6 ms·

We built this to help you launch apps for the November Startup Sprint

76 points by ryanwaggoner 16y ago

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
We've been building this project for the last month or so and thought that the November startup sprint (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773398 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773398) would be a great place to test it out. We've lined up great content from some of HN's best authors, like Tom Preston-Werner (mojombo), Patrick McKenzie (patio11), and George Grellas (grellas). You know that thing about how not being embarrassed means you launched too late? Yeah, well, this isn't perfect and we know it, but we're super excited to launch it and start iterating. Please check it out and let us know what you think. We'll be releasing more features in the next few days, but today is November 1st so we wanted to get it out there.
- jasonlotito 16y ago
  The mailing start tomorrow, Nov 2?
  - ryanwaggoner 16y ago
    Yeah, the actual lessons start tomorrow morning and go out weekdays, so you'll get a total of 21 of them.
    - jasonlotito 16y ago
      Thanks! I know, sounds like an obvious question, but far too often, people doing mailings forget a few things. 1. Time is relative. "Tomorrow" isn't clear. I don't trust that "tomorrow" is relative to when I signed up for it (even in this case, where I knew the launch date of the site). 2. If someone signs up for a mailing list/newsletter like this, it's best if you send them the most current newsletter. When I sign up for a newsletter like this, I want to read what you are writing. So please, send me something to read. But yes, thanks for the info. =)
inovica 16y ago
Nice one Ryan. I've been thinking of a few projects, but I've got one that I would really like to just get started on and get completed. I'll have a look at this and hopefully it can give me the incentive (kick!?) to get this done and get it out there :)
djblue2009 16y ago
nice, just signed up. Looking forward to it.
bgrins 16y ago
Thanks, I signed up. I am working on a project for generating CSS sprites in the browser without any file uploads. I'm a little confused about what exactly I share with the emails. It says there will be three links, and I click on one that records my progress. Are these goals I set up myself? Am I sharing this with anybody who wants to see it, or is it just something to use to stay motivated as an individual? I am definitely interested to see how it works.
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  The emails just ask you if you're on track for launch at the end of the month. It's hard to get any more specific than that since everyone is doing something completely different and will be at different places. That data will be surfaced to you in every email, so you'll see your streak of making positive daily progress and hopefully that'll keep you motivated. In the next week or so, we'll offer you the option of declaring what your project is and making those progress updates public, so people can help keep each other motivated. Just working out a few issues with that feature though... We hope you enjoy it, and email me at ryan at 21times dot org if you have any questions or problems.
bry 16y ago
Exactly the motivation I needed to get up off my butt and start coding furiously, instead of planning and guessing for months on end. Thanks!
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  This is exactly what we're hoping for; you just made my day :) Let me know if you have any issues or if there's any way we can help you in your quest.
blntechie 16y ago
I may not be an exact fit into group of people launching an app by end of november. But I'm learning Django and Python now and I pledge to build an app (public or private) before this month.
- vinc 16y ago
  With Django it is really doable to think about launching something before the end of November!
- sahillavingia 16y ago
  You can do it! I've built and launched two web apps and I just started. Shameless plugs abound [1] [2]! [1] - http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/26/reworder-a-tale-of-learning-python-and-launching-an-app-in-five-days/ http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/26/reworder-a-tale-of-... [2] - http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/24/rmmbr-my-1-hour-app/ http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/24/rmmbr-my-1-hour-app...
  - blntechie 16y ago
    Thanks. I'm seriously looking for an idea. I should get started in 2-3 days when my new laptop arrives. Hopefully I'm decided with what I'm building before that.
follower 16y ago
I liked seeing the "Not interested in building with us? Tell us why" but then saw it was an email link rather than a feedback form. FWIW having to use email for feedback is a disincentive for me (I guess partly because I have to copy & paste the address into a different browser that I use for email). You might want to consider using a feedback form instead. Oh, and as much as it seems obvious in hindsight, it didn't occur to me to "click on the image" to see the sample--I just assumed the image was all there was to see so I was left wondering "how does it work?" even after reading the FAQ.
- brasmusen 16y ago
  Hey, I'm one of the programmers working on this project. We actually have a feedback form ready to go, we just ran out of testing time before the launch today. We'll be pushing that change in the next couple of days. Thanks for the feedback!
  - follower 16y ago
    "Hacker News is my feedback form." :)
adaml_623 16y ago
"You'll start receiving your daily lessons tomorrow?" That's a bit condescending to my ears? Might want to work on that tone. You don't want to imply that you're giving something to people that they should be grateful for. I guess you'd better work on the actual application as well. What technology and framework are you using?
lusis 16y ago
Gotta love that bluecoat blocks it as "adult content". That looks good on the monthly report.
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Odd; we just registered the domain and we've really tried to keep the porn to a minimum, so... :)
- brasmusen 16y ago
  We don't want any kids building awesome apps. :)
  - lusis 16y ago
    It's just the hammer approach to security as opposed to the scalpel approach.
angelbob 16y ago
There's also a bunch of us that are building November Apps that are using Alex Muir's kickuptheass.com. It's also for daily reminders and group status sharing. Hard to say yet if this is a complementary service or in competition. In the mean time, I plan to use both :-)
tjsnyder 16y ago
I really love that HN is working on a NaNoWriMo for software this month. I had been planning on doing this all last month in conjunction with my room mate and calling it NaSoWriMo while he worked on his novel. Personally, I am starting out on two small projects that are being built quickly and will hopefully have reasonable traffic by the end of the month as the goal. This is in preparation for larger projects down the road.
wildmXranat 16y ago
So I enrolled for the November push and signed up for the Facebook group, all be it with a pseudonym, but I seriously fail to see the reason for the few sites that try to track and motivate me. With all due respect, the task sums up as a finger exercise and leaves me wanting more. What is it that we need that a FB group can't do? Yes, that seems amateurish, but it does the job.
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  It might not be for everybody, and maybe you won't find it useful, but give it a shot and let us know. I've found tracking my progress on habits and goals to be motivating, and I've also found it helpful to have a friend keep me accountable. Imagine the Seinfeld Method [1], but social. 1. http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...
fourfour 16y ago
Great idea. I look forward to pushing hard for the next month with you guys.
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Super excited to be on board! Please, please let us know of anything that we can do to help you succeed!
bmelton 16y ago
I'm pondering the idea of launching for the Sprint (this MIGHT be the first I've heard of it) -- but after I saw the list of 'speakers', I signed up just to receive the emails, if nothing else. I have to say though, this IS a good idea, and is encouraging.
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Awesome! I hope you get some good utility out of it. Just to be 100% clear and avoid disappointment, this isn't original / exclusive content written just for us; we're not quite there yet :). However, I've been a voracious HN reader for two years and I missed at least half of these articles, and the other half were good reminders.
  - bmelton 16y ago
    Are you going to catalog / rate the apps that get submitted, ala Rails Rumble? That would be exciting, I think.
    - ryanwaggoner 16y ago
      Absolutely...we have a bunch of fun stuff coming in this vein in the next week or two.
samratjp 16y ago
Is there a twitter account associated with it?
- stevederico 16y ago
  you can follow us at @21timesorg

