I'm the founder of MooseMyDay.com and I'm trying to take it off the ground, Ask Me Anything !

What other bad decisions have you made?

Edit: thanks for whoever gave me gold. I know a lot of people hate these edits, but I would feel like an ungrateful bastard for not thanking this person who spent their presumably hard earned money on it.

Well, I'm not sure if the decision to leave my job right now was the right one. And if this project is a failure I would have invested some time and money in it. But it doesn't really matter given all the experience and joy that actually brings.

Thanks

Good luck!

Thanks man ! :)

This is what I don't understand: how're you going to make any income if the website doesn't charge us to send a card?

OP's response: "I really hope that the project will get funded on IndieGoGo"

This is like a cringy episode on shark tank.

He asked for 49k. For e-cards.

My point exactly. A business that needs no material capital funds, no production costs, nothing. And that's just crowd funding, who knows what kind of insane self-valuation he'd give his company if he went in front of a group of capital investors like on shark tank.

Let me answer your questions.

QUESTION:

This is what I don't understand: how're you going to make any income if the website doesn't charge us to send a card?

ANSWER:

Every B2C internet business needs a critical mass before it starts earning money. IndieGoGo is a way to fund the start of the project before it gets this mass, then it will become a paid service if I decide that or an ad-powered platform.

QUESTION:

"A business that needs no material capital funds, no production costs, nothing. "

"He asked for 49k. For e-cards."

ANSWER:

Each e-card takes weeks, even months and hundreds of dollars to be made. At least the e-cards I'm creating at MooseMyDay. I work with:

• creative writer
• animators
• illustrators
• professional sound composer
• voice over actors
• programmers

Also the marketing for a B2C solution is brutal.

Hope this answers your question, although it seems like you are just hating here so it'll probably not matter. But keep doing that if it makes you feel better.

Thanks !

1 year of my nights and weekends would have been a waste.

Please don't think like that, even if your site is not successful (I hope it is!).

At least you tried something! Lots of people don't even do that.

Thanks for the support man, I really appreciate it. ;)

I previewed some of your cards and thought they were funny. I'll see if I can find one for my moms upcoming bday.

glad you like them :)

Do you find that most people are loosing interest in e-cards?
Did you know this before coming into this type of business?

Hi there,

Good questions.

I know that the e-cards trend is declining and when people hear "e-cards" they usually "2000" comes to mind. But I believe I can change that with MooseMyDay. I think the site is modern, the e-cards are above-average quality compared to other e-cards services and the whole head-changing thing is something new.

To answer your second question, to be honest, MooseMyDay is entirely passion-driven. I'm a software engineer, so I'm not very good at marketing and the whole market research thing. I researched competitor's products (like JibJab for example) and I thought I can do better than their e-cards and tool. And I think I did ! But I'm not the one to determine that at the end.

What I missed was that the market was too big and they have all the national media attention, and they are established, venture funded company. Most of the e-cards websites are quite old and mature.

Hope that answers your questions !

Thanks

As a fellow entrepreneur, very general advice for you:

Do something different. Simply being "slightly better" than your huge already established competitors in a market that is trending downwards is not enough. Niche yourself. Merge your idea with something that actually is modern. For instance maybe make it dynamic and create an app for it. Let people send it on the go. They can take pictures of whatever and then add them to their e-cards and send them in mere minutes or even seconds.

A bad example maybe but it's just to give you an idea of what I mean. Don't get stuck in an old downward trending market trying to fight off big competitors believing you are "better" - it almost never works. Instead take it to a new level, integrate it with some other part of life maybe.

Thanks for the advice man ! I'll think on that.

[deleted]

I appreciate your opinion, thanks !

If the service is free, and there are no ads on the site, how do you make money?

Hey there,

I really hope that the project will get funded on IndieGoGo. This will allow me to keep the service free as I initially wanted !

Thanks !

Yeah but how do you plan on making a profit from the site, other than basically begging for money?

If people like it, I'll start thinking about that. But I don't think funding a creative project is exactly begging for money ;]

I see your point though. Thanks for the comment !

A lot of people 'hope' their business will do better. I just can't believe you actually quit your job, which promises stable income, for something before you even saw money or even the promise of money.

