kevingibbon

Flat rate is rarely the best option unless your item is very heavy.

Check out Ordoro for printing labels. I think they integrate into shopify. Not our business.

awesome. Yes, this is the same kind of setup that lead me to start Shyp.

Looks like you have a great system but there is still room for improvement. Our new pricing is actually free pickup if you send 2+ packages.

In v2 or v3 we will have a super easy way to import orders directly into Shyp. Just export and choose your pickup time, thats it. We will come, separate all items (providing they have a UPC or serial) and verify.

We will ship each item the best way possible (speed or price). Our goal for high volume shippers is to actually save them money from current processes. We make our margins from the discount we have negotiated will all the providers. Everybody is happy at the end of the day.

By being profitable on every transaction from day 1. I can't speak to other shipping startups but we make good margins after paying our delivery drivers.

If this works in SF it will most likely work in other major cities. Shipping stuff sucks everywhere.

We have custom bags that have heavy padding on the inside. We have designed them to transport fragile items. If multiple items are going in the same package, we bubble wrap each individually on site.

We take these bags with contents to our warehouse where we professional package all items for transport.

We hope so! This is only v1 of our service. We will be adding UPS, Fedex and OnTrac support shortly. We will find the fastest or cheapest option with all supporting carriers on the fly.

Size of the box is also a very important factor. Using the free USPS boxes, it can be double or even triple the cost of a tight fitting box. Size does matters ;) We currently have 20 different sized boxes in our warehouse.

We are trying to offer an amazing service but still remain competitive to current pricing.

Saying that, there will be a ton of people who will do anything to save a dollar. I value my time very highly and assume a lot of other people do as well.

Co-founder of Shyp here.

Absolutely! However USPS only does pickups from 10-2 M-S. You need to be there or leave the package outside.

We will be soon adding support for UPS, Fedex, Ontrac and a bunch of other regional shipping company. Ship through Shyp and we handle everything.

Been testing Heap on iOS out for the last few days. Awesome product. Congrats guys!

Thanks! Agreed about the porch but that only works for items of small value.

Another huge thing people don't realize is box size. In most cases you can save up to 50% off the shipping price if you can fit your item in the tightest box possible. There are only a few sizes USPS provides for free using priority mail.

We have about 20 different box sizes to take advantage of this.

This is exactly the business we are starting.

Check out http://shyp.co

We fit the contents into the perfect size box so even though we charge a little more than going directly to USPS, we can more than make up for it in our efficiencies. Plus real-time comparison to UPS, Fedex and Ontrac is in the works.

USPS only pickup somewhere between 10-2 M-S and its still a pain unless you do it a ton.

Don't mean to take anything away from sold (amazing product) but we are starting a company that takes care of the shipping, for anything. Check it out if interested http://shyp.co

Love the idea and execution (from watching the video). I put a bunch of random crap I had lying around on ebay and started the auctions at a dollar. I would have happily used Sold and saved the shipping hassle.

It's not always about reaching everyone as fast as possible. Going wide initially is usually a first time entrepreneurs mistake. Build something, figure out that your value proposition is compelling for your target users. As soon as you have hit "product market fit" go wide.

There is a reason companies are going iPhone first.

One of the huge benefits people who dismiss mobile first is the ability to control the entire experience. If you launch an iPhone app, you have pixel perfect accuracy, fast speed and can make sure your app works perfectly on all 5 of the devices out there.

Don't be a cheap ass. All of these companies offer an amazing service. Pony up the $5-10 a month.

kozmo.com reference

What does this mean? What can Parse offer that a regular Facebook dev through the fb sdk can't?

Obviously on a case by case basis. I've seen app downloads that come from rankings to be lower quality than those that come through other channels.

If you are trying to build a real business a 3:1 LTV is very reasonable.

yep.

From the above comments it looks like they could be charging 100k per day to be featured.

Exactly why a lot of devs are finding a freemium model with in-app purchases to be a winning strategy.

Completely different to AppGratis. Facebook allows you to target (based on gender, location, likes, workplace) and advertise your app. Users have no incentive to DL your app and actually have a need for your product.

I've had a lot of success on FB mobile install ads.

Lets say you need 20k DLs to get top 5 in a notable category. Lets say you get another 20k of real DLs from the app store ranking. Incentivised DLs are $0.35 each, but they are Dls and not real users. So $7k for 20k DLs.

You usually want a LTV of 3:1. So your LTV would need to be $2.10 per user. These users are way worse than acquiring them from other channels because they only briefly see your logo and a brief description. Let's say they are only 25% as good. So now you need a regular LTV of $8.40. Very few apps have a LTV of over a dollar.

I hate the idea of AppGratis and I'm glad its been removed.

Who really benefits? The cheap user who will not normally pay for a high quality app? The app developer who spends $$ to get featured in AppGratis to then artificially climb the app store ranking?

Dls are one of the worst vanity metrics out there. Devs should focus on building high quality products, monetize, then acquire quality users in a sustainable manner.

Good apology but I don't think its enough. Grandfathering the 71 people wouldn't cost Instacart more than 10-20k.

There will still be a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth. Public perception to a service like this is key.

Congrats Yahoo! and Dropbox! Looks like a great integration. Very similar to what Attachments.me has done for gmail to Dropbox, Box, Skydrive and Google Drive.

Would you have paid $1500 to have an iPhone a year earlier than anyone else in the world?

It costs $1500

I think her decision to take this to twitter was the completely wrong decision. She is a developer evangelist at one of the most important developer conferences. She is representing SendGrid on all of her public forums.

How does the public alienation of these two guys go towards building critical mass of support for SendGrid? Even if this was sexual harassment what would she have gained for herself or SendGrid by bringing this to a public forum. She has to know that a large number of potential SendGrid users are men who have similar senses of humor.

If she was deeply offended by the comments these guys made she should have spoken to them directly or privately mentioned it to the staff.

I'm not saying I agree with SendGrid's decision but how could Andria effectively do her job as a developer evangelist if the entire developer community hates her?

If your startup is well funded you should offer these benefits. You should want to reward the people who work so hard for you.

These benefits also make an employees life easier, giving them more time to spend on your precious startup.

There are other ways to weed out the "another job" candidates.