
Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps? - hikz
There are tons of VC-backed startups making mobile and web apps but are there any VC-backed startups making a desktop app?
======
QuantumRoar
I've heard a few times that creating a decent desktop program with a GUI takes
far more skill and experience. I can see why that is, since a fully fletched
desktop program can be orders of magnitude more complex than most of the
mobile and web apps.

I'd love to see more of the bleeding edge desktop software like the Adobe
stuff, Blender, all the DAWs for Audio, etc. But it feels to me that not very
many programmers have the skill to pull something like that off. Also, there
doesn't seem to be much of an incentive left to invest into such things.

I would very much want that the mind set changes a little bit. Great desktop
software makes a profit from selling to customers who value quality and
awesome features. I wonder why that is not enough incentive for ambitious
programmers. I only ever hear about developers for mobile and web apps getting
a lot of money for things I seriously don't care about.

I have the feeling that we use desktop computers for the same things we used
them ten years ago. I can't even remember when I had the last "I need
that!"-moment for desktop software. So why can't we reinvent the desktop with
software, like many try to reinvent what phones and web apps can be used for?

It's like the desktop computer in this day and age is slowly reduced to a
platform (OS) for a platform (browser) for web apps. That's probably why many
can get by with a tiny laptop or even a chromebook, which is probably the
culmination of that thought.

However, I've not lost all hope. My bet is on virtual reality. If someone can
build a really awesome VR application where everybody's like "I need that!!!",
I can see how the desktop could return to its former glory, considering that a
decent VR needs a ton of compute. But there's still the problem that VR is
hard, GPU programming is hard, 3D is hard, parallelization is hard and
optimizing is hard.

So are there any pioneers left with an enormous amount of skill and time who
would risk to start such a glorious and uncertain journey without some VC guy
dropping a few million dollars on the table? Or are we all going to end up as
web developers because that's where the capital seems to be?

~~~
FigBug
I don't think it's more skill, just different. I currently work on a DAW. I
left for a while because I thought my skills were becoming obsolete and I
needed to get in on this 'web' thing. I was useless and I lasted 9 months. To
just jump in and learn html/js/css + everything else you need to be a web
developer is a huge task. And a lot of stuff just doesn't work -- and the only
way to know how to get it to work is experience.

By contrast I think C++ and realtime audio programming is simple, but I've
slowly picked it up over almost 20 years. I retreated back to desktop apps and
firmware. I'll take another stab at learning web technologies, but not at a
startup where I need to deliver asap and learn at the same time.

As much as developers hate sandboxes, the lack of one (except Mac OS until
recently) is why I think desktop is failing. Users just don't feel safe
installing random software like they do going to websites or installing mobile
apps. Users have been conditioned to only install software from sources they
trust, and they trust no one.

If I post a link to my new web project, most people will click on it. If I
post a link to an .exe almost nobody will download it. I think that's the main
issue killing the desktop. Big downloads, compatibility issues, slow installs
are also an issue, but I think they are secondary.

~~~
QuantumRoar
It's rarely a good idea to abandon all your experience just because the web
stuff seems fancy or fun (I don't think it is). Your skill is rare (much rarer
than html/js/css), so you should use it to your advantage.

The goal for the desktop that I was talking about had nothing to do with these
webby things. These should stay on the web and do their thing. You can have
those small simple programs as a web app and on your phone. I think the
downfall of the desktop is that people use them as if they were feeble things
with a mail program and a web browser and some office programs on it, when
they're actually capable of much more, which isn't leveraged except for some
professional programs and games.

The desktop is - in my opinion - not primarily meant for little things. The
desktop can and should handle the bleeding edge of high performance, parallel
and accelerated computing that can't possibly run on anything else but a
desktop. If we would stop thinking about whether a program will run well on a
phone and explicitly target real computers, there would be a lot more purpose
to desktop computing.

I'm not sure what that might be that doesn't exist, yet (maybe VR). But I'm
sure that you can't do this all by yourself in a windowless room over a
weekend, it'll probably be a large project involving quite a few programmers.

Then, the question of whether users will download your software is not the
same as whether they will click on a website. Then, it's the same question as
will they download Photoshop, will they download Reaper or will they download
Maya? Will people download the next big thing in desktop computing?

------
bhouston
I have seen some but they are not in the B2C space. Usually in specialty B2B
space.

A lot of medical applications (signal processing, visualization, robot
control) tend to be traditional desktop applications.

Also military applications for analysis, and planning are often desktop based
because they can not use consumer mobile devices nor can they rely on the
"cloud".

------
cowmix
This "Ask HN" question makes me feel really, really old.

~~~
BorisMelnik
agree, it seems like just yesterday there were _only_ desktop apps and mobile
/ web apps were a new thing!

------
pavlov
Neonto:

[http://neonto.com](http://neonto.com)

Mac desktop app (native Cocoa + OpenGL, no web views).

Desktop is pretty much necessary for this tool because it needs to integrate
with Xcode and Android Studio.

------
ekwogefee
Feem - LAN chat/file transfer utility. cross platform (Linux/Mac OSX/Windows
Desktop/"Modern" Windows/Windows Phone/iOS/Android/). Trivia 1: We are based
in Cameroon/Africa. Trivia 2: I'm the sole developer.

