

Show HN: From an idea to the Valley in less than a month - emreas
http://www.shareme-app.com/

======
jgrahamc
I find these 'sharing' apps (like FourSquare and this) fascinating because
they are the complete opposite of what I want. I have no desire to tell people
where I am or what I am doing.

For example, I feel that a sharing app that let's people know "Ah. John's not
answering the phone because he's in the middle of a meeting with Mr F Barbaz"
is the wrong way to deal with others. There's no need for people to have that
information, and there's no need for me to explain to people why I am not
answering. I am simply not available.

I wrote, somewhat tangentially, about the need for a new 'not available'
social norm in a piece about long haul flights:
[http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/archive-of-my-newstilt-
stories.h...](http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/archive-of-my-newstilt-
stories.html#nt8)

To me these sharing status apps are a sign of an unhealthy idea that people
are always available unless they come up with some good reason not to be. The
only people who might actually need to know where I am because of some
emergency are few in number (my parents, my spouse, my boss) and they can
always SMS me a '911' text message.

PS None of that should be seen as a criticism of this person's app or work.
There may be a large market for this which simply excludes me.

PPS It's worth thinking through what are the 'acceptable' reasons for not
answering a call. In a meeting? On the toilet? Thinking? Writing code? Staring
out the window letting your mind wander? And who makes that judgement. To me
the simplest solution is to not answer when I don't want to and not be
accountable to others for why I did not answer.

~~~
thaumaturgy
You and me both, man. This is one of those aspects of society -- and it does
seem to be pretty ubiquitous at this point -- that I just don't get. It makes
me feel weirdly out of sync.

I've been putting extra effort lately into putting up lots of boundaries. I
carry my cell phone a lot less. I'm slower to return calls. My email replies
are brief and sporadic. It's really _nice_.

I see people spending a lot of time alternating between Facebook and email and
texting on their phone, and ... I'm not sure if I've gone crazy, or everyone
else has.

The idea behind this app, cool as it is technically, makes me a little bit
sick to my stomach.

~~~
indiecore
>I'm not sure if I've gone crazy, or everyone else has.

Welcome to Old.

------
cocoflunchy
Why do you need investors if you have finished your app? Shouldn't you focus
on trying to generate profit instead?

~~~
musHo_sk
At first build a park, invite tons of people and then place a lemonade stand.
(if you'll place it too early you will screw your viral ratio)

~~~
khet
.. or make lemonade and wait for your first few customers. Learn from their
feedback, improve & iterate. Market to even more potential customers (just
like you would have when you first build your park).

~~~
cheez
Both are valid models. In my town, there is a free water park with a REALLY
expensive hot dog stand right outside.

------
simonbarker87
I have no idea what this time line is trying to tell me and I have no idea
what this app is about ... just me?

~~~
rorrr
It's not just you. Their graphic designer is clueless. He can draw pretty
pictures, but has no idea how to deliver the message effectively. All it needs
is a bullet list of what the app does and maybe a screenshot.

~~~
pedalpete
I really don't think it's that bad. Though I think they made a big mistake
starting with the first entry on the right side. I read the second entry
first, and kinda missed it.

Nothing wrong with being a bit creative, but they didn't nail that experience.

------
borplk
So the landing page is a timeline of what happened to this project and no link
to try/download etc..?

~~~
sebastianmarr
Exactly. Because the app is not finished yet. Seems like the page is more a
pitch to investors than a real product landing page.

~~~
dusaan
App is done and would be released soon...

~~~
culturengine
If you have the attention of people now, let them play with the Alpha version
now so you can learn truth fast about how others perceive the problem, and
your hypothesis that your app has the ability to solve it.

Also, don't sweat all of the negative posts. It is way too easy to pick holes
in the work of others, especially at an early stage.

Do however look for the common themes commenters dislike, as your next
code/design/pr effort can address these.

------
scott_meade
If this is an investor pitch, it's missing one critical piece of info -
namely, how will it make money? Or am I just old-fashioned in thinking a
business should make money?

~~~
bpatrianakos
Old fashioned. Money is magical in the Valley which is why free apps and
services are worth billions.

But in all seriousness it doesn't look like an investor's pitch to me. I think
its just about getting some buzz and users. Personally I wouldn't use it but I
know people who would.

------
duiker101
How will this app make a single cent?

~~~
huhtenberg
From the investors. Duh.

------
andrewljohnson
Moving on to the Android app seems like a mistake.

~~~
iamdave
Curious, what makes you think this?

~~~
555imon
Probably better to gain traction on one platform first. If it is working out
well you have found the recipe and it's likely to work on other plattforms as
well. By adding other platforms you will multiply the userbase by 3 in the
best case. Increasing the installed base on one plattform in an early stage
will be more effective.

~~~
w0utert
In many cases I'd say you are right, but the scope of this application looks
limited enough to be able to port the application part over to Android really
fast, especially if the author already has experience developing for Android.

Most of the work for this product is probably in the backend, which I assume
does not need to be changed to service Android clients.

------
jcrei
And you need investors' money for... ?

~~~
musHo_sk
To buy at least a couch

~~~
rorrr
That's such a WTF answer. Who gives a shit if you have a couch?

