So what do you get when you combine a billion dollar company (Instagram) with a $500 million company (Pinterest)?
The background:
My cofounder Brandon and I were having a discussion on startup pitches, especially the ones that go “we’re an X for Y” and thought a hilarious VC pitch would be “we’re a Pinterest for Instagram”. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I liked Instagram, and this was a real need for me. There was nothing like it out there that I would use. So last weekend I decided I would make it a weekend project.
I spent a few hours putting something together using my design and front end skills. I was able to show the popular feed in a Pinterest-like UI. I showed this to Brandon which quickly convinced him this was a good idea and together we started clobbering together the project. By the end of the weekend we had something that basically worked. You could log in with your Instagram id and view your feeds, your photos, what’s popular and search.
For those of you interested in how it was made. It’s a very simple Ruby and Sinatra app. It doesn’t even have a database. The front end was built on Twitter Bootstrap. Haters can hate me for not building the html from scratch but I prefer to build my house using off-the-shelf tools instead of having to go and chop wood in the forest. The Pinterest style layout was built using Masonry, a very useful jQuery plugin.
Why is that? They knew what they typing. I get the humor and the purpose behind it, and the outside box thinking. I should have thought about something like that myself.
I fail to understand what one has to do with another. They havent been covered, fact. Like any other startup I am sure they want to be covered. In the meanwhile they stepped outside of the box when asking "is there any other way we could use their logos without lying to people we've been covered". and viola!
This thread contains no criticism of that decision. Your defense is unnecessary. Relax, understand that text is a poor medium for emotions and notice that the comment that lead to your first reply could very well be interpreted as "Nice idea, but with the coverage on HN they might need to edit that soon, because they'll soon be covered _now_".
It was, for all I can tell, a friendly and humorous remark. I really think you just misunderstood the tone/intentions.
I used to work and train (Wushu) with Pek back in the day (at POW Kung Fu in Chicago). It's great to see a genuinely nice guy doing something that could be very very big.
Yep. That seems like a lifetime ago. I'm glad to see you're keeping busy. I also blogged about Pinstagram's signup experience and UI just now. Hopefully that gives you guys an additional boost.
Yeah, I can appreciate the spirit of it, but I think the "not featured on" could be a little more prominent. Heck, I think it might even add to the joke a bit because some people would still end up just scanning and say "Oh wow, TechCrunch!"
too bad I can't click on those now. now, they look fake to me. if you were "featured", I want to click on the logo and be redirected to the website. please fix those.
I showed it to my female friends who use Instagram and Pinterest like it's nobodies business, and they absolutely love it. Only problem is logout is wonky.
34 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 94.9 ms ] threadSo what do you get when you combine a billion dollar company (Instagram) with a $500 million company (Pinterest)?
The background: My cofounder Brandon and I were having a discussion on startup pitches, especially the ones that go “we’re an X for Y” and thought a hilarious VC pitch would be “we’re a Pinterest for Instagram”. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I liked Instagram, and this was a real need for me. There was nothing like it out there that I would use. So last weekend I decided I would make it a weekend project.
I spent a few hours putting something together using my design and front end skills. I was able to show the popular feed in a Pinterest-like UI. I showed this to Brandon which quickly convinced him this was a good idea and together we started clobbering together the project. By the end of the weekend we had something that basically worked. You could log in with your Instagram id and view your feeds, your photos, what’s popular and search.
For those of you interested in how it was made. It’s a very simple Ruby and Sinatra app. It doesn’t even have a database. The front end was built on Twitter Bootstrap. Haters can hate me for not building the html from scratch but I prefer to build my house using off-the-shelf tools instead of having to go and chop wood in the forest. The Pinterest style layout was built using Masonry, a very useful jQuery plugin.
I chuckled out loud.
It was, for all I can tell, a friendly and humorous remark. I really think you just misunderstood the tone/intentions.
Good luck Pek!
Smart move of a hackerish spirit :)
anyways, i love the idea!
Would like to know what problem you're having with Logout. @shiftb or email is on my profile.
Missing permalinks tho. I'd like to be able to visit /#!/nickname and see a user profile directly, for example.
Anyway, loving it!
What is the objective? Or simply a side project?
Do both parties allow this? There are a few game apps where playing via your PC is breaching terms of use.