Ask HN: Should we kill our site?
Back in April, we asked the HN community for feedback. We received great advice and have since enhanced/modified our site per the feedback. However, we're now at the cross roads of Continue or Kill it.
So here's our situation:
Initially, we wanted a way to quickly and anonymously voice our (infamous bank) frustrations. There's alway the fake twitter account, but we enjoy coding so we spent a few hours one night, and the next morning we launched MyBankSux.com. It received a few complaints, so we added banks in other countries to see whether anyone else would use it.
We received 80 + complaints in the past month, so no traction, and now that the 1 month mark has passed - we need to choose whether to invest additional time or simply leave it as is.
If we choose to invest additional time, we want to create the easiest way to submit a bank complaint. We want the user to simply pull up the application (mobile), click submit, and have the banks' customer service contact them; no more hold, nor need to find the customer service number. In addition, we want to keep track of resolution so consumers can quickly identify banks that provide stellar customer service.
Much like Gri.pe pulls up a list of local entities, we want MyBankSux to pull up a list of local banks or allow you to enter by name. Unlike Gri.pe, we don't want everyone to see our names when we have a complaint; like showing your friends who bitches the most. Although Twitter is great for bitching, not all banks are on twitter, and identifying the handle of those that are on twitter is difficult; for most banks.
So, I ask... what are your thoughts? Should we kill it, or should we continue. If continue, what should we tackle first?
Thanks in advance for your feedback. Kudos to you for trying to either fail fast or succeed. I would argue that you should kill in no small part b/c the domain name is so childish. What adult would visit a site called "My Bank Sux"? None that I know of. I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful - you asked for feedback so here it is - so please take this in the spirit you asked for it. That was a huge decision (the name of your company) and you got it incredibly wrong IMO. And you got it so wrong that it makes me wonder what other decisions you got wrong as well. I'm not trying to be a dream killer but you will look back on this 10 years from now and think, "What were we thinking? That was an awful name!" Lastly the whole concept of a complaint-based site is so... strange to me. Why would anyone ever visit your site except to make a complaint? Are you expecting people to just drop by and read the complaints/comments? I can't imagine that anyone would want to just read complaints and resolutions. Lastly, even if you got traction from submitters, how do you make money? You want to "create the easiest way to submit a bank complaint" which means you'll need to minimize page time and page views to do so. It also means you can't serve ads on those pages, right? That would totally break the UI and possibly your trust with your user. The only time you can serve ads is on the post-submission pages or through email. Seems a hard way to make money IMO considering that those people will not be back to your site again until the bank responds (and that's iffy). Also, any response from a bank will be to take this off of the forum/site and will end with, "Please call us at ..." which totally takes any future revenue away from you. Kill it. Hi, Scott: THANK YOU! Great feedback. Here's some background information: 1. I agree, MyBankSux is soo childish and I'd NEVER seek investment for something called MyBankSux. We created the domain for testing, and didn't want to tarnish SpotCred.com while we were building the concept. We'll move it to MyBankComplaint.com 2. Complaint based site: Have you seen
http://Gri.pe? or
http://Amplicate.com? or
http://twitter.com/#!/Bofa_Help ? 3. The website is a front for the Mobile app we've envisioned. The concept is to simplify customer service, rather than complaints only. The concept is one whereby you open the app, you select the store, and you submit (no message is needed) a request for company to contact you. Have you heard of the "UnHappy" initiative in India? http://bit.ly/e7LYmg 4. How do we make money? Advertisements are not needed. We can monetize by:
4.a. Charging companies to integrate with their existing CRM or Social_CRM
systems. We have a one user, very rough portal for free access.
4.b. Providing "Voice of Customer" analytics http://bit.ly/iFN7Le
4.c. White-label and license - Your companies customer service app I agree, we need to kill MyBankSux. 100% Given the information above, should we kill the concept? Thanks, Scott! 'It also means you can't serve ads on those pages, right? That would totally break the UI and possibly your trust with your user.' <-- what are your thoughts about creditkarma and its advertising [it uses the info from your transunion credit report to see if you can save money by getting a new credit card or switching auto insurance] Additional (Business) Details on Flippa: http://bit.ly/mSx5WT BTW -- We don't expect anyone to bid. We use Flippa to market our business concepts, and get feedback. Any critiques are welcomed :) https://www.MyBankSux.com Clickable: https://www.MyBankSux.com Kill it. We agree - the domain SUX!!! Please see the follow-up here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2553050, and if you have a moment, please let us know your thoughts. Many Thanks!