~~~
milkywayz
This is actually a pretty cool tool, going to use this. Frequently need to
transfer stuff from my iPhone/iPad/Macbook to and from my windows desktop and
google drive is not always necessary :)

------
ownedthx
[http://www.jamkazam.com](http://www.jamkazam.com) \- we are not yet VC-
backed, but I hope so soon.

Because latency is an absolute premium for playing music in real-time across
the internet, we've focused first on the desktop, where we have the most
control ... but still find a ton of challenges.

If you saw this recent article about Android and audio latency, you can see
why there are challenges in the mobile space:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9386994](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9386994)

If you were to try and build a web-only version of JamKazam, WebRTC is your
best bet but it does not have low enough latency, either.

~~~
hikz
That is amazing. Sad that your initial crowd funding was unsuccessful.

Have you tried to tell about your product on reddit? There are many subreddits
interested in tech like this and in indie music production.

------
captn3m0
I can think of Dropbox, Slack, GitHub right now.

~~~
ohitsdom
Slack's desktop client is really just a wrapper around a web browser.

~~~
s_dev
Spotify and Skype come to mind as well.

~~~
jimbobob
Spotify uses Chromium Embedded Framework to serve a lot of UI elements via
HTML/CSS/JavaScript[0]. Anecdotally, there seem to be a number of desktop apps
moving in this direction.

[0] [http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-technology-behind-the-
Spoti...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-technology-behind-the-Spotify-
desktop-app)

------
aerovistae
I'm trying to figure out how he made the small grey lines under the subtitles
like "Coding Skills" and "Design Skills"....can't figure out what's creating
it. Anyone?

~~~
Martijn
You're in the wrong thread. :-)

But to answer your question anyway, this is the responsible line of code:
[https://github.com/marekdlugos/TakeMeAsIntern/blob/master/as...](https://github.com/marekdlugos/TakeMeAsIntern/blob/master/assets/css/styles.css#L35)

~~~
FigBug
What is the correct thread? I am curious to what this comment is about now?

~~~
phirschybar
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458283](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9458283)

------
vram22
Interesting topic.

[http://microisv.com/](http://microisv.com/) has some info.

Andy Brice's blog, Successful Software, sometimes has articles about other
mISVs than himself. He has a product, Perfect Table Plan, that has done quite
well. And he recently created another product that has also started doing
well.

[http://successfulsoftware.net/](http://successfulsoftware.net/)

------
tormeh
In the traditional, server-independent, sense? Hard to serve advertisements
that way.

There's always a lot of new game studios, but I don't think they count.
There's no end-game in games development, no lock-in, no network-effects, no
industry-standard-status. A single bad game can ruin the studio.

~~~
troymc
Startup game studios are startups. Many game studios do get acquired or IPO,
classic startup end-games. Game studios also satisfy your other criteria, but
since when are those criteria for calling a company a startup?

For example, a single bad product/service can kill any startup, not just a
game studio.

~~~
tormeh
Of course, but generally a startup grows to a certain size and becomes a safe
corporation. A game studio is like a startup that can't succeed, only survive.
The games industry is pretty unique in the software world in that there's
no/little help in old successes. It's got more in common with consulting than
it does with Google/Dropbox/Facebook.

~~~
troymc
Madden NFL is a counterexample. That game came out in 1988. Not many software
companies can say they've been working on the same software series since 1988.
Will Dropbox still be relevant in 2035?

Madden NFL is not the only example of a "safe", long-running game series
(franchise). Wikipedia has a list:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-
running_video_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-
running_video_game_franchises)

------
tomjen3
Spotify have a web app, but their native app is much better (because
apparently that is where they focus).

------
boduh
[http://www.boxifier.com](http://www.boxifier.com) \- Sync and backup any
folder to Dropbox. 100% desktop app.

We are bootstrapped. An app like ours probably wouldn't make sense for a VC to
back but it feels really great knowing that people from all over the world use
it to backup their external drives to Dropbox or collaborate on the files on
their NAS using Dropbox.

At one point you might feel out of the trend for not building a mobile or web
app but I guess what matters is that your app helps someone, regardless of it
being a web, mobile or desktop app.

------
shanecleveland
There may be a diminishing audience of consumer desktop users, but I don't see
the business audience of desktop users dwindling. But B2B enterprise software
doesn't get the coverage of fast-growing consumer startups. Are there
industry-specific news sources to uncover some of this? I have a few web apps
that target business, and they simply wouldn't ever be utilized on a mobile
device. There's some things that presently and always will require a desktop
setup.

