7 ms·

FanPulse (YC S10) Launches Web App In Time For The World Cup

52 points by kineticac 16y ago

kineticac 16y ago
Hi HN: We just launched FanPulse this morning! It's been an awesome ride so far in the Summer 2010 batch with YC! Please give us any feedback you may have, we hope to build this out so you guys will love it.
- hugh3 16y ago
  I'm using it to watch France vs Uruguay right now (not logged in). At least, I think I am. I'm not entirely sure whether it's started yet. Is that supposed to be a game clock? It updates very rarely... Other comments: 1. It was listed as "Uruguay at France", which doesn't make any sense... I assume that was designed for American sports where there's always a home and away team? 2. I don't really care that some guy checked in and earned one point, but that's what the feed seems to be made of right now. Nor do I particularly care that someone picked someone to win. 3. Nothing seems to be updating properly -- I'll chalk that up to an overloaded server. 4. I assume that one need not be physically present at the match in order to "check in"? Perhaps this should be made clearer. Ultimately I probably don't care enough about sport to be your target market, but it would be nice to have a service like this so I can follow the few sports I do follow (pretty much limited to the World Cup and the Formula 1) which I can't get on TV.
  - kineticac 16y ago
    hugh3: awesome quick feedback! 1. Yup, the "at" is basically for the regular season pro teams in American sports. We'll be fixing this soon for all other situations 2. If the guy was your friend, would that be more useful? Like in real life? 3. The server is OK, we haven't implemented any polling yet to the page. It started off as a quick check-in, leave, and come back tool early on. Our roadmap includes a smart decaying poller that will update the page often. A lot of our users now just refresh, nobody's complained too much yet, but we definitely need to get that in ASAP. 4. Definitely need something that says: "You can be anywhere!" Thank you for trying it out and giving us the feedback even though you aren't a huge sport fan. We appreciate it!! Hopefully we can cover more big events like World Cup, Olympics, Formula 1, etc. where you'll use it.
- natrius 16y ago
  My Facebook feed is filled with people rooting for soccer teams. When you pick the winner of a game, does this post to your Facebook wall with the flag/logo of the team? That would probably be pretty viral right now. The "find friends on Facebook" page isn't working.
  - vsprabhakara1 16y ago
    We'll look into the "Find Friends on Facebook" issue. We are posting the flags to Facebook, and using the Twitter hashtag easter egg to show flags there too.
  - kineticac 16y ago
    If you check-in or pick a team, you are given the option to connect to Facebook. It will then give you a preview of the cross post once you're all connected. Let me know if that seems confusing (it definitely might be). Great feedback!
- dannyr 16y ago
  It would be awesome if you can hook up live play-by-play updates for each match. I really like the app since I'm an avid sports fan.
  - kineticac 16y ago
    Great to hear you want that! Our pro-account users (which is free when you invite 5 friends btw), will be given much more than the basic updates we have now. We're fleshing out all those features (play-by-play) and more very soon. Some other cool stuff we'll notify you about are really close games that are almost ending, big comebacks, or blowouts/upsets from you or your friends' favorite teams. Love to hear what other specific notifications you'd like to see! We love avid sports fans, definitely send us an email with anything else you'd like. We hope to make something you guys really like.
rgrieselhuber 16y ago
Congrats, guys!
jfornear 16y ago
It looks like they took a little too much influence from the Twitter home page... EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted? http://twitter.com http://twitter.com http://fanpul.se http://fanpul.se EDIT #2: I don't mean to call them out on their integrity or anything. I'm mostly surprised that someone at YC didn't advise them to take more time to 'own' their look.
- vinhboy 16y ago
  upboat.. good catch..
  - kineticac 16y ago
    hah, good catch! we went with copying what works rather than spending too much time trying to re-invent a good homepage. we launched pretty quick, so we tried to focus as much on the core features first as possible.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
- obsaysditto 16y ago
  Well the twitter folks did meet with some YC companies http://twitter.com/ycombinator/status/15872989072 http://twitter.com/ycombinator/status/15872989072 http://twitter.com/kineticac/status/15878495455 http://twitter.com/kineticac/status/15878495455
p3ll0n 16y ago
I really like the approach you guys have taken to get fans involved (i.e. the partnership with NHL that gives discounts to 'active' fans). Any talk of partnering with NHL, MLB, NBA, etc. to stream live audio/video of games? With an increasing number of smart phones packing a powerful camera what about serving as a platform for fans to share their own media content from games - like photos?
- kineticac 16y ago
  You're right on track with what we're working on. People love to share and brag, and a lot love to brag that they're at the game. Working with the leagues and teams are tough, but we're going to try to work with them more on cool stuff like audio and video. Sharing photos and video will be a sweet feature. I'd probably post a million photos myself while I'm at the game ;) Great ideas! keep them coming.
d0m 16y ago
You could improve a bit the Join Form. I hate when all the field are erased when I make a mistake.. and also, there's no cancel button on this form (which might be arguably good or bad). It could be great if there was stuff you could see without being registred... or if there is, the get started button should link there, and not to that form button. For me, "Get started" means: I will show you quickly what I can do for you and not: "Fill this form, give me all your information, and then, I will show you what I can do for you". I suggest you do the inverse.. show me what you got, and if it's interesting, I'll subscribe. On a side note, I like the main page with the live updates. Good job on that.
- vsprabhakara1 16y ago
  Great thoughts. We're actively working on revamping the "logged-out" user experience - you should see some changes within a week - and we'll incorporate some of your feedback.
- kineticac 16y ago
  d0m, that's a great idea! "Get Started" definitely should show you quickly what you can get. We'll start on that ASAP. Thanks for your feedback.
  - aresant 16y ago
    I'd like to beg for an IE8, 64-bit Windows 7 compatible homepage :( Please see this post to correct: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/01/ie8-64-bit-windows-7-and-the-m-1.html http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/01/ie8-64-bit-windows-7-an...
    - kineticac 16y ago
      oooh, that's how it's happening! thanks for reporting this to us!
  - jamesbkel 16y ago
    To nit pick, the color in the very corners of the 'Get Started' button is not equal to the bg on which the image is placed. Enjoying the site so far. Great work.
MicahWedemeyer 16y ago
I went to fanpulse.com, said "huh?" and was gone. I've never understood the clever domain names for real websites. It's cool for your techie project that you hype here on HN. If it's meant to interact with your average citizen, then forget about it. website == .com for 99% of the people out there. Just ask Yahoo who paid like $100k to finally get delicious.com
- kineticac 16y ago
  That's true Micah, we're actually actively on our way to getting a .com for our next big launch. Thanks for the feedback!
- jfornear 16y ago
  ...or just ask del.icio.us who sold for like a few million to Yahoo? :)
  - p0ppe 16y ago
    Which then ended up moving to delicious.com...
  - MicahWedemeyer 16y ago
    good point. touche
  - hyperbovine 16y ago
    No disrespect to joshu (who is around), but I never had a single non-techie friend who used delicious. For whatever reason, only reddit (and to a lesser extent Digg) have been able to break out of the geek echo chamber when it comes to social news. Slashdot, which had a 6-10 year jump on all of them, never could do it either. Maybe it's the .com. Who knows.
    - kineticac 16y ago
      I've seen a huge designer community using delicious. maybe the artsy guys and gals liked the "clever" name ;)
wensing 16y ago
Welcome to the ____pulse family. A rising tide lifts all ships.
djb_hackernews 16y ago
Mmm, smells like crunch time. Good job getting it done.

