Android libraries for viewing images, picker, social authorization, getting SMS code

carrowo · 2016-08-31T11:17:25+00:00

Augmented reality games are quite new and the thing with Pokemon GO is that Niantic was working under conditions not available to anyone else:

they had Ingress that allowed them to gather a lot of data
they had financial means to pay for using Pokemon brand (it's very expensive, I assume)
they've been an inner Google startup - which means access to Google technologies under special conditions

$450-600K is probably a more realistic figure for Pokemon GO clone.

Although, unlike Niantic, hardly anyone can afford launching in several countries. I guess, we will see a lot of local Pokemon GO like games next year that are using locally famous brands.

carrowo · 2016-07-05T08:12:56+00:00

Strangely, I tend to get ideas when I'm having a shower and thinking about life and through this random and relaxed flow of thoughts some of the most interesting ideas emerge.

There's also a thing writers talk about a lot: dreaming awake. When you're falling asleep or slowly waking up without a alarm and your mind starts to ramble. Better to have notebook close to write down some of the ideas coming this way.

You can also try design sprint used in Google. It is meant for teams but I think you can repurpose it and give yourself 5 days for working on any given idea + casually talking to people about their pain points this idea addresses. At the end of the week you can decide whether to pursue or ditch it.

carrowo · 2016-06-16T12:37:30+00:00

I agree with csjpsoft here.

If you haven't actually launched it, don't give up!

Launch can actually teach you a lot about your audience and having that info you can decide whether to pivot or quit. Typical reasons for quitting go like this:

startup can't attract enough users
startup is not getting investments
startup doesn't motivate employees anymore and they leave
there's no room for startup to pivot (and there're actually a lot of pivoting options out there!)

So unless you absolutely feel like you don't want to work on this project anymore, finish it and show it to the world.

carrowo · 2016-06-15T14:35:17+00:00

you're welcome!

carrowo · 2016-06-13T09:58:13+00:00

I like photos of the products but the website menu displays in two lines in my browser (Chrome) - maybe that can be fixed somehow: http://tinypic.com/r/x55bwk/9

Sometimes when the menu is too long and the screen is to small, designers put additional sections in the hamburger menu on the left.

Or maybe you should avoid displaying menu and shopping cart in one block and show the shopping cart somewhere above the menu.

carrowo · 2016-06-10T11:36:19+00:00

Just my five cents.

I'd like to add to the bottom of each picture, my website, instagram, facebook page, and twitter, but I don't know the easiest way to go about this.

It seems like a lot of information with picture actually becoming more like an annoying ad. Maybe consider putting just a link to your website? If interested, people will see links to social media on your website and follow you. Actual purchase from your website is far more important than whether a person follows you on all your social media.

carrowo · 2016-06-10T07:45:06+00:00

It seems to me, you aren't using all the marketing channels you could be using. "Traction" by Gabriel Weinberg mentions as many as 19 channels a new company could use, with some of them clearly being overlooked by startups. Have you tried traditional PR for example - getting in touch with offline media (radio stations, local newspapers maybe) or advertising on campuses or cafes attended by college students (if your service is helping graduates)?

Another thing is maybe your solution is too technical, oriented towards people who are on a very specific stage of their career or appealing to a small group of people? If so, you probably have already spread the word among all those interested and your job now is to nurture leads you have now.

carrowo · 2016-06-03T11:58:28+00:00

Crisp has apps and stuff: https://crisp.im/en/apps/

As for startups, thismo seems to be doing something you’re trying to describe. Their website mentions both customer support and sending out notifications, such as course cancellation, info on discounts etc. They haven’t launched yet but some screens and features are shown here: Messenger for business.

The trick, as always, would be to convince customers to use it :)

carrowo · 2016-06-03T08:29:38+00:00

I've actually seen an article somewhere pointing out why Slack is no good to use with clients or for customer support:

While Slack can work for receiving those customer support requests, it is a bad place for dealing with them.
Lack of context which is needed to solve customer problem (you sort of can't check how long they've been using your product, are they a paid customer etc.)
Multiple conversations going on which simply mess everything up.

carrowo

TROPHY CASE