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.
We're constantly reading content on here that tells us to follow our passions, take risks and solve problems.
Just Landed does that, but it's not an "important" enough problem to solve. He "wasted" his talent and should have focused on the larger problems that plague humanity.
I get that entrepreneurs need feedback, but there's a difference between helping and just plain being an asshole.
This kind of stuff isn't helpful to the community - we see it over and over. My hope is that people won't be deterred by it in the future....otherwise HN will lose it's value.
@jgraili I think this app is cool - kudos to you for the awesome execution. I'm downloading it - I could have totally used it yesterday :)
If you don't mind me asking - What did you spend $15k on? For just a "fun side project" that sounds like an outrageous amount so spend, and I can't particularly think of what it would be spent on as I'm assuming flight information is public. Don't mean for this to sound judgmental - just genuinely curious as I must be missing something.
As it turns out, accessing significant amounts of real-time flight data, as required by this app, is neither publicly accessible nor cheap (hence the need to charge for the app). There are also many other costs associated with developing even a small iPhone app to this level of quality.
I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping the costs so low. Try asking some big companies what they spent on their apps - you might be in for a surprise (think huge numbers)!
Any plans to make this a web-based service I can use from my laptop? I think this would be a good replacement/improvement to flightaware.com which I use to track my wife's inbound flights.
Comments
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.
We're constantly reading content on here that tells us to follow our passions, take risks and solve problems.
Just Landed does that, but it's not an "important" enough problem to solve. He "wasted" his talent and should have focused on the larger problems that plague humanity.
I get that entrepreneurs need feedback, but there's a difference between helping and just plain being an asshole.
This kind of stuff isn't helpful to the community - we see it over and over. My hope is that people won't be deterred by it in the future....otherwise HN will lose it's value.
@jgraili I think this app is cool - kudos to you for the awesome execution. I'm downloading it - I could have totally used it yesterday :)
If you don't mind me asking - What did you spend $15k on? For just a "fun side project" that sounds like an outrageous amount so spend, and I can't particularly think of what it would be spent on as I'm assuming flight information is public. Don't mean for this to sound judgmental - just genuinely curious as I must be missing something.
As it turns out, accessing significant amounts of real-time flight data, as required by this app, is neither publicly accessible nor cheap (hence the need to charge for the app). There are also many other costs associated with developing even a small iPhone app to this level of quality.
I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping the costs so low. Try asking some big companies what they spent on their apps - you might be in for a surprise (think huge numbers)!
Would you be willing to write a post about how costs broke down? It'd be awesome to learn more about what it really costs for a side project.
Makes sense - thanks! Great job on the app!
If you don't mind me asking - What did you spend $15k on?
15k isn't really that much. One month of his time is probably at least 10k, especially once you start thinking about health care and other benefits.
He said "$15k of my own money" not "$15k of my own time"
For many of us, side project time is enjoyable and not thought of as a cost center, but a happy-center.
:-)
Thank you for creating Just Landed. It's worked for me in exactly the scenario you described.
Any plans to make this a web-based service I can use from my laptop? I think this would be a good replacement/improvement to flightaware.com which I use to track my wife's inbound flights.
Can I just say that this is beautifully designed.
Thanks! Graham Beer & Sean Nelson did an awesome job on the app design and site design respectively.
Good luck with all of your endeavors.