

How Two Shoe Enthusiasts With No Programming Experience Built An iPhone App - timjahn
http://www.beyondthepedway.com/sole-search-iphone-interview

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crux
Not to take anything away from these guys—they obviously have a great amount
of drive, intelligence, vision, and focus—but I'm a little perturbed by the
utter amazement of the host. 'Who actually makes their own iPhone app?' I
wouldn't trust anybody who apparently travels in the tech/startup community
who finds actual technical know-how so completely unnecessary (if not alien)
to the effective tech entrepreneur.

~~~
timjahn
Hey there, I'm the crazy host. :)

The reason I was so "amazed" is that I'm a programmer/developer myself, so I
know the mindset and skill it takes to like to hack and solve programmatic
problems.

Many people who aren't developers/programmers (like the founders of Sole
Search) don't learn how to program - they usually just find somebody who does
and have them handle the actual building of the app.

To me, it's pretty cool that these guys chose to learn themselves rather than
just outsource.

~~~
jacquesm
Most people that got in to programming outside of going through university got
in to it to 'build something', I think I know more of those than I know of the
ones that pursued 'programming' as a career.

~~~
timjahn
Exactly. It's a mindset. Programmers think much differently than non-
programmers.

~~~
jacquesm
> Programmers think much differently than non-programmers.

What, you mean like mathematicians and lawyers and engineers and many others
besides?

Really, programmers aren't the only people capable of logical thinking or
'stepwise refinement'.

~~~
true_religion
That's true, the best C programmer I personally know is an electrical engineer
by profession.

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meric
Their company name is "Perseverer" which is persevere in French.

I don't think it's a mere coincidence that the pair of zero programming
experience programmers managed to push out a iphone app downloaded 20,000
times, with a company name like that. :)

~~~
meterplech
In a similar vein- I thought the interview really showed how much they like
each other and worked well together. They have been friends for years, been
struggling together throughout, and even finish each others sentences. Helps
show how they had the energy to get it done, and also the logic of funding
teams with great relationships.

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wallflower
I actually used version 1.0 of the SoleSearch app because I love Puma shoes.
From what I recall, the app was average, the usability was a little below
average. It wasn't a stellar app but the fact that it actually worked and did
not crash that much was nice. The important thing to note is that the reviews
on the 1.0 app were extremely positive - which highlights the power of making
an app for a niche market, to find the right fit for an app. After downloading
the app, I was disappointed because my expectations were high - but apparently
if you are a traveling sneakerhead - and have heard of Bodega in Boston - this
app is it.

Now to learn that these two developers were not coders but shoe enthusiasts.
Pretty amazing.

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cshenoy
That is really cool. I only read the transcript so maybe I missed it but I
wish they talked more about the technical aspect of developing the app.
Learning Objective C isn't the easiest thing in the world especially with no
programming experience.

~~~
timjahn
That's a good point. Personally, I usually think people aren't interested in
the real nitty gritty technical details but I bet some folks are.

Thanks for the feedback and for watching!

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guynamedloren
Fantastic interview, but I see an uncanny resemblance to
<http://www.mixergy.com>. What's up with that?

~~~
timjahn
Thanks for the kind words about the interview. I'm a huge fan of Mixery and
the style of interviews Andrew Warner conducts.

I'm definitely not trying to compete with him or draw folks away from the
outstanding work he's doing. Rather, I'm trying to add on to the idea by
chatting with folks who haven't necessarily hit it big yet, sold their
company, and/or made a large sum of money - I want to chat with the creative
entrepreneurs who are still climbing their mountain.

Short answer: I love Andrew and Mixergy and hope to one day be as amazing of
an interviewer as he is.

Thanks for watching!

~~~
AndrewWarner
Tim, for what it's worth, I've gotten links to your site from a few people who
said your site seems "overly inspired" by Mixergy.

When I started out, I found myself unconsciously imitating Gary Vaynerchuk.
That's why you'll hear my older videos start with an over the top "HEY
EVERYONE IT'S ANDREW WARNER..." Listening back, I can understand why it was so
unnerving to my audience. They noticed that I was trying to imitate, instead
of working to find my own voice.

~~~
gcheong
Before you can master something you have to get the basic skills down. One way
to look at this is you've developed a very effective style which others can
use as the starting point, initially through imitation, to help them get to a
place where they can start adding their own style to the mix.

