Just Landed
getjustlanded.com
getjustlanded.com
Now, this is probably a completely rational move from the company's perspective. Silicon Valley over the last few years has been backstopped by acquihires and other such soft landings, and big companies desperate to hire outstanding talent are often very willing to pay high prices for a great team. From the landing page at least, it certainly doesn't look like the Just Landed guys are amateurs. They're probably a very talented, capable team.
If they're successful, I won't begrudge them their success. However, I do lament the idea that the best minds of a generation are being focused on getting people to click on ads and minimizing the number of loop-arounds you have to do at the airport. I don't buy the idea that these guys wouldn't be focused on "harder" problems if consumer web didn't exist; of course they would. This kind of talent rises to the challenge. The idea that these are the problems whose solution drives us forwards is just a monumental lapse of creativity. Technology is an amazing thing, and we can do so much with it. I really think it's just an exposure issue -- people are used to web, and fields like the life sciences or hardware seem mysterious and complex. How do those become opened up?
I think it's pretty clear what he means and there's plenty of room to argue against that, no need for this kind of post.
And moreover, it's boring: the complaint could be registered on most of the posts on Hacker News. Not everyone's going to save the world with their work, and that's okay. Tearing down other people's work over some perceived social injustice is not.
I think the link to the site might still be in my profile. If not, it is at healthgazelle.com. There is substantial info in the archive... Edit: linky:
oops sorry that's screwed up and won't be fixed, but this page will get you to the archive -- just don't click on "home":
http://www.healthgazelle.com/oldsite/cfandmoney.shtml
I think the domain name expires in July. So satisfy your curiosity if you wish.
Easier problems are solved first, and that's fine. There's less risk and so more growth per money invested. Not everything should be invested into super-high risk technology or something. Besides, this company might be bootstrapped.
It's also worth to note that first-world people tend to work on first-world problems. There's nothing wrong with that. It makes sense to work on problems that you're familiar with. I wouldn't start a restaurant since I've zero experience in that industry.
The problem is not that they're fixing a "easy problem". The problem is that for some unknown reason it hasn't been fixed yet.
That reminds me, I wrote about this after seeing quite a few companies like this at TC Disrupt: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/14/how-to-disrupt-petty-inconv...
But we don't know these guys, they may feel the same and this is a means to an end. Luckily the entire generation isn't working in Silicon Valley and there are similarly motivated people in climate change research, biotech etc.
I am advertising directly to the people who have downtime between flights, and developing a community around the developers to create apps that are geared and focused on this high-value target market.
We have location based coupons that know, by GPS, when you arrive at any airport in 36 countries. When you land - you are greeted by offers from any retailer in the market, and are given the option to book travel (uber/taxi/shuttle/limo) from the airport to a nearby hotel - we sell the hotel booking as well and make a cut on the room.
We also offer social games for those stuck in airports waiting. Play with people at your gate, on your flight, from your hometown airport or any other place! Again the ads are all from retailers directly around you!
Finally, we even offer a travellers hookup service, so if you want to look for lay-over travelers to hook up with, you can sign-up and hook up. (this product is called 'Laid-Overs' and is our most popular app!
We have an API that people can connect to also!
Run with it!
(it was a joke in response to the GP's being upset that great minds were being wasted on improving the Airport pickup experience.)
I think that's a really interesting question, but the way the rest of the post is/was written is going to work against it being considered.
I expect you'd have been better off writing something up on the idea in its own context and submitting it on its own.
Off the top of my head, I think we're already seeing hardware being "opened up" through things like Arduino, 3D printing and the ease of making global connections on sites like Alibaba. I can't really speak to life science, but I'm generally inclined to think that more (any?) exposure in primary education would help.
This generation is heartless!
Also, is there a word that refers to this sort of cyclical argument? ie: someone makes generalization, I say "all generalizations are bad" in reply, someone else makes a generalization arguing against mine, and so on? I feel like there should be.
