
Just Landed - jacobwg
http://www.getjustlanded.com/
======
frisco
This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems
facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by
making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy".

Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's
perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by
acquihires and other such soft landings, and big companies desperate to hire
outstanding talent are often very willing to pay high prices for a great team.
From the landing page at least, it certainly doesn't look like the Just Landed
guys are amateurs. They're probably a very talented, capable team.

If they're successful, I won't begrudge them their success. However, I do
lament the idea that the best minds of a generation are being focused on
getting people to click on ads and minimizing the number of loop-arounds you
have to do at the airport. I don't buy the idea that these guys wouldn't be
focused on "harder" problems if consumer web didn't exist; of course they
would. This kind of talent rises to the challenge. The idea that these are the
problems whose solution drives us forwards is just a monumental lapse of
creativity. Technology is an amazing thing, and we can do so much with it. I
really think it's just an exposure issue -- people are used to web, and fields
like the life sciences or hardware seem mysterious and complex. How do those
become opened up?

~~~
jgrall
_Disclosure: I created Just Landed. Thanks for posting the app on HN!_

@frisco: I can understand how you lumped Just Landed in with other Silicon
Valley startups some of whom are creating frivolous apps and raising vast sums
of money against small ideas. I suppose those irritate me too for the same
reasons you mentioned.

However, in this case, you would be wrong to assume that Just Landed is just
another overfunded startup trying to conquer the world with an airport pickup
app. First off, Just Landed is not a startup. Just Landed is an app, built by
myself and two of my buddies, because I kept making the mistake of forgetting
to leave for the airport on time to pickup my girlfriend. After finding that
no other apps were solving this problem (and that flight apps generally
sucked), I decided to take a crack at it.

I don't make any claim that this is an important problem in our society (I
built this app for myself), that this would be a good idea for a startup (it
probably isn't), or that it's worthy of venture funding (so far it's not a
great business). Just Landed was built with $15k of my own money as a fun side
project while I figured out what I wanted to do next with my career. Frankly,
I'm amazed how successful it has been - it was totally unexpected. Also, it's
not even really a company - it was released under Little Details LLC because I
needed to protect myself with limited liability (I also plan to make other
commercial apps).

Finally, while we have certainly had offers, it is also not my goal to be
"acquihired". I'm actually working on a mobile game right now, and am
thoroughly enjoying myself. My goal is to be free to work on my own fun
projects for as long as I'm able. If I come upon an idea worthy of a startup,
something that can really change the world, that's a different story. FWIW
I've already failed twice at a startup (went through YC once), so for now I'm
taking a break and building apps.

Just Landed is not going to change the world, but it sure saves my ass (and
helps hundreds of thousands of other people) when it comes to going to the
airport to pick someone up.

~~~
tjbiddle
If you don't mind me asking - What did you spend $15k on? For just a "fun side
project" that sounds like an outrageous amount so spend, and I can't
particularly think of what it would be spent on as I'm assuming flight
information is public. Don't mean for this to sound judgmental - just
genuinely curious as I must be missing something.

~~~
jgrall
As it turns out, accessing significant amounts of real-time flight data, as
required by this app, is neither publicly accessible nor cheap (hence the need
to charge for the app). There are also many other costs associated with
developing even a small iPhone app to this level of quality.

I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping the costs so low. Try asking
some big companies what they spent on their apps - you might be in for a
surprise (think huge numbers)!

~~~
byamit
Would you be willing to write a post about how costs broke down? It'd be
awesome to learn more about what it really costs for a side project.

------
kunle
Have used this app since the summer/fall. It hasnt been wrong once and the UX
is really great (The push notifications even sound like airport bells). No
idea what the business model is, but the 8 or 9 times I've used it, I've been
extremely happy.

I would say - if they supported longer lead times (so I could put in someone's
info a week or a month in advance, and it would notify me, that would extend
the value quite a bit). Otherwise, this app nails it.

~~~
bradleyjg
I've used it several times as well. Great app. The only time it didn't work so
hot was on an international arrival. It didn't account for the time they spent
going through customs, so I was waiting a while.

~~~
jgrall
Thanks for using the app, and I'm sorry if we let you down on an international
arrival. It happens - customs and baggage claim are both pretty unpredictable.

