pdrummond

Hi HN,

KAISER is at MVP stage right now and it’s available here: https://www.kaiser-web.io

I’ve been working on this for a while now and I thought it would a good test to share it with HN and hopefully receive some valuable feedback in the process.

I’m focusing on making a Project Management app for software teams that developers and project managers can get on with and I like the idea of building it around individual user-specific task queues.

It’s early days and the direction of the app isn’t finalised yet, so any feedback you provide could help shape the future direction of the project. Even if you don’t like the concept of KAISER, I would love to hear why, and more generally, about your current problems/thoughts/ideas regarding project management.

Thanks, Paul.

Last year I posted my startup (called OpenLoopz at the time) to Hacker News expecting it to be ignored. I was hoping for a few comments at very best, but to my surprise the response was outstanding. Sure, most of it was negative, but even the harshest feedback was intended as constructive and I took it that way. It was a massive learning experience for me and I was thankful to everyone who took the time to give feedback. Here is the link if anyone is interested: https://goo.gl/CbntXB.

Once things settled down, I followed the advice on HN and took some time away from the project. I found another contract and when I was ready, I started working on a more focused version of my app in my spare time. A year and a half later, the result is quite different but with the same fundamental idea: to provide a simpler, more developer-friendly way to manage software projects by focusing on improved team communication.

https://demo.openloops.io/about

It's not finished. I’m showing it as a demo for now while I test and refine it. I’m trying to go against my instincts and show it publicly earlier than before (another lesson I learned from the HN feedback).

I also have a separate instance that I am using to manage development of OLS which is public so you can view it without an account:

https://ols.openloops.io/dashboard/LuWSk44kKnSB56qu8

Please let me know what you think. Even if I get 5% of the feedback I got from the previous version, it will help massively.

Hi everyone,

This is the new landing page for OpenLoopz:

https://openloopz.com/welcome

It’s based on the excellent feedback I received from the original post. I know it’s far from perfect and there is still a lot of material I haven’t had time to add yet, but it’s a start. I plan to iterate and improve on this over time as I learn more about marketing and promotion.

I hope it gets the message across about what OpenLoopz is and why you might want to use it! I will be adding more pages soon, such as testimonials, pricing info, FAQ, use cases, etc, and more detail in general.

Please let me know what you think and thanks again to everyone who took the time to provide feedback for the original post. It really made a difference.

Last year I gave in to the temptation of doing my own startup and quit my job, just like many others have done on this site. Since then, I’ve severely changed my lifestyle and reduced my living costs to a crazy low figure and worked my ass off for the last 8 months to achieve this:

www.openloopz.com

I have written more about it on Medium here: http://goo.gl/JN03yf

I knew from the start the odds were stacked against me. I’m almost 36, I have a family and I live in the North East of England where - without wanting to sound negative - the opportunities are few and far between compared to what I see on here. When I made the BETA announcement, I knew no-one would just magically sign-up, but I watched and waited anyway and became extremely pissed off when it didn’t happen. “It’s been 2 hours - why haven’t I got 100 sign-ups already?”. Silly really.

I used up all my savings to get this far and I don’t regret any of it (except maybe the weight gain, lack of a social life, and development of bad sleeping habits!). I wanted to prove to myself I can build a production quality app that I honestly believe in without bias, and I can truly say I have achieved that now.

But now comes the hard part. I need to force myself to stop coding and start actually talking about OpenLoopz and trying to spread the word. I am the first to admit I am not very good at this. I am struggling to even write this post because I already know that probably no-one will read it. But I just have to learn to get over that and keep going. Any feedback - good or bad - will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I have been working on an Android game for around eight months now and while I personally I think it's a great little game - as a developer - I am struggling to find the motivation to market it and feel like it will be a waste of time trying to get it noticed. I just want to write code and I hate the idea of marketing even though I know it's an essential part of the process.

The obvious thing to do is to submit it to as many review sites as possible, but I've read many articles that say it's a waste of time to even try contacting the popular review sites. Maybe I am hesitant because part of me is a bit reluctant to have it criticized too much? Hmm, not sure about that.

I think the main problem is that the game is a "Snake clone". IMO it has enough original features to stand up as its own game. But I think many people just see Snake, think "toy project" and walk away.

I would really appreciate some feedback on what the HN community thinks. Should I continue trying to push the game? Or should I not waste any more time on it and just accept it's time to move on?

One more point: if I do move on, I won't feel like this has been a failure personally. I am very proud of Foobit - it's my first Android game and I can't stop playing it! Also my Son (aged 10) loves it, so it's definitely been a worthwhile learning project for me. I'm just in two minds as to whether I should commit to marketing it or not, that's all.

Download link for anyone who wants to try it (it's free to play): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=iode.foobit