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I think it's a very cool project, congratulations :) Some questions: - Are you solo? Will you work with someone else if YC decides to fund you? - What would

I think it's a very cool project, congratulations :) Some questions: - Are you solo? Will you work with someone else if YC decides to fund you? - What would you focus on if YC or other investor should fund you? Market development? Improving the MVP? - Have you shown it to interested parties? Would this be better as part of some SAR suite/extreme sports app/map app, or as a standalone? One of my uncles used to go on sailing yatch races, I guess this could be useful for his family, but he hadn't heard of it. Do you think it's ready to be advertised?

emilburzo 11y ago
> I think it's a very cool project, congratulations :) Thank you, that actually means a lot to me. > Are you solo? Yes. > Will you work with someone else if YC decides to fund you? Truth be told, I seriously doubt I'll any funding, especially being in Romania/Eastern Europe where bureaucracy is ... let's say, plentiful. (When I started freelancing I had to go through influential acquaintances just so the <IRS equivalent> clerks could make up their damn mind on what paperwork I need so I can legally pay taxes -- something apparently nobody else in the city was doing) If by some miracle that happens, I do have someone in mind, a bit less technical but a lot more think-like-a-user type, he's helped with a lot of feedback early on. No idea if he would quit his day job for something like this though. In the meantime , I'm just happy to get some real feedback (good or bad). > What would you focus on if YC or other investor should fund you? Market development? Improving the MVP? First priority would be figuring out how to reach my target audience, which has proven kinda difficult. Advertising an app online for people that are mostly outdoor has proven counter-productive :-) UI/UX/introduction/video tutorial/documentation would be the second most important thing, as some things that I thought were obvious have proven otherwise. (Too many people have mistaken a 'Send feedback' for a "send this link to a friend") That's about it, anything else I think is too soon. > Have you shown it to interested parties? I've shown locals about it, they thought it was cool, but technology penetration is not so high in the extreme sports area. So they either don't have the smartphone for it, a data connection, good enough battery and so on. In other areas like the US the response was even more positive, but as I've said before, I have trouble reaching the more outdoorsy types, especially while at the same time not being too spammy. > Would this be better as part of some SAR suite/extreme sports app/map app, or as a standalone? Graticule does have a passive mode, where you start it and it will only transmit if there's another app requesting location (like Strava, Runtastic, Waze, whatever). Other than that, I'm not sure what it could be integrated with; it would be nice to have it 'always-on' (even if it's just once every hour), but I don't think people are going to be receptive to that ideea. > One of my uncles used to go on sailing yatch races, I guess this could be useful for his family, but he hadn't heard of it. Nice! I'm not sure how far a data connection goes on water, but it's worth a shot. > Do you think it's ready to be advertised? I'm actually pretty happy to say that since I've opened it up for public use, it's had 100% uptime through a lot of infrastructure changes. It's a nice personal challenge (I like being both a sysadmin and a dev) treating it really important to keep it up and reliably running.

emilburzo 11y ago

> I think it's a very cool project, congratulations :) Thank you, that actually means a lot to me. > Are you solo? Yes. > Will you work with someone else if YC decides to fund you? Truth be told, I seriously doubt I'll any funding, especially being in Romania/Eastern Europe where bureaucracy is ... let's say, plentiful. (When I started freelancing I had to go through influential acquaintances just so the <IRS equivalent> clerks could make up their damn mind on what paperwork I need so I can legally pay taxes -- something apparently nobody else in the city was doing) If by some miracle that happens, I do have someone in mind, a bit less technical but a lot more think-like-a-user type, he's helped with a lot of feedback early on. No idea if he would quit his day job for something like this though. In the meantime , I'm just happy to get some real feedback (good or bad). > What would you focus on if YC or other investor should fund you? Market development? Improving the MVP? First priority would be figuring out how to reach my target audience, which has proven kinda difficult. Advertising an app online for people that are mostly outdoor has proven counter-productive :-) UI/UX/introduction/video tutorial/documentation would be the second most important thing, as some things that I thought were obvious have proven otherwise. (Too many people have mistaken a 'Send feedback' for a "send this link to a friend") That's about it, anything else I think is too soon. > Have you shown it to interested parties? I've shown locals about it, they thought it was cool, but technology penetration is not so high in the extreme sports area. So they either don't have the smartphone for it, a data connection, good enough battery and so on. In other areas like the US the response was even more positive, but as I've said before, I have trouble reaching the more outdoorsy types, especially while at the same time not being too spammy. > Would this be better as part of some SAR suite/extreme sports app/map app, or as a standalone? Graticule does have a passive mode, where you start it and it will only transmit if there's another app requesting location (like Strava, Runtastic, Waze, whatever). Other than that, I'm not sure what it could be integrated with; it would be nice to have it 'always-on' (even if it's just once every hour), but I don't think people are going to be receptive to that ideea. > One of my uncles used to go on sailing yatch races, I guess this could be useful for his family, but he hadn't heard of it. Nice! I'm not sure how far a data connection goes on water, but it's worth a shot. > Do you think it's ready to be advertised? I'm actually pretty happy to say that since I've opened it up for public use, it's had 100% uptime through a lot of infrastructure changes. It's a nice personal challenge (I like being both a sysadmin and a dev) treating it really important to keep it up and reliably running.