I did that. And the income was stable. ;)

I admire your confidence, but it really just makes you look silly at this point when your site is unable to generate significant traffic or revenue. If you were doing this AMA 5 years from now and said "I am a millionaire who was told my website was a shitty idea on /r/IAmA 5 years ago", that would be where I could see your cocky confidence helping you out.

I'm really sorry you interpreted my comment like that, I'm definitely not being cocky here. Thanks anyway, I'm probably a fool chasing a stupid idea like that.

Do I want my day to be moosed?

What do Moose have to do with E-cards?

Hey there,

Good one !

Moose my day is a game with words from "Make my Day", "You just made my day", et cetera !

So MakeMyDay -> MooseMyDay ;] Kind of it'll make your day funnier !

Hope it makes sence ;]

How do you plan to live if you quit your day job to pursue your hobby full time? I'm not asking to be mean but I am curious.

Peter Thiel wrote a book recently on startups (Zero to One). In it he talks about competition versus monopoly (really for the whole book). In his mind, one of his keys to being a successful startup is the need for a 10x improvement over previous iterations of a similar product. Basically the premise is that a marginal improvement is not good enough for people to leave what they have now.

I think it's great to be passionate enough about something that you want to make it your career. I think you should really think about how to monetize your webpage outside of your funding campaign. Good luck in everything!

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your comment. I agree with you, it was a passionate decision. Part of the reason I launched that IndieGoGo campaign is that I want to see what people think of the idea. If I see people like it I'll continue working on it. If not, I'll probably have to find another job ! :)))

Regards !

you dont create indiegogo campaigns to collect opinions, you create them to ask for money.

I created it to do both. ;] thanks for the comment anyway

What was your inspiration to make this site?

Hello Pat,

Thanks for the question !

I'll be honest with you, I think the majority of e-cards on the internet are total crap. Last Christmas I was surfing the web in the hope of finding an awesome e-card to send to my friends. I wanted something wacky, funny, yet smart and personal.

No surprise here, but everything I went into was more appropriate for my grandma - boring as hell. But I stumbled upon some video e-cards that allowed me to actually put a custom head into them. I tried them, the head extraction tools were basic, the e-cards were, again, not good enough with such limited functionaliy. But then I thought to myself:

"Damn it, this is just awful. The idea of changing heads is awesome, but the realization is total crap. But hey, I'm an engineer, and I'm passionate and creative. Can I actually build a better e-cards website ? One that combines high-quality e-cards with the possibility to upload your own heads ?"

This is actually an excerpt from an crowdfunding campaign I launched few days ago, there I shared my whole story and inspiration that kept me during these 12 months, along with few of the un-published e-cards !

I think your funding target is way too high. Much better to have a low target (say $6k or $15k) and try to exceed that.

Maybe you are right. However I can't really change it now.

I looked but didn't see any pricing...what is your plan to monetize this?

I know that my mom uses e-cards like mad but she pays like $30/yr for unlimited cards (not sure where).

Hey there,

The service is actually free and there is no pricing. I hope I'll manage to raise some funds from IndieGoGo (here's the (campaign link)[http://igg.me/at/moosemyday] if you curious) and keep it free !

Thanks !

So you don't plan on ever making any money from this?

I mean, that's totally cool if that's what floats your boat, just curious.

I would prefer to keep it free, yes.

do you go outside often?

Nice one ! Well, to be honest no. ;) But I should !

lol figured, but seriously all the best in your endeavor. hard work always pays off!

Thanks man ! :)

For those of us with meaningless jobs in technology (like education and research and infrastructure), how does it feel to be on the forefront of using technology to bring real progress to civilization?

it feels sarcastic

1 year with full time job ? How did you manage to keep going during this time?

Thanks for the question !

The reason I keep working on this is because I truly believe in MooseMyDay. It's a passion-driven project and I really hope people will like it as well !

Hi, What was you're thought process behind the domain name? Also where is the indigogo like please..

Thanks

Hey there,

Thanks for your comment and sorry for the late response :(

About the domain name, I wanted to come up with something original that will bring positive feelings to people. Something that will "make their day", so to speak.

