It sounds like the issues may be deeper than equity.
"The salary is not competitive" hints that you may not be happy with your compensation across the board.
Don't look at equity any different than cash. It's a more complicated asset, as there is less certainty about its future value compared to the dollar -- but at the end of the day it's compensation, just like cash.
If you aren't happy and motivated by your compensation you should negotiate harder or find a new role. Your career and this startup will both be better off for it.
I like the idea a lot -- I'm someone who listens to a lot of music, constantly gets music recommended by friends, and recommends music to friends. I also design/PM software.
I just signed up and am very confused on what I can do. I see a feed of albums from strangers, but there's no way to listen to it. If I want to add music, I have to copy and paste links shown at the top of my screen (they're not even hyperlinked).
If I'm discovering music:
- I want a quick/easy way to listen to what's in front of me
- I want a quick/easy way to get recs from friends
If I'm sharing music:
- I want a quick way to share music
I feel like these are your core experiences and I'm having trouble finding my path through any of them. I see there's a browser extension and a bunch of community features, but the first user experience (at least on web) for any of those core paths above isn't there.
Can you deliver on one of those paths in a really easy way? Looks like you've already got tie ins with discogs. Can you start with just a spotify web player? I think the preview of a song can be made available publicly, which would at least get a delightful enough first experience for listeners (listen to what you see if it looks interesting -- not sure many would "save" without that or at least some solid meta data)
I want what I think this product is supposed (based on your description) to be to exist, so I hope this feedback is helpful.
Edit:
Signed out and noticed you have "continue with spotify" on the logged out / sign in page https://digs.fm/users/sign_in -- that wasn't available on your home page https://digs.fm/. I would've signed up with spotify if available and maybe that would've exposed clearer UX?
Thanks for the suggestions. It's true that the UX definitely lacks in many parts, and in many others it's unclear what one should do after they sign up for the first time.
Let me try to clarify a few things. First and foremost, Digs is supposed to be a bookmarking tool (you add and organize albums to lists). Then, it's a social network.
It's not created with the mindset of it being a music streaming service. That said, for convenience and pragmatism, a web player is included if the release was added via a Spotify, Mixcloud or Bandcamp link, or if the corresponding MusicBrainz release had a Discogs URL associated with it. Ideally, every release on the page should include a web player - this is something I'm trying to figure out how to do automatically, without enormous amount of human moderation. (I understand this is all technicalities, I just wanted to explain how it works currently.)
> I see a feed of albums from strangers.
The "Community updates" feed is the default if you have no friends added yet. If this is too noisy (and after this post it will be, for almost all people I assume), then you can switch to "Friends' updates" by clicking on the dropdown arrow. The choice will be persisted and you won't see that noise again.
> If I'm sharing music: - I want a quick way to share music
The current way to share music, is passively, i.e. by having friends (your friends will see your activity in their home feed). The active way to share is to click on the "Recommend" option, from the action dropdown button in a release page (e.g. https://digs.fm/releases/2782921-DJ-Shadow-What-Does-Your-So...).
> Edit: Signed out and noticed you have "continue with spotify" on the logged out / sign in page https://digs.fm/users/sign_in -- that wasn't available on your home page https://digs.fm/. I would've signed up with spotify if available and maybe that would've exposed clearer UX?
The Spotify SSO is currently broken, so I've disabled it until I fix it. Apparently I forgot to hide it from the sign_in page as well - thanks for bringing this up!
To be fair, Goodreads also doesn't let you read the book right there on the site. And while I agree it would be convenient for music, I'm so desperate for a good discovery mechanism that I'll gladly accept this (currently I use ListenToThis and then look the names up on Youtube if they seem interesting)
Simple and authentic feel like they're the magic formula here. Deceptively difficult to balance.
For personal, I'm trying my best to text people when they come to mind. I always appreciate when someone does that to me.
For business, I'm trying https://www.strata.cc/, which uses your email history to nudge you to reconnect with people. I'm just starting to use it but has already made some spot on recommendations in the first couple of weeks.
Super clear analysis and presentation of the core problem in group messaging today. Your visuals made the post so easy to read.
