.com but the rest of isn't even built out.
So yeah, you niched down to say creators and IRL tasks, tossed in some sense of community activism.
Well, this is an example of how it really is about ideas and not just execution to reach success.
This is a great idea. Who hadn't thought of some utopian altruism in the middle of a global crisis?
But it's not a good idea. Because you don't have the means to get traction because it's a two sided platform play that without critical mass will not lead to further utility. And because it's merely but a singular use case out of multiple for the larger entrenched competitor.
You need more usage to even build your way into success and you don't have usage because... while this is a great idea it's not a good idea.
But now we're here.
You want to know what to do?
1. Highlight user stories.
Find the most interesting one, make content, share. Segment on a morning infotainment news? Blog articles on guest writing platforms? Sappy robot voice TikTok videos? Reddit?
2. Quit and add this to your portfolio.
Your friends and families don't want to be spammed with this. Don't be weird about it.
So yeah, you niched down to say creators and IRL tasks, tossed in some sense of community activism.
Well, this is an example of how it really is about ideas and not just execution to reach success.
This is a great idea. Who hadn't thought of some utopian altruism in the middle of a global crisis?
But it's not a good idea. Because you don't have the means to get traction because it's a two sided platform play that without critical mass will not lead to further utility. And because it's merely but a singular use case out of multiple for the larger entrenched competitor.
You need more usage to even build your way into success and you don't have usage because... while this is a great idea it's not a good idea.
But now we're here.
You want to know what to do?
1. Highlight user stories.
Find the most interesting one, make content, share. Segment on a morning infotainment news? Blog articles on guest writing platforms? Sappy robot voice TikTok videos? Reddit?
2. Quit and add this to your portfolio.
Your friends and families don't want to be spammed with this. Don't be weird about it.
go to your local shelters or volunteer organizations and ask them to use it? seems a pretty easy problem to solve. now whether you app will gain traction is hard to say but getting the first few users should be easy since its to help people in need and you are not making money from it when it comes to cash payments,
I like your vision but I do not understand the fundamental proposition here. The creators in the platform are supposed to perform specific tasks to raise money -- That's called "having a job". Essentially the platform is a marketplace to hire part time workers for specific one time tasks. If so, why position it as a campaign to raising funds as if it is some sort of charity.
Is the underlying assumption that creators can charge more on this platform as compared to the usual pay they will get for the same task and in doing so they can raise money faster? If so, I would be highly skeptical of this assumption and validate it rigorously.
Is the underlying assumption that creators can charge more on this platform as compared to the usual pay they will get for the same task and in doing so they can raise money faster? If so, I would be highly skeptical of this assumption and validate it rigorously.
Hmmm... I don't see it as a charity. Campaign creators create their campaigns and offer their services. People in their community can buy those services. Let's say a person who has a full-time job, a person you know, wants to raise $1000 to help pay her rent and offers babysitting services in return. You need this service and instead of searching for someone you don't know, you hire that person. At the same time, you get a job done and you know you did a good things and helped her pay her rent.
"At the same time, you get a job done and you know you did a good things and helped her pay her rent."
You know you helped her raise money. Maybe she used that money to buy drugs. How could anyone know?
You know you helped her raise money. Maybe she used that money to buy drugs. How could anyone know?
As others have already mentioned, why would someone choose to use your site over a more established site like gofundme or even patreon if they wanted to tie rewards/services to donations?
Who do you envision your target audience to be? Someone who is undergoing a rough patch who is too proud to go on gofundme and has time to spare to work odd jobs? Who do you envision your target audience's target to be? People who would otherwise donate to a given person's gofundme? Strangers who would use the app to exploit desperate people in their local area?
All that being said, if the users on your page are real, then you are undoubtedly impacting real lives, comments be damned. If they're not, well that feels a bit unsavory since it is not explicit that these are false. It could also give people the wrong expectations in terms of potential payout from your platform.
Who do you envision your target audience to be? Someone who is undergoing a rough patch who is too proud to go on gofundme and has time to spare to work odd jobs? Who do you envision your target audience's target to be? People who would otherwise donate to a given person's gofundme? Strangers who would use the app to exploit desperate people in their local area?
All that being said, if the users on your page are real, then you are undoubtedly impacting real lives, comments be damned. If they're not, well that feels a bit unsavory since it is not explicit that these are false. It could also give people the wrong expectations in terms of potential payout from your platform.
My idea was to build an app for someone, as you said is undergoing a rough patch and doesn't want to ask for donations, instead they want to take situations into their own hands. And supporters should be people around them, people in their community, their friends, friends of their friends, people who have a need for their services and want to help creators at the same time. By going hyper-local, I wanted to avoid strangers and fraudsters buying services as much as possible.
Campaigns on the landing page are just placeholder campaigns to show how it works. I apologize for not making it clear enough. I will fix that.
Campaigns on the landing page are just placeholder campaigns to show how it works. I apologize for not making it clear enough. I will fix that.
To me, the hyper local goal conflicts with the availability of campaigns on the homepage.
Nonetheless, I really like the design and idea driving your creation. Good luck to you on this project but even if it doesn't pan out, with your talents you will do more things.
