How I Got 78 Criticisms on Show Hacker News for My Zoom Competitor

Last month, I launched the app on Show HN. As a result, it got 82 points and 78 comments. Ranked in the toppest 10 of popular posts in a day also. Actually, we have pros and cons about it and people tend to criticize it more. Anyway, it felt so amazing that a lot of the people across the world visited my website and said hi to me. What an exciting moment! Today, I’d like to share how to develop and launch a landing page.

What I launched

It’s Remotehour. This is a web call app that allows your clients/customers to talk anytime you’re available while working. When it comes to a calling app, you may imagine Zoom and Google Hangouts at first. With these apps, you have to schedule a meeting with participants beforehand. Or, a third party call app like Slack and Messenger. It lets someone request you, and get a call if you can respond. Remotehour is neither.

Open the room, and your room will be online. Anyone can talk to you while you’re online. Click to talk, it’s without any permission. It’s like you’re in the same office with your coworker. 10x more seamless than Zoom, isn’t it?

This time, I spent a whole month updating a landing page completely. You can get more than 10 weekly feedback once you join Pioneer. Instead of it, you need to give feedback to others also. Worth learning.

Here is how to update it step by step.

Week 1: Can’t understand

Unfortunately, 60% can’t fully understand what I make. So, I failed to have a pitch. In Silicon Valley, nothing is more important than a pitch. Not only for investors, but you also need to have a pitch to potential customers, friends, and family. It should be convinced of a single sentence.

A one-on-one call app that allows your company to seamlessly connect with  you when it suits you.

This is my first version. Yeah, I know. Really hard to make sense. So I have been making an effort to make it more clear.

Allows your coworkers to call you anytime you’re available while working. It’s for not a meeting, but coworking.

I try to create a space where people can talk to your coworkers easily like they’re in the same office. Say, “Hey, what do you think about this design?” So it should be coworking based.

Highly recommend you to watch this video. Worth watching again and again. The tip is to convince your mother and father to understand what it is.

Week 2: What’s different from others

Gladly almost all people can understand what I make. Next issue is how different the app is from other calling apps like Zoom. I have already noted about it before. Totally different way of calling from others. But I need to emphasize that in a landing page. So I have added this section.

Also added “You don’t have to schedule or request a call” to a pitch. I suppose it’s the one of the most efficient ways of describing your product to be compared to other similar applications. Nothing is more seamless than Remotehour.

Week 3: What’s the use case?

Okay, they can understand how different it is from others. Third enemy is the use case. If you were working on a whole new concept, it’s hard to get its use case. So I have added another section, Case Studies. I am the user, and some users have already used it. So I described how I and they use it.

Week 4: Good job!

Eventually, I’ve got 70 - 80% upvotes from other users. I haven’t added/fixed to the app itself, but it’s totally different if you added/fixed a sentence, a description, and designs. And, I have never given up on any criticism of the application. The reason is I genuinely believe Remotehour. I couldn’t be happier to meet this kind of app.

Summary

Launched it on Hacker News and Product Hunt. I’ve got hundreds of calls over the night from all over the world. From Europe, India, Russia, and Asia. It was a really really exciting moment! Of course, I couldn’t sleep that night.

I have posted it “10x more seamless than Zoom”. And most of the criticism is like this sentence is a false alarm. No problem. In the near future, Remotehour will be 100x more seamless than Zoom.