~~~
musHo_sk
Read that story, they're currently sleeping on the floor...

~~~
rorrr
And the investors should care about that why?

~~~
kami8845
so they can continue working on the idea while being able to afford basic
human needs?

~~~
dhume
Outside the Valley, people would hear this and say, "get a job."

------
connortomas
I think this is an interesting concept. I have a few questions, though, which
I suspect could be commonly asked:

\- What's the incentive for me to use this? Why not simply switch my phone
off? It seems as though the core benefit is to answer the question, "Why isn't
X answering their call?", but there's no clear incentive for X to share this.
In fact, if X is busy, it's unlikely they will have the time to update their
status.

\- How do you explain to a non-technical user how this differs from Twitter or
Facebook or Foursquare? How do you respond to a user telling you "I don't have
time for another social network"?

\- Have you thought about how to prevent "feature creep"? I see simplicity as
the core selling point of this app, but I can also see strong pressure from
investors to build this out until it turns into a generic social network.

Anyway, it looks visually stunning and I'm excited to see where you take it.

~~~
dusaan
Status setting is done automatically, no interaction is required... You only
have to choose locations you would like to share. You can also make your own
visibility settings for each user you have in contact list. It's up to you,
what you would like to share

------
mnicole
That last screenshot is really confusing, you might want to clean that concept
up a bit.

Outside of that, here's my dilemma; even if I was crazy social,
Facebook/FourSquare/Gowalla know where I am and offer me more incentives to
post my locations and activities through them. What does this offer me? The
problems you list that motivated you to create this app are easily solved by
ignoring your phone or sending texts. If I'm busy, I'm too busy to update an
app my friends probably won't even check. If I'm relaxing, I don't want people
to know where I am and what I'm doing because I'm trying to relax. Ignoring
them, which is the current method for handling these problems, is easier to do
than what you are proposing.

I think you need to find a better reason for people to use something like
this, which I think would be more relevant to families and possibly remote co-
workers, and go from there.

------
bjansn
It's pretty, looks well designed.

Why not validate it first? I think you should look for investors when you have
first experience growing your first user base, see how the adoption amongst
users will be etc. This is a difficult model to grow.

------
iamdave
This is a one of a kind landing page; simply explains the problem and solution
but does so in an incredibly novel, succinct and eye-catching way with a
perfect call to action button targeted at investors.

Extremely well done!

~~~
GFischer
I really like the landing page too.

However, I agree with other posters that I don't see the business model, nor
the need for the Android app before gaining traction/validating the business
model.

------
orangethirty
Good idea. Its so simple that it might work. People want to know what you are
doing (proof: social networks), and with this they would know if you are
available to do _something_. I get it. Cool. It has good potential. I wish I
had an app that would tell people when I was unavailable becuase I'm in a
meeting or just coding. I know voicemail and SMS can do this, but those two
options require that they contact me. I dont want any type of contact to be
made from their part. They see the status and just leave me the fuck alone.

Good luck.

------
stef25
Another social-contacts-statuses-sharing thing, is this really needed?

------
rolandal
I like this product - and could see myself using it.

I'm curious if you are using native region monitoring for iOS?

I'm do Product & Business Development for Gimbal (<http://www.gimbal.com>) -
and think I have a solution that you can use to help you on the geo-fencing
side.

Feel free to email me and I can give you some use-case examples and intro you
to one of my engineers that can help you integrate/test out our SDK.

------
lucahammer
So you are building an app to provide the convenience of skype stati
(available, away, busy, invisible, offline) to people who use phones to call
people?

Nothing wrong with that but I don't see me updating another app while the
information is in most cases available somewhere else. For the app to be
useful I would need to give it even more information than I do with all other
platforms while the benefit is that people aren't annoyed because I don't take
their calls.

~~~
ethyreal
it seems like all you have to do is convince you friends to install the app
and set locations / status they want to share and the app ( uses geo fencing ?
) updates the status for them and you when they enter those areas.

------
bromang
HOW WILL THIS MAKE MONEY

------
lewisflude
I like this a lot, but just to ask, how do you plan on solving the critical
mass problem?

Why should I use your service if none of my friends are?

~~~
musHo_sk
You're already starting with a full list of contacts from your smartphone
address book. +Guys have prepared also some tweaks for distribution.

~~~
lewisflude
But, none of my other contacts will have a status unless they have your app,
right?

~~~
dusaan
But you can invite them to use it, it's the simplest and fastest way

~~~
lewisflude
I see, but what if I only have a mobile number available for some of my
contacts. Will it send them a text asking them to join?

I'm sure it's going to be an awesome app though, I'll happily sign up. I'd
like an easier way to take my friends with me. Also, I'd love Twitter
integration.

------
paulgb
Will it be another closed-garden communication app, or will it follow
established standards? (eg. this XMPP extension that allows for
location/activity statuses <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0163.html>)

------
sqnguyen
I find it kind-of interesting how common features on IM services can be
rebranded into a startup.

~~~
ethyreal
it's also funny that I can't think of any IM services that are making money..
or rather I have no idea how they make money.

however it seems like with geo fencing and a willingness to share your address
book with a new service it can do all the work for you, so it might be useful,
but profitable? without selling contact info i don't get. ads in the status
screen?