Nonetheless, I really like the design and idea driving your creation. Good luck to you on this project but even if it doesn't pan out, with your talents you will do more things.
Go to where your users are.
Reach out to the local service providers individually and tell them about your service. You will get users if they see value in what you're offering. It's not scalable, but you need users to better help you understand the product you need to be offering.
Now, some feedback on the product. Imagining myself as a local service provider, I don't see how the service would help me land gigs or make my life any easier. As a service provider, I would still have to do all the self-promotion. I like that cash payments are accepted.
If I were looking to provide services to the local community, I would get as engaged with the community as much as possible. There are all the free places to advertise online like Facebook, Craigslist, Nextdoor, etc. Locally, there are bulletin boards in community gathering places like churches, community centers, libraries that are intended for this sort of things. Some of these organizations even maintain lists of service providers as well.
Another option would be printing flyers up and just going around your neighborhood leaving them in the door. I hired a handyman this way - one of my neighbors. He was between jobs and he was looking to fill up his schedule until he landed another full time gig. I talked to him for a bit and he said he had gotten a few jobs from his local door-to-door promotion work.
Reach out to the local service providers individually and tell them about your service. You will get users if they see value in what you're offering. It's not scalable, but you need users to better help you understand the product you need to be offering.
Now, some feedback on the product. Imagining myself as a local service provider, I don't see how the service would help me land gigs or make my life any easier. As a service provider, I would still have to do all the self-promotion. I like that cash payments are accepted.
If I were looking to provide services to the local community, I would get as engaged with the community as much as possible. There are all the free places to advertise online like Facebook, Craigslist, Nextdoor, etc. Locally, there are bulletin boards in community gathering places like churches, community centers, libraries that are intended for this sort of things. Some of these organizations even maintain lists of service providers as well.
Another option would be printing flyers up and just going around your neighborhood leaving them in the door. I hired a handyman this way - one of my neighbors. He was between jobs and he was looking to fill up his schedule until he landed another full time gig. I talked to him for a bit and he said he had gotten a few jobs from his local door-to-door promotion work.
I think you need to do the opposite. The actual suppliers are the people with the cash to offer for services. You need to drive their traffic or you don’t have a business.
Thought leadership - get into social media, share your opinions (especially the tough ones) that led you to create this. Post 5x a day on many platforms. Take courses in social media and promotion.
Yes, it's hard as an introvert! But once you "break the ice" and turn it into a habit, you will continue to grow.
Yes, it's hard as an introvert! But once you "break the ice" and turn it into a habit, you will continue to grow.
First, great looking website!
On first blush, it seems like this is more in the line of Nextdoor, neighbors helping neighbors, but with some money changing hands. I'd go in that direction.
On first blush, it seems like this is more in the line of Nextdoor, neighbors helping neighbors, but with some money changing hands. I'd go in that direction.
I'm struggling quite a bit with market positioning and that's why I need people to give me some feedback. Thanks man!
Buy ads. That'll tell you loads. FB for positioning and demographics, google for keywords and direct intent. Small spend, see what the CPC and demand is like. You'll learn more in a few days of running small ads than you will talking to customers.
Nice looking site and design - kudos. I don't think there is anything wrong with the idea but you do have to compete with easier alternatives (e.g. credit cards, gofundme, craigslist). You can't just be different than the alternatives to effectively compete, you have to be better - especially for the creator who in your scenario needs money to make ends meet.
As others have mentioned your biggest challenge is the two-sided marketplace, it is unfortunately just about the hardest thing to pick for a startup. You won't get creators until there is a large enough volume of supporters for it to be worth it to them (why set up a campaign if no one responds). You won't get supporters until you have enough creators to match services they might want.
Many marketplaces like this start with at least one of two things - they either already control one side of the market via relationships (they have access to a large amount of supply, for example), or they have a lot of capital they can use to fund the concept until it gains traction (by funding creators for example). Ideally you have both.
My advice, given the time you have already invested, is to figure out how you can niche down very narrowly to start. Pick one geographic area, and perhaps one service type, and then grind it out manually to match supply to demand. Maybe you're matching creators who tutor on the side, to students in Seattle (or whatever). You want to be narrow because it's too hard to build supply and demand if you're broad, especially by yourself without funding. You'll have to try lots of hacks to see what works to get initial users - it will be manual, you will have to talk to a lot of people, it won't "scale" but that is ok to start. If it works you can grow into other markets later (example: Facebook started only for Harvard, Uber was only black limos in SF).
Also consider looking for a charitable benefactor who will fund creators (even if they don't use the services) to get a bit of energy into the marketplace. If you can find someone, or a company that wants to do this for a bit of good will and press you'll have some capital to fund the initial creators.
Good luck!
As others have mentioned your biggest challenge is the two-sided marketplace, it is unfortunately just about the hardest thing to pick for a startup. You won't get creators until there is a large enough volume of supporters for it to be worth it to them (why set up a campaign if no one responds). You won't get supporters until you have enough creators to match services they might want.
Many marketplaces like this start with at least one of two things - they either already control one side of the market via relationships (they have access to a large amount of supply, for example), or they have a lot of capital they can use to fund the concept until it gains traction (by funding creators for example). Ideally you have both.
