The Story of My Startup.

I'd suggest you put a sample animation of the type of result people would get on your site on the front page. I don't think the intro text "your life in pictures" explains it well enough, but if people see even just a 5 frame animation they'll immediately recognize the concept. In fact, I'd stick the picture taking app on the front page and allow them to take a first snapshot before even signing up. Having the first picture there would provide a great incentive to follow through with the sign-up.<p>Also, if I may, and I know from experience it's harder than it sounds: It seems your concept got way more complex over time, when you really should have launched the simplest possible version as fast as possible and worried about widgets, following, minifeeds, comments, a proper logo etc. later on. Cool that you're online now though, good luck with everything!

I think this is a very promising idea.<p>I think the idea of an embeddable widget that flips through all your photos (like the videos you describe that inspired the site) would be really cool. I think if a widget like this is done right you could get some good viral growth from MySpace.<p>I'd think about capitalizing as much as possible on the timelapse concept and stray away from being just another photo sharing site. Right now, users profiles are just a feed of images, which doesn't seem that compelling..

Great work, but ... looks like an example of completely missing the basics of the customer needs. Do we really need good design to start taking shots? Think about us already missing a year of pictures. Sorry for making it sound sharp.

Hi I have to ask because this is the third startup I've seen recently like this - what do <i>you</i> do for the startup? What value do you add? I'm not meaning to be impolite but you hire a designer to design, a developer to develop, someone else is funding it... So you bring the idea, management and evangelising?

Congrats on the launch. Most entrepreneurs know the feeling of missing deadlines badly ;)<p>It's such a good concept, honestly, I would pay for a private one for my friends and family. The site didn't make it clear if privacy was possible.

One little issue I found. On the user pages if you click 'daily booth' you get sent to /dashboard (even though I have not created an account or logged in): <a href="http://ul.mikeyur.com/public/sk/Fullscreen-20090212-232617.png" rel="nofollow">http://ul.mikeyur.com/public/sk/Fullscreen-20090212-232617.p...</a><p>And when you get sent to /dashboard while not logged in you get a little error: <a href="http://ul.mikeyur.com/public/sk/Minefield-20090212-232757.png" rel="nofollow">http://ul.mikeyur.com/public/sk/Minefield-20090212-232757.pn...</a>

Look at twitter... how long was that around before any attempt at monetisation emerged?

Where's the business model?

Awesome story, well done, and great execution. Site looks good. Don't listen to all the naysayers about monetization. It is important (the most important thing), but if you are living/breathing/eating your business, you will come up with proper revenue channels. I'm sure of it. Good luck.

Thanks for sharing and being open about all the problems you encountered. Launching an application is definitely not easy, nothing takes as long as you hope it will (even if you pad for unexpected problems) and it's really hard to declare something "done." Congrats on your launch.

This is awesome. It's great to hear a story that isn't just "we did this, and bam, we launched and either a) lost all our money or b) we made $200m in the first day" :)

whoa, it's the guy that made grabup -- love that application (amusingly I emailed them a few months ago asking to advertise (paid) on their site -- never got a reply)<p>great story, will be sure to track his blog and progress. Great to see awesome projects from fellow brits :)

Great story Jon, I really enjoyed the read and found it quite inspirational. The launch video at the end with the music was classic, especially the 404 at launch and the music running out!<p>Best of luck with the site, looks like a lot of hard work has gone into it.

Great read. Congrats on the launch.

Kudos on the launch. Looks really great. :)<p>Is there anyone else doing this? Just curious.

I like it.<p>One thing: I can't find a way to delete my account in the settings panel.

Thanks for sharing, very candid and interesting.

the date on your site is 13th February 2009+1900