Ask news.YC: developers how do you get beta testers?

cperciva · on Nov 16, 2007

I put "if you want to beta test, send me an email" onto my website and blog, and people started volunteering.

If you've publicly described what you're building and you don't have beta-testers beating a path to your door, you're probably not building something which people want.

ALee · on Nov 16, 2007

So, the cheap is fairly easy. Just get a group of friends together (hopefully not all hackers). Usually, your IM, Facebook, etc. is a good place to find a friend to play with your stuff. Or if you can get them to sit down with you, offer them free beer and have them play with your app. Just getting one person who is unfamiliar with the product to (1) look at the site, say back to you what it means (2) speak aloud what they're doing and what they're feeling and (3) tell you when they'll leave the site is really useful.

There are testing companies that cost way too much, but provide you some fantastic media feedback. For any startup, they either cannot afford it or they have friends readily available.

As to your biz idea, if you can't get people to beta test your own product, how are you gonna start a company based on that?

dasickis · on Nov 16, 2007

Well I haven't created a community yet, but I've been working with some friends and we're starting to create this startup. Our plan is to first get our university involved and start marketing from there. I just want to know what kind of metrics are you looking for with the feedback and what would you be willing to pay for this type of service? I believe we can create the community with the right amount of effort. Once that's created what value would you like to see from this startup?