52 points by kineticac 16y ago

Hi HN: We just launched FanPulse this morning! It's been an awesome ride so far in the Summer 2010 batch with YC! Please give us any feedback you may have, we hope to build this out so you guys will love it.

hugh3 16y ago
I'm using it to watch France vs Uruguay right now (not logged in). At least, I think I am. I'm not entirely sure whether it's started yet. Is that supposed to be a game clock? It updates very rarely... Other comments: 1. It was listed as "Uruguay at France", which doesn't make any sense... I assume that was designed for American sports where there's always a home and away team? 2. I don't really care that some guy checked in and earned one point, but that's what the feed seems to be made of right now. Nor do I particularly care that someone picked someone to win. 3. Nothing seems to be updating properly -- I'll chalk that up to an overloaded server. 4. I assume that one need not be physically present at the match in order to "check in"? Perhaps this should be made clearer. Ultimately I probably don't care enough about sport to be your target market, but it would be nice to have a service like this so I can follow the few sports I do follow (pretty much limited to the World Cup and the Formula 1) which I can't get on TV.
- kineticac 16y ago
  hugh3: awesome quick feedback! 1. Yup, the "at" is basically for the regular season pro teams in American sports. We'll be fixing this soon for all other situations 2. If the guy was your friend, would that be more useful? Like in real life? 3. The server is OK, we haven't implemented any polling yet to the page. It started off as a quick check-in, leave, and come back tool early on. Our roadmap includes a smart decaying poller that will update the page often. A lot of our users now just refresh, nobody's complained too much yet, but we definitely need to get that in ASAP. 4. Definitely need something that says: "You can be anywhere!" Thank you for trying it out and giving us the feedback even though you aren't a huge sport fan. We appreciate it!! Hopefully we can cover more big events like World Cup, Olympics, Formula 1, etc. where you'll use it.
natrius 16y ago
My Facebook feed is filled with people rooting for soccer teams. When you pick the winner of a game, does this post to your Facebook wall with the flag/logo of the team? That would probably be pretty viral right now. The "find friends on Facebook" page isn't working.
- vsprabhakara1 16y ago
  We'll look into the "Find Friends on Facebook" issue. We are posting the flags to Facebook, and using the Twitter hashtag easter egg to show flags there too.
- kineticac 16y ago
  If you check-in or pick a team, you are given the option to connect to Facebook. It will then give you a preview of the cross post once you're all connected. Let me know if that seems confusing (it definitely might be). Great feedback!
dannyr 16y ago
It would be awesome if you can hook up live play-by-play updates for each match. I really like the app since I'm an avid sports fan.
- kineticac 16y ago
  Great to hear you want that! Our pro-account users (which is free when you invite 5 friends btw), will be given much more than the basic updates we have now. We're fleshing out all those features (play-by-play) and more very soon. Some other cool stuff we'll notify you about are really close games that are almost ending, big comebacks, or blowouts/upsets from you or your friends' favorite teams. Love to hear what other specific notifications you'd like to see! We love avid sports fans, definitely send us an email with anything else you'd like. We hope to make something you guys really like.

