I think these guys are a lot smarter than you think.
Step 1: Create a basic app with some paid resources.
Step 2: Post on Hacker News.
Step 3: Get great feedback (all free) about how to make app really successful so people use it.
Step 4: Make the recommended changes and the second iteration is a smashing success.
Of course we are hoping to get good feedback (some true gems have already been told!) from the very smart Hacker News crowd to bring the product to the next level.
But we want to keep a certain balance between paid and free resources, since we want to become the number one go-to location when it comes to searching for online learning resources (whether paid or free shouldn't matter).
Truly an MVP? Seems very light on the actual content. Interesting launch, I'm curious as to thoughts or copycats of very minimal launches with no "content" but launching only for feedback.
Well we don't have zero content. We have some, of course not everything, but we're working on it. And like I said earlier there's a fine line between trying to launch fast and filling it with content which at the end (maybe) nobody even uses. This way we found the topics interesting to most people and we'll quickly iterate on that!
Step 1: Create a basic app with some paid resources. Step 2: Post on Hacker News. Step 3: Get great feedback (all free) about how to make app really successful so people use it. Step 4: Make the recommended changes and the second iteration is a smashing success.
Very smart guys - I tip my hat to you.