As to why most software developers aren't working on harder problems, however, is that harder problems usually require more up-front investment and require the investor to take more risk. Without a previous record of success, it is difficult to get that trust.
SpaceX and Tesla don't happen by someone without a track record. Be a little easier on those who are trying to establish one. :)
That shouldn't be surprising, Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam...
As Turkey gets wealthier, many of these problems will arise. Homelessness is truly a first world problem, for example.
They're destroying the slums without making alternative housing arrangements. (Turkey's done some of this as well. Tarlabasi and Sulukule are prime examples. It's destroying communities, but India is much worse about it.)
I'd argue that Turkey is actively trying to destroy cultural identity as an extension of decades old habits, regardless of the government in power. (I'm not a Turkish apologist by any means.) However, I think this is getting off the main point of original post, so I'll stop here.
Big things often start small. In fact, usually start small.
And in any case it's just mean of you to piss all over these guys' efforts. It makes me embarrassed for HN when people launch something new, and this is the sort of response they get.
I agree assisting people to reach the airport on-time may morph into a larger corporate vision, but I disagree it's likely to contribute to solving cancer, making better fuel, or reaching strong AI. ...And it's arguably a distraction of rare talent from that calibre of problem.
Conversely, a startup that grows sufficiently big can contribute to the solution of almost any problem, including those you mention.
It saddens me that the most common response these days seems to be some version of 'Let me list all the reasons why this is crap.'
What happened?
Now that the population has grown, there are more commenters and more Show HNs, yet the presentation hasn't changed to accommodate this (same number of posts per page, same comment layout despite more comments, etc).
Maybe something like "Review HN"? Whatever it would be, it may be time to get more specific. Ultimately you're trying to filter out unhelpful comments. Those will always appear, but now there's just more of them in the same space...
@frisco: I can understand how you lumped Just Landed in with other Silicon Valley startups some of whom are creating frivolous apps and raising vast sums of money against small ideas. I suppose those irritate me too for the same reasons you mentioned.
However, in this case, you would be wrong to assume that Just Landed is just another overfunded startup trying to conquer the world with an airport pickup app. First off, Just Landed is not a startup. Just Landed is an app, built by myself and two of my buddies, because I kept making the mistake of forgetting to leave for the airport on time to pickup my girlfriend. After finding that no other apps were solving this problem (and that flight apps generally sucked), I decided to take a crack at it.
I don't make any claim that this is an important problem in our society (I built this app for myself), that this would be a good idea for a startup (it probably isn't), or that it's worthy of venture funding (so far it's not a great business). Just Landed was built with $15k of my own money as a fun side project while I figured out what I wanted to do next with my career. Frankly, I'm amazed how successful it has been - it was totally unexpected. Also, it's not even really a company - it was released under Little Details LLC because I needed to protect myself with limited liability (I also plan to make other commercial apps).
Finally, while we have certainly had offers, it is also not my goal to be "acquihired". I'm actually working on a mobile game right now, and am thoroughly enjoying myself. My goal is to be free to work on my own fun projects for as long as I'm able. If I come upon an idea worthy of a startup, something that can really change the world, that's a different story. FWIW I've already failed twice at a startup (went through YC once), so for now I'm taking a break and building apps.
Just Landed is not going to change the world, but it sure saves my ass (and helps hundreds of thousands of other people) when it comes to going to the airport to pick someone up.
I'm actually quite proud of myself for keeping the costs so low. Try asking some big companies what they spent on their apps - you might be in for a surprise (think huge numbers)!
15k isn't really that much. One month of his time is probably at least 10k, especially once you start thinking about health care and other benefits.
For many of us, side project time is enjoyable and not thought of as a cost center, but a happy-center.
:-)
Just Landed does that, but it's not an "important" enough problem to solve. He "wasted" his talent and should have focused on the larger problems that plague humanity.
I get that entrepreneurs need feedback, but there's a difference between helping and just plain being an asshole.
This kind of stuff isn't helpful to the community - we see it over and over. My hope is that people won't be deterred by it in the future....otherwise HN will lose it's value.