76 points by ryanwaggoner 16y ago

We've been building this project for the last month or so and thought that the November startup sprint (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773398 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773398) would be a great place to test it out. We've lined up great content from some of HN's best authors, like Tom Preston-Werner (mojombo), Patrick McKenzie (patio11), and George Grellas (grellas). You know that thing about how not being embarrassed means you launched too late? Yeah, well, this isn't perfect and we know it, but we're super excited to launch it and start iterating. Please check it out and let us know what you think. We'll be releasing more features in the next few days, but today is November 1st so we wanted to get it out there.

jasonlotito 16y ago
The mailing start tomorrow, Nov 2?
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Yeah, the actual lessons start tomorrow morning and go out weekdays, so you'll get a total of 21 of them.
  - jasonlotito 16y ago
    Thanks! I know, sounds like an obvious question, but far too often, people doing mailings forget a few things. 1. Time is relative. "Tomorrow" isn't clear. I don't trust that "tomorrow" is relative to when I signed up for it (even in this case, where I knew the launch date of the site). 2. If someone signs up for a mailing list/newsletter like this, it's best if you send them the most current newsletter. When I sign up for a newsletter like this, I want to read what you are writing. So please, send me something to read. But yes, thanks for the info. =)

inovica 16y ago

Nice one Ryan. I've been thinking of a few projects, but I've got one that I would really like to just get started on and get completed. I'll have a look at this and hopefully it can give me the incentive (kick!?) to get this done and get it out there :)

djblue2009 16y ago

nice, just signed up. Looking forward to it.

bgrins 16y ago

Thanks, I signed up. I am working on a project for generating CSS sprites in the browser without any file uploads. I'm a little confused about what exactly I share with the emails. It says there will be three links, and I click on one that records my progress. Are these goals I set up myself? Am I sharing this with anybody who wants to see it, or is it just something to use to stay motivated as an individual? I am definitely interested to see how it works.

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
The emails just ask you if you're on track for launch at the end of the month. It's hard to get any more specific than that since everyone is doing something completely different and will be at different places. That data will be surfaced to you in every email, so you'll see your streak of making positive daily progress and hopefully that'll keep you motivated. In the next week or so, we'll offer you the option of declaring what your project is and making those progress updates public, so people can help keep each other motivated. Just working out a few issues with that feature though... We hope you enjoy it, and email me at ryan at 21times dot org if you have any questions or problems.

bry 16y ago

Exactly the motivation I needed to get up off my butt and start coding furiously, instead of planning and guessing for months on end. Thanks!

