

Want to build and launch an app in a month? - ryanwaggoner
http://hn.21times.org

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Qitika
I was going to do this last year but lacked inspiration and got distracted.

But this weekend I had some time to spare and so got playing around with some
idea, and actually got around to building a quick prototype and trying it out.

I was thinking about taking the spare time I have this month and plowing it
into pulling the prototype through. I was in the middle of compiling a lessons
learned document when I got your reminder email. So count me in!

(Now to go and cringe at the Java/C++ hybrid mess that is the prototype!)

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ryanwaggoner
Super excited to have you on board. Don't forget to email us when you launch
to let us know. We'd love to feature you on the homepage.

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ryanwaggoner
Backstory: last November 1st we launched this little project featuring some
awesome content on building and launching an app, in a daily
reminder/motivation email (with progress tracking!) We've had about 1200
developers go through in the last year, and thought we'd just repost it and
see if anyone who hasn't seen it finds it useful.

You can read more about it the last time we launched:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1857508>

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feralmoan
I don't understand the value proposition here. Don't emails, blogs, buzz,
articles, documenting the project etc etc etc. just add noise to the process?

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ryanwaggoner
It's different for every person, but many of these folks are working on these
projects on the side, and a daily value-packed reminder to keep pressing
forward can be useful. We've seriously received tons of feedback from the
developers who have signed up, telling us that they found it really valuable.
YMMV, but give it a shot. Unsubscribing is always just a single click away :)

EDIT: More than 100 people have signed up in the last hour, so I guess someone
finds the concept interesting.

~~~
feralmoan
Very interesting! Do you think because of a sense of community and 'industry
solidarity', or as a function of outright competition. That would be a really
compelling distribution to analyse. I guess 'build an app' doesn't necessarily
mean 'that monetizes' right, so could be fun! +1 for me :)

~~~
unoti
Solidarity, and community is almost certainly part of it. When doing an
independent side project, the fact that nobody knows the difference makes it
easier to let it slide. Just having someone know about your commitment, even
if it's a computer, can make a difference. It's someone similar to the
difference in success on quitting smoking between people who sign up for a
committed quitter group commit program vs those that just do it on their own.

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gte910h
This is a really bad month for iPhone people: There is an app freeze in
December, so all our main projects are in a rush to hit that all the time.

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jaredsohn
What do you mean by "app freeze"?

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chc
Apple stops accepting apps for a while during the holidays.

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ricksta
do you have a link to apple's official anouncement? from which day to which
day?

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megablast
If it is anything like last year:

iTunes Connect will be temporarily shut down from Thursday, December 23 to
Tuesday, December 28 for the winter holidays. Access will resume on Wednesday,
December 29.

I can survive 5 days.

~~~
gte910h
It's more about the leaderboard freeze.

Getting frozen in that leaderboard over Xmas Eve and Xmas will get you LOTS of
sales.

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keeptrying
The idea is good but your implementation has much to be desired IMHO.

Entrepreneurs run on emotion and the idea of changing the world so its a very
real problem to be motivated everyday for a long period of time.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Sent you an email.

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dpapathanasiou
I'm in: <http://teamwork.io/>

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adaml_623
I did this last year and wasn't really impressed (sorry). What have you
improved in the last 12 months?

[Edit] Sorry that came over very negatively. I thought the idea was good and
I'd be keen to go again if I knew there were improvements.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
The date on all the emails is much higher :)

This is a side project for us, and since some folks found it useful, we
thought we'd just post it again. Is there anything in particular that would
make it better for you?

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ww520
Good idea. Last year I joined the Nov one and launched an app. Launched
another app couple months later. I'll join this year as well. Good motivation
to turn side project ideas into products.

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aymeric
Hi Ryan, I don't understand what this is. Is it a autoresponder with some
articles from famous people that we receive regularly?

How does the progress tracking work?

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ryanwaggoner
The progress tracking is basically a daily self-assessment on how you're doing
towards building and launching an app at the end of the month. You can see
your progress in each email as it's been tracked. People seem to find this
self-assessment valuable.

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sprobertson
Ah I wish I saw this exactly a month ago, I'm on track to launch tonight. I'll
still sign up to try self-assessing my past self (or maybe launch another).

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kevinherron
FYI: The images or links in the email are broken for me.

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ryanwaggoner
We're using Sendgrid and we think it's an issue with them. Support request has
been submitted...thanks for the feedback!

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aymeric
Related thread from yesterday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3180321>

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MichaelBoyd
Even after reading that page, I have literally no idea what it is.

You should delete that page from the face of the planet and do a new one with
more explanation.

~~~
patio11
HN generally attempts to maintain a more collegial tone than this.