My advice, given the time you have already invested, is to figure out how you can niche down very narrowly to start. Pick one geographic area, and perhaps one service type, and then grind it out manually to match supply to demand. Maybe you're matching creators who tutor on the side, to students in Seattle (or whatever). You want to be narrow because it's too hard to build supply and demand if you're broad, especially by yourself without funding. You'll have to try lots of hacks to see what works to get initial users - it will be manual, you will have to talk to a lot of people, it won't "scale" but that is ok to start. If it works you can grow into other markets later (example: Facebook started only for Harvard, Uber was only black limos in SF).
Also consider looking for a charitable benefactor who will fund creators (even if they don't use the services) to get a bit of energy into the marketplace. If you can find someone, or a company that wants to do this for a bit of good will and press you'll have some capital to fund the initial creators.
Good luck!
This is cool!
I would ignore everyone who's repeating the same sort of standard startup advice or saying "blah blah doesn't xyz already do this". A lot of startup advice is bad / actively harmful, your thing is pretty good, and you should just do it if it's fun.
Because you're on HN, you're about to get a good bump. In a few days, that bump will go down, and you might start to feel sad! Ignore this sadness and keep pushing through. The time from when people first hear about a product and when they actually start using it can be like a few weeks to a month. If, in a few days, all the numbers are going down, know that this is how even successful products look after a product launch. (See the trough of sorrow) Keep going!
Keep shamefully posting it in places, consider a hacker news launch, or even putting up posters in high-foot-traffic areas (if you live in or close to a walkable area). I know social-media bad, but it's a pretty good place to reach out to folks on. My guess is making a little tiktok thing is not a bad idea.
If you've got cash to blow, consider ads. Lots of people will tell you ads are bad, because they "don't scale" or some other over-optimized thing. But if you just want people to see your thing, ads are a reasonable way to drive a little traffic and get a beginning user-base to experiment with.
Have fun! The design and explanation of the site is great!
I would ignore everyone who's repeating the same sort of standard startup advice or saying "blah blah doesn't xyz already do this". A lot of startup advice is bad / actively harmful, your thing is pretty good, and you should just do it if it's fun.
Because you're on HN, you're about to get a good bump. In a few days, that bump will go down, and you might start to feel sad! Ignore this sadness and keep pushing through. The time from when people first hear about a product and when they actually start using it can be like a few weeks to a month. If, in a few days, all the numbers are going down, know that this is how even successful products look after a product launch. (See the trough of sorrow) Keep going!
Keep shamefully posting it in places, consider a hacker news launch, or even putting up posters in high-foot-traffic areas (if you live in or close to a walkable area). I know social-media bad, but it's a pretty good place to reach out to folks on. My guess is making a little tiktok thing is not a bad idea.
If you've got cash to blow, consider ads. Lots of people will tell you ads are bad, because they "don't scale" or some other over-optimized thing. But if you just want people to see your thing, ads are a reasonable way to drive a little traffic and get a beginning user-base to experiment with.
Have fun! The design and explanation of the site is great!
Thanks, after so much time, I feel like I just wasted a lot of time, so some encouragement means a lot.
I really like the idea, actually. First, what I'd say is that a lot of people may comment here on HN with very "objective" opinions on whether it's a good or bad idea. I want to remind you that those "objective" statements are just subjective opinions, and that while those people may represent a large percentage of the population, they also might just represent a small percentage. And even if they represent a large percentage, you don't need a large percentage of the population to start or even run a successful business.
With that being said, I think what I would like to see you do is try to use your own platform to raise a marketing budget. What services would you offer to try to raise the budget? Why are you trying to raise the budget?
What I like about the platform is a combination of charity and work, the blend of GoFundMe and TaskRabbit. So what I'd like to see is 1) why are you trying to raise this money, why is it meaningful to you and 2) what range of services can you provide, basically what hustles can you do, to give back to those who give?
With that being said, I think what I would like to see you do is try to use your own platform to raise a marketing budget. What services would you offer to try to raise the budget? Why are you trying to raise the budget?
What I like about the platform is a combination of charity and work, the blend of GoFundMe and TaskRabbit. So what I'd like to see is 1) why are you trying to raise this money, why is it meaningful to you and 2) what range of services can you provide, basically what hustles can you do, to give back to those who give?
Yeah, I like this idea a lot, another user also recommended something similar. As I don't have a marketing budget right now, creating a campaign to raise funds for it makes a lot of sense and it would show people how the platform really works. Thanks a lot!
I'm glad you like it. I imagine you have plenty of services that people might want to receive from you, even I'm sitting here thinking I'd rather give money to someone like you to give me some feedback on my website UIs because I also want to support what you're working on, than a random person on TaskRabbit or fiverrr or any of those more impersonal websites.
Look at success stories. What did Kickstarter do? What did TaskRabbit do? What did company XYZ who is similar to your business do?
Study your competitors.
Study your competitors.
And the failures as well to avoid survivorship bias. Sahil wrote a great book called "The Minimalist Entrepreneur" that goes into a lot of depth about finding customers. Also, Stripe Press has a book called Get Together that covers how to create community as well. I would recommend both books.
