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Show HN: A Slack command I created to solve my own problem

by stevesun21 on 5/8/17, 7:07 PM with 11 comments

• by trevyn on 5/9/17, 3:12 AM

  Heh, it definitely seems like more time was spent on pricing than the actual "app". It's a cool idea, but it's literally a one-liner after boilerplate.

  Nothing particularly wrong with that; that's how I got started too back in the 90's. Maybe the difference was that I was doing it for fun, and payment was totally optional, so I thought hey, maybe I'll make some spare change. Today the environment feels... greedy? Not saying this app's author feels that way, just pontificating on the state of the startup industry.

• by safek on 5/9/17, 1:06 AM

  This strikes me as a case where you vaguely perceived a problem, thought "hmm, personal problems are the best source of project ideas," and quickly rushed to create a solution because you're a maker who enjoys making things. Did you open a text editor alongside Slack, or message yourself/slackbot, and find both solutions wanting? Would you pay $1/user/month for the added benefit of your solution?

  My rude, unsolicited, very possibly erroneous, but ultimately well-intentioned suggestion is that you release it as a free service and maybe open source it. If you brand it well you can collect some stars. But I can't see someone paying for this.

• by nedwin on 5/12/17, 11:12 PM

  Don't listen to the haters. You launched, with pricing. I could see myself using the tool though not sure if I'd pay.

  We launched brb.life last year, also a super simple app. No payments yet but we have about 70 users of all sizes. I even got an email from IBM asking about our data store methods because a team wanted to install it...

  I think there is a case for a meta tool that includes something like draft + other Slack productivity tools in a single bundle where many different use cases are covered with a single price point

• by llamataboot on 5/8/17, 11:20 PM

  Looks great! - I've often wished I had a draft function in Slack when I'm doing weird code formatting as well! Pricing seems a bit...off...though. Assuming I'm a medium company of say 50 people, then I'm looking at $50/month just for people to have this piece of functionality? Sorry, but no thanks.

  Honestly seems better suited to a little side project that scratches your own itch that you can make available for free than for a tiny SAAS. Not saying that you shouldn't figure out a way to monetize it, if you can great for you! Just don't think you'll get many takers at a price/user...

• by dangom on 5/12/17, 11:49 AM

  A company should immediately fire everyone in their financial department if they were to spend money on this.

• by skinnymuch on 5/9/17, 1:31 AM

  It would be interesting if people actually paid for this. It seems too simple to pay for. Do you have a decent number of customers?