rgrieselhuber 16y ago

Congrats, guys!

jfornear 16y ago

It looks like they took a little too much influence from the Twitter home page... EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted? http://twitter.com http://twitter.com http://fanpul.se http://fanpul.se EDIT #2: I don't mean to call them out on their integrity or anything. I'm mostly surprised that someone at YC didn't advise them to take more time to 'own' their look.

vinhboy 16y ago
upboat.. good catch..
- kineticac 16y ago
  hah, good catch! we went with copying what works rather than spending too much time trying to re-invent a good homepage. we launched pretty quick, so we tried to focus as much on the core features first as possible.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
obsaysditto 16y ago
Well the twitter folks did meet with some YC companies http://twitter.com/ycombinator/status/15872989072 http://twitter.com/ycombinator/status/15872989072 http://twitter.com/kineticac/status/15878495455 http://twitter.com/kineticac/status/15878495455

p3ll0n 16y ago

I really like the approach you guys have taken to get fans involved (i.e. the partnership with NHL that gives discounts to 'active' fans). Any talk of partnering with NHL, MLB, NBA, etc. to stream live audio/video of games? With an increasing number of smart phones packing a powerful camera what about serving as a platform for fans to share their own media content from games - like photos?

kineticac 16y ago
You're right on track with what we're working on. People love to share and brag, and a lot love to brag that they're at the game. Working with the leagues and teams are tough, but we're going to try to work with them more on cool stuff like audio and video. Sharing photos and video will be a sweet feature. I'd probably post a million photos myself while I'm at the game ;) Great ideas! keep them coming.

d0m 16y ago

You could improve a bit the Join Form. I hate when all the field are erased when I make a mistake.. and also, there's no cancel button on this form (which might be arguably good or bad). It could be great if there was stuff you could see without being registred... or if there is, the get started button should link there, and not to that form button. For me, "Get started" means: I will show you quickly what I can do for you and not: "Fill this form, give me all your information, and then, I will show you what I can do for you". I suggest you do the inverse.. show me what you got, and if it's interesting, I'll subscribe. On a side note, I like the main page with the live updates. Good job on that.

vsprabhakara1 16y ago
Great thoughts. We're actively working on revamping the "logged-out" user experience - you should see some changes within a week - and we'll incorporate some of your feedback.
kineticac 16y ago
d0m, that's a great idea! "Get Started" definitely should show you quickly what you can get. We'll start on that ASAP. Thanks for your feedback.
- aresant 16y ago
  I'd like to beg for an IE8, 64-bit Windows 7 compatible homepage :( Please see this post to correct: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/01/ie8-64-bit-windows-7-and-the-m-1.html http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/01/ie8-64-bit-windows-7-an...
  - kineticac 16y ago
    oooh, that's how it's happening! thanks for reporting this to us!
- jamesbkel 16y ago
  To nit pick, the color in the very corners of the 'Get Started' button is not equal to the bg on which the image is placed. Enjoying the site so far. Great work.

MicahWedemeyer 16y ago

I went to fanpulse.com, said "huh?" and was gone. I've never understood the clever domain names for real websites. It's cool for your techie project that you hype here on HN. If it's meant to interact with your average citizen, then forget about it. website == .com for 99% of the people out there. Just ask Yahoo who paid like $100k to finally get delicious.com

kineticac 16y ago
That's true Micah, we're actually actively on our way to getting a .com for our next big launch. Thanks for the feedback!
jfornear 16y ago
...or just ask del.icio.us who sold for like a few million to Yahoo? :)
- p0ppe 16y ago
  Which then ended up moving to delicious.com...
- MicahWedemeyer 16y ago
  good point. touche
- hyperbovine 16y ago
  No disrespect to joshu (who is around), but I never had a single non-techie friend who used delicious. For whatever reason, only reddit (and to a lesser extent Digg) have been able to break out of the geek echo chamber when it comes to social news. Slashdot, which had a 6-10 year jump on all of them, never could do it either. Maybe it's the .com. Who knows.
  - kineticac 16y ago
    I've seen a huge designer community using delicious. maybe the artsy guys and gals liked the "clever" name ;)

wensing 16y ago

Welcome to the ____pulse family. A rising tide lifts all ships.

djb_hackernews 16y ago

Mmm, smells like crunch time. Good job getting it done.