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Lets make November "Launch an App Month", who's with me?

187 points by secos ↗ HN
The past week or so has seen a number of inspirational HN threads on single founder/small group/side/part-time projects that have become successful and in some cases are supporting those people (and some have gone on to become huge).

So, with that in mind, I'm suggesting we all take the month of November and work on that side project or idea or whatever it is, with the goal of having a working application out in the wild by the end of the month.

Personally I am going through a transition right now (independent to full-time), but have 3-4 ideas that I want to implement. I'm going to pick ONE project and pledge to finish it by the end of November in whatever hours I can find. Who's with me?

Update: Some have suggested that you also get at least one Paying customer by the end of the month. I think its a great point if your goal is to have an app that helps support you. I am updating my pledge to include it.

175 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 218 ms ] thread
jonathanmarcus
We will be launching http://goodsie.com in November, though it's been in development for over a year now because of various fits and starts!

HN will work as a code for anyone who would like to try the beta :)

secos
Looks great! Good luck on the launch.
DevX101
Looks like you've done a good job getting pre-launch traction, i.e, LifeHacker profile, etc...

Any practical tips on getting pre-launch buzz?

jonathanmarcus
We have drafted off the success of Flavors.me, which is Goodsie's sister property (http://hiidef.com is the parent). Goodsie was featured on Lifehacker (which is the holy grail) because I sent a thank you email for a brief Flavors mention and the author noticed Goodsie in my email signature.

For Flavors.me, we were super lucky to get a fantastic bunch of creatives and influencers to try our beta, largely through personal connections. Just before we launched, I emailed every big blog like TechCrunch and we were able to get a ton of high quality coverage.

Only now are we just starting to work with a PR firm, so it can definitely be done by pounding the pavement.

DevX101
Jonathan, I just checked out the HiiDef team site. Looks like you have a fantastic group of talented people who actually seem pretty cool.

I'd love to setup something similar in the near future. I'm sure I'll be seeing big things from your group!

jonathanmarcus
Tx :) Great team indeed! Feel free to ask any questions about the HiiDef structure. It has its positives and negatives.
danfitch
Looks great I think it will be just enough to get people started with selling online.
wildmXranat
Looks very good. Would you mind doing a short list of differences or planned features between Goodsie and Shopify ?
tudorizer
I'd be curious to see that too. Don't be shy! :)
ollerac
Love the design.

Is there a reason why you can't charge less than $20 a month? I was hoping to set up a small shop for a friend, but they'll probably only have $80-$100 per month in revenue to start out with, so it would probably make more sense for them to go with an eBay store or something similar.

iworkforthem
Look greats.. simple to use. Hopefully it is priced nicely. Good to have alternatives to bigcartel.com and shopify.com
araneae
User interface is AMAZING. Color schemes and the default look... not so much. :)
tlack
Good idea: November Startup Sprint. Require weekly status reports from all participants and use that as a way for people to help each other out when stuck. Encourage everyone to be totally open about their idea, their research and their progress. Offer a hosting discount for NSS startups from Linode.

I'd participate I just launched my new baby last night: fanbldr.com

secos
I like your name better :)

Congrats on the launch!

smbwrs
For the future September Startup Sprint might be better, what with the alliteration and all. But, in the interest actually getting something done, I think we can let it slide this year. ;)
logicb
Count me in.. I am looking at couple of ideas myself. would you mind commenting on them @ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773435 ?
logicb
I have been procrastinating for long and want to do it this time. I was thinking of two ideas as I put in my above link and decided to work on an app for hosting the contests of fellow Startups.
zaidf
Small suggestion: change it to "Launch an App and Get ONE Paying Customer Month"
secos
A great point and completely agree. Updated post.
netmau5
Getting the first paying customer isn't going to be a watershed moment for every kind of venture. Some aren't in it for the money, others are building a foundation for what may be profitable later (re: basically everything Google does or has done).

Launching an app, for whatever the reason, is an accomplishment in itself.

zaidf
Launching an app, for whatever the reason, is an accomplishment in itself.

Absolutely. I was going by the present scene where a lot of folks seem to be able to launch something but struggle to get customers. Launch something has been hammered real well past few years. IMO upping the bar a little can help.

And yes, like Steve Blank says, if you think you got the next FB or Google, ignore every rule about making rev.

logicb
I agree with your point of "Launching an app, for whatever the reason, is an accomplishment in itself"
petercooper
Or "launch some landing pages, get someone who wants to pay for one of the apps, then build that app month" ;-)
nostrademons
But...it's NaNoWriMo that month! How are we supposed to write a novel and launch an app? ;-)
secos
I know! I was worried about that, but hey, different inspirations for different folks, right? (I think thats how that goes...)
davepeck
Perhaps you should call it NaNoAppMo?
leif
NaAppWriMo would work, but I can't say that.
Bostwick
Give the copy of your landing page a plot! There finally might be a better landing page slogan than "The easiest way to ___".
wiredfool
It was a dark and stormy landing page. Rain rolled off the roofs, gathered in the gutters and flowed over my shoes to the drain. I needed lots of things, a drink, a broad, and a gun, but first of all, I needed a mobile app to get me a place to dry off and a really first rate coffee while checking in and getting location points.

Here is that app.

ph0rque
Shoot, I'd buy it just from that prose... and I don't have a smartphone.
runevault
Glad I'm not the only one who had this reaction <_<

Denver NaNo represent \m/

lem72
It is also MOvember!
Gibbon
-29 days to write an app that can write novels in less than a day.

-1 day to write the novel.

-done.

imagem
Or 27 days to write any app, 3 days to write the novel: www.3daynovel.com

Go, go, go!

lem72
it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...

you stupid computer!