Great project, I've been looking for something like this many times, looks like I'm your user :)
1. Try using your platform to fund your marketing yourself. Create a ticket “Help with money for marketing” and issue your HN post as a separate article on different social platforms for indexing by Google and provide a link on social networks to this ticket.
2. Contact VCs and write to investors. This is a direct path to marketing. Do not be afraid :)
1. Try using your platform to fund your marketing yourself. Create a ticket “Help with money for marketing” and issue your HN post as a separate article on different social platforms for indexing by Google and provide a link on social networks to this ticket.
2. Contact VCs and write to investors. This is a direct path to marketing. Do not be afraid :)
Hey, good to hear someone was looking for something like that. The idea to create my own campaign to raise marketing funds is a great one, thanks a lot. Regarding investors, I would like to get at least some users first, know that this thing works and then go talk to the investors.
Your design looks very professional.
As theoretical advice I would suggest to read the book 'The cold start problem'. It explains how two sided marketplaces work and how you can get them started.
As practical advice I would suggest finding people in proximity to you and asking them if they would like to try it.
The same can be done online, try searching for Reddit threads and other pieces where people who are your target audience might hang out.
As theoretical advice I would suggest to read the book 'The cold start problem'. It explains how two sided marketplaces work and how you can get them started.
As practical advice I would suggest finding people in proximity to you and asking them if they would like to try it.
The same can be done online, try searching for Reddit threads and other pieces where people who are your target audience might hang out.
This is a really hard lesson to learn and it takes most people (myself included) many tries to learn it. From reading your post, it is super clear that you understand the lesson-- validate your idea early. But understanding the lesson and actually learning it are worlds apart.
You have put a lot of time into this project, and it is not going to go anywhere. This is a tough realization. One that you naturally want to argue against. It's easy to be stubborn. But the more time and effort you put into this, the more time and effort you are wasting.
The positives: you have built a foundation and undoubtedly learned some things along the way. Take that knowledge and pivot to something that people want/need. Good luck!
You have put a lot of time into this project, and it is not going to go anywhere. This is a tough realization. One that you naturally want to argue against. It's easy to be stubborn. But the more time and effort you put into this, the more time and effort you are wasting.
The positives: you have built a foundation and undoubtedly learned some things along the way. Take that knowledge and pivot to something that people want/need. Good luck!
This is so true.
Their time hasn't been wasted so long as they've learned from it. In this case it's fair to say that technical knowledge has been gained and business knowledge as well.
As you say, it's best for them to take this knowledge and apply it on the next project. If they keep it up then they'll eventually find success.
Their time hasn't been wasted so long as they've learned from it. In this case it's fair to say that technical knowledge has been gained and business knowledge as well.
As you say, it's best for them to take this knowledge and apply it on the next project. If they keep it up then they'll eventually find success.
I'm the creator of IndexGuru.
Let me tell you a story you might get some value from.
August 2022 - November 2022. Built the application.
November 2022 - January 2023. Tried to plug it on reddit wherever I could. Got maybe 6 users.
February 2023. Gave up, stopped working on it, but maintained it.
August 2023. I see a clone of my app on twitter. The guy making it is publicly broadcasting how much he's making: several thousand dollars per month! First, I was mad, but then got over it. Can't blame the guy - that's just the game. But, it inspired me to get back to work on the product. It's good enough, just wasn't marketing it as well as him, so I stepped it up.
August 2023 to now: - I have been marketing TF out of the product. I have grown to nearly $400 MRR in a matter of weeks. I know 400 MRR seems small, and it is, but if it continues at this, it will be pretty substantial in a few months.
My marketing channels:
- I worked on an idea that was good. Did bad marketing. Somebody did the same thing I made, but did good marketing. They made a ton of money. Don't be like me. Market.
- Plug your product on reddit. Don't be super egregious. Provide value. Don't plug it every single time you comment. Reddit is super unforgiving in this - mods love to ban self promo users.
- Get involved in the relevant community for your niche. I found it on twitter for mine, and it's been working great.
Hope that helps!
edit: formatting
Let me tell you a story you might get some value from.
August 2022 - November 2022. Built the application.
November 2022 - January 2023. Tried to plug it on reddit wherever I could. Got maybe 6 users.
February 2023. Gave up, stopped working on it, but maintained it.
August 2023. I see a clone of my app on twitter. The guy making it is publicly broadcasting how much he's making: several thousand dollars per month! First, I was mad, but then got over it. Can't blame the guy - that's just the game. But, it inspired me to get back to work on the product. It's good enough, just wasn't marketing it as well as him, so I stepped it up.
August 2023 to now: - I have been marketing TF out of the product. I have grown to nearly $400 MRR in a matter of weeks. I know 400 MRR seems small, and it is, but if it continues at this, it will be pretty substantial in a few months.
My marketing channels:
1. I monitor subreddits related to my product. I try to give helpful responses. Every other response or so, I'll merely mention the name of the product without a link. (Kinda like I did here). If they're interested, they can find it on Google.
2. My product is very much for people that own websites. A huge niche of website owners is the #buildinpublic community on twitter. So - I've been responding to people on twitter, being heavily involved and sharing any info I know. People click on my profile, they see the link to my site, and click on it because they're curious. Then, the landing page either works or it does't.
