We're about to launch digitalpigeon.com, what should we do before hand?

[Dan Washusen]

Hey all,

After a stupendous amount of work we're getting ready to officially launch our app and switch to a paid system.  Up until this point we've been working off word of mouth to get people using and testing our app, which has worked out pretty well (we started with roughly 200 friends and colleagues and we're now up to about 5K mostly thanks to Gus and the viral nature of the app). In the last week we've had a few meetings with some of our local users to get any last minute feedback and overall they'll really happy with what we've built.  Now it's time to break out of that network and try and reach a wider audience.

So, my questions - I'm curious to hear from those who've gone before us, what should we be thinking about? Is there anything that you found to work well or that you wish you'd done differently? How and who should we approach in the media?  Any pertinent videos we should watch or blog posts we should read?

Also, if you have a spare 5 minutes please check out the staging site, we'd love your feedback.

Address: https://dev.digitalpigeon.com 

Testing credit card details:

Name on card: Testing Test

Number: 4444 3333 2222 1111

Thanks in advance,

Dan

p.s. We're currently working on a new landing page and a super snazzy video (thanks to the guys @ smallwerld.com and xyzstudios.com) that does a better job of selling our app.

[Dan Washusen]

Sorry, that test credit card number (obviously) doesn't work when pointing at the *real* payment gateway... 

-- 
Dan Washusen

Make big files fly

visit digitalpigeon.com

[Alwin Chin]

Hi Dan,

This looks like a really promising app.

Does this system replace an already existing email interface such as gmail or Outlook (tsk tsk tsk)? Or is it built for integration via plugins etc?

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Best regards,

Alwin Chin

[Dan Washusen]

Hi Alwin, 

Thanks for the feedback.

The app essentially replaces a work flow process of:

• Create files that are too big to email
• Open an an email client, attach the files and send the email
• A little while latter, a bounce will come back saying mailbox full
• Upload files to a FTP server
• While waiting for the files to uploaded, open an email client and write an email to with instructions on how to log in the an FTP server and download a bunch of files
• Wait for FTP upload to complete
• Switch back to your email client and hit send
• Several hours later an email will arrive back asking what an FTP is…
• Possibly a phone call or email to figure out what they actually downloaded

We've boiled that down to:

• Create files that are too big to email
• Open the Digital Pigeon app and drag on the files
• Enter the recipients, a summary and maybe a message and hit send
• Once it's uploaded we send out emails to the recipients with a link to download the files
• The sender receives notifications via email/iphone/desktop that the files have been downloaded and by whom

In the end that's what the majority of our target audience wanted, we even stuck with email terminology so as not to over complicate it…  On top of this the desktop app can be controlled by Automator so that users can hook it into other apps (e.g. a render that takes several hours can be sent while they are sleeping).

We also add a bunch of other features (like the ability to strongly brand the download page), that all assist in solving that problem.

So to answer your question, all three of the clients (web, iPhone and desktop) talk through the same REST API, we plan on opening that up the API to users once we've written up some decent doco for it (and invented a human cloning machine).  So there's nothing stopping us (or our users) from making plugins if that's something they need...

Cheers,

-- 
Dan Washusen

Make big files fly

visit digitalpigeon.com

[damianharvey]

Have you thought about allowing the recipients to start downloading
while the file is uploading? Sites like http://ge.tt do this.

I would think that they have to customise the HTTP server to allow it
to send out the bytes from the stream as it is uploaded. Either that
or chunk it.

> visit digitalpigeon.com (http://digitalpigeon.com)

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, 8 February 2012 at 11:39 PM, Alwin Chin wrote:
> > Hi Dan,
>
> > This looks like a really promising app.
>
> > Does this system replace an already existing email interface such as gmail or Outlook (tsk tsk tsk)? Or is it built for integration via plugins etc?
>

> > On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 11:28 PM, Dan Washusen <d...@reactive.org (mailto:d...@reactive.org)> wrote:
> > > Sorry, that test credit card number (obviously) doesn't work when pointing at the *real* payment gateway...
>
> > > --
> > > Dan Washusen
> > > Make big files fly