_b8r0
NaNoWriMo, MOvember and Launch an App month.

Looks like it's going to be a busy month.

whatusername
MOvember makes it easier though.. Less face to shave - saving you time every morning.
_b8r0
But you still need to shave around the MO, right?
candeira
You really only need to do that once.
dholowiski
That's simple- write an app that writes a novel!
dejv
Yesterday I launched my little project Rejose (http://www.rejose.com) it is still very basic and I am playing with different concepts and will release some improvements soon.
mr_november
Nice one, a job post aggregator and dev language trend tool. I like it. Quick UI feedback: clicking any of the top nav bar items causes the buttons to 'stutter' on the redirect (if that makes sense). OS X, chrome
dejv
Yeah, those buttons are irritating, I will get rid of them and use something else.
ptn
I'm in. Should we set a fixed date? I propose the 28th, last Sunday, so we have more time to iron out the last details and to check each other's apps.
p01nd3xt3r
I had a goal of launching 2 startups this year. I have launched my first (www.socialadmanager.com) and it is ramen profitable. I will be launching the next one around the end of november so this is really good timing.

I think we need a way to organize this such that we can offer assistance etc... to each other and at the end of Nov. everyone can reveal what the built kind of like a mini demo day. The new HN facebook group would probably be a good way for everyone that is participating to communicate.

andre
this might be an idea worth developing too. a way for independent developers to keep in touch and keep each other accountable on different products they are working on. probably closed system.
netmau5
I'm working on http://www.sparkmuse.com to aid in just this purpose. I was hoping to get it out by the end of the year, but in light of this thread I'll push for November too. The day job is brutal to side-project productivity, especially when you've to work overtime!
keeptrying
I've been thinking about this for at least 2 years.

Please:

1. Make it real time. Ie Quora-ish. 2. Create an environment in which I share with only a small set of users. This is because I would be scared that my "tweets" about my work could be tracked by someone who wants to figure out the direction I'm taking on a paritcular solution. This is strategic info I'd rather not give up. Also groups larger than 10 lose their cohesion/importance. (eg: the 300 people on your fcebook page). 3. Basically stick to tactics that are being implemented without giving up the strategy. I think that way people could learn from each other but still not give up their overall goal. 4. Some way to pledge a goal under a time frame shared by everyone would be useful. (Like this novemeber launch idea). 5. Competing teams of 10 might be another idea. That would up the ante a little more.

meinhimmel
Count me in. I have plenty of ideas, but haven't gotten started majorly in any side projects lately.
wildmXranat
Hey, If you have a couple of ideas you would like to share and allow others to develop, let us know.
meinhimmel
Alright, a few ideas of mine though are really just about learning things for me. Here's one though that I really wanted to work on, but got bogged down in exactly how to go about doing it.

I started work on a fully extensible browser. My idea was to create a bare minimum browser, then extend that with plugins created in a scripting language like LUA. The browser would only run with the plugins the user selected, so someone could use a browser that only had features they wanted and used. This was also in response to perceived bloat in current modern browsers. This was a rather large undertaking, and it never got beyond a simple browser with basic cookie management.

UrLicht
Thank you for putting this up! I have a goal to launch http://privio.net by the 18th. It's nice to get that out there - feels... official.
inovica
I'm in too. I have a few side-projects that have not been pushed, so it's about time! Thanks for the suggestion. We should help each other out as a sounding board during this too
secos
agreed. Trying to figure out a good method for all to keep in touch. Any suggestions?
inovica
Well, forums have always been good for this. Happy to host one. Maybe someone else might have a better idea. I think if we do this in a way that its visual - ie you tell other people what you're trying to achieve - then its much more likely to be done. I also like the idea that everyone is pushing forward, but as a group there will be a diverse range of skills and experiences to call upon.
the_unknown
AFter a year or so of lurking I've decided to finally create an account on HackerNews just to say... "Count me in"
mping
I've created a (publicly) shared google docs for tracking who's launching what, here's the link:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoLJFombeWOmdFpPcVV...

I've took the liberty of adding two entries, haven't add my own since I'm still developing, not sure if I can launch by November.

tlack
Give us edit access!
mping
Sorry, I thought it was editable by default. Some people said that google docs are not really suited for this, so I nuked the doc.
baddox
And we'll all have some additional spare time since we won't be shaving during the month.
bricestacey
I pledge to launch a web app allowing mobile access to library accounts. Libraries will be able to create branded portals for their patrons. I will focus my attention first on an open source integrated library system such as Koha or Evergreen (primarily so there is no conflict of interest with my current place of employment).

How I'll do this while juggling work, school, another startup, and a girlfriend I do not know.

thehodge
Will def. be doing this... can someone hold us to it?
wildmXranat
I'm in. Let's build some structure on how we'll report and share information as well. Honestly, I don't have anything in mind at the moment, but I'm open to grabbing a simple idea off of someone else.
ssebro
It would be nice if we had a google form signup, so we could keep track of one another and what we are working on.
ritonlajoie
Hey let's open a google wave to keep in tou ... what ?
eogas
Hmm, looks like they shut Google wave down. I'd like to give them a piece of my mind! I'll just use GOOG-411 to ca...wha?!
golgo13
Not a problem. Join me in Google Lively where we can... wait a minute.
secos
I've bought startupmonth.org to house a forum or something. Any thoughts on what should be there?
w-ll
dispora --- just kidding... but a mailing list imho would be the best. Fuck facebook groups and google doc sheets. a mailing list is the only thing this idea needs to get organized.
hopeless
Why not a posterous blog? I've setup one for private tracking of my progress and you get the best of both worlds.