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Comment by dan_sim | Hacker News Reader

Is it me or those numbers are impressive for "yet another project management app"? How can it be explained?

We're happy with the numbers, but I think they can be partially explained by our long beta period. People have been asking us "when can we start paying?" since the beginning of the summer.

We are entering a crowded market, but it's not as bad as you may think. A lot of the competing project management software startups take the exact same approach. So we see Basecamp and all the Basecamp clones as just a single competitor, and we deliberately take a different approach. As a result, some people will prefer their approach, and other people tell us they've been looking for something like Thymer for over ten years, and that's the kind of feedback that confirms we may have found a good niche.

Where did you talk about your product during the beta period? Did they come at you or you came to them?

I just replied in the comments section of our blog to a similar question (it's a bit long to paste here). In short: a combination of posting on some forums, using beta invites, word-of-mouth and finally contacting blogs about our private beta launch. From there on we got thousands of sign-ups, as people kept sending more invites and mentioning us on places like twitter and (small) blogs. A lot of those mentions on twitter where about our the interface, the time in which we reply to feedback :), and even our sign up form, so I guess all the small things help!

These numbers are very impressive. I'm building such a tool too, with a twist. I'll tell how it goes when I'll launch.

I wonder if they're attracting more European customers. Also, could price be a factor (one user for $5, six for $25)?

But yet, the price is comparable to other products of that kind that I saw.

I wonder if the simple, clean design is attracting people? Or perhaps it has to do with the pricing (which as you've said is competitive) or the presentation video. If every site that I checked out had a 2 minute "Here's how our site works, in a nutshell" I might find myself staying interested a little longer, and it would probably stick with me a little bit more.

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