I’m not sure the conclusion applies for all cases. It may too easy to get lost in a thread behind an attachment.
Once I got used to it, iMessage’s UX has held up best (posting twice — once in focused thread and again in main thread). Not sure actual post has to happen in both places, but at least the activity should, otherwise there’s too high a risk to lose something or to have context switching set too high a friction bar.
Thanks a lot, as I was writing/design I was concerned it would be a bit over-designed. I learned a lot for next time!
At a base concept, I agree. I think without a mature version of this idea, content could become lost rather quickly. A further iteration would likely be able to deal with some of those issues (say an sortable/algorithmic feed, and notifications tab). A way to filter/sort activity might be able to solve some of those issues.
I'd probably fall more under designer than developer, but I love Webflow: https://webflow.com/
Our marketing website cycles have gotten so much shorter with Webflow. Even though it's just replacing HTML/CSS/JS for marketing sites, the direct design and publish access in a way that's intuitive and reliable saves us time directly on the marketing site (0 dev time now) and frees up dev to focus on more interesting things. We've gone from design -> develop -> commit/publish, to design + publish in one nice tool.
If you're not budget conscious, look at the Herman Miller Aeron, Steelcase Leap V2, Steelcase Gesture, or Humanscale Freedom. Budget, seems to be a serious crapshoot. Lots of people like the top end Ikea chairs and those will cost 1/4 as much, but depends on if they fit your body and if you're ok with rigid arms.
Steelcase Leap V2 seems like the winner to me. Most adjustable, with a soft seat (Aeron has hard edged bottom mesh... and looks like an insect). Humanscale Freedom with headrest looks best IMO but not as comfortable and couldn't find good remanufactured ones.
Lots of refurbished/second hand options.
I ended up going with a remanufactured (starts with refurbished, gets cleaned up nicely, reupholstered and rebuilt). Half price for a chair that I hope feels like new.
BTOD (https://www.btod.com/) and Crandall (https://www.crandalloffice.com/) look like they sell the same product (and Crandall is the "factory" for both). If you go this route, see what price works better for you after promo codes and tax are factored in.
Head good things about the WorkPros. Wish the design was a bit better.
How long have you had it and how do you like it?
I'm surprised there isn't a modern/stylish chair that can compete with HM/Steelcase and hit the $400ish range. Maybe I just don't understand enough about the materials and manufacturing costs necessary, but seems like this should be doable -- and the deeper I research brands who try this (like Autonomous.ai), the more I read about the chairs being creaky, poppy, and sometimes uncomfortable.
A Casper/Purple/Saatva for office chairs seems ripe for this climate (WFH).
Think of it as debate, after which either you or the person you're debating with will learn something.
Debate makes for progress and understanding, and we shouldn't be afraid of it. But I completely understand where you're coming from, given the general social media climate today.
Even though my company focuses on front-end dev, we still use webflow for our marketing website because it's that easy.
They're by far the closest to achieving what Dreamweaver once set out to. Works best when used for marketing websites and when mixed with a basic respect for CSS.
(1) Idea > (2) Make page in something that feels like figma/sketch > (3) Publish ... is such a pleasant workflow.
Webflow seems like a perfect acquisition for Microsoft to take on Adobe. I agree, it is the modern Dreamweaver.
Microsoft could, in one week, acquire Serif (Affinity), Black Magic (Davinci Resolve), Webflow, photopea.com, squarespace and have a day 1 full feature competitor to Adobe Creative Cloud. Microsoft Creator 365.
Im kind of shocked they have moved into the marketing cloud sector against Adobe, Salesforce and Oracle, but ignored creative tools while allowing companies like Serif to reinvent themselves overnight.
Thanks for mentioning Turtle! Really appreciate it.
(1) Great talent, (2) great customers, and (3) an easy to follow process (platform) are critical for making freelancing work. UpWork typically misses at least 2/3.
"The salary is not competitive" hints that you may not be happy with your compensation across the board.
Don't look at equity any different than cash. It's a more complicated asset, as there is less certainty about its future value compared to the dollar -- but at the end of the day it's compensation, just like cash.
If you aren't happy and motivated by your compensation you should negotiate harder or find a new role. Your career and this startup will both be better off for it.