Treehouse launches (YC S08) | Hacker News Reader

Treehouse launches (YC S08)

techcrunch.com

79 pointschrysb29 comments

A while ago, when these guys told me about their idea, I thought it was completely stupid. Another photo sharing service? But I went along with their beta and after using it for a few days with a group of friends, it started to become addictive.

I realized a couple weeks later that it was changing the way I was communicating with friends. Whenever I was doing something interesting, I'd snap a photo, add a witty title, and send it to Treehouse. Because it's a private group, it feels very different than using Twitter or Facebook. And because it requires a photo, it's a richer experience.

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but something about this app is really cool. Especially if a group of your close friends are also using it.

<i>Especially if a group of your close friends are also using it.</i>

I think a lot of the value is there. Unfortunately only a small subset of my friends use iPhones. All of them use Facebook however.

Mike, this is definitely true. You have to start somewhere, and we chose iPhone. You'll find Treehouse on every platform eventually, and we hope to see you there :)

Please make "eventually" mean "really soon" in the case of Android. I know it's a big time sink to develop for another platform, but I found the Android API pretty straightforward to program for. I'm really into the concept behind this app, and would love to get my friends and colleagues on board, but about half of us use Android handsets. (nb: I work for Google.)

What happens when everybody you know joins Treehouse and you have as many tree buddies as facebook friends?

Then Treehouse goes from promoting private networking to the "open social graph".

</tongue-in-cheek>

I wish the article talked about the business model. Does the app have a cost? Is there a recurring cost? Is it Ad based?

If its not free I could see it being hard to get friends to join and thus not be useful.

That sounds interesting. Are you still using it?

S08? What have they been doing all this time?

Facebook only has to implement one feature to crush this startup. Facebook Circles. Allow you finer granularity than binary public/private posts. Take a photo, pick which circle you want it published to, caption, upload.

It would be impossible for Facebook to move into this space. The average Facebook user has 130 friends and the way lists has been implemented is flawed. Facebook is also focused on their effort to take over the web and making things more public and open, so they are not inclined to focus on making things more private.

When we conceived Treehouse, we didn't say "let's create something super innovative and blow the world away", we asked "what if you could see a simple stream of your friend's mobile photos". We then decided to make a prototype and test it with a group of < 50 people. The results were astounding. People used it feverishly, and we're seeing the same exact behavior from our new users since the app has been in the store. Our user activity is growing extremely rapidly and engagement is through the roof.

It's not about innovation, it's about taking what is so blatantly obvious and making it possible. It's about addressing what people want. There's no good way to easily share photos that you take with your phone with the people that matter to you in a more intimate context.

Twitter was also a subset of a single Facebook feature.

good job chrys, looks impressive. Haven't used it yet, but happy to support.

Are you doing anything to incentivize adoption besides feature set? I see two problems here:

-Not everyone has iPhones

-People are complacent with their current social networks, if not overwhelmed.

I don't have an iPhone, so I can't check it out but doesn't it work with any social networks users might be a member of? Just using Facebook/Twitter for member profiles and Treehouse just keeping track of who you give access to within Treehouse?

Right now it works off of your contacts in your phone, but we're adding more ways to find and invite your friends like Facebook, GMail, etc. Your close friends are most likely already in another social network, and since they're open, it should be easy to cultivate that data.

We will expand beyond iPhone to every platform as quickly as we can within reason. On that note, we're hiring! http://gotreehouse.com/jobs

One of our biggest challenges will be how to fuel adoption and overcome the initial hump. We know it will take time but we are very confident in what we're building, and we'll keep iterating on ways to make it extremely easy to get your friends involved.

Once a user has 5 of their friends active, engagement takes a big leap.

There's another article that talks more about the general space/problems here: http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/06/15/treehouse-facebook-...

If treehouse lets you email photos to people who don't have the app installed, then it also lets you post photos to any service that accepts uploads by email.

Any response to "S08? What have they been doing all this time?" ?

Are you guys working on something else besides this app?

chrysb's HN profile says "CEO of Vidly"

We launched two products since YC, Fliggo and Vidly. Both of those have been phased out and now we're 100% focused on Treehouse.

P.S. I'll update my profile

You're way underestimating how deeply locked in Facebook (just as an example) is to how it handles photos. I think treehouse stands a good chance of staying differentiated for a long time.

The app is from Fliggo, which was offering an on-demand video platform if I remember correcly, which they put to use themselves in twitvid.io, later renamed vid.ly. (~Twitpic for videos)

So, all this time, they've been concentrating on that and changed direction recently. (see last paragraphs of linked article and Crunchbase for more details)

The counterpoint to that:

Treehouse only has to add 1 feature to encompass all the useful functionality of Facebook, status updates without pictures.

How long 'til I can use Treehouse on my Android phone?

As soon as we find an Android developer. As soon as possible.

Please allow umlauts in names. My last name has been truncated because it contains an ß.

Noted, thanks!

Hmm.. sort of a friends-only mobile 4chan?

Ha, not the first time we've heard that analogy :)

beautiful app. nice job chrys, dan and co.!

yawn Where's the innovation? Why did someone give these kids money? It sounds like someone is trying to re-make a very small subset of Facebook features.

Edit: The only way you could possibly say this is innovative is that it's a closed subset of your friends that can see this content. Sounds like something Facebook could roll out in a few days of work

Don't be so quick to discount a compelling interface and user experience as a possible killer feature, particularly for a mobile application.

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