INISMO – INvesting IS MOre

8 thoughts on “INISMO – INvesting IS MOre”

1. Using Mac OS10.7.4 with Safari 

   Feedback sought:
    
   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   There is too much right away on the homepage. I have to continually scroll down, and down, and down, to see what your services are.
    
   Maybe have a more simple landing page that introduces your site, and then a very prominent link to your web tool explanations (Project Pitch, Collaboration, etc). Also, place them on a side-scroll flash window (like what you have under the ‘Keep Track Of You Funding Explanations), but have it so that the user can scroll through at his or her own pace, instead of it automatically scrolling through (or have those tools linked with a menu similar to what you have in your ‘About Us’ Section, with the side tabs that open up the brief on the ‘tool’. This will help compact your side, reduce scrolling, and place the information in an easy-to-access manner. 
    
   You could place your ‘Follow Us’ icons on the top of your page.
    
   Video was good, though vocal audio has a bit of revibe in it that makes it hard to listen to or hear clearly.
    
   Visually, outside of the bottomless scroll, the site is pleasing to look at.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   I do not even know what to look for. There is no real search engine on your site, or a ‘site map’ link at the bottom of your homepage, so all searching has to be done by clicking through the site.
    
   Most of the information is accessible off the homepage that I generally look for. Your FAW, About Us, Privacy, Contact, etc.
    
   Pricing, and links explaining your services to Entrepreneurs and Investors is easy to access. However, having them at the top right of the page feels as a bit of an odd place for them– my first impression was that the links for ‘Investors’ and ‘Enterpreneurs’ were for logging in as one of those two persons–I have observed that most websites that offer services to more than one generally have their log-in links top right. 
    
   After signing up, find more menu options (Dashboard, Projects, Dealroom).
    
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   No, mostly because it feels awkward to use your site (based on your homepage, endless scrolling, and some aspects of your information).
    
   Of course, for the sake of testing, I did sign in via Facebook. Like the 30-day trial offer. You should pitch that you have a 30-day trial on your homepage. If people know that they have a trial option they would be more willing to try things out (i.e.: people may not want to give information if they feel they have to commit to something without knowing if or how it will work… having a trial option, and knowing it is there before giving information, may encourage people to sign up and try).
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
    
   Did two searches: funding start-up investors and investors funding entrepreneurs.
    
   I have found a few companies that offer to connect entrepreneurs with investors. Most of these seem to be more ‘consultation.’ There are a few, such as UnLtb from the UK, that focus on start-ups for young entrepreneurs. Canadabusinesss does group funding solutions for social economy enterprises. Most other links were for banks
    
   None of these seem to be as online-interactive as your site, but more as consultation/connection groups.
    
   Given that I do not fully understand how your model works (or how the other sites models work– sadly, I don’t have all day to research the finer details of what everyone does), it is difficult to say who or what I would prefer (I mean, I would prefer to win the lottery and fund my own projects, but that’s wishful thinking!).
    
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    
   Find a way to reduce the amount of scrolling one has to do on your homepage. 
    
   Pitch your free trial on your landing page.
    
   I want to say reposition your links for ‘Investors’ ‘Entrepreneurs’ ‘Pricing’ and ‘Blog’. I suggest moving the ‘Your Fully Interactive Enterprise Funding’ so that it is beside your ‘inismo’ emblem (which you could make bigger, and having those links in a menu bar below that (and above the ‘keep track of your funding activities’ scroll-box), in larger font. 
    
   Your FAQ is well organized and informative. Its current incompleteness is understandable as you are still developing your projects and information.
    
   Security questions: You use ‘up to 256-bit SSL Encryption’. Is it consistent for all my information? What it the minimal you use, as your statement suggests that you use other, lower level Encryption?
    
   How do you remove your profile?