As it turns out, we do try to factor additional time for international
customs, but it's just an average since there's no real-time data available on
customs wait times (which vary widely by airport, time of day, what passport
the traveler has, and season). I also expect the customs folks don't make this
information available because perhaps it would raise an airport security issue
that could be exploited. In any case, I plan to submit freedom of information
act requests for customs wait times, baggage wait times, and airport security
wait times (that latter the TSA currently collects, but only makes available
via their myTSA app).

Anyone have experience with filing freedom of information act requests, who
might be able to help?

~~~
bernardom
Hey,

I don't know whom you may be able to get to help, but I would bet that the
government doesn't actually have great data on custom wait time- I've never
seen them track someone from entry to pass-through. I strongly doubt they have
that.

Rather, I think you may have come upon a really cool opportunity- find a way
to track it! You'll have data no one else on the planet has. It's like when
Uber starts in a new city- the error on their time estimate starts high and
decreases over time. If enough people use it, you'll get really got at
predicting the wait time based on the factors you mentioned.

Idea: let the traveler download a free companion to the app. Then the user
links to the traveler. Once the traveler lands, they can turn on their phone
and let you see location.

The user gets an alert "Bob has landed!" and actually see where the traveler
is. Over time, you'll get really great at refining the wait time prediction
algorithm. You can ask nationality, etc.

Potential problems: No phone, international traveler can't use phone in
destination due to roaming charges, can't have phone on in certain custom
areas.

~~~
blakewatters
We do this in GateGuru already. I think you are underestimating the scale
needed to produce statistically significant models across airports (or even
within one across checkpoints). MyTSA even has trouble with the crowd sourcing
and they have TSA brand. It's a classic chicken and egg problem: nobody wants
to use the app until its meaningful and it's not meaningful until you have
huge numbers using the app.

Our approach in GateGuru is to bundle the security wait time functionality
with other, highly engaging and free services (such as flight tracking,
itinerary management, and our amenity database) in a completely FREE app and
scale our way into it.

We are deep into it and its an ongoing part of our strategy, but its not clear
to me how you could generalize this and build a business around it without an
amazing solution to this fundamental problem.

------
spacesuit
Spectacular landing page. Really great. App looks nicely designed as well.
Best of luck!

------
0x0
Why not link to <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/just-landed/id520338005?mt=8>
instead of
[http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/...](http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=apps%2flittledetailsllc%2fjustlanded)
which just prompts me to open iTunes?

~~~
jgrall
The latter converts to better since there's one less step to get to the
download :)

~~~
0x0
On the iPhone it ends up in the same place anyways, on the desktop it's just
really annoying.

------
johnrob
Feature idea: let the passenger schedule a text message to the pickup person
when it's time to leave. The same logic that powers the app could also send an
appropriately timed message.

~~~
jgrall
The app is really designed for the person who is doing the picking up (it
shows no departure information), and does notify them when to leave (as well
as prompting you to text your passenger on arrival at the airport). It sounds
like you'd like to be able to use it as a passenger and remind the pickup
person (who perhaps doesn't have the app) that they need to leave. Is that
right? Would like to understand the use case you're envisioning.

~~~
johnrob
That's correct - a passenger could use this service to send a timely reminder
to their ride. This is doubly useful since, even if a passenger were to track
the flight and determine the correct departure time (which the app does
automatically), there is no easy way to send a message while on the flight.

------
Ogre
I've got this, I've used it a couple of times when I needed to pick my wife
up. I think the last time I saw it on HN was a day or two before she was
flying back from somewhere, so I gave it a shot just for fun. It worked great,
thanks!

I've got a suggestion though. On the last flight I was on myself, just a
couple of weeks ago, I was talking to the two guys next to me and one of 'em
said something about wishing there was an app that would do basically what
Just Landed does. I knew I had it but I couldn't remember the name of it and
didn't manage to find it to show him before the conversation turned elsewhere.
Neither "Flight" nor "Airplane" nor "Airport" in the search page turns this
app up. It seems like it's possible for it to - "Flight" shows TripAdvisor's
app for example. You might have been a couple of bucks richer if I'd been able
to find the dang thing to show it off for you. I don't know how you get things
other than your app name to work on the search page, but if TripAdvisor
manages it, you can too! I believe in you! Make it happen! Also because I'm
going to forget what it's called again by the next time I have to pick someone
up at the airport.

------
scep12
Yikes - the HN cynics are out in full force lately.

Kudos to Jon, Graham, and Sean for putting together a great app. Looks clean
and works wonderfully - can't ask for much more!

