Show HN: The Crowdtilt Mobile App | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: The Crowdtilt Mobile App

tilt.crowdtilt.com

35 pointsajaymehta25 comments

Just a few cases for the app other (as of 50 minutes since post time) commenters aren't appreciating:

-I want to split a bill at dinner with friends

-I want to contribute to a charity fundraiser while at the event they are holding

-I want to snag tickets to an event that might sell out while out and about and don't want to wait till I get back to my computer to do it

-I want to snag tickets to an event while at the entrance to that event

Yeah, I've been following Crowdtilt for a while (interviewed there), and their use case has never really been about the Kickstarter type of crowdfunding. It's more of a bite-size type of crowdfunding model (with A LOT of retention; they mentioned their stats on repeat use) instead of elaborate projects. This app actually makes a lot of sense.

Thank you (co-founder of crowdtilt here). And yes, our view has basically been that we want to build the most open and accessible crowdfunding tools for the entire web/world. Crowdtilt.com might be for medium size campaigns, Crowdhoster (built by us and powered by our API) is for large-scale ones like Soylent, and now with our mobile app, we want to see if people will want to take the mechanics of crowdfunding models and want to go small with them.

If Crowdhoster is like the wordpress (hostable, customizable, open-source), then the Crowdtilt app type of campaigns (launched from the app, at least) is like the twitter of crowdfunding, or perhaps more appropriately, for anytime a group would interact around a small, casual financial objective. There's no guarantee the behavior will become our primary creation driver, of course, but as devs, it's exciting to try and take something as conventionally complex as crowdfunding/fundraising/pooling money with a group and simplify it down to something easy to digest in a mobile experience. If you download the app and have any suggestions or feedback on our approach to tackle this problem, would love to hear it at jb@crowdtilt.com. And another lens to view our approach toward mobile is this - 7/8ths of the world will never own a computer. Like, ever.

I'd assume it's also about reducing friction; I have my phone with me way more than my laptop. If I think of something, I can create a campaign super quickly / easily, no waiting. Awesome.

But is that worth paying for?

Just a commentary on your methodology, not your product - I'm not sure I appreciate a submission to HN that goes to a URL that (on an iOS device at least) opens straight to the App Store app page (even if it is free).

I'm reading HN on my iPhone using one of the various alternative mobile interfaces running in Safari. Clicking your link, to learn anything about what you made, requires switching to the App Store. Completely disrupts my normal news flow.

... Is there a reason you don't have a one page splash covering the highlights and features of the app? Can anyone without an iOS device even learn what you've done?

Hey, sorry about that! The app just launched today, so I wanted to throw up a link.

Here's a blog post that can hopefully give you some additional clarification: http://blog.crowdtilt.com/post/61679155794/put-change-in-you...

Thank you.

I don't love the idea that someone might be so disinterested in their own crowdfunding campaign to have to launch it from a smartphone, rather than spending the time to do it from a proper computer.

Consider this: I see a pothole on my street, I hate it so I take a picture and tweet about how I wish it was gone. Enter crowdtilt, instead, I take a picture and create a campaign, it gets shared on facebook and twitter and suddenly a movement to fix the pothole has started. Worst case the campaign doesn't tilt and it's the equivalent of a tweet, best case we raise money to actually fix the damn thing, talk about putting your money where your mouth is!

While this behavior may not exist yet, I see a future where this app enables people to make much stronger statements about change they would like to see and gives them a dead simple way to contribute to those changes (plus all the fun spontaneous social stuff :).

This comment is totally on the mark. Campaigns like that pothole example are already popping up on Crowdtilt!

Check this (currently live) campaign out: a community in Oakland feels unsafe in their neighborhood and isn't being helped out by the local PD, so they're pooling funds together for private security: https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/security-patrol-for-lowe...

This is an awesome use of Crowdtilt...though I'm glad I don't live there myself!

A mobile dev at Crowdtilt told me a few weeks ago that the app was meant for small-scale situations such as splitting a dinner bill between friends.

I doubt any large-scale public campaign would be started from a phone.

This app is more geared towards casual/everyday use cases and lowers the barrier to make those things happen. This isn't necessarily for large scale crowdfunding projects.

I agree. Starting with "Finally" seems like a bit of a stretch. Solution in need of a problem?

I've got exactly the same first reaction. Trying to read something useful and/or noble into this effort though – I do have friends who don't own a "proper computer", and manage all their non-work internet on their phones. I do find it hard to make a jump from "I don't have a computer, but I've got an idea that other people might fund on something like Kickstarter" to "I know, I'll download an app and run my Kickstarter from my iPhone".

I've done everything from paying for group t-shirts to sports teams to shared vacation homes and I've never thought the problem was hard enough to need an app for it.

How about splitting a bill at dinner? Or contributing to a campaign on the go before it sells out?

> How about splitting a bill at dinner?

1. Divide food bill between number of attendees

2. Divide drinks bill between number of drinkers

3. Each individual adds 1 + 2 and ponies-up accordingly

Apologies if I have misunderstood.

Stupid easy.

Add up what you ordered, write name of card you are using to pay on the back with the amount. Pass the check to the next person.

How does the actual collection take place? I'm sure 30% is too steep a cut for splitting a dinner check. Has Apple loosened its policies on third-party payment processors?

Collection takes place through our payment service provider, not IAP. There is no 30% cut.

Yep - IIRC, in-app purchases only apply if the purchase itself is delivered through the app (usually content)

This is how apps like Uber, Lyft, InstantCab, Instacart, etc. let you pay through your phone, and why Netflix and Hulu don't even let you sign up for their service on iOS.

Why is the only way to receive a link/register via SMS?

Android version?

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