It's interesting... the design of the site is very 2004ish, but it is surprisingly refreshing. Anyone?
Idea to App in 2 weeks
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#52Congrats on launching. I built a similar idea and found it to not be profitable:
If you figure out how to make this profitable, when you consider printing costs and marketing costs, please share! Long story short, I found you have to give people one for free, and this kills your margins. Send me an e-mail if you want an Excel spreadsheet that proves this :)
I posted some details here:
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#53> So after I launched this product I had more orders in the first 24 hours than I did in total with my startup that took over a year to develop. Can you please elaborate on what you did to get orders? I would think it would be many times harder to get a first order from someone you don't know, than writing the app.
since specific numbers aren't provided, he could have had 2 orders in his pigeon app and 1 from his prior effort and his claim would be true.
The "boomer age" people I know who want to print pictures and send them to someone go to a kiosk at the drugstore or a copy shop, where they also pick up a greeting card in which they typically like to handwrite a note to the recipient, that was the sort of thing people used to consider courteous.
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#54Semi-related, but if you want to print a lot of pics, it's probably just worth it to buy a printer. I just bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PRO-100-Professional-Inkjet-Prin... and I'm pretty happy with it. It supports Apple's AirPrint so you can print from iPhone/iPad on your local LAN/WiFi. Good quality prints and a bunch of rebates on this one if you dig around.
You're suggesting he buy a printer and print the photos, then address and stuff envelopes himself instead of using the service he found (lob.com)? I can't see that being cost- or time-effective.
Unless I have a high-volume business need for a printer I will never own one again. They are space hogs and money pits. Ink/toner is outrageous, buying paper in small quantities is expensive, and the consumer grade printers are slow and flimsy. The few times a year I actually need to print something I just go to kinkos or break the rules and print it at work. Maybe I'll look at using lob.com or a service like it though.
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#55Small idea == (small risks, small returns)
Big idea == (big risks, big returns)
most of the time.
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#56This is a pretty cool idea and I applaud the rapid execution. That being said, you could have tested this idea out without building any tech at all by using your own phone number for texts and manually printing and shipping photos. Then if the idea took off and you could no longer manually keep up with the orders you'd know you have a winner.
That would have actually been his MVP. But seeing as he could develop the tech so fast, he did have the option to develop the technology first itself. And he did get a lot of text messages in the first 24 hours itself!
But, for someone who wouldn't be able to get the tech out so quickly, an MVP(here, text messages to your phone and manual printing) is the ideal thing. Even he could have benefitted because the product would be out in like a day itself and he could see if it was popular enough to work on it further.
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#57Congrats on shipping quickly! Small nitpick - Twilio does offer MMS, but you have to have a shortcode in US: https://www.twilio.com/mms It's a hefty monetary commitment, so for the purposes of this story Twilio does not offer something compelling, but if you have the $$$ it's a solid service.
The blog date was 9/14, and the groundwork was done presumably at least 2 weeks before (seeing the title of the post). Twilio announced MMS on 9/18 at TwilioCon.
According to their website, you can get MMS via regular phone #s.
Send and receive pictures over both phone numbers and short codes with Twilio Picture Messaging.
However, this service was recently launched
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#58I'd like to offer an observation about the copy at http://www.pigeonpic.com . The larger slogan, "Never lose touch with friends and family", is vague. The smaller one, "Send photographs through the mail with just a text message", is specific. It makes clear what you offer and also that there is a concrete service here instead of just another smarmy social site. If I were you, I'd drop the first one and put the second…
The second tag line is kinda long. "Mail pics with just a text" might be better.
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#59How you make money if the print service costs $1.46 per photo and you still have the PayPal fee!? Do you have a better deal with Lob?
I'm wondering if https://www.lob.com/ has an equivalent in Germany or Europe in general.
(yes I've seen the international shipping, but domestic for us is probably faster and cheaper)
Re: Idea to App in 2 weeks
#60You may be able to spread more virally if people don't enter the recipients details into your app, and it may make it easier on everybody.
This is definitely a "maybe", you'll have to do the research.
If you just have the recipients phone number and the photo, you can send a photo MMS to the recipient saying "x bought a printed version of this photo with PigeonPic. We need your address to send this photo".
Just an idea, you'll need to work on it, but I know, I don't have people's mailing addresses.