------
Dirlewanger
Nylas are, in addition to their open source sync engine:
[https://nylas.com/](https://nylas.com/)

~~~
joshmlewis
We're using their Sync Engine and while it still took a good bit of time to
implement, I'm sure it saved us a ton of time in the long run.

------
carrotleads
Medical imaging desktop app
[http://www.truelifeanatomy.com.au/software/software-
overview...](http://www.truelifeanatomy.com.au/software/software-overview/) We
built it 10+ yrs back and we are still waiting for the big break which I guess
in the medical field will come only once the big boys die off.. too many
entrenched interests.

~~~
randlet
Just FYI I noticed a small typo on that page: "This places a significant stain
on the hardware" stain -> strain.

------
mejackreed
[https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio/](https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox-studio/)

~~~
donkeyd
Also: [https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/](https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/)

------
rapture
Curse Voice: [http://beta.cursevoice.com/](http://beta.cursevoice.com/) We are
building a cross platform communication app specifically for gamers. Currently
only the Windows desktop application is publicly available. Mac, iOS, and
Android are all in development and will be available soon.

------
flippyhead
We are! [http://fetching.io](http://fetching.io)

Granted our desktop app is a highly customized version of our hosted web app.
We use NWJS to package up our Meteor app (along with elastic search and mongo)
to create a secure, local-only version of our personal web search tool.

------
joseacta
We have a product that provides licensing and copy protection for desktop apps
[http://www.licensespot.com](http://www.licensespot.com)

We've been growing our customer base steadily. So the answer is yes, lots of
startups doing desktop apps.

------
Taek
Sia: siacoin.com

github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia

We're ultimately trying to build a decentralized object store Platform, but
our initial approach is a desktop application. We're hoping that the majority
of embedded and streamed content on the web is stored on and fetched from our
Platform.

~~~
RexM
Stuff like this seems really interesting to me. How is Sia different from
filecoin?

[http://filecoin.io/](http://filecoin.io/)

------
anemitz
Close.io -- [http://close.io](http://close.io)

We have a native Mac and Windows app which uses Chromium embedded to wrap our
core web app then adds our call stack (based on PJSIP) so you can make sales
calls right within the app.

------
bankim
AeroFS on multiple platforms including MacOS, Windows & Linux
[https://www.aerofs.com/](https://www.aerofs.com/)

------
tjosten
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/Dropshare](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/Dropshare)

~~~
mreiland
I'm interested in this, are there any similar solutions for windows and/or
linux?

------
lovelearning
Evernote?

[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/evernote](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/evernote)

~~~
enesunal
evernote's motto is "notes everywhere" or smt like that. They are building
desktop app yes, but this app is also js and browser extension.

not counts. sorry evernote, I loved you though.

~~~
matthewmacleod
That's nonsense. Evernote are a 'startup' in a sense, and have a desktop app
(probably one of the primary ways people have interacted with it). It's
literally exactly wha the author asked about.

It's exactly the sort of service that I want a desktop app for too. I mean, I
stopped paying after it deleted a bunch of my content, but still…

------
fmavituna
Not VC backed-up but we are fairly big. We are building a web application
security scanner - www.netsparker.com

It's Windows only / .NET

------
yesimahuman
Yep, we are at Ionic, though it's more of a supporting tool for a bigger
service (much like GitHub for Mac, etc.).

------
ll123
[http://www.bluestacks.com/](http://www.bluestacks.com/)

------
lardissone
[https://import.io/](https://import.io/)

------
HashThis
Mac App "Sketch" and "Hyper 3".

------
sunpatel
we have a hybrid desktop/web app www.iorad.com. The desktop app does the
captures and sends it to the web page for configuring.

------
WorldWideWayne
Pinegrow is a new desktop app from a startup, but I'm not sure if they have VC
backing.

[http://pinegrow.com/](http://pinegrow.com/)

------
techaddict009
[http://www.installmonetizer.com/](http://www.installmonetizer.com/)

Probably funded by YC IIRC.

~~~
SchizoDuckie
Somebody with too much money should buy this company and then bury it
somewhere very deep.

~~~
jacquesm
Buying them would be rewarding them.

------
egfx
Actually most are making native mobile apps. I'm a mobile guy making a cross
compatible web app. Why anyone would make a native app in our world of
ECMAScript6 and HTML5 is beyond me.

~~~
HenryTheHorse
There are many reasons to build native apps in the enterprise IT (business
software) world. For certain use cases, access to offline data and fast
performance become critical requirements.

Think of a traveling sales rep who is on the road and needs access to a
product catalog and pricing information to take sales orders. HTML5 doesn't
quite cut it in such a scenario.

~~~
buckbova
Why couldn't this sales rep use a mobile connected ipad to access a web app
with pricing and ordering?

~~~
HenryTheHorse
In several industries, sales reps often travel to locations without internet
access (such as factory shop-floors, construction sites, mining sites etc). In
such cases, the rep simply has to fire up the product catalog, capture orders,
take notes etc and then sync up when he returns to an office/hotel room.

This is in fact one of the most common reasons for companies to look for
native apps.

~~~
seanwilson
You can use PhoneGap or similar libraries however to write the app in HTML5 so
you can have a mobile app and an online version for minimal effort.