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
This is exactly what we're hoping for; you just made my day :) Let me know if you have any issues or if there's any way we can help you in your quest.

blntechie 16y ago

I may not be an exact fit into group of people launching an app by end of november. But I'm learning Django and Python now and I pledge to build an app (public or private) before this month.

vinc 16y ago
With Django it is really doable to think about launching something before the end of November!
sahillavingia 16y ago
You can do it! I've built and launched two web apps and I just started. Shameless plugs abound [1] [2]! [1] - http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/26/reworder-a-tale-of-learning-python-and-launching-an-app-in-five-days/ http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/26/reworder-a-tale-of-... [2] - http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/24/rmmbr-my-1-hour-app/ http://sahillavingia.com/blog/2010/10/24/rmmbr-my-1-hour-app...
- blntechie 16y ago
  Thanks. I'm seriously looking for an idea. I should get started in 2-3 days when my new laptop arrives. Hopefully I'm decided with what I'm building before that.

follower 16y ago

I liked seeing the "Not interested in building with us? Tell us why" but then saw it was an email link rather than a feedback form. FWIW having to use email for feedback is a disincentive for me (I guess partly because I have to copy & paste the address into a different browser that I use for email). You might want to consider using a feedback form instead. Oh, and as much as it seems obvious in hindsight, it didn't occur to me to "click on the image" to see the sample--I just assumed the image was all there was to see so I was left wondering "how does it work?" even after reading the FAQ.

brasmusen 16y ago
Hey, I'm one of the programmers working on this project. We actually have a feedback form ready to go, we just ran out of testing time before the launch today. We'll be pushing that change in the next couple of days. Thanks for the feedback!
- follower 16y ago
  "Hacker News is my feedback form." :)

adaml_623 16y ago

"You'll start receiving your daily lessons tomorrow?" That's a bit condescending to my ears? Might want to work on that tone. You don't want to imply that you're giving something to people that they should be grateful for. I guess you'd better work on the actual application as well. What technology and framework are you using?

lusis 16y ago

Gotta love that bluecoat blocks it as "adult content". That looks good on the monthly report.

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
Odd; we just registered the domain and we've really tried to keep the porn to a minimum, so... :)
brasmusen 16y ago
We don't want any kids building awesome apps. :)
- lusis 16y ago
  It's just the hammer approach to security as opposed to the scalpel approach.

angelbob 16y ago

There's also a bunch of us that are building November Apps that are using Alex Muir's kickuptheass.com. It's also for daily reminders and group status sharing. Hard to say yet if this is a complementary service or in competition. In the mean time, I plan to use both :-)

tjsnyder 16y ago

I really love that HN is working on a NaNoWriMo for software this month. I had been planning on doing this all last month in conjunction with my room mate and calling it NaSoWriMo while he worked on his novel. Personally, I am starting out on two small projects that are being built quickly and will hopefully have reasonable traffic by the end of the month as the goal. This is in preparation for larger projects down the road.

wildmXranat 16y ago

So I enrolled for the November push and signed up for the Facebook group, all be it with a pseudonym, but I seriously fail to see the reason for the few sites that try to track and motivate me. With all due respect, the task sums up as a finger exercise and leaves me wanting more. What is it that we need that a FB group can't do? Yes, that seems amateurish, but it does the job.

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
It might not be for everybody, and maybe you won't find it useful, but give it a shot and let us know. I've found tracking my progress on habits and goals to be motivating, and I've also found it helpful to have a friend keep me accountable. Imagine the Seinfeld Method [1], but social. 1. http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...

fourfour 16y ago

Great idea. I look forward to pushing hard for the next month with you guys.

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
Super excited to be on board! Please, please let us know of anything that we can do to help you succeed!

bmelton 16y ago

I'm pondering the idea of launching for the Sprint (this MIGHT be the first I've heard of it) -- but after I saw the list of 'speakers', I signed up just to receive the emails, if nothing else. I have to say though, this IS a good idea, and is encouraging.

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
Awesome! I hope you get some good utility out of it. Just to be 100% clear and avoid disappointment, this isn't original / exclusive content written just for us; we're not quite there yet :). However, I've been a voracious HN reader for two years and I missed at least half of these articles, and the other half were good reminders.
- bmelton 16y ago
  Are you going to catalog / rate the apps that get submitted, ala Rails Rumble? That would be exciting, I think.
  - ryanwaggoner 16y ago
    Absolutely...we have a bunch of fun stuff coming in this vein in the next week or two.

samratjp 16y ago

Is there a twitter account associated with it?

stevederico 16y ago
you can follow us at @21timesorg