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Comments on “Point”
Posts » Point » Comments » Comment
Ben Parr@benparr · Co-founder and CMO, Octane AI
Sorry to be negative nancy, but I do want to warn you: any startup whose core premise requires an extension is usually doomed to failure, because it is SO HARD to get regular people to understand extensions, much less install them and use them on a regular basis. It's a beautiful product, but seriously move quickly away from a Chrome extension as quickly as… See more
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Ashwinn@shwinnabego · Co-founder, Point
@benparr definitely! Probably one of our biggest challenges. Thankfully plugins are becoming a bit more commonplace, and the success of them depend on how easily you can get people to understand the app through marketing, onboarding, ongoing explanation, etc. which we are constantly working on. That said, there is exciting stuff in the works for Point that… See more
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Ryan Hoover@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@benparr great point and absolutely valid. Someone asked me the other day if I could name one mainstream, largely successful browser extension-based startup. I couldn't. Early adopters and techies will happily install it but it's hard to bridge that gap. I think I know your answer, but can you share your plans, @Shwinnabego? :)
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Ashwinn@shwinnabego · Co-founder, Point
@rrhoover @benparr To that first point, yup. Even if you look at the most installed extensions you probably see 5-10m installs..but nothing that is massive that exists solely as a browser extension. @rrhoover -- we want to make sharing and having discussions around web content with your friends as simple as possible. If we look at the problems in content b… See more
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Akhil Anumolu@akhil_anumolu · Marketing Manager @ Delta Air Lines
@benparr Can do what Buffer did and create an OSX menu bar app.
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Jason L. Baptiste@jasonlbaptiste · Founder, Onswipe
@Shwinnabego @rrhoover @benparr Ben makes a great point and I agree... BUT iOS8 extensions has a chance to change this. It lets Point access a new market and I see users adopting extensions in the form of apps. ie- install the app to get the extension. This is really neat and well done.
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Ashwinn@shwinnabego · Co-founder, Point
@JasonLBaptiste ;) exactly. and thanks!
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Jonathon Triest@jtriest · Ludlow Ventures
@JasonLBaptiste totally!
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Jana Trantow@janatrantow · Investor, Bluerun Ventures
@benparr 100% agree. Extensions are great for early prototyping of ideas because early adopters will always try it out but too difficult for the masses to adopt. @zackshapiro built numerous (awesome) tools using extensions (and one of which was saving and sharing links with friends) and I am sure could share his experiences.
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Zack Shapiro@zackshapiro · Head of Mobile at Splash
@janatrantow @benparr Extensions are amazing because the alternative is to build your own browser which (obviously) a huge waste of time. But the other hurtle is getting a normal audience to understand what they are and what they do. I think "normal people don't get extensions" is a bit of an overstatement because normal audience are familiar with Pinterest'… See more
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Ashwinn@shwinnabego · Co-founder, Point
@janatrantow @benparr @zackshapiro couldn't have said it better myself!
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Eddie Wharton@eawharton · Data Scientist, Dinner Lab
@Shwinnabego it also helps that this is a social product. It could totally work that a "techie" friend shares this with all of the non-techie friends they have and helps them install. The "@" UI is pretty approachable for anyone if you can convince people to just try it once
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Ashwinn@shwinnabego · Co-founder, Point
@EAWharton Thanks Eddie! Totally agree -- we have a lot of non "techie" people using it :)
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Alex Iskold@alexiskold · Managing Director, Techstars NYC
@Shwinnabego Agree in general with @benparr based on my personal painful experience years back. However this is fantastic starting point and this is actually one of the few extensions that is incredibly useful right in the browser and the product would not be the same without it.
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