The CliqFlip story

[cliqflip]

Hey guys,

Good to be on here again - some of you might remember me, others maybe not.

We joined around 9 months ago and started to get to know everyone while working on the startup CliqFlip . After we launched our first beta around 6 months ago, it crashed. That was what we planned for though.

We work with the lean methodology method which is basically getting your MVP (minimum viable product) out to market as fast as possible and make needed mistakes. From our first design that we launched we realized we didn't know anything about design. Also the design process consisted of ' oh this might be cool lets code it and put it in' - That's not how a product should be designed.

So after that failed we started working on a new version with goals in place of each page to be designed, and also a testing process so we know the site would be usable/understandable from the user perspective.

This time it was a little better, but what went wrong here was this: Were werent lean and our MVP wasn't a MVP. Your minimum viable product should be the absolute bare minimum. Ours was the bare minimum for every page - which included lots of un-necessary features.

While designing this (the second) layout, we started looking around for local investors / incubators. We connected with both and just recently got into a incubation program.

When we got into the incubation program the investors let us see how it wasn't about our goals - it was about the user themselves, what do they want out of the site. Also what context are they in. With this in mind we scrapped the second layout and are now working on our 3rd which everyone is feeling confident about. It's of course going to be a MVP but, it will for sure be testable and I'm definitely thinking when we hit the market people will like it.

What our website is, is a social network for meeting new people. That may be, because you recently moved to a new area or thinking about taking up a new hobby/ interests. There are a ton of reasons why someone would use a site like ours and we have the customer validation to prove it.

So we are getting ready to release our latest and greatest product in 2-3 weeks and we are looking for some beta testers. If any of you can help us on our journey to building a successful product, please sign up at CliqFlip

 

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[johnp]

Hey, I remember you. It's kind of weird that you just posted today. I was thinking "I wonder what happened to that Cliqflip guy (or girl?)". Went to your site to check it out, read a few of your blog posts, and here you are. Weird....

Good luck with everything

 

[cliqflip]

Funny how life works like that! Yeah we have been non-stop working on this and still are fully committed. Nice that we have our own office now! We started off working at home/starbucks.

P.S. Thanks for thinking of us

 

[tincho1492]

That's good to hear! Learning about your customers is great. I'm planning the second pivot of my startup and doing interviews. Is amazing how much you can learn, how many ideas you can think of while you're listening to them.

So... For anyone that's working in their first project: Go meet your customers!

Good luck with your project and keep us updated on your third MVP.

 

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[Gold777]

Yeah the current design is absolutely horrific, I hope you guys are really tearing that thing apart and putting together something a lot more professional, organized, and clean. Your blog structure could also be improved in my opinion, there's too many pictures (distractions) and I would rather read something that gets straight to the point. I'd rather not have to scroll unnecessarily through a cluttered article just to read a stretched out paragraph or two.

So what are you guys doing as far as social media integration? And also, how do you plan to monetize this?

 

[johnp]

Nice that we have our own office now! We started off working at home/starbucks.

That's cool. I guess your going at this full-time then? My plan is to avoid an office at all costs until it's needed. I'll work in a dumpster before I put the money into an office (with a wifi card of course). But that's just me.

 

[cliqflip]

That's cool. I guess your going at this full-time then? My plan is to avoid an office at all costs until it's needed. I'll work in a dumpster before I put the money into an office (with a wifi card of course). But that's just me.

Haha I am the same way//so is the team!

We got into a incubator so we got the office for free

Incubation generally means office + mentors + $

and yes full-time it's a req for incubation

 

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[cliqflip]

Yeah the current design is absolutely horrific, I hope you guys are really tearing that thing apart and putting together something a lot more professional, organized, and clean. Your blog structure could also be improved in my opinion, there's too many pictures (distractions) and I would rather read something that gets straight to the point. I'd rather not have to scroll unnecessarily through a cluttered article just to read a stretched out paragraph or two.

So what are you guys doing as far as social media integration? And also, how do you plan to monetize this?

