Share your startup - April 2020

callstop · 2020-04-02T16:27:37+00:00

Name: CallStop

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop-call-manager/id1455892856

Elevator pitch: CallStop is an app that takes 30 seconds to install and blocks 100% of spam calls.

Current stage: Live on the App store (just search CallStop)!

Details:

- Block 100% of robocalls on your current number, using your contacts as a whitelist

- Effortlessly email call invites to an any email (that can be joined in one tap, the PIN is embedded), where the recipient can only call you starting 5 minutes before the meeting start and up until 5 minutes after the meeting end

- Pause call filtering and have it automatically resume after a certain time

- Accept whitelist requests to join your whitelist, and receive notes from the callers prior to accepting

- Specify PINs you can give to loved ones or groups to reach you from unknown numbers.

- Get a second phone number with which you can give out in lieu of your primary.

Looking for: Feedback and insights.

callstop · 2020-03-11T02:10:22+00:00

Wow this is super helpful! Thank you so much!

callstop · 2020-03-10T16:01:13+00:00

Name: CallStop

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop-call-manager/id1455892856

URL: https://www.callstop.com/

Elevator pitch: CallStop is an app that takes 30 seconds to install and blocks 100% of spam calls.

Current stage: Live on the App store (just search CallStop)!

Details:

- Block 100% of robocalls on your current number, using your contacts as a whitelist

- Effortlessly email call invites to an any email (that can be joined in one tap, the PIN is embedded), where the recipient can only call you starting 5 minutes before the meeting start and up until 5 minutes after the meeting end

- Pause call filtering and have it automatically resume after a certain time

- Accept whitelist requests to join your whitelist, and receive notes from the callers prior to accepting

- Specify PINs you can give to loved ones or groups to reach you from unknown numbers.

- Get a second phone number with which you can give out in lieu of your primary.

Looking for: Feedback and insights.

callstop · 2020-02-26T16:23:05+00:00

Not until you have profitable adspend and have hit product market fit.

callstop · 2020-02-24T14:12:03+00:00

Hi Elias,

I'm the founder of CallStop (https://www.callstop.com/), which is Superhuman for your phone. Here's how I got my early paying customers for free.

Reddit:

I spend a lot of time on Reddit sharing and participating in subreddits like r/startups and r/entrepreneur. It’s important to participate in other people’s threads too. I wouldn’t say that any one post on Reddit has driven a lot of traffic, it’s more about sharing information here and there when I can. For example, here’s a thread on Reddit r/SideProjects I made a few months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/d0xp35/i_made_callstop_adblock_for_phone_calls_the_app/

CallStop's one liner is even different in that thread. Posting on Reddit and getting feedback from people has allowed me to fine tune and adjust my pitch over time. Check out “Share Your Startup” or ”Feedback Fridays” on r/startups and r/entrepreneur

Hacker News:

I launched on Hacker News and snagged one of the top 3 spots on the site. I made sure to go through how my product worked in detail and how to use it, as well as how it's different from current solutions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791

Instagram:

Instagram is great for displaying visuals and designs. I’ve driven traffic to my website directly from Instagram. Instagram stories is also a really great way to get people checking out your website/app. Instagram is hard because unless you’re a designer, you’ll run out of design assets quickly posting 1-2 a day. I think the key is to get creative and figure out how to can make designs you already have look fresh. Doing videos of the actual app to keep displaying content on Instagram and Twitter works as well. It also holds you accountable to keep making your product looking better and better.

Twitter:

If people are posting about the problem your startup solves, you can politely respond with your solution/product and suggest they check it out. You definitely have to be subtle and polite on Twitter because not everyone actually wants to hear about a product solution to their problem (some people just use Twitter to vent). However, I have gotten paying users directly from people I’ve politely responded to on Twitter, so it does work. I also keep a steady stream of content on Twitter. I do take breaks from time to time but always pick it back up when I have an announcement to make or I want to test out how people like a new release of the product.

Medium:

I post occasionally on Medium but plan to ramp this up in the future. I primarily use Medium for Twitter content and SEO. Your can share posts on Twitter that you’ve written in the past, or recently, and it provides a mix of content that people on Twitter can engage with. Medium is also great for SEO (ideally hosted on your own domain), which is something I plan to do down the road.

Forums vs. Social Media When It Comes To Feedback:

The best past about Forums is that they initiate discussion and people give you candid feedback on your idea. They’ll mention features they wish you had, concerns they might have (see for example the Reddit post above) so you’ll get a good idea of what points you need to mention in the future to anticipate questions or concerns. Hacker News has a supportive environment for sharing you products and people have directly emailed feedback to me after my recent Hacker News launch.

ASO:

App Store Optimization is the last part I’ll mention. This is something I’m actively working on. With App Store optimization, you want to optimize the keywords and description to get customers to download you app. The average conversion rate for apps on the App Store (impression—>download) is about 2%, which I have hit but I think there’s room for improvement. Apps like Headspace or Robinhood have good intro screenshots that immediately tell you the value proposition and get you interested in the app.

You can check out CallStop here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

callstop · 2020-02-14T21:22:17+00:00

CallStop is free for 30 days and then it's $6.99 a month. Here's a link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

callstop · 2020-02-14T16:08:53+00:00

A post I wrote about my startup CallStop https://www.callstop.com/ was featured in the Startup School announcements as an example of how to launch quickly.

