Tech sorted, looking for marketing person

deegs

Started this last year www.closr.com on my own and I'm kinda happy where it is, technically.
I've an ok business background myself but I'm the only person working on this and reckon I could do with splitting the workload as I see it leaving beta testing soon.
I'm not really looking for investment just ideas at the moment and looking for a team.
Don't really want to go the co-founder various websites rout but may eventually.

Any ideas welcome

Atomico

deegs wrote: »

Started this last year www.closr.com on my own and I'm kinda happy where it is, technically.
I've an ok business background myself but I'm the only person working on this and reckon I could do with splitting the workload as I see it leaving beta testing soon.
I'm not really looking for investment just ideas at the moment and looking for a team.
Don't really want to go the co-founder various websites rout but may eventually.

Any ideas welcome

Hey OP,

Is this a bit similar to just searching on say 'Grand Canyon' on Facebook or Instagram, and seeing who has recently posted a photo there?

I also know of an app where you can zoom in on a map and view photos that people have shared in those locations on various social networks.

deegs

Kinda, more like you take a photo to register you location and others from the same time and location are added to your album...
That's one way of using it.
For instance I was n Munich I took some photos there at a historical site. I was testing the app and I used it to find cool looking sites nearby.
Think it would be a good way to share a huge collaborative wedding or family occasion with people who were there....
Lots of ways, but ya, like your examples too.
Problem with the way images are currently stored online is access, search ability, time stamping and accuracy.

Kenny Logins

This is great. I had this idea a while back (for festivals, concerts, car shows, family events etc.) but had no means to make it happen.

Must have a play with it tomorrow. Nice one.

Hillybilly4

Hi deegs - hope you don't mind me pointing out that your site needs proofreading - it contains a lot of errors...spelling, superfluous apostrophes etc.

Atomico

deegs wrote: »

Kinda, more like you take a photo to register you location and others from the same time and location are added to your album...
That's one way of using it.
For instance I was n Munich I took some photos there at a historical site. I was testing the app and I used it to find cool looking sites nearby.
Think it would be a good way to share a huge collaborative wedding or family occasion with people who were there....
Lots of ways, but ya, like your examples too.
Problem with the way images are currently stored online is access, search ability, time stamping and accuracy.

Right, I can see how that could be handy for concerts, gigs, school trips and so on too.

However the standard for apps is very high these days and people downloading one expect it to be very slick and to just 'work'. Do you plan on resolving the issues you mentioned soon?

pedroeibar1

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

Hi deegs - hope you don't mind me pointing out that your site needs proofreading - it contains a lot of errors...spelling, superfluous apostrophes etc.

It would be helpful if you pointed out some of them.

Hillybilly4

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

It would be helpful if you pointed out some of them.

LOL - you mean proofread it for them?! Well now that would be a proofreader's job, wouldn't it?
But ok, for starters, the one that hits you in the face throughout is "photo's" - the plural of photo is photos, not photo's

pedroeibar1

Actually the word is photograph and its plural is photographs. If you abbreviate the word you insert an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. Which the OP has done. Photo's.

Kenny Logins

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Actually the word is photograph and its plural is photographs. If you abbreviate the word you insert an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. Which the OP has done. Photo's.

Ah, that's not how it has ever been used though. Photo is a word in itself these days (as is phone).

Atomico

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Actually the word is photograph and its plural is photographs. If you abbreviate the word you insert an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. Which the OP has done. Photo's.

Em, no? The plural of photo is 'photos'!

You see that mistake all over the place these days. I actually saw someone write 'thank's' instead of 'thanks' in an email once, and wept a little inside.

Hillybilly4

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Actually the word is photograph and its plural is photographs. If you abbreviate the word you insert an apostrophe to indicate missing letters. Which the OP has done. Photo's.

Sorry but that is wrong.

pedroeibar1

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

Sorry but that is wrong.

You're missing a comma there, Hillybilly. Tut, tut.

Not that correct/incorrect grammar would matter much to the potential users of the site..... It is not my role to teach the correct use of an apostrophe. It is a punctuation mark that can denote missing letters (can't), plurals (3’s), or the possessive case (Joe’s). Go read it up.

Arguably a case could be made for using “photos” instead of “photo’s” as a result of common usage; that, however, does not make the OP’s use of “photo’s” incorrect.
If you wanted to get on your grammatical high horse there are a number of errant capital letters in the text that are more worthy of comment.
Pedro
Class of ‘14
Simple really.

AhrSkidar

Nice work OP, it looks very interesting.

The website only mentions an Android version of the app. Is there an iOS version in the works?

Kenny Logins

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

You're missing a comma there, Hillybilly. Tut, tut.

Not that correct/incorrect grammar would matter much to the potential users of the site..... It is not my role to teach the correct use of an apostrophe. It is a punctuation mark that can denote missing letters (can't), plurals (3’s), or the possessive case (Joe’s). Go read it up.