> > > visit digitalpigeon.com (http://digitalpigeon.com)

>
> > > On Wednesday, 8 February 2012 at 8:04 PM, Dan Washusen wrote:
>
> > > > Hey all,

> > > > After a stupendous amount of work we're getting ready to officially launch our app and switch to a paid system.  Up until this point we've been working off word of mouth to get people using and testing our app, which has worked out pretty well (we started with roughly 200 friends and colleagues and we're now up to about 5K mostly thanks to Gus (http://twitter.com/gusjohnston) and the viral nature of the app). In the last week we've had a few meetings with some of our local users to get any last minute feedback and overall they'll really happy with what we've built.  Now it's time to break out of that network and try and reach a wider audience.

>
> > > > So, my questions - I'm curious to hear from those who've gone before us, what should we be thinking about? Is there anything that you found to work well or that you wish you'd done differently? How and who should we approach in the media?  Any pertinent videos we should watch or blog posts we should read?
>
> > > > Also, if you have a spare 5 minutes please check out the staging site, we'd love your feedback.
> > > > Address:https://dev.digitalpigeon.com
> > > > Testing credit card details:
> > > > > Name on card: Testing Test
> > > > > Number: 4444 3333 2222 1111
>
> > > > Thanks in advance,
> > > > Dan
>

> > > > p.s. We're currently working on a new landing page and a super snazzy video (thanks to the guys @ smallwerld.com (http://smallwerld.com) and xyzstudios.com (http://xyzstudios.com/)) that does a better job of selling our app.
>
> > > --
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Visthttp://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more

>
> > > Forum rules
> > > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself.

> > > 2) No jobs postings. You can usehttp://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs

>
> > > To post to this group, send email to

> > > silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com (mailto:silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com)

> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > > silicon-beach-aus...@googlegroups.com (mailto:silicon-beach-australia%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com)

> > > For more options, visit this group at
> > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
>
> > --
> > Best regards,
> > Alwin Chin
>
> > --

> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Visthttp://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more

>
> > Forum rules
> > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself.

> > 2) No jobs postings. You can usehttp://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs

>
> > To post to this group, send email to

> > silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com (mailto:silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com)

> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > silicon-beach-aus...@googlegroups.com (mailto:silicon-beach-aus...@googlegroups.com)

[Geoff McQueen | AffinityLive]

Damian,

Part of me likes that idea, part of me worries that is an engineer seeing something cool and solving a problem the customer doesn't have. Both of me is probably wrong; I'd suggest using some fake doors[1] to test whether people are interested in it (like a checkbox on the upload which says for a premium they can download as you upload, and explain it is coming soon)

Geoff

[1] OK, so I can't find a reference and video from http://www.parisoma.com/2011/05/ignite-lean-startup, but it means showing a feature and measuring how many time people click on it. If they don't click/activate, they don't care. Much cheaper than building it to find that out. 

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--

Geoff McQueen

CEO

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Skype: geoffmcqueen
GTalk: geoff....@gmail.com

[Dan Washusen]

Thanks for the feedback Damian.  

We have the ability for recipients to download files as they become available (they could even monitor the upload progress) but we don't expose it.  We constantly have to remind ourselves of our target audience - the senders (our customers) are usually semi-tech savvy but the recipients are probably not (e.g. a photographer sending files to a client).

I'd also suggest that although it's technically possible to allow downloading of partially uploaded files it wouldn't work in practice.  HTTP post [1] is a horrendous way to transfer files, especially large files and especially when uploading from geographically diverse locations.  All to often the connection will drop out and the upload will fail - we spent a lot of effort and a LONG time refining the system we have (we seriously underestimated this part of our app) and we still see dropouts (although an overall failure is unlikely)...

[1] The new HTML5 FileAPI stuff and the ability to read chunks of a file will go a long way to solve this but it's still really only supported by Chrome.

[Roger Barnes]

Fake doors video: http://vimeo.com/24744647

Found via: http://nelsoncheng.com/blog/detail/fake_doors_a_b_testing_and_instincts/

- Rog

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 5:32 PM, Geoff McQueen | AffinityLive <geoff....@affinitylive.com> wrote: