

In response to GraffitiGeo Techcrunch article ...  - oGLOWo
http://www.geograffiti.com/voicemarks/3923/

======
ErrantX
TC Article he is responding too: [http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/13/yc-
funded-graffitigeo-f...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/13/yc-funded-
graffitigeo-foursquare-meets-yelp-with-a-dash-of-augmented-reality/)

Here's the app: <http://www.graffitigeo.com/>

It's basically (it seems) a text version of this existing service:
<http://www.geograffiti.com/>

I think the claim of "rip off" does have some validity :P

~~~
pg
There are a lot of services that do some variant of geotagging. We've even
funded one before (Flagr, in 2006). This is one of those domains where winning
is a matter of getting the details right; the general idea has been around
forever.

I'm guessing what the OP is responding to is the similarity between the names.
But that was not intentional.

~~~
aranganath
I'm the author of Graffitio: <http://appsto.re/graffitio>

I applied to YC and was flown out for an interview in November 2008. I was
told that while it was a promising area, YC is reluctant to fund single
founders. Fair enough.

A few weeks later, I responded to a technical plea for help from one of
GraffitiGeo's founders in this thread a few weeks after that:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=413929>

When we got in touch, we had a long and frank discussion about Graffitio and
the space in general. I told him about the challenges I was facing, and some
of my plans for the future. He brought up the idea that we team up, and I said
I probably wasn't interested, but I'd let him know.

Then I got the email. He offered me 1.5% of their company for all of my source
code, the name, and my 40,000+ users at the time. He went on to use
threatening language such as "Graffitio is going to get stomped out of the
picture" and "Your financial alternatives are bleak." I chose to pass on the
offer.

The first version of GraffitiGeo that came out in the App Store was an _exact_
clone of my app, Graffitio, down to the terminology such as Graffiti and
Walls. They started to differentiate themselves with later versions. Some of
those differences were novel, but others were features that I'd mentioned to
him in our conversation. To be fair, they could have arisen independently.

Graffitio is over a year old now. It was in the App Store on day 1. I should
probably be more annoyed than I am, but honestly, I have a lot of reservations
about this space now after being here for over a year. Dealing with the App
Store is another headache. I haven't been able to get an update through in
months. Anyway, the first round of geotagging apps have fallen flat IMO.
Turning them into a "game" like Foursquare and GraffitiGeo isn't going to
change the fact that they deliver relatively little utility.

There might be a magic combination out there that makes it work, but I don't
think GraffitiGeo or Graffitio in their current state is it. I wish them luck
in finding it. If anything, they've lit a fire under my ass to spend more time
on Graffitio.

~~~
callmeed
Very interesting.

I'd like to commend you–if your accounts of what transpired are true, I think
you've handled it in a mature and respectable manner. A lot of people would be
very bitter about this and resort to whining or threats of litigation.

That being said, there's 2 sides to every story. HN deserves to hear from the
GG founders. Possibly from PG as well.

~~~
jmtame
hey guys,

i had spoken with anoop early on (i started graffitigeo.com with a few of my
college friends). i'll do a detailed response shortly, but anoop and i spoke
on the phone today and we've both agreed that there were no ill intentions.
what i had meant was that Graffitio as a product would be "stomped out" by
other competitive applications who would focus on this space fulltime, as
anoop was taking a job in new york full time. i was mostly interested in
taking graffitio and improving upon it. at either rate, both anoop and i don't
hold any hard feelings against each other and understand that this space is
pretty competitive. the idea of "graffiti" and "walls" isn't entirely unique
either, as i know of other companies exploring the space.