Arguably a case could be made for using “photos” instead of “photo’s” as a result of common usage; that, however, does not make the OP’s use of “photo’s” incorrect.
If you wanted to get on your grammatical high horse there are a number of errant capital letters in the text that are more worthy of comment.
Pedro
Class of ‘14
Simple really.

I think you're wrong about using an apostrophe in the plural of a number (or capital letter).

deegs

Cheers boys, no need to look for a proof reader, I'll just pay one of you guys
To answer your questions, if it ever was brought to market, I reckon we would have a brand new website, and possible a few more iterations of the app.
Honestly though, I've always been encouraged to keep churning out early versions of the app. I know its not slick, but I guess there is no point making something slick if noone uses it. Its been used as a prototype and its serving that purppose fairly well.
They only thing I wish I had done is develop an iOS version first. Seems most of the target market use iOS and that would have forced a more slick version. Other than that I've not recieved any negative feedback. Had one comment to introduce goolge login (only had facebook previous) and some design tweaks, but it seems to work which was the purpose of a MVP.

Thansk fir teh commants dough!

pedroeibar1

deegs wrote: »

.........I know its not slick, but I guess there is no point making something slick if noone uses it. .......They only thing I wish I had done is develop an iOS version .......... that would have forced a more slick version.

I agree with you. If you are going to do something, do it properly.
That's how you learn.:)

Atomico

deegs wrote: »

Cheers boys, no need to look for a proof reader, I'll just pay one of you guys
To answer your questions, if it ever was brought to market, I reckon we would have a brand new website, and possible a few more iterations of the app.
Honestly though, I've always been encouraged to keep churning out early versions of the app. I know its not slick, but I guess there is no point making something slick if noone uses it. Its been used as a prototype and its serving that purppose fairly well.
They only thing I wish I had done is develop an iOS version first. Seems most of the target market use iOS and that would have forced a more slick version. Other than that I've not recieved any negative feedback. Had one comment to introduce goolge login (only had facebook previous) and some design tweaks, but it seems to work which was the purpose of a MVP.

Thansk fir teh commants dough!

You mean no-one will use it if it's not slick

I think apps are different to websites in that sense too.

OU812

Ok, I'm in ios so can't test it, but just wanted to know if I understand how it works.

I take a photo & upload it to your new social network. The GPS location is broadcast & matches up with other users within parameters of closeness, time & date.

If all the parameters match up, I'm able to see all the other photos taken in that area around that time on that date specifically, correct?

I'm making the assumption that everyone else has to use the same social network (your app just does the upload & browsing, you still depend on the camera roll)?

It's a kind of cool idea but the uplift requirements are huge. Would you not be better off hooking into Facebook or instagram's api?

deegs

OU812 wrote: »

Ok, I'm in ios so can't test it, but just wanted to know if I understand how it works.

I take a photo & upload it to your new social network. The GPS location is broadcast & matches up with other users within parameters of closeness, time & date.

If all the parameters match up, I'm able to see all the other photos taken in that area around that time on that date specifically, correct?

I'm making the assumption that everyone else has to use the same social network (your app just does the upload & browsing, you still depend on the camera roll)?

It's a kind of cool idea but the uplift requirements are huge. Would you not be better off hooking into Facebook or instagram's api?

Yep, except you also take the photo's from the app (built in camera). They are also locally stored on a sdcard.

Location is based on a mix of wifi, cell, and gps (as they all have different power usage).

You cant really due to provacy issues. Facebook could never do this withou upsetting millions and loosing revenue. I think its a much easier option to start a new network from scratch with no privacy... i.e. if you want private photos dont use closr.

That said we do use those api's like facebook to share images so its not impossible a thought to import them. Its just headache for the user to order them.

I see big use of something like this at sports events too and thought how cool would it be for people going to the world cup etc.

Would be a great challenge for anyone interseted with marketing experience etc.

OU812

Well, where I see this being successful is as you say , primarially a sports market.

If you could get it out to the likes of American football/basketball/hockey teams where very tight ego locations have hundreds of thousands of fans, it has a chance of success.

Eg. Staples centre in L.A. Hosts both kings hockey & clippers basketball & has a capacity of about 19,000. It ALWAYS sells out.

Each team has in excess of 500,000 hardcore fans so the tickets are massively oversubscribed.

Used in that environment it could be interesting to potential investors/buy out.

But I think it's potential is quite limited without a monatisation proposal.

You wanna PM me some details & I can maybe offer my thoughts?

pedronomix

They are out in force today! Rather sad really, my sympathy is with the OP on these petulant inputs.

pedroeibar1

pedronomix wrote: »

They are out in force today! Rather sad really, my sympathy is with the OP on these petulant inputs.

