I don't use close.io, but here's what I'd also recommend if you haven't done them already:
1) allow the user to enter their phone numbers in whatever format they want: 4081231234, (408)123-1234, 408-123-1234 and format it after they click 'save' to (408)123-1234 or however you want it.
2)Cache the domain of the email address for autocomplete suggestions if they enter a website. For example, if you type in phil@close.io for the email, I can already suggest http://close.io if you start typing in a website address.
Bikeshedding on #2, set up a blacklist of very obvious non-business domains. Very few people with @gmail.com or @hotmail.com actually own the business on that domain.
Thanks! Part of the reason why it was quick to develop was because of past experience + existing site files. About half a year ago, we were reiterating so much that it made sense to just start building a custom template for ourselves that we could tweak and improve so we could reiterate faster. This prototype is quick even for us, but this time we had a really clear idea of what we wanted to build, and how to get there, so this prototype is the first step.
We wanted to pivot into something else and decided to just start building last night. It's far from what we have planned, but hey, I think it's pretty good work for 10 hours.
I've been there done that, so I get the frustration you went through. Lesson # 1 What people say is cool doesn't mean that it's something that they'd use. Just because you say you're building the next Facebook will get you some "that's cool" responses but doesn't mean they'd actually use it.
One of the most useful things I do to validate an idea is to actually use YC's application- if you can't answer all the questions about your idea without any doubts, you're don't have a solid idea yet. And validating your idea means to follow up at the very least with the people that said it was "cool". Forget the stealth startups, be completely transparent in what you're building and have beta users follow you from day 1.
Thanks for the reply! It's true that these reviews might not help immensely to get us up in the charts, but they have worked for us in the past imo. We've had some of our most loyal users coming from those review sites so we're currently happy to stick with that list as our initial list to use.
I agree 110% on building relationships and finding well-known bloggers to write about your post as well as reviews on Gizmodo or TUAW being worth 10x more traffic on the list currently provided. You might've missed the last part where I mention that the list is incomplete though because we usually do end up delivering a better pitch to the mentioned top level tech news sites after a week or two.
From just our experience, we've found that doing a blast of 50+ generic "resumes, cover letters" AND posts by the top companies is a perfect combination. Not to mention, it really doesn't hurt to post to the 50+ sites either way.
Well, if you look at it that way, there are overlaps with most social networking services- Facebook also uploads photos, shares with friends, and people comment on them.
What we'd like for Persona or at least how we use it is a way to share our personal interests and connect to people through them. Sometimes when I pull in front of a starbucks in my 87 mr2, people stop me, pull out their phones and show me their mr2s as we talk about cars. I'm attempting to mimick that real life conversation by posting photos of what I'm passionate about, or what I want to talk about on my Persona, a visual diary of my life. People respond using photo comments that shows me their perspective of that shared picture.
It might be a far-fetched goal, but I hope that people all over the word would be able to bond and share a connection over a single photograph that you post. Like a real life conversation when you first meet someone, I want people to be able to recognize and find a common point of interest as a topic to converse upon.
This might be subjective, but from how I use Instagram and how I see most users use it- it's to post random pictures that you encounter, more to showcase your photographic skills rather than to show what your life is about.
1) allow the user to enter their phone numbers in whatever format they want: 4081231234, (408)123-1234, 408-123-1234 and format it after they click 'save' to (408)123-1234 or however you want it.
2)Cache the domain of the email address for autocomplete suggestions if they enter a website. For example, if you type in phil@close.io for the email, I can already suggest http://close.io if you start typing in a website address.