I also wanted to have a cool mascot in correlation with the name. And because I find moose quite funny, I decided to actually use one for the site !

And here we go: MakeMyDay -> MooseMyDay ;) And thanks for asking for the IndieGoGo campaign !

You can find it here: http://igg.me/at/moosemyday

By the way there you can see the whole story behind the site as well ;]

Hope this answers your question !

Thanks !

I noticed on your IndieGoGo site that you have a staff; how do you pay them?

Good question,

I used to pay them from my own salary. I can't pay them anymore though.

Regards

Did I travel back in time? Why is there a beta badge on your website? And have you considered renaming it?

Hey there,

Yes there is a BETA badge because the website is very new ! I launched it less than a month ago and I focused on validating the idea instead of working on more functionality and e-cards.

I currently have approximately 10 non-released e-cards which I can release for Christmas (you can see some of them here ).

So if I decide to continue working on the service, if I get enough funding, I'll remove the badge and focus on more ecards and cool features !

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks !

Congratulations.

What's your background in software/design or other fields related to this project?

There are other services that send e-cards, how is your site different?

Hi mildspring,

Thank's for the question ! To answer the first one:

My background as a software engineer is more in the enterprise spectrum, that's because I've always worked as a programmer for someone else and usually enterprise projects are the ones with the funding. (Microsoft technologies, .Net, Java, etc, I actually have a programming blog called http://www.developingthefuture.net/ where I share knowledge with people.

But for this project a technology like that would be an overkill.

That's why I learned PHP and few PHP-related technologies and built the site on top of WordPress. So the site is basically a heavily customized Wordpress theme.

The HeadCreator tool is an entirely different thing, it's build in Flash and it communicates with the site through an application program interface (API) that I wrote as an extension. The site itself is hosted in the Amazon Cloud.

---

To answer your second question:

Yes there are a lot of e-cards websites. And this is a B2C solution in a crowded space. But I believe that MooseMyDay offers few competitive advantages over other services:

1. High-Quality Illustrations and Animation
2. Professional Sound Composition
3. Funny and original scripts
4. High-Level of Personalization via Custom Heads
5. Default animated characters (meaning you can either add a custom head, or simply leave the default cartoon heads in order to preserve the atmosphere !)
6. Elaborate and easy to use head extraction tool (Head-Creator)
7. Modern web site user interface

That's in a nutshell ! Hope this answers your question, also check this video out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmtJZW3PJ8U

It's a small overview of the Head Creator tool !

Thanks

[deleted]

I'm not sure if my advice would be relevant given the fact that I'm trying to bootstrap something myself for the first time, but I would advice reading more about the general types of businesses (i.e. B2B, B2C, SaaS, affiliate, ad-powered, information services, etc) so you can know what to expect.

For example, something I learned recently is that B2C is amazingly crowded and filled with venture-backed companies :) This means that as a bootstrap founder it's probably not the best idea to start a business there.

And yes, MooseMyDay is exactly that kind of a business ! That's why I have an IndieGoGo campaign right now trying to raise money !

Hope this answers your question !

Cheers

Do you plan to expand into other areas besides birthday cards? What about an "I am missing you" type of card? or the thousands of other types of cards people use. I went on the site, noticed there was only several, similar options, and bounced off right away.

Hey there,

Yes definitely, there are 10 more e-cards waiting to be configured. If the IndieGoGo campaign succeeds I intend to create a lot of exactly what you are talking about, Miss you ecards and Motivational, etc.

Cheers !

[deleted]

Thanks man ! All the best !

What do you make things out of?

I work with a creative writer for e-card scripts and ideas, if that's what you're asking !

Cheers !

did you ever read anything on any sort of 'how to start your business' or 'how to launch a commercial website' forum or informational site that suggested promoting yourself on Reddit?

How to start your business, how to launch a commercial website articles, there are plenty of them and yes, of course I have. But to be honest most of them are just common knowledge and their sole purpose is to make people share what sounds like a good plan but is usually not. About Reddit - there are a lot of places suggesting advertising on reddit and Reddit is full with hidden advertisements. But I don't have a company behind myself, no funding, it's just me.

What is your favorite animal? Why that animal?

