

Treehouse launches (YC S08) - chrysb
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/15/treehouse-app/

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dcurtis
A while ago, when these guys told me about their idea, I thought it was
completely stupid. Another photo sharing service? But I went along with their
beta and after using it for a few days with a group of friends, it started to
become addictive.

I realized a couple weeks later that it was changing the way I was
communicating with friends. Whenever I was doing something interesting, I'd
snap a photo, add a witty title, and send it to Treehouse. Because it's a
private group, it feels very different than using Twitter or Facebook. And
because it requires a photo, it's a richer experience.

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but something about this app is really cool.
Especially if a group of your close friends are also using it.

~~~
mikeryan
<i>Especially if a group of your close friends are also using it.</i>

I think a lot of the value is there. Unfortunately only a small subset of my
friends use iPhones. All of them use Facebook however.

~~~
chrysb
Mike, this is definitely true. You have to start somewhere, and we chose
iPhone. You'll find Treehouse on every platform eventually, and we hope to see
you there :)

~~~
enneff
Please make "eventually" mean "really soon" in the case of Android. I know
it's a big time sink to develop for another platform, but I found the Android
API pretty straightforward to program for. I'm really into the concept behind
this app, and would love to get my friends and colleagues on board, but about
half of us use Android handsets. (nb: I work for Google.)

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djb_hackernews
S08? What have they been doing all this time?

Facebook only has to implement one feature to crush this startup. Facebook
Circles. Allow you finer granularity than binary public/private posts. Take a
photo, pick which circle you want it published to, caption, upload.

~~~
chrysb
It would be impossible for Facebook to move into this space. The average
Facebook user has 130 friends and the way lists has been implemented is
flawed. Facebook is also focused on their effort to take over the web and
making things more public and open, so they are not inclined to focus on
making things more private.

When we conceived Treehouse, we didn't say "let's create something super
innovative and blow the world away", we asked "what if you could see a simple
stream of your friend's mobile photos". We then decided to make a prototype
and test it with a group of < 50 people. The results were astounding. People
used it feverishly, and we're seeing the same exact behavior from our new
users since the app has been in the store. Our user activity is growing
extremely rapidly and engagement is through the roof.

It's not about innovation, it's about taking what is so blatantly obvious and
making it possible. It's about addressing what people want. There's no good
way to easily share photos that you take with your phone with the people that
matter to you in a more intimate context.

Twitter was also a subset of a single Facebook feature.

~~~
djb_hackernews
Are you doing anything to incentivize adoption besides feature set? I see two
problems here:

-Not everyone has iPhones

-People are complacent with their current social networks, if not overwhelmed.

I don't have an iPhone, so I can't check it out but doesn't it work with any
social networks users might be a member of? Just using Facebook/Twitter for
member profiles and Treehouse just keeping track of who you give access to
within Treehouse?

~~~
chrysb
Right now it works off of your contacts in your phone, but we're adding more
ways to find and invite your friends like Facebook, GMail, etc. Your close
friends are most likely already in another social network, and since they're
open, it should be easy to cultivate that data.

We will expand beyond iPhone to every platform as quickly as we can within
reason. On that note, we're hiring! <http://gotreehouse.com/jobs>

One of our biggest challenges will be how to fuel adoption and overcome the
initial hump. We know it will take time but we are very confident in what
we're building, and we'll keep iterating on ways to make it extremely easy to
get your friends involved.

Once a user has 5 of their friends active, engagement takes a big leap.

There's another article that talks more about the general space/problems here:
[http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/06/15/treehouse-
facebook-...](http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/06/15/treehouse-facebook-
social-networks-close-friendships/)

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jackowayed
How long 'til I can use Treehouse on my Android phone?

~~~
chrysb
As soon as we find an Android developer. As soon as possible.

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bartman
Please allow umlauts in names. My last name has been truncated because it
contains an ß.

~~~
chrysb
Noted, thanks!

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extension
Hmm.. sort of a friends-only mobile 4chan?

~~~
chrysb
Ha, not the first time we've heard that analogy :)

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whather
beautiful app. nice job chrys, dan and co.!

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bradhe
_yawn_ Where's the innovation? Why did someone give these kids money? It
sounds like someone is trying to re-make a very small subset of Facebook
features.

Edit: The only way you could possibly say this is innovative is that it's a
closed subset of your friends that can see this content. Sounds like something
Facebook could roll out in a few days of work

~~~
dschobel
Don't be so quick to discount a compelling interface and user experience as a
possible killer feature, particularly for a mobile application.

