5 ms·

How Whereoscope (YC S10) located a market for its family-finder app

36 points by waderoush 16y ago

leftnode 16y ago
Wow, misread that title at first, thought it said Whoreoscope, for finding women of the night. Similar to SCVNGR, I keep thinking it's some sort of Subversion too.
- mahmud 16y ago
  Why was he downvotted? I too mis-read it as such, and this might be a valid concern to bring up to the developers, imo. I thought it was a play on words: Horoscope/Whereoscope, some sort of horoscope website that guesses your sex life?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    It's a common enough mix-up that someone actually registered the domain.
    - zach 16y ago
      That domain's been around a long time, no doubt because someone imagined the Venn diagram of people interested in astrological predictions intersected with people who don't always spell things properly. Asking people to spell Whereoscope even in the App Store search may also be posing a challenge. I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but the nomenclature of YC companies is one of the things that still makes them seem a little too easily dismissable. P.S. Private to H------: PickFly.com is still available...
  - leftnode 16y ago
    Right, I made a joke, but at the same time was trying to show the importance of picking an easy to spell and pronounce name.
- dpritchett 16y ago
  I suppose Craigslist has recently left a gap in that market.
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Extension: pets, vehicles, city bus, subway train
- mickdj 16y ago
  Definitely :) I'm one of the developers and we actually have hockey teams, couples, real estate agents, small legal teams and tour bus drivers using the app as it is. There are also quite a few people who just track their own iPhone in case it's lost, stolen, or for curiosity about their own movements.
Mc_Big_G 16y ago
we think we can get 10 million families on it, no problem. Seriously? No problem? I'd love to know the strategy that makes getting 10 million people to pay $10/month, "no problem". I try not to post negative comments, but I just don't see how anyone can say that with a straight face.
- voberoi 16y ago
  I agree, that's a pretty naive statement to make unless you can: a) Make a believable case for there being 10 million people who would be willing to pay for your product. b) Make a believable plan for how you're going to reach those 10 million people. Who have you guys talked to other than one of the founders' girlfriends? Do you have real data, qualitative and quantitative, that backs up the claim that you've located a market for Whereoscope? Is anyone paying for the product yet? Most of statements in the article seem rather speculative.
  - mickdj 16y ago
    You raise valid criticisms, and ones we considered for some time before building the product as we did. a) Multiple proxies for demand exist, from the existing carrier-based services to portable GPS units to the use of cards swiped at the school gate in Japan and China. b) Agreed. And the people we share our go-to-market plan with agree. I make it a point to speak on the phone to several families a week. We have heard from hundreds of users directly via e-mail. There is a long road from thousands to tens of millions - we don't pretend otherwise, but we do have that road mapped out.
- enjo 16y ago
  Not to mention in a rather crowded space.
vineetk 16y ago
With an admitted android bias, I'm having a hard time seeing why someone would pay $5-10/mo for this, working only on IOS4, instead of using Google Latitude for free, on any number of supported devices. Latitude doesn't support the manual geofence alerts, but it does have its own automated alerts, the pros and cons of which are up for debate. For many people, though, not having to set up and curate alert settings may actually be a welcome convenience.
- mickdj 16y ago
  Hi, Latitude (and other friend finders) are solving a different problem. Our users (families, couples, etc.) tell us their main concerns are: 1) Privacy model: people don't want to broadcast location to everyone, or (particularly for women) have their use of such a service be known. Having adjustable privacy settings don't solve this problem. 2) Battery: As soon as you notice battery drain, users turn the service off. We believe we've solved the first (with small, closed, private groups) and the second (with sampling only when necessary). Our Android version is under development right now.

36 points by waderoush 16y ago

Wow, misread that title at first, thought it said Whoreoscope, for finding women of the night. Similar to SCVNGR, I keep thinking it's some sort of Subversion too.

mahmud 16y ago
Why was he downvotted? I too mis-read it as such, and this might be a valid concern to bring up to the developers, imo. I thought it was a play on words: Horoscope/Whereoscope, some sort of horoscope website that guesses your sex life?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  It's a common enough mix-up that someone actually registered the domain.
  - zach 16y ago
    That domain's been around a long time, no doubt because someone imagined the Venn diagram of people interested in astrological predictions intersected with people who don't always spell things properly. Asking people to spell Whereoscope even in the App Store search may also be posing a challenge. I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but the nomenclature of YC companies is one of the things that still makes them seem a little too easily dismissable. P.S. Private to H------: PickFly.com is still available...
- leftnode 16y ago
  Right, I made a joke, but at the same time was trying to show the importance of picking an easy to spell and pronounce name.
dpritchett 16y ago
I suppose Craigslist has recently left a gap in that market.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

Extension: pets, vehicles, city bus, subway train

mickdj 16y ago
Definitely :) I'm one of the developers and we actually have hockey teams, couples, real estate agents, small legal teams and tour bus drivers using the app as it is. There are also quite a few people who just track their own iPhone in case it's lost, stolen, or for curiosity about their own movements.

Mc_Big_G 16y ago

we think we can get 10 million families on it, no problem. Seriously? No problem? I'd love to know the strategy that makes getting 10 million people to pay $10/month, "no problem". I try not to post negative comments, but I just don't see how anyone can say that with a straight face.

voberoi 16y ago
I agree, that's a pretty naive statement to make unless you can: a) Make a believable case for there being 10 million people who would be willing to pay for your product. b) Make a believable plan for how you're going to reach those 10 million people. Who have you guys talked to other than one of the founders' girlfriends? Do you have real data, qualitative and quantitative, that backs up the claim that you've located a market for Whereoscope? Is anyone paying for the product yet? Most of statements in the article seem rather speculative.
- mickdj 16y ago
  You raise valid criticisms, and ones we considered for some time before building the product as we did. a) Multiple proxies for demand exist, from the existing carrier-based services to portable GPS units to the use of cards swiped at the school gate in Japan and China. b) Agreed. And the people we share our go-to-market plan with agree. I make it a point to speak on the phone to several families a week. We have heard from hundreds of users directly via e-mail. There is a long road from thousands to tens of millions - we don't pretend otherwise, but we do have that road mapped out.
enjo 16y ago
Not to mention in a rather crowded space.

vineetk 16y ago

With an admitted android bias, I'm having a hard time seeing why someone would pay $5-10/mo for this, working only on IOS4, instead of using Google Latitude for free, on any number of supported devices. Latitude doesn't support the manual geofence alerts, but it does have its own automated alerts, the pros and cons of which are up for debate. For many people, though, not having to set up and curate alert settings may actually be a welcome convenience.

mickdj 16y ago
Hi, Latitude (and other friend finders) are solving a different problem. Our users (families, couples, etc.) tell us their main concerns are: 1) Privacy model: people don't want to broadcast location to everyone, or (particularly for women) have their use of such a service be known. Having adjustable privacy settings don't solve this problem. 2) Battery: As soon as you notice battery drain, users turn the service off. We believe we've solved the first (with small, closed, private groups) and the second (with sampling only when necessary). Our Android version is under development right now.