from Hacker News

Show HN: land that gig by making a great first impression. Feedback appreciated.

by bullrico on 1/27/12, 2:33 PM with 8 comments

http://impressar.io

Another 'scratch your own itch' MVP, bear with me.

I'm a long-time telecommuter, and my gig-hunting success depends on two critical elements: an email cover letter that is visually appealing, and a corresponding portfolio landing page with content tailored to that specific email. Last year I decided to automate this process, and after months of lost weekends and late nights fine-tuning it for public consumption, I'm launching my MVP, Impressario. Briefly, it solves these pain points:

* Collect and keep track of job listings in one place

* Maintain a set of email templates for specific job titles/requirements

* Be able to create and send out HTML emails (with images)

* Host and manage different versions of a portfolio (with custom domains)

* Track sent emails to gauge response

Thoughts / comments / feedback appreciated.

  • by binarysoul on 1/27/12, 4:15 PM

    This looks pretty cool. Tracking all of that stuff is a little messy, I definitely could've used this back when I was on the market.

    However, I see this as a cool open source application rather than a for pay service. The problem is that if your service works really well... You're going to eliminate your customers as they get gainfully employed thanks to your site.

  • by tylerwl on 1/28/12, 4:16 AM

    You did a great job of making the How It Works section clear and appealing.

    The one addition I would suggest for the Features page is what email address will your customers be able to use? Will it be their own or an @impressar.io address?

  • by jessepollak on 1/27/12, 6:20 PM

    Look awesome, I was just looking for something like this a couple weeks ago. I'll definitely check it out. If email me at jpollak92 [at] gmail, I'd happily send some thoughts your way (your email is not in your profile).