Show HN: An app where you suggest me your vet, I suggest you my babysitter https://ift.tt/p1hTK4Z

Show HN: An app where you suggest me your vet, I suggest you my babysitter 10 Kudos is an app to share the contacts of trusted service providers with your friends. I built it because I often seek some kind of provider: a plumber, a cat sitter, a lawyer, a web designer, even a hint for a restaurant, whatever. I don't want to just find a random provider on some website, and I don't trust their mostly fake endorsements. I want to tap my friends' network of trusted providers. I usually end up calling my friends one by one, trying to imagine which are more likely to know a good provider, but it's not very efficient. I would prefer to have this kind of shared Rolodex. Similar projects, like Yelp, usually have the two-sided-market, or chicken-and-egg issue: they are useless for costumers until they don't have providers, and useless for providers until they don't have customers. The way I designed it, it's distributed and personal: it doesn't need a database (and actually even if it had it, a new user wouldn't see anything on it, because it only shows the favorite providers entered by your friends). Instead, even if just two or three friends use it to share their trusted contacts, it's already useful to them. Plus, this layout eliminates the issue of the usual fake reviews, and of the effort for the real users to enter diplomatic assessments: this app is just an exchange of contacts, if I need that kind of provider I will then call my friend and ask her for more feedback. This app is a formalized word-of-mouth. It serves two needs: it is useful for anyone like me who often seeks a specific kind of provider, but it's also useful for a provider who wants to increase her customer base. Suppose I'm a math tutor, I will download the app, enter my profile, and then send a broadcast from the app to my WhatsApp contacts asking them to endorse me (and then to share further the app with the endorsement). The Android version of the app as I envisioned it, is complete, no users yet (I know, you'll say I should have progressed the other way around, got it). I have tested it with some people, they are positive but not enough to use it. I need to understand how to make it more appealing so that it can spread. I'm not seeking investors, I believe that if the product/market fit is achieved the app can grow almost naturally, if it isn't achieved money won't help. I would love your comments and suggestions! https://ift.tt/37lKWtN October 10, 2024 at 04:54AM