The new design is pretty fresh! You can check it out a little bit with one of the tests were doing here: Navflow (Make sure you click suggested user first, the test is testing the navigation flow and how users interact, so if you click a wrong step it cutts you off)

As far as the blog goes - were keeping it as is for now

Monetization: Every investor we have talked to has told us to focus on traction first. Which we are focusing on completely BUT, I can say this - We have found many efficient ways to monetize the site when it comes to market because part of our system/algorithm is really learning who the user is (and even though the designs have changed, our algorithm has stayed the same and been getting better and better) So - potentially we know who the user is better then anyone else and can do a lot with it as far as monetization.

 

[johnp]

And also, how do you plan to monetize this?

That's an important question, especially if you want to keep the site alive, that's assuming that you don't have a massive investment like every tech start-up in the world.

But there are also some other questions that stick out in my mind.

1) Why the hell do you exist? Yea I get to make networking easy. But I still don't get your 'why'. What's really driving you & your team to take on such a big task?

2) How are you going to stick out among all of the noise? Everybody and their future children are creating social networks. Most of which are die before they even hit beta. Take me for instance..I'm creating something so cool and needed that I can't even talk about it on the public side of this forum. In fact, I currently have highly advanced aliens from Mars coding it for me in advanced language called phpX (i'll sell the blue prints for $500). Yes it sounds cool, but people won't use it if they can't discover it, and understand why they are using it.

3) How does your site differ from Linkedin, Meetup and others? Again, what is the incentive for me to visit your site? You really think that your going to make me move my lazy fingers across the keyboard to vist your site. More important, what is the incentive for me to share your site and spread the word?

4) This may help you - There is a theory out there for social design called 'informational based interaction theory of social engagement' - It basically explains how you have to design a social site, giving the dynamics of the web 2.0 environment. It breaks down the critical elements of design to ensure that your users don't find themselves trapped in a barren wasteland of a site. The down side is that I made this up. So you can't get it until I write the book.

5) How does architecture positively or negatively influence the energy output of your user? This is something to consider. Let's say that you want your user to achieve 'objective D'. This means that they have to go through Steps A, B, & C to get to D. Each step may require some sort of energy output from a user; the stroke of a key, telling a friend, creating something, finding a button, etc..A good system will automate the process an cut the steps down so the user can easily jump From A,C, D or A straight to D if that is even possible.

Why am I even saying this? Because I have noticed that social networks which fail or don't take off, make the user exert more energy to complete some sort of task. Eventually the user realizes that they can easily preform the same task elsewhere.

..and that is just the tip of the iceberg...

Just trying to get you thinking a little.

 

[johnp]

Haha I am the same way//so is the team!

We got into a incubator so we got the office for free

Incubation generally means office + mentors + $

and yes full-time it's a req for incubation

Are you a chicken? What is an incubator? Don't worry about answering. I'm going to Google it haha

 

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[cliqflip]

That's an important question, especially if you want to keep the site alive, that's assuming that you don't have a massive investment like every tech start-up in the world.

But there are also some other questions that stick out in my mind.

1) Why the hell do you exist? Yea I get to make networking easy. But I still don't get your 'why'. What's really driving you & your team to take on such a big task?

2) How are you going to stick out among all of the noise? Everybody and their future children are creating social networks. Most of which are die before they even hit beta. Take me for instance..I'm creating something so cool and needed that I can't even talk about it on the public side of this forum. In fact, I currently have highly advanced aliens from Mars coding it for me in advanced language called phpX (i'll sell the blue prints for $500). Yes it sounds cool, but people won't use it if they can't discover it, and understand why they are using it.

3) How does your site differ from Linkedin, Meetup and others? Again, what is the incentive for me to visit your site? You really think that your going to make me move my lazy fingers across the keyboard to vist your site. More important, what is the incentive for me to share your site and spread the word?

4) This may help you - There is a theory out there for social design called 'informational based interaction theory of social engagement' - It basically explains how you have to design a social site, giving the dynamics of the web 2.0 environment. It breaks down the critical elements of design to ensure that your users don't find themselves trapped in a barren wasteland of a site. The down side is that I made this up. So you can't get it until I write the book.

