Like many developers, especially from my region, my crucial problem is to pitch my idea of the particle database. I crashed and burned many times before I realized I need to focus on just a few main features and don't try to explain the whole concept. But in this case, the main thing isn't that much exciting and everyone immediately sees i'm doing just an n-th copy of Freebase or something like that. Maybe I do, but not realized it yet...
However, I tried to sign up for startup event at local conference, but I didn't get their attention. At least the thought of I may get picked made me thinking more about what I do and how I can explain that to the crowd.
Then I tried to write few paragraphs about QetriX to local tech website's forum and got some responses. Fortunately all criticism was constructive and pushed me a leap forward. They mosťy pointed out that my UI is too complex and hard to understand, plus the database is quite empty. They got me thinking and ultimately I wrote a nice web crawler for semantic data extraction. I also redesigned the UI and dramatically reduced number of offered features, like comments or rating.
I slowly learned how to start simple and supress the urge to make everything perfect at once. Roll out is much more important than perfection. You can always add more features later. On the other hand, if you don't get user's attention in the beginning, you may not get a second chance from him. You have to determine your target group - geeks will demand features, but everyone else will demand simplicity. You can combine both, if you cleverly hide all the features and reveal them after the user is more experienced.
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