

I Created a Startup Aboard a Bus from SF to Austin: Pairwise Launches at SxSW - newy
http://pairwise.posterous.com/startup-created-aboard-a-bus-from-sf-to-austi

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newy
Me and Brandon have been working tirelessly since Tuesday aboard a bus with
spotty wifi to create Pairwise. It's an app that lets you broadcast and
receive a short message in a very small area (say, conference center). We
solve the problem of not knowing who to connect with at a conference, party or
gathering, or not having the right introduction to make that connection. Users
can use Pairwise to meet customers, fill hiring needs, connect with others in
the same space, etc. Eventually, the goal is to turn downtime into business
networking opportunity, maybe say, at airport waiting areas. We still have
lots to iterate on the product (like switch to LinkedIn instead of Facebook),
but have been learning lots from talking to people here. It's be really great
to meet and get feedback from readers of HN here at SxSW, you can connect with
me through @euwyn. Any tweets to help spread the word to enable us to learn
more about our proudct would be huge: "@pairwisemobi launches location-based
networking for new business connections, created in 72 hrs aboard the
startupbus: <http://pairwise.mobi> Phew, it's been a crazy week, any words of
encourage are certainly appreciated.

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sstrudeau
This is a great idea for an app -- I've occasionally found myself in this
exact situation -- and an impressive turnaround from idea to functional.
Congrats!

That said, the fact that you label it a "startup" instead of an "app" is a pet
peeve of mine. You created an app on the bus, not a startup business (though
perhaps one will develop around the app).

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newy
Yup, totally agree. Just a marketing thing I guess, the "App Bus" wouldn't
have sounded quite as good, and I just wanted to go along with the naming.
There's a real business model in this, though.

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danhak
It's a cool idea. I think pigeonholing it as a business networking tool might
detract from a lot of other potential use cases. Some comments on the
execution:

1) I don't understand why it uses FB Connect but still forced me to enter a
name, e-mail and password.

2) I understand that this iteration is closely tied to SxSW, but it shouldn't
have automatically populated the Austin and SxSW tags for me because I'm
nowhere near there.

3) It would be cool to see the global public stream, or the stream for any
particular tag.

Good luck!

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shiftb
Hey Andrew, thanks for the feedback. Although the site is formatted for the
mobile screen, it actually works just fine in a browser. Your location can be
sent through FF, among other browsers, and our site will work just as it does
on the mobile version. We ARE thinking about the best way to allow people who
don't have location enabled devices to use the site and we'll have some
solutions rolling out shortly.

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andrewcooke
i like the idea that it can be used to meet people at conferences - that
solves a problem i've had in the past.

personally, i would like the ability to use openid, or just a simple password,
and also to be able to use, say, a laptop (eg via a maps or lat/lon
interface). but i guess i may be a technical luddite.

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wushupork
Very compelling use case. Got to meet the guys down here at #sxsw. Very cool
p33ps.

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davidedicillo
really cool idea. we tried on the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Austin to
build a simple app, but the battery of my laptop didn't make it through the
all flight so we'll finish it and launch it today :)

~~~
newy
what are you guys building? would be cool to check it out.