5) How does architecture positively or negatively influence the energy output of your user? This is something to consider. Let's say that you want your user to achieve 'objective D'. This means that they have to go through Steps A, B, & C to get to D. Each step may require some sort of energy output from a user; the stroke of a key, telling a friend, creating something, finding a button, etc..A good system will automate the process an cut the steps down so the user can easily jump From A,C, D or A straight to D if that is even possible.

Why am I even saying this? Because I have noticed that social networks which fail or don't take off, make the user exert more energy to complete some sort of task. Eventually the user realizes that they can easily preform the same task elsewhere.

..and that is just the tip of the iceberg...

Just trying to get you thinking a little.

Well our mentors have all brought this up and we have answered this all I'm not scared about talking the idea itself but, I think some of these questions might dip into our secret sauce a little bit but, i'll answer what I can.

What drives the team is the big vision we have for the product and each other. We have been working together 9 months now and are just as passionate about creating this as we were on day 1.

How were going to grow is a little bit of a secret but, trust us when we say we have it planned

If you move to a new city are you going to used linkedin/Fb/G+/Meetup to meet new people? Only meetup and that requires you to actually go out and meet people that you might not like. Were the step before that and 1 on 1. Find someone you like first and then go to the meetup with them.

Design wise - our mentors have helped us break down everything but, i'll still read your book

We want our users to accomplish object D
A, B, C all support getting to D except there is only 1 step to get to D

Keep it coming - good questions help us improve the product!

One last thing - I've recently demonstrated the product we have built/mockups of whats going to be built at starbucks with some random strangers and they fell in love. I mean legitament smiles like this was something they didn't know what they were waiting for all their lives and 1,000,000 ideas on how to use it blurbing out of their mouths

 

[johnp]

You missed the most important question...

Why are you in an incubator? Are you a chicken? Don't they get incubated or something? Or is that babies?


{edit} It's chickens http://www.howtoincubate.com/

I just find the word incubator funny, that's all.

 

[cliqflip]

Somewhat like a chicken - the heat lamps above my team keep us warm, ready to hatch our beta in a couple weeks

 

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[SeanBissell]

Do you really have heat lamps above your head?

If so that's super awesome, those things are actually really good for you, the red light in them helps increase metabolism, cellular repair, probably boosts mood/productivity too.
-Sean

 

[cliqflip]

Do you really have heat lamps above your head?

If so that's super awesome, those things are actually really good for you, the red light in them helps increase metabolism, cellular repair, probably boosts mood/productivity too.
-Sean

No, we don't really have heat lamps above our head

 

[JAJT]

I watched the video.

My 2 cents: I didn't "get it" immediately. I also found many of the sentences read awkwardly.

Also, NOBODY outside of the business world uses "niche" - it looked odd to see in your marketing video.

I'd suggest getting one of those minimalist animation marketing guys to do up a stick-figure story that brings the user through the experience. "Joe just moved, new environment, new sites, no connections, if only he knew a group of people to have a beer with who loved baseball as much as he did, now he can, introducing cliqflip!" (or whatever).

Also, not a fan on the name. When telling people to go to the site audibly you are going to get a ton of people going to "clickflip" instead (I'd go ahead and register this if you haven't).

 

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[cliqflip]

I watched the video.

My 2 cents: I didn't "get it" immediately. I also found many of the sentences read awkwardly.

Also, NOBODY outside of the business world uses "niche" - it looked odd to see in your marketing video.

I'd suggest getting one of those minimalist animation marketing guys to do up a stick-figure story that brings the user through the experience. "Joe just moved, new environment, new sites, no connections, if only he knew a group of people to have a beer with who loved baseball as much as he did, now he can, introducing cliqflip!" (or whatever).

Also, not a fan on the name. When telling people to go to the site audibly you are going to get a ton of people going to "clickflip" instead (I'd go ahead and register this if you haven't).

Thanks for your input

Were getting rid of the video on the next beta release coming up here in a couple weeks.

And the name is changing, so you were dead on with your input - good stuff!

 

[SportsFan438]

What did you end up changing the name to?