@jgraili I think this app is cool - kudos to you for the awesome execution. I'm downloading it - I could have totally used it yesterday :)
Aside from being an overstatement, this is correct. And if anyone would think about it, that's something working in their favor. Unless you're one of those "profit is evil" people, when you're building a business with the intention of making money, you'll probably want to target a market that actually has disposable income.
Yep, it's very much a first world problem, but the negativity on that point is unwarranted. I doubt they started it with the intention of fixing society.
people in the 2nd world and developing world also need to pick people up from airports. they also ALL have phones that are capable of receiving text messages and many of them have smartphones.
and not everyone drives, but everyone sure as hell can call a cab. in case you didn't notice there are LOTS of cabs in the developing world.
quick top of the head guesses for market population size:
entire US: 300M entire EU: 700M+ middle class chinese: 300M middle class africans: 100M (??) middle class south americans: 300M (??)
what percentage of these people have smartphones? what percentage WILL have smart phones in 5 years?
Now think of the fuel and productivity costs of airport pickups. Usually if I'm early I end up driving around the airport, or worse, spending lots of money on parking. In India people typically wait at the side of the road with their AC on. If this app works perfectly, there is a lot of real gain to be had, and not just in the US.
Posting a comment just to say that someone shouldn't have built it in the first place is profoundly unhelpful. Actually, its worse than that. Its un-useful.
Now, this is probably a completely rational move from your perspective. HN over the last few years has been backstopped by middlebrow-dismissals and other such poo-poo-ings, and bored programmers desperate to win karma are often very willing to waste hours crafting popular but mean comments. From your previous comments at least, it certainly doesn't look like you are just trolling. You're probably a very talented, capable person.
Since you seem to work at Transcriptic, I won't begrudge you your karma. However, I do lament the idea that the best minds of a generation are being focused on getting people to dismiss others' creations and directing all creative effort to what you deem to be "important problems". I don't buy the idea that you wouldn't be focused on a "better" use of your time if HN didn't exist; of course you would. This kind of talent is ambitious and gets things done. The idea that these are the types of comments that rise to the top is just a monumental lapse of discussion quality on HN. Scratching your own itch is an amazing thing, and we can do so much with it. I really think it's just an attitude issue -- people are used to dismissing new technology as frivolous, and mobile apps, in particular, seem totally pointless. How do we become less dismissive and more encouraging to makers?
how self-referential
I would say - if they supported longer lead times (so I could put in someone's info a week or a month in advance, and it would notify me, that would extend the value quite a bit). Otherwise, this app nails it.
As it turns out, we do try to factor additional time for international customs, but it's just an average since there's no real-time data available on customs wait times (which vary widely by airport, time of day, what passport the traveler has, and season). I also expect the customs folks don't make this information available because perhaps it would raise an airport security issue that could be exploited. In any case, I plan to submit freedom of information act requests for customs wait times, baggage wait times, and airport security wait times (that latter the TSA currently collects, but only makes available via their myTSA app).
Anyone have experience with filing freedom of information act requests, who might be able to help?
Every federal agency is required to designate a FOIA officer. In my limited exerperiance, the helpfulness of these officers vary wildly between agencies.
http://www.dhs.gov/foia-contact-information
TSA's is about 2/3 of the way down the page. Good luck!
Note that there's an art to writing an effective request. Too broad and you will be told 100,000 pages are responsive and how would you like to pay for the photocopying. Too narrow and you will get back "no responsive records found."
I think getting useful data on customs clearance would be a long shot -- good luck.
I don't know whom you may be able to get to help, but I would bet that the government doesn't actually have great data on custom wait time- I've never seen them track someone from entry to pass-through. I strongly doubt they have that.
Rather, I think you may have come upon a really cool opportunity- find a way to track it! You'll have data no one else on the planet has. It's like when Uber starts in a new city- the error on their time estimate starts high and decreases over time. If enough people use it, you'll get really got at predicting the wait time based on the factors you mentioned.
