6 ms·

Back in 2007, I made neverplayalone.com to find activity partners. Within a few days of launch, someone pointed out three things - Meetup was gaining traction,

Back in 2007, I made neverplayalone.com to find activity partners. Within a few days of launch, someone pointed out three things - Meetup was gaining traction, URL sounded risqué, and never to use negative words like never in the URL. In 2010-11, I worked on lug-it.com to let people carry stuff in their luggage for others. It leveraged FB's social graph to engender trust. I just wasn't ready to market and grow the user base because my cofounder decided that he was going to be the "vision" guy and I was going to do all the work. I launched a couple of iOS apps one of which got thousands of downloads in a month but since it was very niche (BLE/iBeacon related), I stopped working on it.

gcatalfamo 9y ago
Wouldn't this have many issues when going through customs or security checks?
madamelic 9y ago
>let people carry stuff in their luggage for others There is no possible way that could go wrong. Especially when TSA or Customs asks: "Are you carrying anything for someone else?" Then you go on to explain, "Oh yeah, I am, but I know them. They are paying me to do it."
- saimiam 9y ago
  Well, there's obviously that but since we built this on your FB graph, you'd be delivering stuff from either friends or friends of friends at worst. I feel Walmart is doing this and worse by asking neighbors to deliver your stuff. In fact, I often carry stuff for my compatriot coworkers and friends to/from the home country. This was just a more regularized and systematized version of that. All said and done, you're right - even my cofounder and I felt a little uncomfortable being mules for others even if the item being sent was totally innocent. The one and only delivery we made successfully was from Toronto to London via New York for the then CIO of British Telecom. He loved the idea so much that he covered it here http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2009/12/02/hauling-bits-around/ http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2009/12/02/hauling-bits-around... on his blog.
- bakeryOnMain 9y ago
  LOL
neofrommatrix 9y ago
"because my cofounder decided that he was going to be the "vision" guy and I was going to do all the work." :-) This happens more often than not. All the success and visibility, but none of the work.
- jakobegger 9y ago
  Yes, it does happen, but I‘ve never heard of such a startup taking off. If one of the founders doesn‘t pull their weight, I can‘t imagine there will be a lot of success and visibility...
stretchwithme 9y ago
In the exception-that-proves-the-rule department: notonmywatch.com is much better than onlyonotherpeopleswatches.com.

gcatalfamo 9y ago

Wouldn't this have many issues when going through customs or security checks?

madamelic 9y ago

>let people carry stuff in their luggage for others There is no possible way that could go wrong. Especially when TSA or Customs asks: "Are you carrying anything for someone else?" Then you go on to explain, "Oh yeah, I am, but I know them. They are paying me to do it."

saimiam 9y ago
Well, there's obviously that but since we built this on your FB graph, you'd be delivering stuff from either friends or friends of friends at worst. I feel Walmart is doing this and worse by asking neighbors to deliver your stuff. In fact, I often carry stuff for my compatriot coworkers and friends to/from the home country. This was just a more regularized and systematized version of that. All said and done, you're right - even my cofounder and I felt a little uncomfortable being mules for others even if the item being sent was totally innocent. The one and only delivery we made successfully was from Toronto to London via New York for the then CIO of British Telecom. He loved the idea so much that he covered it here http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2009/12/02/hauling-bits-around/ http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2009/12/02/hauling-bits-around... on his blog.
bakeryOnMain 9y ago
LOL

neofrommatrix 9y ago

"because my cofounder decided that he was going to be the "vision" guy and I was going to do all the work." :-) This happens more often than not. All the success and visibility, but none of the work.

jakobegger 9y ago
Yes, it does happen, but I‘ve never heard of such a startup taking off. If one of the founders doesn‘t pull their weight, I can‘t imagine there will be a lot of success and visibility...

stretchwithme 9y ago

In the exception-that-proves-the-rule department: notonmywatch.com is much better than onlyonotherpeopleswatches.com.