

How We Went From Being Virtually Unknown to 3k Signups a Day in 5 Weeks - dshipper
http://dshipper.posterous.com/how-we-went-from-being-virtually-unknown-to-3

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RiderOfGiraffes
I still can't work out what it actually does, and why I would want to join.

Is there information anywhere about why I should be interested?

Having visited <http://wheremyfriends.be/> I gues it draws an animated map of
where it thinks my Facebook friends are currently located.

Is that it?

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dshipper
Yup that's what it is. It's a simple app to draw your friends on a map.

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michuk
It's great to hear someone gets excited about being featured on Mashable but
that's only a nice start. The press buzz quickly goes down and so does the
fresh stream of users. Here is where the real test begins: if the startup is
able to keep the users and make more of them sign up.

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ABrandt
I agree that this coverage is only the beginning, but it seems that they're
riding an extended wave of signups rather than just a quick burst. A week long
stretch of 3k new users/day is an encouraging start. I truly hope that the
virality they've built into the app will help sustain the growth a bit longer.

I don't think viral effects alone will be enough to turn the project into a
sustainable startup however. The current value proposition of "see how worldly
you are" doesn't have me reaching for my wallet anytime soon.

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wesleyzhao
I would have to say Dan, Ajay, and I all agree. After reading blogs and
articles (including a great one from Fred Wilson) we know growth comes in
step-wise functions. Press coverage/big-story etc will spike growth, then it
will level it down a bit. The better the value proposition, the less it will
drop. Also we understand that sites with features get viral bumps, and it is
up to the entrepreneur to keep building and keep them their for a sustained
business (i.e. Instagram).

All that said, WhereMyFriends.Be was truly a fun web app that we wanted to put
out there. We made it for ourselves to see if we could do it, then when we
thought other people would enjoy it we started making it public and releasing
it. As of now, we still have no intention of making it into a sustainable
business [unless any of you have any suggestions...]. We are just looking to
have a little fun, and give people a fun thing to play with.

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sabat
That's an interesting story, but it has little value to entrepreneurs, unless
there's a lot more to the story. How did you go from unknown to 3K signups?
You got listed on Mashable. That's it?

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dshipper
While I can see where you are coming from I don't think that our success boils
down to "just getting listed on Mashable." We didn't just snap our fingers and
one day get on Mashable. We had to come up with an idea, design it, execute it
and promote it. All of those factors played into our being featured. Once
featured we also had to make sure the servers stayed up, deal with users and
try to help spread the app further. And all of those factors will be described
in detail in forthcoming posts - I thought it would be relevant and
interesting to give some of the back story first.

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sabat
I didn't mean to judge you precipitously. Will now withhold judgement until
Part 2 ships. :-)

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atehleb2
wheres the rest of the story? i was soo into in lol! really good writing

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dshipper
Part two comes tomorrow!