- I worked on an idea that was good. Did bad marketing. Somebody did the same thing I made, but did good marketing. They made a ton of money. Don't be like me. Market.
- Plug your product on reddit. Don't be super egregious. Provide value. Don't plug it every single time you comment. Reddit is super unforgiving in this - mods love to ban self promo users.
- Get involved in the relevant community for your niche. I found it on twitter for mine, and it's been working great.
Hope that helps!
edit: formatting
The page looks nicely designed. You could try seeding this first. There are many ways to do that, but one of the easiest would be for you to launch your own campaign using your own product, offering a service you can offer, to fund marketing budget for your site so you can help grow it and benefit more people. For example, you could help local businesses improve their landing pages or something that matches your skills. Your campaign could be to raise money to increase awareness of Taskwer. You can be the first successfully funded project in your own product. Then talk about that. I'd try to bring in one campaign at a time that are 100% funded. Good luck!
You know, this is very nice idea, I like it a lot, thanks a lot for this.
I think the basic idea here is fundamentally flawed. You don't have to take my word for it. Plenty of businesses that I think are pointless shit succeed. But your hyper-local focus on people offering services to their pre-existing friends and friends of friends doesn't require software. Have you ever been part of a book club? A church? A family? Even just a private Facebook group where most of the people all know each other? When one person has a service to offer or just needs money, they say so and the community responds. That's how communities already work. They don't need a software intermediary to spread the word and take a cut. Hell, my neighborhood literally has an empty corner lot with a bulletin board on it, plus a local dive bar everyone frequents that also has a board like that. Apps to match providers with consumers are only needed when the providers and consumers are previously unknown and untrusted to each other, hence why they rely on reputation that takes time to build. You have the right idea that if you need money fast and don't have a reputation on any current platform, you ask your local community who either knows you or knows others who will vouch for you, but you don't need an app for that. The communication channels are already there.
This is a very interesting feedback and yes, I agree completely, especially the part where you say that this is how communities already work. The reason why, at least in my mind, Taskwer makes sense is that it makes spreading the word easier. Let's say you want to raise $1000 for something, you will have to get in touch with your friends, it will take time to spread the word about it. What Taskwer allows you is to create a campaign, tell your story and offer services and it's all in one place, on one page which is very easy to share online so when you share it with your friends, they could support you and share it to their friends and in a couple of hours your campaign could reach quite a lot of people who wouldn't know about it otherwise. Just like GoFundMe campaigns, most donators are people who campaign creators know already. That's at least my opinion.
I hugely respect that you were able to bring this idea so far; it's something I've never been able to do. This is work that's 10x better than 95% of side projects or open source work people put on their resumes.
I'm always critical, so take that with a grain of salt.
Your origin story reminded me a lot of Airbnb's. Your motivation is slightly different, but not surprisingly, you're playing in the very, very crowded gig economy app space. Gofundme is pure charity. TaskRabbit is pure transactional odd-jobs. What you're doing is trying to blend the two. I have no idea how to market this.
I'm always critical, so take that with a grain of salt.
Your origin story reminded me a lot of Airbnb's. Your motivation is slightly different, but not surprisingly, you're playing in the very, very crowded gig economy app space. Gofundme is pure charity. TaskRabbit is pure transactional odd-jobs. What you're doing is trying to blend the two. I have no idea how to market this.
Thanks for taking the time to check it out, you got it 100% right.
> I have no idea how to market this.
This made me laugh, thanks man one more time. :)
> I have no idea how to market this.
This made me laugh, thanks man one more time. :)
How do you plan to pay to operate the service? How will you combat fraud?
I am not sure where the app would fit.
Besides renaming "workers" to "Creators" and "employers" to "Supporters", isn't it like "services offered" on a traditional newspaper classified ad column?
(or nowadays Facebook, Craigslist or similar)
Besides renaming "workers" to "Creators" and "employers" to "Supporters", isn't it like "services offered" on a traditional newspaper classified ad column?
(or nowadays Facebook, Craigslist or similar)
Well, it is in a way, but with a story. People can raise funds for something, very often very important like paying rent or mortgage so it's not just work-money exchange between them. It's more, when a person buys a service, they also did something good, they helped someone.
I have no idea about that being an advantage or even making only a difference.
In an ordinary "service offered" the "workers" get some money from the "employers" in exchange for some work done.
This money is then spent for "good" things needed by the workers or their families like rent, food, fuel, etc. OR for "bad" things like - say - alcohol, drugs, betting, etc. without the "employers" having any control on it.
The "moral" aspect is completely missing, while in your version somehow you introduce it, but only because of a "preliminary story", that may (or may not) be true.
So, you have two "workers" offering the same services, let's say dog sitting, for the same amount of money, let's say 20$ per hour, the first one's story is "I need money for rent.", the other one's is "I need the money to help pay medical bills for my mother".
Do you choose one or you flip a coin?
And what happens when a third one asks for 18$ per hour saying "I need the money to buy a ticket for <insert name here> concert"?
In an ordinary "service offered" the "workers" get some money from the "employers" in exchange for some work done.
This money is then spent for "good" things needed by the workers or their families like rent, food, fuel, etc. OR for "bad" things like - say - alcohol, drugs, betting, etc. without the "employers" having any control on it.