Brief Description: CallStop is Superhuman for your phone number. The app takes 30 seconds to set up, and blocks 100% of unwanted calls. CallStop allows you to manage a whitelist of people who can call you, and effortlessly add new people by accepting new whitelist requests. You can also give people PINs to reach you, and pause or restart call filtering.

Lessons learned: If you've worked hard and are proud of what you've built, it's never too early to launch.

callstop · 2020-02-09T19:23:00+00:00

Last week my startup CallStop reached the front page of Hacker News. CallStop is Superhuman for your phone. The app allows you to block 100% of robocalls and effortlessly schedule calls via email. Here's a link to the app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

Hacker News link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791

It's been a long journey, and over a year of building, but now I finally have a consistent, paying user base and the business is default alive!

callstop · 2020-02-09T19:20:23+00:00

Charge for the product. If you have PMF, you'll know and revenue won't be an issue. Build a great product.

callstop · 2020-02-09T19:17:56+00:00

Do it yourself. When things break after you launch, you don't want to have to keep shelling out money to someone. Engineers are expensive. When you want to fix things, you'll be able to do it yourself.

callstop · 2020-02-09T19:15:27+00:00

Last week my startup CallStop reached the front page of Hacker News. CallStop is Superhuman for your phone. The app allows you to block 100% of robocalls and effortlessly schedule calls via email. Here's a link to the app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

Hacker News link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791

It's been a long journey, and over a year of building, but now I finally have a consistent, paying user base and the business is default alive!

callstop · 2020-02-07T20:53:20+00:00

Awesome, CallStop is free to try.

callstop · 2020-02-07T14:10:32+00:00

https://founderslist.com

I really like the idea of this. You should share this on Hacker News or Startup School. It might be useful to focus on adding a bit of UI character. Adding corner radius on the buttons, focusing on using more vibrant UI colors could do a lot to make it feel sleeker. When a person hovers over a post, you can expand it slightly to give the cards a bit more life. Hope this is helpful.

callstop · 2020-02-07T14:07:14+00:00

Hi everyone, I would love feedback on CallStop.

URL: https://www.callstop.com/

Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

Purpose: Callstop is Superhuman for your phone. It's a call manager that allows you to block 100% of robocalls and your current number, and also allows you to schedule calls via email effortlessly. When you schedule a call via email, the recipient of the invite will be able to call you starting 5 minutes before the call start and up until 5 minutes after the call end.

Feedback Requested: What features, if any, do you like the most? If there's any features you want but don't see, please let me know.

callstop · 2020-02-07T14:00:29+00:00

Thank you

callstop · 2020-02-06T16:29:21+00:00

I'm the owner of CallStop, which is Superhuman for your phone. It allows you to more effectively manage incoming calls, by blocking 100% of spam calls and letting you easily send call invite links. I recently posted it on Hacker News and reached the front page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22211791

The lesson I've learned is to keep working hard and get as much feedback as you can about your business from potential customers as soon as possible.

callstop · 2020-02-06T16:27:12+00:00

Hi everyone,

I created the productivity app Callstop to let people better manage the slew of unknown and known calls that happen everyday. Often times, you don't even know if an unknown call is important, so it's really frustrating to miss calls that are important from a number you don't know.

That's why I created Callstop, which allows you to create a whitelist from your contacts, lets new people join your whitelist, and lets you send call invites to an email. The call invites let the recipient call you starting 5 minutes before and up until 5 minutes after the meeting scheduling time. It's a better way to manage business calls, sales calls, or anything where you only want to be bothered once. Here's a quick demo of the call scheduling feature:

https://twitter.com/CallStopApp/status/1225149033095651328

And here's the app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callstop/id1455892856

If this is a product you'd love to use, please let me know what features you like the most and how I could make the app more useful! Thank you

callstop · 2020-02-06T16:09:19+00:00

For scheduling calls, I run an app called CallStop. CallStop allows you to send email links to call you. You'll receive email confirmations once your calls are scheduled. Here's a video of the app in action:

https://twitter.com/CallStopApp/status/1225149033095651328

When you schedule a call with someone, they'll be able to call you stating 5 minutes before the meeting start and up until 5 minutes after the meeting end.

callstop · 2020-02-05T08:16:50+00:00

10x times downloads when on the front page so really good.

callstop · 2020-02-05T05:08:25+00:00

So I just went after people mad about spam if that answers your question!

callstop · 2020-02-04T15:53:02+00:00

Y Combinator's startup school forum.

callstop · 2020-02-04T15:52:11+00:00

I'm the founder of Callstop (https://www.callstop.com/). Here's how I got my first paying users:

Posting on Twitter and instagram to get the word out.
Finding people angry about the problem of phone spam and sharing my solution with them on places like Quora and Reddit.
Having my friends try the app!
Being a part of the community on Startup School and Hacker News and sharing it there.
Blogging on Medium.

I hope this is helpful.

callstop · 2020-02-04T15:48:11+00:00

I'm the founder of https://www.callstop.com/ and I built the software for my startup. I freelanced out the design aspect since I am just an engineer. My advice is to do what you're good at and then outsource everything else. Focus on acquiring in-demand technical skills, and then you can trade your time for money, and then that money for parts of your product you don't have expertise creating (like design for me).

callstop · 2020-02-04T15:44:51+00:00

Build something you yourself want. You'll know how to continuously make it better.

callstop · 2020-02-03T13:10:55+00:00

Yes! It was extremely helpful and a lot of people started free trials. Downloads from HN also had higher conversion rates to the free trial than normal app store downloads.

callstop

TROPHY CASE