   July 17, 12:05PM ETS 

2. 1)      Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   I think your homepage has a nice and professional look to it. You give a clear and precise statement as to what your website is about. I like that you have a nice scrolling screen with lots of visual representation. If you are going to have a video it should not be placed into a scrolling area because it might get overlooked. I think you need to have the same flow in terms of your graphics. Your scrolling screen gives that home grown drawing look while the bottom of the page has more professional graphics. I feel the great contrast has to do with the amount of contrasting images on your homepage. However I think that you have way to information on your homepage. A homepage is a place to showcase the most needed information to draw users in and it seemed to turn into an overload of info.
   2)      Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   Since you don’t the typical searchable site with a search bar so I just clicked on the tabs located at the top of the page. The tabs at the top of the page gave nice detail to the information under each header. The only thing that I found confusing was that I don’t see an exact flow to what a person is supposed to do on your website. I am only to assume that I follow the subtopics under each header and or follow the one through five step process.
   3)      Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   Since I would be possibly paying for an account would like most likely sign up for an account. I did a sign up to see the process through Linked in and it was nice to see that you have a 30 day trial which you did not put anywhere on your homepage.
   4)      Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
   I found a website called Gust that funds businesses. Their homepage is clear and precise and is not cluttered with tons of information. They have testimonials right on the homepage giving their site credible real person appeal. With easy to see “partners” at the bottom on the page it gives it more backing seeing real companies. They have a how it works tab that break down each section easily. I’m not sure the flow of your site so it is hard for me to compare the specific nuances of your site. I think your site might want to take note of the simplicity of this site. When you have a process that can be seemingly complicated it is nice when a website can make it look easy.
   5)      Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   Simple design. Precise steps. Consistent graphics. Short homepage. Mention 30 day trial. Larger font.  You have a text box that has the XXXX and I was unsure what info is supposed to go in it. Also some of your pages have a large of white space, creating more to look at visually for a user. Revamp and make it seem easy. The video was nice but at times it was hard to hear what the founder was saying.

3. 1. My first impression is that this is a web site designed to help investors connect with small business start-ups, which seems accurate on further investigation.
    
   As far as the home page layout and design, my only issues are with the slideshow and video. Even though the slideshow is cute, it seems too “busy” to me. There’s so much going on that my eyes hardly know where to look. In terms of the video, it’s a decent intro to INISMO, but I had to listen carefully to understand the narrator due to his thick accent.
    
   Other than that, I think you have an attractive home page. I especially appreciate the big print. It’s nice not to have to squint at the screen, and the bold letters draw attention. I also really like how you separate the home page into two columns, one aimed at investors and one aimed at entrepreneurs. A lot of web sites that are targeting two distinct groups only pitch to one of those groups on the home page, which can be a big mistake. You resolve that potential problem in a wonderfully straightforward way. In addition, your selling points provide just enough information to give visitors a picture of what your site can do for them, and then each selling point has a link for more details, which is great because visitors don’t have to search through the navbar for the relevant pages. Finally, I like that you actively encourage contact from users by displaying your support tab in the margin and your phone number and support request form prominently at the bottom of the page. A lot of web sites seem determined to hide that information from users. The fact that you don’t hide it speaks well of your commitment to user satisfaction.
    
   2. I decided that I wanted to find an ongoing project to look at. In fact, I wanted to see if I could search projects by any kind of grouping or categorization. To that end, I clicked “Published projects” at the bottom of the page. (I was a little surprised that it was so far down the page actually!) This brought me to a list of current projects. While I thought each project listing had a nice layout with its own icon, intro, and summary table, I was disappointed that there was no search feature. What if I wanted to find projects that only had a “horizon” of less than a year? Or what if I wanted to find projects that only needed an investment of less than $50k? I’d have to browse through quite a few projects to filter out the ones I wasn’t interested in. I’d suggest that you add a search feature to address this issue.
    
   3. I might be since I have a business idea that I may want to seek funding for. However, this is the first I realized that this is not a free service but a “free trial” only. That wasn’t clear to me from a quick look around the home page. I’ll have to find out how much you charge before I commit to anything…
    
   …Ok, I took a minute to look at your “Pricing” page, and I see that start-ups seeking an investment of less than $50k can use the site free of charge, so yes, I’m encouraged to join. But just so you know, if I was seeking a larger investment, I’d need to know how your rates translate into US dollars before signing up for a paid plan.
    
   4. I searched on “site for angel investors.” The first result was Gust, but I see that someone above reviewed that site already. The second result was Go4Funding.
    
   I immediately like your home page better because it’s cleaner and simpler. Go4Funding has practically every available space on the home page covered in print, and it’s overwhelming. However, one nice thing they do is place their current project stream higher up on the home page so that visitors can see it more readily. I wouldn’t recommend that you place your project stream as high on the page as they do, but where you have it now, down on the bottom, is too far down. On the other hand, I like that your project stream is horizontal. Theirs is vertical, and it takes up way too much space.
    