------
vowelless
Isn't it a little short sighted to not have an android app? I get linked to
the iTunes store on my phone. I also can't find it in the Play store.

~~~
enraged_camel
It's quite a bit more difficult to develop apps for Android, since the
ecosystem is so fragmented and there are many different device types to take
into account.

It makes a lot of sense to develop an iOS app and push it out as soon as
possible so that you can start getting feedback from real users. Version 2.0
can include an Android version.

~~~
w1ntermute
> It's quite a bit more difficult to develop apps for Android, since the
> ecosystem is so fragmented and there are many different device types to take
> into account.

Bullshit. As someone who develops for Android, this is nothing more than FUD
thrown around by Apple fans/developers. Unless you're making a game or
something, fragmentation is absolutely not an issue anymore.

~~~
enraged_camel
I develop for neither Android nor iOS. I'm simply telling you my experiences
as an end-user who has used countless apps on both platforms. iOS apps are the
only ones I can rely on for consistent cross-device experience.

------
rdl
I'd probably use this a lot more if it weren't so single-purpose. I don't
think I'd use an airport pickup specific app enough to remember to use it
(unless I routinely went to the airport to pick people up, in which case I
might have my own knowledge about traffic and time of day, on top of flight
info).

What I _would_ use is a more generalized "you must leave by X to get to Y"
where the time of Y and travel time from me to Y both change dynamically.

And things like "you must start watching this movie now in order to have it
finish before your flight lands".

I think Google Now does some of this (I'm not sure), but iOS alone would be a
market for it, and a non-Google option would be worthwhile anyway.

I'm not disputing that "when do I need to go to the airport for an incoming
flight" isn't important, but it just isn't frequent enough on its own for me.

------
jacobwg
I should probably mention that I'm not affiliated with this app or website in
any way besides being a fan! :)

------
mtp0101
I think this is a prime example of the vast potential of computers to generate
material value beyond what we could have ever dreamed of in the 1960s. Finally
I can avoid making all those painful driving time estimates. This is really a
significant improvement over plugging the flight name into Google. It could
save me seconds, no _minutes_ of valuable time that I could be spending
developing my revolutionary messaging app that allows you to send small
cartoon images of ice cream cones to your friends and family for a nominal
fee.

~~~
jgrall
LOL. Seriously though, there are real benefits: don't be late or forget to go
to the airport and leave your guest stranded; don't go to the airport too
early in the event of a delay and spend hours hanging out at the terminal.
I've done both of those, and I'm glad I no longer have to.

------
viame
From my experience all I need know is if there is a delay or not, which I
check quickly on the airport's page. If on time: For international flights and
large airpors if you have about 1h to travel (traffic, distance etc) leave
when the plane is landing. By the time the plane gets to the gate, people get
out, find their luggage and so on, it will be ~ 1 hour. You won't need to park
your car, go straight to the door for pickups.

Speaking from experiences. Also my gf is a FA.

~~~
jgrall
Yeah, everyone has their own airport pickup estimation method. I guess after
mine failed me enough times, I decided to solve it with computers ;)

------
hugorodgerbrown
Great app guys, congrats on getting it out. In my previous role I worked on
myskystatus.com, which was a similar idea, originally built as part of an
airline marketing campaign. We could see the potential and were desperate to
get them to invest in its future, but they didn't bite, and it was eventually
mothballed.

Are you working with FlightStats?

------
hansy
No this doesn't solve great universal problems, but monitoring a flight and
figuring out when to leave is definitely annoying enough for me to warrant at
least trying out the app. Ultimately my time is my most valuable asset, so
anything I can do (no matter how little) to maximize time efficiency will
always be useful to me.

------
tempaccount9473
How unfortunate, another "app" that would be more useful implemented as a web
page and text messaging service.

I realize web pages have discovery problems, but so do apps at this point. But
if the goal is an aquihire, I guess they can get bigger bonuses as an app
development team rather than a web development team.

~~~
gfodor
Apps are easier to get paid to build.

------
chacham15
One thing that I think would be REAAAALY cool with the homepage is if the
plane moving would actually change the UI displayed on the app. It would be an
easy, non-obtrusive way to demo the app without waiting for someone to click
on a play button. Looks great though!

------
mccolin
The app looks beautiful, and solves a problem elegantly, but it's not a
problem that I would pay any amount of money to solve better than a text
message or airport/airline's flight tracker does. Even the 99¢ price tag seems
like an overpay.

~~~
jgrall
Thankfully lots of other people (limo and taxi drivers in particular) feel
differently. Some ppl have actually stated that they would pay significantly
more than the current price.

