@juanbuis I was thinking the same thing.
I find the online-to-offline space very interesting but every app that's built specifically for that use case (outside of dating apps like Tinder) never seem to take off. Instead, broader social apps like Snapchat, Houseparty, and Facebook indirectly and often serendipitously bring people together IRL.
Curious to hear your thoughts, @ashleynh and @khanlou!
@rrhoover@juanbuis@ashleynh@khanlou I'm pretty sure this "cloning mentality of not solving any real problems and just having fun" has to do with well economics for these teams." Every single one of those co was a failure day 1, 0 retentions no real healthy engagement but didn't some of them exit? That kind of signaling where you can "fail" but exit for a few millions in months and have fun in this bubble is a motivation for a lot of people. Not even saying it's wrong but it is a very real conscious or unconscious reality especially the closer you are to cali....
Groupon aquired Ditto
https://techcrunch.com/2012/04/1...
Free app raised $1.9 million
https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/1...
Down To Lunch
https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/1...
Also press and "celebrity" for your own personal brand
https://gigaom.com/2014/12/16/th...
like gigaom hasn't covered any of our computer vision tech lol I get the motivations with these teams, lets do what has worked for other teams that hasn't solved issues but has raised money is fun to do and we can get lots of publicity. Data doesn't show that I'm wrong this is a trend that has been around for decades.
I predict they will close their $2 million seed round in 8 months when their retention is at 85% and they are getting ready to go to 0 users.
@rrhoover@juanbuis I have been looking at the online-to-offline space as well. In my opinion, what most apps got wrong (and many continue to get wrong) is a lack of significant online experience. It cannot just be a community generated meetup/events listing page. Specially when you are connecting with strangers and meeting them offline, you need a deeper online experience to decide if you want to actually join them or not. The chicken-and-egg problem is also a very significant one in location based apps and that isn't an easy one to crack too.
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@rrhoover I agree with you. I created an app called Tap a year and a half ago that was pretty much the same thing. But we quickly realized that the problem was not in the "planning". If anyone wants to chat more about the problem and what I figured out...hit me up. (btw, RIP Tap.)
That's interesting. Why did you mentioned that you wrote the app and server in Swift on your product's front page?
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@akdm_ Because "[they] think in a few short years Swift is going to be the primary way iOS developers write their app backends, and [they] wanted to be at the forefront of this trend"
@akdm_ I think this app is intended for WWDC - therefore, the users are folks like me. And I care that it was written in swift. In fact, I've put similar blurbs on my swift backend projects, just because it makes me feel cool. 👊🏼
The UI looks good but personally, I don't think it's a problem that hasn't been already solved. However, if there were added features such as automatic recommendations based on a group's preferences, that'll be neat.
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