   Another advantage you have over Go4Funding is that you have a direct sales pitch on the home page. Go4Funding hardly spends any time pitching at all, and I’ll bet they lose visitors for that reason. In fact, as I go deeper into the site, it doesn’t look like Go4Funding spends any time at all explaining how their site works! INISMO, on the other hand, has detailed informational pages for both investors and entrepreneurs…Ah, ok, here we go. Go4Funding has an FAQ page that explains some stuff, but it’s hidden down at the bottom of the home page, and the tab is labeled “Help” instead of “FAQ.” Not good!
    
   You do a far, far better job of selling your site than they do. The only advantage they may have is that their service is free for everyone. But I’m not sure I’d trust their service because they do such a poor job of selling it!
    
   5. I’ll give you my comments on your main pages:
    
   Home Page – My recommendations: 1. Make the slideshow illustrations simpler and less busy. 2. Re-record the video narration with a native English speaker. 3. Move the published project stream somewhat higher up the page, maybe right above the sign-up boxes. 4. The slideshow and selling points are almost too large. I appreciate the big print, but the images could be smaller, especially the screen shots that accompany the selling points. I’d cut the size of the slideshow by 50% and the size of the screen shots by 25-50%. If you wanted, you could easily make the slideshow or screen shots or both enlarge when clicked on or rolled over so that they’d take up less room by default. And when there’s more room on the page, your project stream will appear closer to the fold. 5. Make “Security” a selling point instead of just a footnote at the bottom of the page. When I first landed on your site, my initial thought was, “How do I know someone wouldn’t just steal my idea?” It turns out you have an entire page devoted to explaining your security and privacy precautions, including measures you’ve taken against intellectual theft. But I might not have found it if I hadn’t scrolled all the way to the bottom of the home page. 6. Be more upfront about your pricing on the home page. I didn’t even realize there were fees involved until I got to your question about whether I was encouraged to sign up for a free trial! But, actually, INISMO is free for small-time entrepreneurs, so I would advertize that right on the home page: “Sign up now! Free for entrepreneurs seeking up to $50k in capital!”
    
   Investors – Why is the intro text centered? That looks like a mistake. I would turn this into a bulleted list instead:
    
   INISMO can help if you are:
   –A private or angel investor
   –A representative of a venture capital firm
   –Etc.
    
   The selling points with icons are easy on the eyes, but I’m not sure you need them at this stage. You already hooked the investor, and he/she wants to know more. I’d skip this and take them straight to the list of features below.
    
   I’m confused by this sentence: “Benefit of our online tools to evaluate and compare invetsment proposals, manage your deal flow and navigate your funding negotiations with secure priavte deal rooms.” Huh? That’s not even a complete sentence, and you don’t need it since you already laid out the benefits in your selling points above. (I don’t think you need those, either, but this is just even more redundant.)
    
   In contrast, I like the rest of the page. You present each feature of your service with an image to “anchor” it, and the details are short and sweet with links to help investors get started.  My only complaint is that some of the wording is awkward, repetitive, and grammatically or stylistically incorrect. I’d recommend a copy editor to clean this up.
    
   Entrepreneurs – This page is structured exactly like “Investors,” so the same comments apply.
    
   Pricing – Again, it would help to see the dollar amounts displayed in US dollars as well as in Euros since it looks like a significant percentage of your investors are based in the US. I’m surprised to see that you want to charge investors a pretty hefty subscription fee. If I were an investor, I’m not sure I’d want to invest money just for the chance of investing money! My understanding is that most venture capitalists have entrepreneurs banging down their doors, and they pretty much sit back and wait for opportunities to come to them. I could be wrong, but I’d think you’d want to try to lure them in for free since they’re the ones with the money to give. If you don’t have investors at the site, you don’t have a site because all the entrepreneurs will pack up and go home, so to speak. I’d at least offer a free subscription to individual investors and maybe a free trial for everyone.
    
   Other suggestions – Add a search feature to the project list.
    
   Other comments – INISMO seems like it has a lot of potential. I love that you guide entrepreneurs through the pitch process, which could otherwise be overwhelming. I love that you support intellectual property rights with security and privacy guarantees. And I love that this is free for small businesses seeking less than $50k. I think it’s a winning concept, and if you can just improve a few relatively minor points in your web site design, it could really take off.

4. 1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?

