We're building embeddable website widgets for businesses and agencies.
The main thing we care about is that most widgets make sites slower, uglier, or harder to maintain, so we've been trying to build ones that are:
- easy to install
- fast / lazy-loaded
- zero-layout-shift
- easier to style so they feel native to the site - AI functionality helps a lot
We’ve done zero ads so far. Mostly just shipping and helping organic clients, pushing changes to production, and trying to make the product better every day, and passing integration validations like for Instagram sync.
What’s already become obvious is that building the product is way easier than figuring out how to get customers.
One thing we're starting to realize is that we probably shouldn't position GizmoSauce as just "widgets." We wanted to create more commercial integrations with larger clients.
I mean, different widgets make sense for different client types:
- Reviews / chat / hours feel like a better fit for smaller businesses
- The new widget we build now - Store Locator feels more relevant for multi-location businesses, retail, franchises, and the agencies that work with them
So the GTM idea I keep coming back to is:
- Find a brand with an obvious UX gap
- build a working demo showing how one widget could improve it
They don't currently have a map flow there, so we mocked up what that experience could look like with a Store Locator.
Main thing I'd love feedback on:
If you were us, would it be ok, or too strange to go this way? Should we start by selling to agencies, or go directly after multi-location brands and not care that nobody knows us?
And does the "build a custom demo for a real brand" approach sound smart for early traction, or too manual?
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Show HN: GizmoSauce – no-code website widgets · HackerTrans
We're building embeddable website widgets for businesses and agencies.
The main thing we care about is that most widgets make sites slower, uglier, or harder to maintain, so we've been trying to build ones that are:
- easy to install
- fast / lazy-loaded
- zero-layout-shift
- easier to style so they feel native to the site - AI functionality helps a lot
We’ve done zero ads so far. Mostly just shipping and helping organic clients, pushing changes to production, and trying to make the product better every day, and passing integration validations like for Instagram sync.
What’s already become obvious is that building the product is way easier than figuring out how to get customers.
One thing we're starting to realize is that we probably shouldn't position GizmoSauce as just "widgets." We wanted to create more commercial integrations with larger clients.
I mean, different widgets make sense for different client types:
- Reviews / chat / hours feel like a better fit for smaller businesses
- The new widget we build now - Store Locator feels more relevant for multi-location businesses, retail, franchises, and the agencies that work with them
So the GTM idea I keep coming back to is:
- Find a brand with an obvious UX gap
- build a working demo showing how one widget could improve it
- send it to their digital / marketing team
For example, we made this Little Caesars demo: https://demo.gizmosauce.com/demos/little-caesars/
Compared to their current store search: https://order.littlecaesars.com/en-us/order/pickup/stores/se...
They don't currently have a map flow there, so we mocked up what that experience could look like with a Store Locator.
Main thing I'd love feedback on:
If you were us, would it be ok, or too strange to go this way? Should we start by selling to agencies, or go directly after multi-location brands and not care that nobody knows us? And does the "build a custom demo for a real brand" approach sound smart for early traction, or too manual?