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Just Landed

getjustlanded.com

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Re: Just Landed

#51

Post by pg »

frisco wrote: post #15

This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy". Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and…

Are you sure you wouldn't say the same thing if it was 1975 and they'd made a Basic interpreter for a toy computer used by a few hobbyists?

Big things often start small. In fact, usually start small.

And in any case it's just mean of you to piss all over these guys' efforts. It makes me embarrassed for HN when people launch something new, and this is the sort of response they get.

Re: Just Landed

#52

Post by jgrall »

frisco wrote: post #15

This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy". Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and…

Disclosure: I created Just Landed. Thanks for posting the app on HN!

@frisco: I can understand how you lumped Just Landed in with other Silicon Valley startups some of whom are creating frivolous apps and raising vast sums of money against small ideas. I suppose those irritate me too for the same reasons you mentioned.

However, in this case, you would be wrong to assume that Just Landed is just another overfunded startup trying to conquer the world with an airport pickup app. First off, Just Landed is not a startup. Just Landed is an app, built by myself and two of my buddies, because I kept making the mistake of forgetting to leave for the airport on time to pickup my girlfriend. After finding that no other apps were solving this problem (and that flight apps generally sucked), I decided to take a crack at it.

I don't make any claim that this is an important problem in our society (I built this app for myself), that this would be a good idea for a startup (it probably isn't), or that it's worthy of venture funding (so far it's not a great business). Just Landed was built with $15k of my own money as a fun side project while I figured out what I wanted to do next with my career. Frankly, I'm amazed how successful it has been - it was totally unexpected. Also, it's not even really a company - it was released under Little Details LLC because I needed to protect myself with limited liability (I also plan to make other commercial apps).

Finally, while we have certainly had offers, it is also not my goal to be "acquihired". I'm actually working on a mobile game right now, and am thoroughly enjoying myself. My goal is to be free to work on my own fun projects for as long as I'm able. If I come upon an idea worthy of a startup, something that can really change the world, that's a different story. FWIW I've already failed twice at a startup (went through YC once), so for now I'm taking a break and building apps.

Just Landed is not going to change the world, but it sure saves my ass (and helps hundreds of thousands of other people) when it comes to going to the airport to pick someone up.

Re: Just Landed

#53

Post by mempko »

ebiester wrote: post #40
frisco wrote: post #15

This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy". Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and…

Frankly, I find this "first world problem" kind of attitude insulting to the developing world. You want to know who is solving developing world problems every day? The citizens of those countries. I spent most of last year in Turkey, which is rapidly developing. The problems I saw that they faced were largely the same ones I'm facing in the valley. (Frankly, I think Istanbul is more hospitable toward the destitute th…

Maybe the VC model isn't up to the task of funding the future...

Re: Just Landed

#54

Post by mtp0101 »

I think this is a prime example of the vast potential of computers to generate material value beyond what we could have ever dreamed of in the 1960s. Finally I can avoid making all those painful driving time estimates. This is really a significant improvement over plugging the flight name into Google. It could save me seconds, no minutes of valuable time that I could be spending developing my revolutionary messaging app that allows you to send small cartoon images of ice cream cones to your friends and family for a nominal fee.

Re: Just Landed

#55

Post by [deleted] »

pg wrote: post #51
frisco wrote: post #15

This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy". Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and…

Are you sure you wouldn't say the same thing if it was 1975 and they'd made a Basic interpreter for a toy computer used by a few hobbyists? Big things often start small. In fact, usually start small. And in any case it's just mean of you to piss all over these guys' efforts. It makes me embarrassed for HN when people launch something new, and this is the sort of response they get.

[deleted]

Re: Just Landed

#56

Post by jgrall »

bradleyjg wrote: post #47
kunle wrote: post #13

Have used this app since the summer/fall. It hasnt been wrong once and the UX is really great (The push notifications even sound like airport bells). No idea what the business model is, but the 8 or 9 times I've used it, I've been extremely happy. I would say - if they supported longer lead times (so I could put in someone's info a week or a month in advance, and it would notify me, that would extend the value quite…

I've used it several times as well. Great app. The only time it didn't work so hot was on an international arrival. It didn't account for the time they spent going through customs, so I was waiting a while.

Thanks for using the app, and I'm sorry if we let you down on an international arrival. It happens - customs and baggage claim are both pretty unpredictable.

As it turns out, we do try to factor additional time for international customs, but it's just an average since there's no real-time data available on customs wait times (which vary widely by airport, time of day, what passport the traveler has, and season). I also expect the customs folks don't make this information available because perhaps it would raise an airport security issue that could be exploited. In any case, I plan to submit freedom of information act requests for customs wait times, baggage wait times, and airport security wait times (that latter the TSA currently collects, but only makes available via their myTSA app).

Anyone have experience with filing freedom of information act requests, who might be able to help?

Re: Just Landed

#57

Post by jvoorhis »

jgrall wrote: post #52
frisco wrote: post #15

This is the quintessential first world problem. Out of the range of problems facing society that you could solve, of all the ways you could create value by making peoples' lives better, you settled on "making airport pickup easy". Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and…

Disclosure: I created Just Landed. Thanks for posting the app on HN! @frisco: I can understand how you lumped Just Landed in with other Silicon Valley startups some of whom are creating frivolous apps and raising vast sums of money against small ideas. I suppose those irritate me too for the same reasons you mentioned. However, in this case, you would be wrong to assume that Just Landed is just another overfunded sta…

Thank you for creating Just Landed. It's worked for me in exactly the scenario you described.

Re: Just Landed

#58

Post by mccolin »

The app looks beautiful, and solves a problem elegantly, but it's not a problem that I would pay any amount of money to solve better than a text message or airport/airline's flight tracker does. Even the 99¢ price tag seems like an overpay.

Re: Just Landed

#59

Post by bherms »

wambotron wrote: post #35
bherms wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One time I was really annoyed at how the door to my house creaked when it was opening and closing. It was so loud sometimes that other people would comment on it. I spent nearly half a day oiling the hinges, eventually removing them altogether, and then installing new ones. The world is worse off for me having wasted my precious time when I could have spent that half day learning about biology and chemistry and subse…

I'm now wasting my time commenting on your comment on a comment about wasting time. This generation is heartless!

The horror!

Also, is there a word that refers to this sort of cyclical argument? ie: someone makes generalization, I say "all generalizations are bad" in reply, someone else makes a generalization arguing against mine, and so on? I feel like there should be.

Re: Just Landed

#60

Post by jgrall »

johnrob wrote: post #37

Feature idea: let the passenger schedule a text message to the pickup person when it's time to leave. The same logic that powers the app could also send an appropriately timed message.

The app is really designed for the person who is doing the picking up (it shows no departure information), and does notify them when to leave (as well as prompting you to text your passenger on arrival at the airport). It sounds like you'd like to be able to use it as a passenger and remind the pickup person (who perhaps doesn't have the app) that they need to leave. Is that right? Would like to understand the use case you're envisioning.
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