   Initially I was drawn to the drawings on the site. It looked a bit unique so I wanted to read what the sketches were about. The sketches though were a little distracting and they don’t immediately convey what the website is about. I actually think they don’t provide much value on the home page, because you really have to try to debug them to see what it is about. The color theme seems fine but the some of the sketches has a bright yellow or bright pink that seems to conflict with the color theme. The overall text colors are pleasant to the eyes. The four areas at the top right seems to be what you’d actually want visitors to click on, so those should probably be more visible. The first two especially are categories of visitors and you want those visitors to be led to the right category right away. For example if I was an entrepreneur that came to the site through Google, what would probably really catch my eyes is a button that says “Entrepreneur”.  
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?

   There are a few things that a would be customer might want to look for. One is pricing, two is how to create an account, three is information about investors or entrepreneurs. Like I mentioned before these things are visible, but should be the center of attention. The pricing button don’t have to be on the home page since you want to first lure your visitor with all the good things your website has to offer, then you can show the pricing structure. What you might want to place on the home page though, rather than pricing is than a FREE option is available.

   Generally I think the main things I’d look for is visible, but you might want to add a FAQ or something that is visible (maybe as a tab to the side). Personally if I have a burning question I search websites to see if they have an FAQ that might address it. I am a savvy web user so I know it is usually in the footer, but it wouldn’t hurt to make it more visible.
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?

   Yes, primarily because the website looks professional. I must say though that the sketches makes it look a little less professional because they are usually associated with children’s cartoons. But, navigating around the site seems professional enough. However, the contact link does not provide an actual telephone number and personally I don’t like to spend money with websites that you contact via email only.
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?

   I went to Go4Funding.com. I prefer that company because the website shows very recent activity so I know people are using the service. The website though is not as clean and professional as Inismo and I would take that into account. But, for me knowing that a site is popular makes me more interested in it. However, I would sign up for a free option for Inismo so I can ‘test the waters’, so in that way it s a plus.
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

   Keep up with the blog posts, however try to make them more frequent. Any success stats also help to or compare your offerings to competitors. This usually helps visitors to see that you are offering a better deal than competitors. 

5.  
   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   There is a lot of activity on the home page. I had to scroll right down to the bottom to see all of the possible places to go from the home page rather than getting a sense of content from the main navigation menu.
   The headings under the scrolling images near the top of the page are different from the ones directly underneath which I expected to provide me with further detail of the initial headings.
   I’m not totally clear on what Enterprise funding is about though the idea of the tools included on the home page look quite useful and make me what to find out more. The use of the phrase ‘learn more about …’ continuously down the page is redundant as it’s obvious that if you are clicking on the link associated with that topic then you will want to ‘learn more’.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   There is no visible search box on the home page which meant I couldn’t search. Although there is a lot of information available it would be useful to include a site search so that users can search for specific content.
   I thought I would look for more information about creating funding proposals for starting a business and clicked on the top link for Entrepreneurs. On the page I went to I didn’t like the small size of the font. I also expected that I would be able to click on the graphics for each part of the 4 step process and this would take me to the appropriate information for that step further down the page. Otherwise why have these graphics taking up space. 
   The information further down the page is clear though I’m not sure I like the headings switching from left to right as you scroll down the page.
    
    
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   If I knew more about how this site could help me I might sign up, however it’s not that clear, however it is great to see that I don’t need a credit card.
   I clicked on the Create Account button as I thought this would take me to a sign up form but then realised that I should have just put my email and password on the front page and then clicked Create Account. There was a good clear acknowledgement of my registration. Do you need to send me an email to activate my account ? Couldn’t the account just start immediately once I’ve completed the form ?
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
   I did a google search for Enterprise Funding and selected American Enterprise Funding group. Although their site design is not as appealing in terms of layout and white space / graphics I did like their introductory explanation which immediately helped me understand more about what Enterprise Funding is all about and how it might apply to me if I was in the position to be starting a business / enterprise.
   The rest of their site is nothing special in terms of layout, or finding my way around as they didn’t have a search box either. Their labels are not very obvious such as SBA 504 Loan Programme which means nothing to me. One of the things I like about your site is the clear labels which are meaningful even to someone who knows nothing about the topic such as your use of words like “Collaboration” “Negotiation” “Project pitch”
    
   5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   A short introductory paragraph explaining more about what your goal is for the site and who with your target audience in mind would help people understand more about how you can add value to their projects.
   

