Show HN: I'm using a nocode comm tool

5 pointssaddington4y ago1 comments

orignally shared this on startup school... i thought id' share it here.

i'm using a `nocode communication tool` (a web-based interface... a single browser tab!) for all of these things:

1. landing page — the landing page is the product and i wanted for folks to feel "transported" right into the app without having to walk through a shitty b2b marketing-style content. this is akin to my experience back in the `BBS` days of the mid-90's where you were immediately into the app, community, and tool. no terms of service, no privacy policy. just pure, immediate value.

2. building community — we talk about life and startups and the metaverse and bitcoin and writing and all of the things that i love to think about and talk about! since this is my workspace (they are called "yeniverses") i want to love it more than anyone else. and as an artist, i want to love it even more. so, the community that's there every single day is there because they like these topics and want to talk and discuss them with me. this is nice because no one is really there that doesn't want to be there... instead, these are highly-qualified community members (and customers). it naturally weeds out folks who aren't interested in those things.

3. a feedback system on the product — using a simple `public` room (which you can see at the very [bottom](https://john.do/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-23-at-7.35.25-PM.png)) i can get direct feedback on the product itself which is the most important part in the very early-stage... i just want to know what works and what doesn't and then i can make those changes and fixes immediately. this is also super-useful because my entire team also can engage with the community and see, for themselves, the needs / wants / wishes / desires of the community at-large. this fixes a lot of the problems where team members are too distant or removed from their customers, which is a common problem as teams scale and grow. keeping this in the same interface as #4 is a total win.

4. internal communication with my team / contractors (slack replacement) — this is probably one of the best parts is that i can use as many `private rooms` as i need to communicate with my fully-distributed team in both real-time and async. i use it for my development team that's helping to build the product as well as unique private rooms for contract teams and special projects. i can create them quickly, invite via email (any email works so you don't have to lock-in any specific domain) and then just get to work. delete them when you're done.

(cont'd in the first comment...)

1 comments

saddingtonOP4y ago

5. one-one-one coaching via private messages! — i get to do one-on-one coaching and engagement with my community members as they enter into the space and engage with the community / product. this "white glove" type of experience helps me learn their specific needs as well as give them true value, as best as i can. i can go in-depth with members and really connect with them in authentic ways. sometimes this results in a "sale" (purchasing a subscription to one of the `paid rooms`) but mostly it's about just "doing things that don't scale" and making sure that i have immediate and direct access with my customer.

6. monetization via paid rooms around specific topics / themes! — since we're bootstrapped and proud we need to also make a bit of money and so one of the base feature primitives is `paid rooms`. just like public and private, you can easily create these, choose a price, and go! users can quickly add their own credit card (we use stripe rn ) and sign-up with one-click. we're currently test-driving that in our own yeniverse (you can see the the [build workflow here](https://john.do/paid-rooms-beta/)) and we're going to open this up for artists and creators and small business owners soon. a lot of folks are using this for not just creating gated, paid / mvp / behind-the-scenes experiences but also selling product... a user buys access to the room and then gets shipped a product or swag. a bit counter-intuitive at first but this is better because you want them to be a paying community member (subscription) more than just a one-time buyer (single transaction). this combination of product > community is very unique to the platform. 7. it's all free and focused— as a boostrapped startup i need to save money and [YEN](http://yen.chat) is free to use, forever... ... all in one single browser tab.

i don't want to have to be on all these insane places all the time when i really just need to focus 100% on my community and customers. consequently, i'm not active on any web 2.0 / social media network and instead spend 100% of my time in this product and community space. this saves me TONS of time and pressure and anxiety of trying to just "tweet to randos" besides the fact that they are algorithmically-controlled feeds... so you don't even know if your work is being seen! i think that's bullshit and YEN doesn't have any algo-feeds and doesn't profit on pixel tracking, retargeting, anyone's data or the traditional BS biz models; yen doesn't track anything and you know with 100% confidence that what you post is seen by every single person in that room. that's a bit why we consider it a part of web 3. ... in a single browser tab.

i hope others can be inspired by this use-cases and use it for themselves for success! lmk if you have any questions! ---

note: 1. i do use github with my team... so, technically, i have two browser tabs that are pinned. L(° O °L)

2. i'm the founder. (－‸ლ)

cheers!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse