I'd like to offer an observation about the copy at <a href="http://www.pigeonpic.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.pigeonpic.com</a>. The larger slogan, "Never lose touch with friends and family", is vague. The smaller one, "Send photographs through the mail with just a text message", is specific. It makes clear what you offer and also that there is a concrete service here instead of just another smarmy social site. If I were you, I'd drop the first one and put the second in its place. Then the clear copy and the sentimental photo would complement each other nicely.<p>I'd also make the one-two-three diagram much larger, i.e. make it the width of the banner. It does a good job of explaining what the original line means. To judge by all the sites out there that can't seem to state simply what they do, that is nothing to sneeze at. If you can get users to read that far until it clicks, you'll be way ahead of most.<p>Of course you can test all of this.<p>p.s. One thing remains unclear: how do you get the address to mail the printed photos to?
Congrats on launching. I built a similar idea and found it to not be profitable:<p><a href="http://babygra.ms" rel="nofollow">http://babygra.ms</a><p>If you figure out how to make this profitable, when you consider printing costs and marketing costs, please share! Long story short, I found you have to give people one for free, and this kills your margins. Send me an e-mail if you want an Excel spreadsheet that proves this :)<p>I posted some details here:<p><a href="https://t.co/w2r59Ah6LN" rel="nofollow">https://t.co/w2r59Ah6LN</a>
OP, if you chose the current title for your HN submission you should be aware that in some countries "Fuck Ya" will be read as "Fuck You". I think you mean "Fuck Yeah"?
Congrats on shipping quickly!<p>Small nitpick - Twilio does offer MMS, but you have to have a shortcode in US: <a href="https://www.twilio.com/mms" rel="nofollow">https://www.twilio.com/mms</a><p>It's a hefty monetary commitment, so for the purposes of this story Twilio does not offer something compelling, but if you have the $$$ it's a solid service.
> So after I launched this product I had more orders in the first 24 hours than I did in total with my startup that took over a year to develop.<p>Can you please elaborate on what you did to get orders? I would think it would be many times harder to get a first order from someone you don't know, than writing the app.
Nice app. However, slow development time is not necessarily a bad thing. If you can develop an app in 2 weeks, it most likely means someone else can easily clone the same app. Whereas if you need 1+ years to develop it, it's likely not as likely to be duplicated (ie. there are actual technical barriers)
6 weeks: <a href="http://multiplayerchess.com" rel="nofollow">http://multiplayerchess.com</a><p>built it 3 years ago after I had quit my job and came to SF
This is a pretty cool idea and I applaud the rapid execution.<p>That being said, you could have tested this idea out without building any tech at all by using your own phone number for texts and manually printing and shipping photos.<p>Then if the idea took off and you could no longer manually keep up with the orders you'd know you have a winner.
I like it! It seems similar to an idea pitched on Shark Tank recently.<p>I wanted to mention a hiccup in the sign up experience. After signing up, I received an SMS which said to reply "Y" to receive messages from Pigeon. Upon replying "Y", in addition to the 2-part welcome message, I received a 2-part message saying that Pigeon couldn't recognize the receiver for a picture.
So I got to the page, and read the overall blog title, and thought the article was going to go a different way.<p>Was pleased that it turned out so well, sounds like a great idea -- I know there are companies (for example the one that recently was on the shark tank tv show) that are looking in this space, and I think the process that you've just pointed out is way easier than what they offer
I think this is how it should be done. Get something super rough and functional to market as soon as possible. I've been taking the same approach to micro-portal sites I've been building and launching the last month. In my first month from 2 sites I made $125 from Google Ad revenue. Essentially I build aggregation sites that rewrite the content based on multiple sources, sometimes even improving the original source by using multiple angels for the same content. The result is 2 highly ranking Wordpress sites that get first page priority for some big keywords.<p>It might not be the most logical for an app you have to build, but I think getting something out super unpolished that works is a great way to get to market early. People think you need massive teams, business plans and a strategy, but all you need to do is release something. I made the same mistake on a project I've been building for 7 years and counting, I'm not sure I'll even ever release it.
Semi-related, but if you want to print a lot of pics, it's probably just worth it to buy a printer. I just bought this one: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PRO-100-Professional-Inkjet-Printer/dp/B0095F5BCS" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PRO-100-Professional-Inkjet-Prin...</a> and I'm pretty happy with it. It supports Apple's AirPrint so you can print from iPhone/iPad on your local LAN/WiFi. Good quality prints and a bunch of rebates on this one if you dig around.
You may be able to spread more virally if people don't enter the recipients details into your app, and it may make it easier on everybody.<p>This is definitely a "maybe", you'll have to do the research.<p>If you just have the recipients phone number and the photo, you can send a photo MMS to the recipient saying "x bought a printed version of this photo with PigeonPic. We need your address to send this photo".<p>Just an idea, you'll need to work on it, but I know, I don't have people's mailing addresses.
The image on the homepage makes me think this family is running for their lives from a horde of zombies, but seem fairly happy about it. Gotta love stock photography.
Wow, this is a pretty sweet idea. Nice execution! I could certainly see using this.<p>I keep hoping I'll have an idea like yours that just pops into my head and I run with it.
This is something I could see using from time to time with friends as a sort of fun lark or joke.<p>So you may not want to rule out younger users from your market. Imagine it, for example, being marketed to heavy instagram users. The branding is all different, but given that you already have the core product, it would be trivial to buy a second domain and create a new skin of the site for this audience.
Deja Vu for me. I built and shipped a really similar app in 2 weeks last Dec (aim was 1 week but took 2 weeks eventually).
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wish-gift-never-forget-special/id586470540?mt=8" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wish-gift-never-forget-speci...</a>
Good Job! Execution is everything, and shipping a Product in 2 Weeks is AWESOME! It sounds like you are on the right path, executing fast and getting traction. Keep it up! Make sure to check back in with the customers and use their feedback (I think you know that already after reading your Blog)
Immediately thought of @stammy and <a href="https://www.picplum.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.picplum.com/</a>. Kind of like an app version. Good luck!
Wow, that actually sounds like a fantastic idea. I can see this being very useful, especially if you add the ability to pre-purchase prints in discounted packages.