Hey there :)

Well, I think I really like dogs. That's probably the reason I have two doggy e-cards out there ! :)

http://www.moosemyday.com/preview-ecard/puppy-birthday http://www.moosemyday.com/preview-ecard/doggy-birthday-cake-summer-edition

Thanks !

Favourite sports team?

I don't really watch sport :) Not much time to be honest...

[deleted]

Hey there,

Are you using a tablet or a mobile device ? I think that might cause issues, the site is still not 100% mobile friendly. :/

Have you tried a tree?

A tree ? :) What do you mean ?

Have you ever seen a ghost?

Yeah, in Minecraft :))) http://www.moosemyday.com/blog/ecards-creation-fun

That's a nerdy joke, ignore it. ;]

How much volume do you have now, in terms of site traffic and e-cards sent?

Hey there,

The site is very new and right now it doesn't have much volume. Hope that would change though !

Thanks

Hi, where do you see your company naturally progressing to?

Hey there,

To be honest it's not really a company. It's just a passion-driven web site which I hope will make people happy. A new and exciting free way of sending high-quality personalized e-cards !

Thanks !

Don't people just send out videos now a days for the holidays anyways?

Hey guys,

I'm here, I had to take my girlfriend from work. ;]

Thanks for the question !

Well, to be honest I'm not sure, probably ! The e-cards at MooseMyDay are actually animated videos with programming logic inside which allows you to change the heads inside !

Which I think is super cool and that's why I kept working on it for so long.

Cheers !

Well, at least it does sound neat.

:)

So it's like jib jab but not a video?

Hey there,

Yes, not a real footage ! Only animated videos. Also you can fine tune your head contours, something that you can't do in JibJab ;]

Check out this video: http://youtu.be/PmtJZW3PJ8U

Thanks !

First off, best of luck with your effort and even if you don't make it big from this one site you may learn a lot in the process that will carry over in to other projects.

My question is, how many e-cards have you currently got available? (I think I know the answer but I'm surprised at how few..)

Hey there,

Right now there are 15 e-cards created but only 4 of them are configured for the head-changing functionality.

After the whole animation process (script development, story boarding, character development, animation and sound composition, etc) is done, we have to go and manually configure all the heads to be compatible with the Head Creator - our head Extraction tool. This process is quite cumbersome so before diving into that we want to validate the idea, more or less. If no one likes it, then there's no point of continuing with the whole thing.

Hope this answers your question !

Cheers !

[deleted]

good question :) That's just a personal habit, I realize it's not correct ;]

That's actually really inspiring. If you're working towards something you love as hard as you are. It will work out. When do you think you can stop working every night and weekend and now even all day since you quit your job?

Hey there,

Thanks for the comment ! Not sure to be honest. I might need to get another job if this doesn't work out. But that's the reason I posted this here and created an IndieGoGo campaign, I want to see what people think of what I've created.

You know, it's not all about money. It's often about lifestyle as well, working on something you love and you actually own. And it sucks when it doesn't turn out.

Thanks !

I loved this! I was in the middle of class and finished my test early so i hopped on reddit and saw this, made a card with my friends face on it and died laughing. Now I have to retake the test for causing a disruption. Was it worth it? Yes.

So question time, "What are you future plans for the website?" Any more themes to add and maybe more people to work on it with you?

Hey there,

Thanks for your comment ! Awesome ! :)) I'm really happy that you enjoyed it ! And I hope I get more comments like yours both here and in IndieGoGo which will motivate me to continue with it ! I have so many awesome ideas for it. ;]

So to actually answer your questions:

• My future plans for the site are to add more content, a lot of personalized e-cards, 1 min and more with dialogues, singing, dancing, et cetera ! Right now I have only around 15 ecards total
• Improve head creator by adding new awesome functionalities, more attributes, etc.
• Making the site more social, improving the website and much more
• And a lot of e-card themes of course, like for Motivation for example

About the people who work with me, you can find more about them and the project itself here !

Thanks again for the comment ;) I hope I answered your questions !

[deleted]

Well, selling is hard, you know. And given the fact that the service IS ACTUALLY FREE (lol), I'm technically not selling anything.

But you can pay for it if you want.