October 20th, 2021
- "ready to launch" — clear output
- P > startups are baby steps
- A > I've done a lot of hackathons, and I don't think there's been any where stuff has been ready to ship by hour 6
- M > did we get you guys over a hurdle?
- A > yeah, kinda
- we probably could
- the amount & quality of the feedback we got from that one event was AWESOME
- like 6-7 documents of people meticulously going through the onboarding flow and documenting confusions
- it's hard to get people to do that
- P > I really think it was huge for us
- the way I envision the product is different from before/after
- other people helped got us out of the weeds
- I feel more confident after the barn-raising
- A > one of the people who came looks like gonna be a customer
- which is huge
- every beta customer matters so much
- A > got us really clear that the new user experience needs to feel good for nontech people as well
- P > now it feels obvious
- A > spiel?
- M > yeah maybe!
- A > rapid-fire notes
- size: I think it could have had 3× the people
- structure: slightly too unstructured
- all the structure we added seemed to be used
- people seemed to read the notion wiki etc
- making a wiki for how to contribute usefully
- length: people seemed to kind of run out of steam after 4-6h
- the reasons hackathons go so long
- particular type of people: college, software, gamey types
- gamified
- should be more like 6h
- or more hackathon-energized
- P > interintellect
- maybe have a central event with a starting gun
- but also maybe some people hang out for afterparty
- R > had been worried about people stealing it
- M > yeah, which would be bad but not as bad as nobody getting access
- R > business partner is my sister, who is an accountant
- she tracks more of the risks
- sometimes seems not to notice that if we don't launch anything we won't make any money
- R > I've been teaching dyslexic kids for the last decade
- and these card games really work
- they memorize things in 2-3 weeks when it otherwise fails over a year
- (Andrew joins)
- R > simple card-flipping memory game
- one half of the pair is eg 42, the other is eg 6×7
- main problem, when I sat down to think about it, is mainly marketing & distribution
- unless I do a kickstarter thing, I don't know a way to get the word out on a bigger scale
- stuff for people to help with
- website with preorders
- similar to askhole.io
- todo before the barn-raising: get testimonials or other content that would want to go on there
- find leads
- parents of dyslexic kids forum
- (other sources)
- illustration for future projects