Lessons learned from YC Startup School

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[1] Landing Page

I think this is a common issue for all of us. We're so used to our ideas and landing page, that everything makes sense, and we forget that our users likely have no idea what's going on.

Testing with users doesn't help this, because our testers are in a sort of testing mindset, so they're going to move through the page and inspect everything.

Having a couple of example collections beneath the fold would help me understand what the app does.

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[4] (out of order, because this comes first).

In the Nike case, wouldn't it be easier for them to just set up a hashtag on instagram? What is your advantage over that?

Does all of the work you're doing help you get to that advantage?

I would focus very narrowly on the specific use case you are trying to achieve and the outcomes that those users need. My requirements for my travel photos with friends are very different from a wedding planner, which are very different from Nike.

I.e. for Nike, their goal might be to have more customer engagement and to get more photos. So they could use something like a built-in reward system to increase engagement, or different types of gamification.

They would want content moderation features.

They might want a different type of output (i.e. an easy way to make a slideshow from all of the photos) that are ready for social media (i.e. formatted for facebook, instagram, snapchat), or to pull all photos from instagram with a certain hashtag.

But would they need a way to sync photos with dropbox/google photos/etc? Probably not.

I can understand the desire to have a consumer app to spread the word, and to think that would help you get those bigger accounts -- but I think you're building two (or more) different products, and it would be easier to just cut to the chase. Or at least verify that the final app will be sellable, first.

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[2]

Again, I would really start by focusing on your paid customers.

Get a few people to use the app for their events/weddings so that you have some examples you can show to future customers. Even if you can't get people to use the real app, mock up what the results would look like. Make it as real as possible, exactly like what your app would produce.

Then, you can email some wedding planners with a sales email. See if they would pay for this; they would then either charge or offer it for free to their customers. Test your actual plan.

Find a few events that you think would benefit from your app and try to set up a sales call; send them your examples and pricing. If you can get a sales call, that's a good sign. If they sign up, that's a great sign.

Even getting them to use your app for free would be a win -- because there are setup costs. Maybe there's a local Nike (or ideally some smaller brands) event in your city that you could reach out to. Reach out to many, not just 1 or 2.

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[3]

I guess I personally don't see the need from a consumer perspective, since we had this issue (sharing travel photos between friends) and we used google photos.

Downloading it & setting it up was super easy (on iOS) and we've used that solution since.

I can see the value in having consumers use your app, and hoping that virality brings in paid b2b accounts. I wonder if it's practical given the competition and work involved.

Cheers & good luck.

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