My attention was drawn to Streamerapp who also announced today!
Welcome to the space :)
http://betali.st/startups/streamer http://www.streamerapp.com/
1,949 karma · joined May 3, 2009
Welcome to the space :)
http://betali.st/startups/streamer http://www.streamerapp.com/
I made a quick'n'dirty replacement using a stacked column chart if anyone is interested:
It's a fascinating and a non-trivial problem you're addressing here and I'm interested to see how you approach it. Get it right and it could add huge amount of value.
The three toughest challenges as I see it:
1. Standardising metrics across a broad range of different business stages, verticals and models to provide a meaningful number (compare apples with apples).
2. Helping users to identify appropriate metrics from each of the AARRR categories. I.e. indicative and actionable.
3. The perennial problem of identifying unique users so that the behaviour of new or repeat visitors can be accurately measured prior to signup. IP addresses are not reliable (NAT & dynamic IPs), cookies can be flushed and potential customers have opportunity to access a service from a variety of devices - I know the folks at KISSmetrics put a lot of work into this.
[1] https://www.thesunnytrail.com/
edited for readability
But the time quantum for hacking is very long: it might take an hour just to load a problem into your head. So the cost of having someone from personnel call you about a form you forgot to fill out can be huge.
This is why hackers give you such a baleful stare as they turn from their screen to answer your question. Inside their heads a giant house of cards is tottering.
I can think of a couple of directions for this to go in. Whether you stick to the lead warming angle (b2b) or move towards some sort of umbrella search across all a user's social network (consumer play) is probably a decision to be taken once you have some feedback on how people are using it.
I noticed that all the Pulp Fiction quotes replace 'i' with '¡' http://www.subzin.com/quotes/Pulp%20Fiction
Also, I signed up for the newsletter and got the following message:
Cheatin’ huh?
What I would say, however, is taken as one - albeit low weighted - input into a system (my brain) that might x-ref against some other indicators of different significance might lead to the conclusion "there's unusual activity afoot". The # of Twitter followers doesn't tell you much about what's happening but might indicate that something is happening.
While I agree that having access to _actionable_ metrics is what's really going to be the biggest tangible benefit of these sorts of systems, I've also found that there exists another class of data that, while not actionable, also provides some utility. These are often tagged with the 'vanity metrics' label and conventional wisdom deems them to be useless at best and distracting at worst but, I've found, they can sometimes be useful.
In other words, I may not be able to act (or know how to act) when they change but getting constant feedback from many aspects of my business helps me to notice subtle changes that may be interesting and that sometimes act as a harbinger for larger/more significant changes further down the line.
What these metrics are will entirely depend on your business what sort of person you are. For me, something like changes in my Twitter follower count (a classic vanity metric), when combined with a host of other signals can give me subtle cues about how the business is being perceived, what's causing that, is it a good change etc... none of it is immediately actionable but it all adds up; it's more data points leading a more rounded understanding of how my business works.
It's entirely possible I spend too much time dog-fooding my own product and most reasonable business owners don't have the time to explore these cues, but I do feel like it helps me to feel more connected to the day-to-day running of my own business.
The most common use case was users hooking it up to a cheap netbook plugged in to a HDTV in the office or displayed on a 2nd monitor. In this case most small companies would use 2 devices max, a machine to configure and another to display. Perhaps unsurprisingly larger companies used it on more HDTVs (some use upward of a dozen) but they would rarely have more than one dashboard.
However, there are certainly a number of different use cases. Solo users, SMEs, large enterprises and agencies all have different usage patterns and finding a one-size-fits-all is almost impossible. I evaluated 'per device' to be the least bad option based on the data at my disposal. That said, it's early days and there are no sacred cows here, I'm always open to suggestions.
Since then I've spoken to a number of regular HNers who continue to use the product and provide feedback and again, been bowled over by just how helpful people are.
We're planning a major revamp of all the widgets. In the meantime you can use a custom text widgets (which accept images and inline styles but no JS) to render whatever you want. Drop me a line if you would like any help getting something up.
It integrates with 3rd party services such as Google Analytics, Freshbooks, Pingdom, Mixpanel, Zendesk, Uservoice etc. and we're pushing out new connections regularly.
Where it might be useful for you is that we also have an API that allows you to use your own scripts to get data that's in your database onto the status board. You create a script that outputs XML or JSON in a certain format, add a widget to your Geckoboard that's configured to poll your script at regular intervals (support for webhooks is coming) and the data appears on your dashboard that's accessible anywhere you can get on the web.
We're in private beta but will be offering paid plans very soon. I'll reiterate my open offer to HNers: if you would like to check it out the beta then just use the email address in my profile and tell me your HN handle.
I haven't managed to check out Leftronic yet but would love to.
We currently have a a backlog of > 1000 invites. It's still early days and the product is a little raw but if you're interested in checking it out mail me (address in my profile). If you include your HN handle I'll get your invite out straight away.
Thanks for the Claude Hopkins tip.