Idea: let the traveler download a free companion to the app. Then the user links to the traveler. Once the traveler lands, they can turn on their phone and let you see location.
The user gets an alert "Bob has landed!" and actually see where the traveler is. Over time, you'll get really great at refining the wait time prediction algorithm. You can ask nationality, etc.
Potential problems: No phone, international traveler can't use phone in destination due to roaming charges, can't have phone on in certain custom areas.
Our approach in GateGuru is to bundle the security wait time functionality with other, highly engaging and free services (such as flight tracking, itinerary management, and our amenity database) in a completely FREE app and scale our way into it.
We are deep into it and its an ongoing part of our strategy, but its not clear to me how you could generalize this and build a business around it without an amazing solution to this fundamental problem.
Potential applications: airports; theme parks; customs; popular restaurants; product launches; movie premieres.
(My beautiful wife and I were lucky in that we could cherry pick - I was travelling on my UK passport, she on her Australian, so depending on which queue was shortest we either went through together in the UK / Europe line (I'm travelling with my wife) or the Other Passports line (My wife is travelling with me)).
I've got a suggestion though. On the last flight I was on myself, just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to the two guys next to me and one of 'em said something about wishing there was an app that would do basically what Just Landed does. I knew I had it but I couldn't remember the name of it and didn't manage to find it to show him before the conversation turned elsewhere. Neither "Flight" nor "Airplane" nor "Airport" in the search page turns this app up. It seems like it's possible for it to - "Flight" shows TripAdvisor's app for example. You might have been a couple of bucks richer if I'd been able to find the dang thing to show it off for you. I don't know how you get things other than your app name to work on the search page, but if TripAdvisor manages it, you can too! I believe in you! Make it happen! Also because I'm going to forget what it's called again by the next time I have to pick someone up at the airport.
Kudos to Jon, Graham, and Sean for putting together a great app. Looks clean and works wonderfully - can't ask for much more!
> When will Just Landed be available for Android?
> If you’d like to see an Android version, please let us know.
> (links: mailto:support@getjustlanded.com?subject=Just%20Landed%20for%20Android. )If you use the Google Now widget, it'll prioritize the flight and show you where it is.
It makes a lot of sense to develop an iOS app and push it out as soon as possible so that you can start getting feedback from real users. Version 2.0 can include an Android version.
Bullshit. As someone who develops for Android, this is nothing more than FUD thrown around by Apple fans/developers. Unless you're making a game or something, fragmentation is absolutely not an issue anymore.
What I would use is a more generalized "you must leave by X to get to Y" where the time of Y and travel time from me to Y both change dynamically.
And things like "you must start watching this movie now in order to have it finish before your flight lands".
I think Google Now does some of this (I'm not sure), but iOS alone would be a market for it, and a non-Google option would be worthwhile anyway.
I'm not disputing that "when do I need to go to the airport for an incoming flight" isn't important, but it just isn't frequent enough on its own for me.
Speaking from experiences. Also my gf is a FA.
Are you working with FlightStats?
I realize web pages have discovery problems, but so do apps at this point. But if the goal is an aquihire, I guess they can get bigger bonuses as an app development team rather than a web development team.
Props for noticing tho ;)
- The airlines publish scheduled gate arrival times, whereas we show runway landing times and then factor time to the gate and time through the terminal when telling you when to leave.
- The airlines pad their times by 15-30 minutes depending on the route to allow them to be a little late and not get penalized for it.
Our times will almost always be earlier than the time printed in the itinerary or shown on the airline website. This is normal and intentional, and does not mean the data is wrong - in fact it's just giving a more accurate estimate of the actual landing time. I feel very comfortable making this statement as I have verified it in my own field testing, and I've also heard from thousands of happy customers who write to me to say how surprisingly accurate the app is in a real airport pickup scenario.
I know that the animations is fancy, but are they really necessary?
In addition, you may also want to try forcing hardware acceleration: http://davidwalsh.name/translate3d
It isn't that bad and at least here smooth and only if the page is visible. But may have bad effects on mobile/retina/...