Show HN: Our Startup Weekend Project | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Our Startup Weekend Project

22 pointsknes20 comments

Hey everyone!

We would like feedback on our Startup Weekend project, DropSend ( Temporary name ) Here's our pitch:

We want to change the way you send files to your friends or contact.

Because let's face it,sending a file by email feels really clunky and is limited by the size, Instant Messenger is slow and you need to be online and finally Dropbox while perfect for storing files, doesn't really fit this use case.

With our desktop application, one click (and we mean it), is all it takes to send a file.

Imagine dragging a file of any size to one edge of your computer screen and see a dock appear with the faces of your friends or colleague.

Dropping the file on one of their face will send it to them whether they are online or not.

On the other side, your friend, once connected, only needs to accept your request on his computer ( X-Platform client) for the transfers to begin.

The transfer is fully encrypted and if your friend is on the same local network, there is no need for an internet connection. When offline, the file is temporary stored on our servers.

Monetization would be achieved with monthly bandwidth quotas on files sent through the web.

The cross platform client is nearly ready. ( should be really usable in the next few hours ) and we are trying some UI ideas.

We set up a landing page for now so you can check it out at http://www.dropsendapp.com

If you like the idea, just click download you won't download anything for now, but it will count as "vote" for our market validation.

Cheers!

http://www.dropsend.com/ carsonified has a competing product with the same name and purpose, might want to consider a new name

One would think they would have looked at dropsend.com when they saw that it was registered.

I like the UI. Pretty innovative. But the product pitch sounds identical to the YC funded Kicksend (http://kicksend.com) and very similar to the existing DropSend (which someone else has already linked) and a number of others.

I always hate telling that to people trying to put a product out the door (I have competitors for the things I'm working on, too), but I don't see any differentiation here other than the UI of your client? Or am I missing something?

You are right a lot of companies are already trying to tackle this problem. The thing is we approached Startup Weekend more like a Hackaton. We wanted to create a product from A to Z in 48h. Right now we are on track and I'll definitely post an update with the "final" product tomorrow :)

Nice idea of drag-dropping onto face icons.

You defo need to change the name ASAP to avoid any trademark infringement issues though.

One more competitors (and this one is doing great)

http://forgetbox.com

you can read an interview (in french) of its founder : http://www.jaimelesstartups.fr/forgetbox/

That's quite like the idea I've been working on the last few weeks! My idea is like yours but for groups of people, more in a "newsgroup way".

Which technology did you used for the cross-platform client ?

Good luck!

RE: cross-platform client: I'd bet Qt.

you bet right ;) python + qt4 (one of the team member)

C++/Qt for me :) But if my app have some success, I'll write a Cocoa app for Mac.

Qt ? No thank you... Maybe in a 64bit standalone version.

BTW: * How this will work in some Window Manager like dwm ? * What if I have no file manager installed ? * Can I use without using the mouse ?

I Guess its no to all of those questions. Maybe you're not our target :/

If you want feedback on the landing page, the white text on the light green background is really hard to read.

"That's ok. Just try it and you'll see ;)" and "Did we mention it's FREE?"

Really lovely UI. But was wondering why the title "Dropsend" seems not aligned with the rest of the page content.

The requested URL /Download/ was not found on this server.

adding better error message would be better.

The App will acually be available in the next 24H. This landing page was just set up to validate our marketing ( Lean Startup yadadiyadada ) .We change the "error" page accordingly.

Cheers

Sounds a lot like Air Drop on Lion or you can use sites like www.ge.tt

Good luck!

I just discovered you're also from France. Hello from Toulouse!

a few typos:

in the header, should be files not file.

Sending a file[remove s] with DropSend couldn't be easier. Just drag n' drop the file on your contact[add ']s photo and voila, it's sent. (love this way of sending btw!!)

Sending a file with DropSend only require[s] 1 click. Yes, It's just that easy and it's Free!

Your file[s] are encrypted from end to end and are never permentaly stored on our server.

You might want to put up launchrock or mailchimp so we can be notified when you launch!

What city are you guys in? We're working on http://joinastartup.org/ at the Austin one :)

Thanks for the help on the typos! We're in Paris, France so english is not our strongest point, I guess :)

We though about the mailchimp / Launchrock page to get some emails but we didn't want to waste time hehe.

Cheers!

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