~~~
mccolin
Good to hear! I think anyone picking folks up from the airport with any
regularity (including friends and spouses of business travelers) would
definitely find it useful.

~~~
pitchups
This proves the fact that as developers we can greatly underestimate the real
demand for a product if we base it just on our own needs. One can now see the
app being very useful for taxi and limo drivers by automating a crucial part
of their business and saving them lots of time and hassle.

------
jpatte
Am I the only one thinking there is something strange with the numbers in the
screen capture ? the time is 4:42, the plane lands at 5:23, it's a 33 minutes
drive... so you should leave in 8 minutes, not in 18 minutes.

~~~
jgrall
It's correct. The numbers won't match your back-of-the-envelope calculations
because it's a tad more involved than you're assuming. Among other factors,
there's additional time for the plane to debark and for passengers to make it
to baggage claim. You don't want to arrive at the airport just as the plane is
landing. Plus, I'm not sure how Sean edited that video together when he did
the screen capture.

Props for noticing tho ;)

~~~
jpatte
That makes sense; however as a visitor of this page I don't know about all
these details so I might think it's a possible error and I shouldn't trust
your app. Basically there is a small risk to lose potential users here. I
suggest choosing another example with a calculated vs intuitive time gap
different from exactly 10 minutes.

------
wallflower
Beautiful app. Love the custom animations. Focused and effective. Based on the
apps I've worked on and the range of reviews to app downloads, this app
probably has enjoyed the success of 200,000 to 500,000 downloads.

------
marban
From my experience, there's a ~30min. difference between various data
providers and even the airport on a flight status so I'm not sure if this
would be my primary source of information.

~~~
jgrall
Just Landed's times are actually quite accurate (especially for major
carriers), but they differ from the times that the airlines some other sources
publish for two important reasons:

\- The airlines publish scheduled gate arrival times, whereas we show runway
landing times and then factor time to the gate and time through the terminal
when telling you when to leave.

\- The airlines pad their times by 15-30 minutes depending on the route to
allow them to be a little late and not get penalized for it.

Our times will almost always be earlier than the time printed in the itinerary
or shown on the airline website. This is normal and intentional, and does not
mean the data is wrong - in fact it's just giving a more accurate estimate of
the actual landing time. I feel very comfortable making this statement as I
have verified it in my own field testing, and I've also heard from thousands
of happy customers who write to me to say how surprisingly accurate the app is
in a real airport pickup scenario.

------
somesay
Your website sucks 30-35% of one of my CPU cores. Likely that's the parallax
cloud effect since it's only happening when the tab is visible. You may
optimize that.

~~~
jgrall
Yes, I think you're correct. I didn't build the landing page, but perhaps I
will optimize that. It's currently just shifting the various cloud layers
using JQuery's animate() method. I imagine the main hit is layout & rendering,
but that's just a preliminary guess. Specific ideas for improvements?

~~~
tricolon
You'll want to use CSS transitions instead:
[http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/blog/jquery-vs-
css3-tran...](http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/blog/jquery-vs-
css3-transitions/)

In addition, you may also want to try forcing hardware acceleration:
<http://davidwalsh.name/translate3d>

------
lcusack
Love the app and just downloaded it. I do airport runs all the time for my
roommates. Really beautiful.

------
auston
I love this app! I remember seeing it when it first came out, do you guys
support other iPhones now?

~~~
jgrall
Thanks! We support the iPhone 3GS and newer.

------
DigitalTurk
This app is not available in my local iTunes Store. Does it perhaps only do US
airports?

~~~
jgrall
Yes, unfortunately Just Landed is only officially supported in the US & Canada
for now. The limitation stems from getting good enough global flight data
(surprisingly difficult & expensive). The app actually works reasonably well
in other countries (I used it in Turkey last summer) but given the known gaps
in the flight data coverage for flights landing outside North America, I don't
feel comfortable selling it in other countries (yet).

------
shocks
Well polished everywhere and looks great, but... is there really a demand for
this?...

~~~
jgrall
To my surprise, there is :)

------
russtrpkovski
Just noticed the plane fly by in the background. Nice touch!

------
kmack
Really loving the design here, it's truly beautiful

------
GGNH
very well done landing page. nice job guys!

~~~
jgrall
Props to @partlysean for the site design. :)

------
coherentpony
Not available in the UK store.