The "moral" aspect is completely missing, while in your version somehow you introduce it, but only because of a "preliminary story", that may (or may not) be true.
So, you have two "workers" offering the same services, let's say dog sitting, for the same amount of money, let's say 20$ per hour, the first one's story is "I need money for rent.", the other one's is "I need the money to help pay medical bills for my mother".
Do you choose one or you flip a coin?
And what happens when a third one asks for 18$ per hour saying "I need the money to buy a ticket for <insert name here> concert"?
Firstly, I believe people will buy almost anything if it's positioned and marketed to them correctly, so I wouldn't get discouraged if there are similar things out there at this stage. The trick is building and positioning a product with specific features that can withstand the buyer question of "what is my next best alternative" and ultimately choosing you. That, plus good unit economics, is how you build a foundation for a strong business. Most likely you'll overhaul the entire app and pivot 2-4 times before you get a strong product market fit, so be open to change (which is why building the entire thing before validating need is a great way to get your heart broken when it needs to be overhauled).
For Taskwer:
> I didn't listen to it
I'd start there, and introspect as to why you ignored the advice of the experts and experienced people. Validating market need before building anything you intend to sustainably sell is always a good idea. This will help you next time around and help you better understand yourself.
> At the same time, salaries didn't keep up with inflation, and more and more people started to struggle financially.
This is ground zero, the starting point, step one, etc. You think you've identified the problem. Who is struggling, exactly? Are you learning about this from a Business Insider or New Yorker article, or do you actually have a line of sight to a real person in your life this macro economic thing is hitting directly? You need to be able to contact at least one, but ideally 10 people to start, who are "struggling" and need to do odd-jobs or service work to make ends meet. Without them, you don't have a need and subsequently you don't have a service or an app that will go anywhere in its current form. You could perform (or purchase) the services yourself for the time being while you figure out who is more important to market to and how to market to them (my favorite lean solution to the cold start problem), then swap in the other participants in that side of the market over time. This can work really well if done correctly. In every two-sided market place there is a favorite child who is more important to the system and needs more attention, like drivers in Uber or homeowners in Airbnb. You should figure this out early on.
> just like on Kickstarter.
You need to have positioning that supports canned responses / dismissals with real incremental value to answer the inevitable comments like: "oh, so like Kickstarter? LOL" or "This sounds exactly like task rabbit". Ultimately I think you'll need to validate whether this incremental value is strong enough to carve out a niche for yourself and win users from the other solutions.
>Now, I have an MVP, and most of the features have been implemented, but I have no users.
Often times the MVP is a fraction of what you think, and you should spend the other X% of your time on GTM strategy and experimenting. The images on the site show payments support, messaging, scheduling, etc. I'll bet you could have prioritized better around a single core need that is unmet, and built the first feature cheaply. In this context, the value is connecting the right people at the right time, and you could deliver this with a cell phone, G-Suite and a great landing page with a form for email/phone number collection.
My impression is this is a grass roots, neighborly / community-driven idea, which is really cool. It has a feel-good, positive slant that pulls on your heart strings, which I think can help with marketing. The next question I'd ask is: "who is the type of person that would buy this over a Taskrabbit or existing expert solution?". Who wants to feel good about paying for services in addition to being happy the job got done?
I would turn to churches and similar groups, community centers, and leverage your own network to find a key partnership that can give you a pipeline of paying customers who want to feel good about using this type of thing rather than the typical service aggregator. In the future, I'd think about hiring or partnering with someone to round out your weaknesses, like an extroverted, people-oriented person with a large network who will shamelessly market the thing and isn't afraid of rejection, difficult conversations, vulnerability, etc.
The site looks great, and congrats on building something and deploying it to the world. That's hard and not many have done this, and is something to be proud of. Worst case, you have a great portfolio project to show off (maybe when pitching yourself as a technical cofounder on the next thing?) Now, if you get one paying customer and see that $ hit your bank account, that's even harder and you're doing what most people only dream and talk about, which is something to be even more proud of. Stay with it!
For Taskwer:
> I didn't listen to it
I'd start there, and introspect as to why you ignored the advice of the experts and experienced people. Validating market need before building anything you intend to sustainably sell is always a good idea. This will help you next time around and help you better understand yourself.
> At the same time, salaries didn't keep up with inflation, and more and more people started to struggle financially.
This is ground zero, the starting point, step one, etc. You think you've identified the problem. Who is struggling, exactly? Are you learning about this from a Business Insider or New Yorker article, or do you actually have a line of sight to a real person in your life this macro economic thing is hitting directly? You need to be able to contact at least one, but ideally 10 people to start, who are "struggling" and need to do odd-jobs or service work to make ends meet. Without them, you don't have a need and subsequently you don't have a service or an app that will go anywhere in its current form. You could perform (or purchase) the services yourself for the time being while you figure out who is more important to market to and how to market to them (my favorite lean solution to the cold start problem), then swap in the other participants in that side of the market over time. This can work really well if done correctly. In every two-sided market place there is a favorite child who is more important to the system and needs more attention, like drivers in Uber or homeowners in Airbnb. You should figure this out early on.
> just like on Kickstarter.
