Let’s Crate – from weekend project to registered company in two weeks. | Hacker News Reader

Let’s Crate – from weekend project to registered company in two weeks.

sahillavingia.com

39 pointssahillavingia40 comments

I always find myself frustrated when a site doesn't actually describe what it does. So far I can only figure out that Crate is for sharing and may be similar to Dropbox. I couldn't find an FAQ on the site and don't want to register until I know what it is.

So... what is it?

Yeah, we're wary about people being like "wtf is this?" so we're slowly opening it up. We're too busy working on features to worry about time-consuming things like welcome messages and how-to pages for right now. Soon though. :)

It's drag-and-drop file-sharing, at a glance. It does much more, but that's the basics. It's faster than Dropbox for certain things (though Dropbox will be far more feature-ful).

Kudos to you for not wasting time right now on the stuff that doesn't matter yet.

Thanks, it's tough but it must be done!

We're too busy working on features to worry about time-consuming things like welcome messages and how-to pages for right now.

.. But there's time for blogging and commenting on HN?

I'm the designer, and I just spent around 20 hours designing in the past 48. Taking a small break, then sleeping. Then midterms, then working. Sorry!

Do you drag-and-drop to a folder on your hard drive, or to a box on your website, or to something else?

Also, do Crates, as I assume they're called, expire? As in, I can set a folder that deletes files an hour, day, week, etc after they're dropped there.

Both, to-and-from. They don't expire.

Well, those time consuming things is what will make you have users.

So you want users but you don't want to spend time telling them what you offer?

Well, right now we're not public or open and are extremely frugal with letting people in. So yeah, we don't want too many users yet, just great first ones. :)

is it just me who finds drag&drop is harder than selecting files for file-uploading?

Maybe it's just my workflow but every time i have to use drag&drop for a webpage, i have to align file-browser and web-browser manually. I find it cumbersome.

Interesting. I'm working on broader-scope UX design for the next week and will try to figure that problem out. You can email me (in profile) if you have any suggestions.

Great job! Having tried to create my own file sharing service a few years ago, I applaud you for getting out an MVP. It's really easy to keep adding features and never get a product up and running.

I'm not sure if you want bug reports yet but I had one file appear in the list 4 times just after upload. I only uploaded once. When going out to "Your Crates" and back to the particular crate the filename was only appearing once so just something in the rendering after upload, it seems.

Yes, must be an AJAX error. Thanks!

Congrats for the launch! Sweet project =)

Can't wait for being able to edit/delete crates. Would be nice too to be able to edit profile.

By the way, Let's Crate email list that I subscribed to a couple days ago failed to send me any news at all, if I hadn't checked here I wouldn't see the launch.

We haven't used the list yet, as we want to open it up super slowly and the hundreds of people on the list would be too much. Editing/deleting crates should be implemented today/tomorrow!

Editing your profile is unessential right now, but it'll be coming soon too.

Thanks! We're super excited too.

More features are in the pipeline. Working on some of 'em right now. :)

I like that the relationship is informal and that you don't like to label yourselves as co-founders. But have you guys talked about equity/profit-sharing?

There's always the mythical story of the two dudes coming together to build something awesome, but more often than not, I've heard horror stories of such relationships coming to an abrupt halt over issues (typically involving money/ownership).

Love the design though and I especially like the crate graphic :)

Forming the LLC got that all sorted out. We're friends, but we're not stupid to disregard that stuff, as annoying as it may be.

And thanks, appreciated!

Ya - that's an amazingly simple 'Dropbox' like concept. Nicely done. Love the simplistic style of the site.

Thanks! Yes, it's super rough. No Photoshop magic, just pure HTML/CSS designing (the 37Signals way!).

Really it's designed to just hold the basics. I have some concepts (done nice and pretty in PS this time round) that will be implemented in the coming weeks. Opens it up to a lot more features and looks way more... awesome.

Congrats. Please keep us updated on your progress.

Where did you get your LLC done at? Online?

The lovely state of Delaware. Online, yup.

Clean, simple. Works on the first try.

Can't have more successful "launch" than that...

Hah, thanks!

Launch deserves to be in quotes, too. For what it's worth I think we launched when I first opened my text editor.

Or when I first opened GMail! Don't take all the credit!

The "Invite Code" field on the registration page is required but it looks like anything will work. This seems a bit weird, am I missing something?

We'll provide invite codes publicly/privately on occasion (more and more frequently as time progresses). Look out for them, and then you'll be able to enter them there.

Uhm, I was saying that I've been able to register by entering a random string.

Ah, well lucky you! :)

Looks like I left in some debugging stuff. Thanks for the heads up, it shouldn't work anymore.

In the future, you'll have to contact us for an invite code. A lucky 160 of you got in while you could =)

invite code doesn't work at all now

If you dont mind answering. How did you implement the drag and drop uploading? I am trying to do something similar for a side project of mine.

I believe they are using HTML5 to accomplish this.

Yup, indeed!

How is this better than Dropbox other than being simple and easy for file sharing? I'm sure what you're describing can be done using Dropbox. So what should users switch?

Could be done with Dropbox, except there's no need for a software install, and it's faster. Also, the updated UI (pending!) is going to explain the difference a lot more.

neat. Hope we edit crate titles soon :)

Definitely, that's coming in the next few days. Two midterms tomorrow, fun stuff.

It's been designed already, just needs to be implemented. :)

Good luck with the midterms :)

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