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IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

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Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#11

Post by emmett »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #10

I'm worried about the apparent disconnect between my brain and the world of web startups or maybe even simply the world. I think YC numbers are proof enough that startups like this can become popular and commercial successes. Yet as someone who likes movies and watches a lot of them it's completely beyond me how something like this could ever be more than a minor feature of some movie site, one that is trivial to cop…

If I had to guess, I'd say that they have a larger vision that what you see today is just the first step of.

Remember that Microsoft started with Basic on the Altair. Just because a startup seems unimpressive when they release their first product doesn't mean that they're not building in an important space.

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#12

Post by wgx »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #10

I'm worried about the apparent disconnect between my brain and the world of web startups or maybe even simply the world. I think YC numbers are proof enough that startups like this can become popular and commercial successes. Yet as someone who likes movies and watches a lot of them it's completely beyond me how something like this could ever be more than a minor feature of some movie site, one that is trivial to cop…

I share your thoughts around finding a problem 'big enough' for undivided attention...

Similar, but this hit the app store about a month before:

http://trailrsapp.com/ *

Its revenue model is simply selling the app. Which does make me wonder what's behind this particular YC startup. As another poster says, maybe there is a bigger plan?

* Disclosure: made by a friend.

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#13

Post by angryasian »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #10

I'm worried about the apparent disconnect between my brain and the world of web startups or maybe even simply the world. I think YC numbers are proof enough that startups like this can become popular and commercial successes. Yet as someone who likes movies and watches a lot of them it's completely beyond me how something like this could ever be more than a minor feature of some movie site, one that is trivial to cop…

I agree, as a someone that is a fan of movies.. I don't see the problem of choosing which movies to see or finding enough places to talk about them, as a problem at all

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#14

Post by ericflo »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #10

I'm worried about the apparent disconnect between my brain and the world of web startups or maybe even simply the world. I think YC numbers are proof enough that startups like this can become popular and commercial successes. Yet as someone who likes movies and watches a lot of them it's completely beyond me how something like this could ever be more than a minor feature of some movie site, one that is trivial to cop…

Hmm. On the one hand I really want to spell out the steps we plan to take to turn what it is into a huge, huge business. On the other hand, I don't want to give away our strategy to potential competitors and partners.

What I will say is that people like watching trailers--our downloads and usage numbers prove that, as well as trailers.apple.com and other trailer websites which are very successful. However, nobody else does trailers on mobile as well as we do, and if they do better in some area we will iterate past them soon. Over the period of a few months to a year, we're going to have a respectable number of users using this simple app.

Additionally, we've built out our user experience so that virtually everyone rates the trailers that they see, telling our system whether they can't wait to see a movie, or if they're going to pass on it.

Finally, we are also building up our own social graph.

So, without going into too much detail, we think there is immense value in overlaying the graph of what people want to do in the future (which movies they want to see), with the graph of who their friends are.

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#18

Post by bignoggins »

ericflo wrote: post #17
bignoggins wrote: post #16

10,000 copies in one month strikes me as extremely low for a free app.

It's been 2 weeks.

still pretty low, that's 700/day. I've never released a free app that didn't get I would remove the 10,000 copies reference because anyone who has any experience on the app store would see that those numbers are very low. It's like bragging about a 3.0 GPA.

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#19

Post by bignoggins »

dannyr wrote: post #6
ericflo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now tabs work and click properly. It loads data from our HTTP API and displays it in an ugly way, and trailers do play in a basic way on the Android version. tl;dr: I'm actively working on it, but I don't want to promise a release date just yet.

If you are not embarrassed with your 1st release, you've waited too long. Release it now! ;-)

that strategy does not apply to mobile apps. You need a polished product before you release.

Re: IPhone App Helps You Discover Upcoming Movies (YCS11)

#20

Post by ericflo »

bignoggins wrote: post #18
ericflo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been 2 weeks.

still pretty low, that's 700/day. I've never released a free app that didn't get I would remove the 10,000 copies reference because anyone who has any experience on the app store would see that those numbers are very low. It's like bragging about a 3.0 GPA.

We cannot "remove the 10,000 copies reference" because this was an article written about us, not by us.

Also, we like the way our graphs are inflecting. In the first week we pushed way less than 700/day and in the second week we pushed way more. Dividing it out and saying 700/day is a bit simplistic.

In any case, I fail to see the purpose of your comments. What's the goal?

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