You need to have positioning that supports canned responses / dismissals with real incremental value to answer the inevitable comments like: "oh, so like Kickstarter? LOL" or "This sounds exactly like task rabbit". Ultimately I think you'll need to validate whether this incremental value is strong enough to carve out a niche for yourself and win users from the other solutions.
>Now, I have an MVP, and most of the features have been implemented, but I have no users.
Often times the MVP is a fraction of what you think, and you should spend the other X% of your time on GTM strategy and experimenting. The images on the site show payments support, messaging, scheduling, etc. I'll bet you could have prioritized better around a single core need that is unmet, and built the first feature cheaply. In this context, the value is connecting the right people at the right time, and you could deliver this with a cell phone, G-Suite and a great landing page with a form for email/phone number collection.
My impression is this is a grass roots, neighborly / community-driven idea, which is really cool. It has a feel-good, positive slant that pulls on your heart strings, which I think can help with marketing. The next question I'd ask is: "who is the type of person that would buy this over a Taskrabbit or existing expert solution?". Who wants to feel good about paying for services in addition to being happy the job got done?
I would turn to churches and similar groups, community centers, and leverage your own network to find a key partnership that can give you a pipeline of paying customers who want to feel good about using this type of thing rather than the typical service aggregator. In the future, I'd think about hiring or partnering with someone to round out your weaknesses, like an extroverted, people-oriented person with a large network who will shamelessly market the thing and isn't afraid of rejection, difficult conversations, vulnerability, etc.
The site looks great, and congrats on building something and deploying it to the world. That's hard and not many have done this, and is something to be proud of. Worst case, you have a great portfolio project to show off (maybe when pitching yourself as a technical cofounder on the next thing?) Now, if you get one paying customer and see that $ hit your bank account, that's even harder and you're doing what most people only dream and talk about, which is something to be even more proud of. Stay with it!
So GoFundMe meets Kickstarter?
I think with some ideas, something innovative, you can build it and they will come. This is not that.
I think with some ideas, something innovative, you can build it and they will come. This is not that.
The problem is that writing code, in an of itself, does not create value. Because you did not start with a clear customer need you are suffering from the "sunk cost fallacy" that the work you have done is worth something. Many people have asked you good questions in this thread on how you will differentiate your product concept and you have not been able to answer them.
Innovative.
I like the concept of crossover of fund-raising platform and freelance marketplace. It allows for organization of exchange that is smarter from societal design / functional viewpoint (which is kind of things I like a lot).
I can't give advice about how to get users, but will discuss the concept itself. Remember that you might miss better ideas if you guide your project solely by users' reactions.
Note that if your service doesn't require accountability from creators for spending earned money, it will functionally be simply a Taskrabbit clone with a light decoration of "fundraising causes" added and a focus on local community. This seems relatively hard to justify when there is Taskrabbit already.
I think that most people care little whether someone they hire needs to "pay rent" or anything else, unless the person is significant to them so that they would help them without strict conditions / obligations. So, your idea works in the case of friends or other significant persons to one, without need to make any kind of guarantees about the spending of payments. Allowing only this and limiting causes to "personal", though, would be an unfortunate omission in the design. Consider another way to use your service: creator in their campaign sets promises about spending of payments which legally (or otherwise effectively) bind them, and then unrelated strangers who nevertheless like these promises, find and accept the offer. So your service would have both angles of helping people from local community personally and helping specific projects from anywhere.
Political meaning of this: In essence, the obligations become another half of the goods provided, which may rise the amount of payment. This will result in that offers of products unrelated to each other "purely utilitarianly", will get "married to each other", become interdependent in bundles more fit than independent offers, which is sign of market participants' stronger moral control of society.
My idea of how your service should handle it: a creator creates a set of service offers and a set of causes independently, then links each offer to a subset of causes (in simplest cases, there will be only one cause or all of creator's offers will be linked to all their causes). In each offer, a creator sets one or more default proportions. A buyer either selects a default proportion or sets a custom proportion; it defines which fraction of payment goes to which cause. Every transaction records the proportion, and the obligation-checking mechanism would calculate from all transactions target sums to use in checking. There could be a dummy cause which is checked trivially so that a creator can consume a pre-agreed fraction of payment freely. Example: 70% - Some Noble Cause (creator is accountable for it in a concrete way); 30% - dummy cause (promise is trivially fulfilled, e. g. creator is free to spend this any way). Every element of proportion could have a part fixed by creator and a part variable by buyer, so you could support complex rules for proportions acceptable by creator: for example, 30% on Cause A, 10% minimum on Cause X and on Cause Y, 20% more are distributed between causes X and Y by buyer's choice and remaining 30% are free spending. You can see here how this can become a lifestyle: people would pledge fraction(s) of their earning to charities or generally to causes, they would share their campaign pages... this could become a social media! Consider this. Including the dummy cause, every proportion sums to 100% minus fees for your service. You can also add a kind of payment-doubling mechanism: a buyer allocates X% of payment to a cause, yet Y% is verified spending of, where (Y-X)% automatically comes from somewhere else.
All in all, I think this supplemented variant of the idea is very good and interesting and I want to see it in reality. Thank you for developing this kind of ideas.