6. Dear all Feedback Providers!

   Thanks for your detailed and quick feedback, it really helped us a lot. Sometimes, you’re too deep into your own project so that you can’t see some details anymore.

   We already adjusted and refined INISMO, partially based on your Feedback. Please have a look here to see that it was worth giving feedback here at StartupLift!

   If you want to get in touch with us personally, because you’re interested in our business, please contact us at caw@inismo.com, it’s my personal Email address regarding https://inismo.com/.

   Have a great weekend, thanks again a lot,

   Christoph Auer-Welsbach
   CEO & Founder of INISMO.com 

7.  
   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
    
   The home page of the https://inismo.com/ is very interactive and focused on the target what they do. The home page slides shows the Funding Activities and the introduction of web based tools explains the whole process of managing funding between Investors and Entrepreneurs.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
    
   I found most of the basic things to required for professional Enterprise Funding Platform. Especially I was  looking for ENTREPRENEURS and funding facility process for their projects  and I found it from the index page web-based tool brief and ENTREPRENEURSpage.
    
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
    
   If I’m looking for ENTREPRENEUR ship with professional Enterprise Funding Platform then I’d like to join Insimo.  The web-based tools for founding process are really impressive and keep on track both the investors and entrepreneurs. Theirs published projects are also interesting and creative.
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
    
   After searching for entrepreneurs investors, I found bellow below site is good enough professional Enterprise Funding
    
   https://www.venturegiant.com
    
   But it is not much impressive and focusing as compare to Insimo.  They don’t have any web based tool to evaluate projects for investors as well as entrepreneurs. Also they don’t show any security aspects on their site as compare to Insimo.
    
   Finally I conclude that Insimo is an attractive platform for both investors as well as entrepreneurs aspects.  I like their focusing way for investors and entrepreneurs using web based tools facility . With tool entrepreneurs can explore their skills more efficiently into their projects and investors also come closer to the projects and deal them on their own way.
    
    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    
   The site is entirely design very attractive but they should keep in that nowadays the social networking sites becomes more popular and another way of smart business. So, they must put their Follow us tab on the top bar or upper top bar. So, the visitors of the site can access and get in touch from the any page of the site. So, don’t stick it only on the Home page. Otherwise It is a fabulous thing and very much helpful to the entrepreneurs.  
    

8. Feedback sought:
    
   1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   I feel the website home page needs to look compact and intuitive. A home page should not have scrollable content, as this can irritate a first time prospective client. 
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   I actually wanted to find an investor who would be interested in funding an academic project with a budget around $25,000. I dont find a search option for that. The main purpose of having a funding website is to link prospective investors to entrepreneurs. I dont see a clear work flow solution of how this is implemented.
   3) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   I may. But, I’m not too sure, if I will be able to get what I want. The business workflow needs to be clear and the website should attune towards this goal.
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
   https://www.fundingcentral.org.uk. This website seems to be a little more goal oriented and organized. There are search links to locate investors, I can get into the job instantly. I would prefer the above website, because there is transparency about the work flow, supported by user friendly links.
    5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   There is no tab or link to the Home page. So, if you navigate to some other page, you will have to hit  the URL “https://inismo.com” again to visit the home page. 
   The home page has to be compact and precise to capture a first time user’s attention. The page is not structured properly. There is too much content in this page and the user has to scroll up and down to understand what exactly the website is about.

   The “Active Investors from” section is not appealing at all. You could put it in a frame with a matching background and could label the items or show a tool tip.
   You could re-position the “Get in Touch” information to the top of the page as this is the most important information they will be needing to contact you. Also reposition the “Security” info to the first part of the home page.
   Account creation and subscription links can be more compact and go as a header on the right hand corner, besides the login link. Redundant account creation links can be removed.
   The headings in the home page – “Enterprise Funding”, “Collaborating”, “Managing” and “Negotiating” can go in as expandable links, thereby giving a better look and feel to the content. The same format can be applied to Investors and Entrepreneur pages.
   Sizes of icons, tabs etc. need to be standardized.
   “The INISMO Way” can be projected right at the top of the page.
   The Blog page needs a search tab with relevent filters. Also, displaying blog titles with hyperlinks can give the page a more organized look. 
   You can just display the “Keep track of your Funding Activities the simple and quick way” content on the home page and then use a “Learn More” link to guide the user to the rest of the contents.

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