Your first post on this thread. What has that self-important comment added to it?
Self-importance is sad. Feeling the need to make a put-down comment on a little banter to try to achieve a little superiority or gain some acclaim is sadder. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one's life offended by something or someone. Sadder still.:rolleyes:

deegs

It'll take a lot more than what's said here to get under my skin.
Just a question to those posting.... Do you know how much it costs to develop an app to this level including cloud storage and web services? Also, how much do you think the domain costs? There is already some interest and support (think dragon type character) of the concept but I'm easy going and just throwing out feelers on areas not my strenghts. I don't want cash but would expect time and results in return for equity (in answer to those PMS)
PS I've got a few PMS already, if your interested let me know....

MRTULES

Does it have the ability to rank or rate other peoples photo's (photos)? If there was a lot taken at the same time in a big location this may help to sort through them. I will get a chance to download it later but just wondering how the photos are sorted.
Thanks.

deegs

Yep, there is a like function that is coupled with comments to give an indication of the importance of the photo. There are a couple of ways to sort the stream

OU812

deegs wrote: »

Just a question to those posting.... Do you know how much it costs to develop an app to this level including cloud storage and web services? Also, how much do you think the domain costs? There is already some interest and support (think dragon type character) of the concept but I'm easy going and just throwing out feelers on areas not my strenghts. I don't want cash but would expect time and results in return for equity (in answer to those PMS)
PS I've got a few PMS already, if your interested let me know....

- Know exactly how much it costs to develop an app. (If you've spent more than $90 an hour, you're being seriously ripped off)
- Have cloud storage & web services down to 49c per user for something similiar .
- Domain costs are minuscule in relation to everything else.
- it's VC you need to be talking to, not dragon types.

I'm interested & currently working on something in a similiar space with experience in iOS dev, marketing & fundraising. If you want to discuss, drop me a PM.

pedronomix

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Your first post on this thread. What has that self-important comment added to it?
Self-importance is sad. Feeling the need to make a put-down comment on a little banter to try to achieve a little superiority or gain some acclaim is sadder. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one's life offended by something or someone. Sadder still.:rolleyes:

Unlike your own valuable contributions on this topic, I suppose!

pedroeibar1

@Deegs -There are only a few interesting comments made already on the tech issues but that's not enough. You really need two things: first is a ‘focus group’ (however formal/informal) to quiz you up/down on the App. to de-bug it from a customer perception viewpoint. Secondly (not in your OP) I sorta query your general ‘savvy’ as a result of your question on the domain costs (I’m not a techy but even I know those) and your comment in #24 on ‘throwing out feelers on areas not my strengths’... Absolutely nothing wrong with that, different folks, different skills, etc., but before you move on I suggest you need help on how best to ‘get into bed’ with an outsider particularly before granting them shares in your company. It’s not difficult, put everything in writing (shareholders agreement) and I would strongly urge you to get professional advice on this. It works both ways as I’ve seen a lot of ‘good ideas people’ screwed by those who partnered to ‘help’ and also seen those who have helped build a business dumped by unscrupulous owners.

As for the other s#it posted here, like you I have a thick skin and smile at the pomposity and pettiness of those who have a need to always be seen as the Big Kahuna in this tiny little pond.:rolleyes::)

deegs

1) I run behavioural hci studies, so focus groups are not an issue
2) I have a 5 letter single word domain, rather I was questioning the savvy ness of people posting here. I'm using red hat for services, aws for storage and Irish provider for domain site hosting.
3) I've had a few other starts ups one which I sold on, partnership agreements and target based contracts will be a part of anything.

I'm in two minds about the app, I've already pivoted and am considering another pivot, but I'm not sure... I hunk there is potential in its current incarnation, feedback has so far been positive, I just want someone with marketing/business experience to see if they can make it work.

Regarding equity, I could keep it all, but 100% of nothing is Still nothing! and if a marketeer can bring my concept and tech to reality! then they deserve a share.

If anyone wants to send me a proposition via pm I'd happily consider it? I wanna stress again, that right now I'm not looking for cash... Just time, how much time is up to you.

And I'm intentionally making my postings casual.

pedroeibar1

Seems you have most bases covered.

I know you are not looking for VC, but put on a VC hat and see what you would look for in customer interface were you a VC investor in the venture. Look at the downsides. For example, user profile - what age users? social demographics? important to be able to target the correct advertisers and bring their product to the correct market. Have you adequately covered copyright rules? What if somebody posts a photo of something subject to copyright? Or privacy regulations? What if you get swamped by people who want you to take down photographs of them posted by others? What is the strategy for that? What about images of children? Think of the outcome after a One Direction concert – most of the people at that are under 18, therefore children, therefore stricter laws/regs, the concert organizers have a role to play (e.g. permission) as it is a semi-public place, etc.

Best of luck with it.