I like the concept of crossover of fund-raising platform and freelance marketplace. It allows for organization of exchange that is smarter from societal design / functional viewpoint (which is kind of things I like a lot).
I can't give advice about how to get users, but will discuss the concept itself. Remember that you might miss better ideas if you guide your project solely by users' reactions.
Note that if your service doesn't require accountability from creators for spending earned money, it will functionally be simply a Taskrabbit clone with a light decoration of "fundraising causes" added and a focus on local community. This seems relatively hard to justify when there is Taskrabbit already.
I think that most people care little whether someone they hire needs to "pay rent" or anything else, unless the person is significant to them so that they would help them without strict conditions / obligations. So, your idea works in the case of friends or other significant persons to one, without need to make any kind of guarantees about the spending of payments. Allowing only this and limiting causes to "personal", though, would be an unfortunate omission in the design. Consider another way to use your service: creator in their campaign sets promises about spending of payments which legally (or otherwise effectively) bind them, and then unrelated strangers who nevertheless like these promises, find and accept the offer. So your service would have both angles of helping people from local community personally and helping specific projects from anywhere.
Political meaning of this: In essence, the obligations become another half of the goods provided, which may rise the amount of payment. This will result in that offers of products unrelated to each other "purely utilitarianly", will get "married to each other", become interdependent in bundles more fit than independent offers, which is sign of market participants' stronger moral control of society.
My idea of how your service should handle it: a creator creates a set of service offers and a set of causes independently, then links each offer to a subset of causes (in simplest cases, there will be only one cause or all of creator's offers will be linked to all their causes). In each offer, a creator sets one or more default proportions. A buyer either selects a default proportion or sets a custom proportion; it defines which fraction of payment goes to which cause. Every transaction records the proportion, and the obligation-checking mechanism would calculate from all transactions target sums to use in checking. There could be a dummy cause which is checked trivially so that a creator can consume a pre-agreed fraction of payment freely. Example: 70% - Some Noble Cause (creator is accountable for it in a concrete way); 30% - dummy cause (promise is trivially fulfilled, e. g. creator is free to spend this any way). Every element of proportion could have a part fixed by creator and a part variable by buyer, so you could support complex rules for proportions acceptable by creator: for example, 30% on Cause A, 10% minimum on Cause X and on Cause Y, 20% more are distributed between causes X and Y by buyer's choice and remaining 30% are free spending. You can see here how this can become a lifestyle: people would pledge fraction(s) of their earning to charities or generally to causes, they would share their campaign pages... this could become a social media! Consider this. Including the dummy cause, every proportion sums to 100% minus fees for your service. You can also add a kind of payment-doubling mechanism: a buyer allocates X% of payment to a cause, yet Y% is verified spending of, where (Y-X)% automatically comes from somewhere else.
All in all, I think this supplemented variant of the idea is very good and interesting and I want to see it in reality. Thank you for developing this kind of ideas.
But let's start from the beginning...
It all started almost 2 years ago when inflation began to kick in. Prices of everything started to rise, from groceries and bills to rent. At the same time, salaries didn't keep up with inflation, and more and more people started to struggle financially. Many started using food banks to get through the month. Even for working people, it got harder and harder to keep up, especially for single parents. Some people even lost their homes because they couldn't afford to pay their rent anymore.
And that got me thinking: there should be a way for people to raise funds quickly in those dark moments when they need it the most, whether to keep a roof over their heads, pay bills, buy groceries, or cover educational expenses.
At some point, as I'm a developer, I came up with an idea for an app - an app that would enable people to raise funds by offering services to their community. Services like tutoring, babysitting, pet sitting, transportation, home repair, and various other tasks they could carry out after their working hours.
I believed that this could be genuinely helpful to many people so I started working on it. I called the app Taskwer. So, how does it work?
People who want to raise funds are called creators. They start by creating their campaigns, where they set their funding goal, share their story, introduce themselves, explain why they're raising funds, and what kind of services are they offering. Once their campaign is all set, they can launch it and share it with their friends on social media, just like on Kickstarter.
After the campaign is launched, creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm that the task has been completed, and creators would get paid. They could receive payment in cash from their supporters, or if the service is paid by card, they could withdraw funds from the app. There are no fees on cash payments. And in case of any issues, there is a support system in place.
I knew that I should start looking for potential users as soon as possible, even before I started building the app, to understand what they really want and need. However, there was just one problem; I'm an introvert. I have a small group of friends, I work remotely, and I don't use social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. As a result, I kept postponing reaching out to people. And there was always a new feature to add, or a bug to fix so that was always a good excuse. I ended up sticking to what I was comfortable with and avoided talking to people for as long as possible.
Now, I have an MVP, and most of the features have been implemented, but I have no users. I don't know if this idea is any good, is it something people would even want to use. I believe it's not a bad idea, but my opinion doesn't matter here; it's the opinion of potential users that matters. The lack of a network and the inability to get users made me feel voiceless, like I'm a complete nobody. Over the past couple of weeks there have been numerous times when I've thought about giving up on this project.
So I came here today to ask for your help. I don't have a marketing budget unfortunately. What would you do in my place? What would be the best way to get my first 10 users, get some unbiased feedback and see if this project is even worth pursuing?
Here's the link: https://www.taskwer.com