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kevruger
I happen to own the domains solesearch.com and solesearch.net and used to use
the .com as a footwear auction marketplace (bigger niche than most think).
Still toying with rejuvenating the idea. I've never received any contact from
them about acquiring domain. They can't be happy with sole-search.net right?

~~~
goatforce5
I just googled for 'solesearch'. The top result was sole-search.net.

How happy are you with that?

I imagine most of their customers search for it in the app store/marketplace.
Not having the .com probably isn't a huge deal for them.

~~~
kevruger
I have absolutely no feeling, as they should be the top search in google. I do
not use the .com or the .net at the moment, like I pointed out. I was just
asking if they are a business called SoleSearch, why settle for the domain
sole-search.net? It's fairly easy to come into contact with the owner of
domains if they are not available.

I'm sure all of their customers find it in the app store and that's why
they've never worried about it. But take a successful app like angry birds for
example. If I go to angrybirds.com, it takes you to their shop where they earn
additional streams of revenue. If these guys want to create something special
and "be bought out by yahoo for a billion", in my opinion they need to offer
something more to a customer than just the name, address and phone number of a
sneaker store. It's all stuff I can do myself by using a free app like google
maps.

~~~
MsJ
As I do understand the point your are trying to make. I don't think these guys
are necessarily making the website their top priority. They are clearly
tapping into new technology (iPhone & Androids) when was the last time you saw
someone walking around with their laptop opened up and searching the web. I'm
guessing a while. Nowadays everyone is using apps on their phones and/or iPods
to keep up, be it facebook, online banking, almost anything can be done
through an app nowadays. Another thing you mentioned you said you can do all
of these things on google maps, but to be honest you can't they are targeting
true "sneakerheads" who enjoy the art of collecting one-of-a-kind footwear not
your average sketchers. There are a lot of people all around the world who
enjoy the art of collecting unique footwear, which for the most part can be
done at a boutique. It's not like going on google maps and searching for the
nearest Footlooker, but independent boutique owners who might not necessarily
get the coverage on google maps. These guys have built relationships with
these boutiques worldwide, and they know these boutiques. Try going on google
maps and search for a unique sneaker boutique in Johannesburg, South Africa
and let's see how many results you'll get. This is an app for the true sneaker
collector who can say "I picked these up when I was in London, and they're one
of kind" not for the person looking to replace their running shoes.

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rexreed
They mentioned that at some point, they hired professional developers to
upgrade / update the app. I think this point was glossed over. When did they
hire that additional developer? Why did they hire that developer if they
didn't need him/her to begin with? And what were the quality / functional
differences before and after the update? Could have used more discussion
there.

~~~
timjahn
That is one area I could have expanded upon.

The developers they hired were working on the Android version of the app and I
believe at that point, they had a little more money they could actually put
toward hiring a developer.

~~~
rexreed
That's not how it's comes across in the interview (and transcript). From the
transcript at: [http://www.beyondthepedway.com/sole-search-iphone-
interview#...](http://www.beyondthepedway.com/sole-search-iphone-
interview#ixzz1B2Sc6Ho6)

"...We made some mistakes. And it wasn’t perfect. We got done what were able
to get done and did the jest of what we wanted to do. And then from there once
we got some downloads, we got some money, we had an update done, which was
done by some professionals. So yeah."

That seems to imply that they had replaced the original iPhone app that they
built with one that a professional built. You might be right, but since it
wasn't explored, it could most likely be what was implied above.

~~~
timjahn
Ah, miscommunication here. I was referring to a different part of the
interview with my comment above. Sorry.

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richchan
The video doesn't say much about what the app does exactly, but it sounds like
they targeted a really good niche. Who knew an app for finding shoe boutiques
would have so much demand?

~~~
timjahn
My thoughts exactly!

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tmcw
Yes; this is awesome.

~~~
andrest
I don't want to discredit anybody, but we (well, I) have no clue what was the
app like. From the sound of it, it could have been a text box filled with
names and addresses on a white background, and this can be achieved by
dragging and dropping in the Interface Builder.

Even if that is the case, there still is a point. Developing for iOS (or OS X
for that sake) has been made easy. Just fire up Xcode and start typing.
Contrary to Android platform a year or a two ago (last time when I checked it
out), many more clicks and bits were needed before actual code could be
written.

