HN user
Working on OpenBundle
I built https://zebra.page/ during time off from work around the holidays. Stripe came out with payment links a few months later. Not exactly the same thing, but enough to dissuade from spending time marketing it.
I’m in the philly area and might be interested. @timraybould on Twitter, I’ll open my DMs.
I like to think of it as protocols being better “middlemen,” when they’re up for the job, compared to a company. Wrote about it here: https://medium.com/openbundle/when-protocols-replace-compani...
We (Ticketleap) did something similar in ticketing. https://www.ticketleap.com/info/selfie-ticket
What was it called?
changed the landing page a bit to include a signup form instead of email. Email is ross@hireross.com.
This is great, thanks for the writeup! We are actually building something quite similar. We have a rough landing page up at hireross.com. Airbnb folks, I'd love to chat if you're up for it. Just to learn more. email is at the bottom of the landing page.
Ticketleap | Software Engineer | Philadelphia, PA
Tim here, CEO at Ticketleap. We're looking to add 1 person to our engineering team. We're currently building a new product line, for which we have some high aiming goals. If you're in Philly (or looking for a new place to call home), I'd love to grab a few minutes to chat over the phone or a cup of coffee. Apply here and mention HN.
http://ticketleap.theresumator.com/apply/ji9y0s/Senior-Softw...
Ticketleap | Philadelphia, PA | Full-time | ONSITE
Ticketing is still the way it’s always been instead of the way it should be. We’re looking for developers to help us change that.
Apply by emailing me: tim@ticketleap.com
I'm tim at ticketleap if you want to talk about them using Ticketleap/Selfie Ticket.
There are indeed a couple security features. Answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7277671
Reporting in the app tells them how many have activated their Selfie Ticket. You can only activate it in the window 24 hours before the event, so it's a pretty good indication they came.
You're right! The feature doesn't end by simply getting into the event. Stay tuned.
Look, you created Immunity Project. That's pretty cool and coming from that perspective, I can see why you think Selfie Ticket doesn't need emotion its positioning. However, we think we're onto something with this and it's not meant to be a gimmick.
If you're simply trying to sell tickets online (i.e. process a credit card and hand out a barcode) there are plenty of solutions for that, as you suggest. Ticketing platforms are built around the transaction and they do a good job of it (we were in this group too). However, there is a much larger population of people out there (whether they are creating events yet or not) that are trying to build and grow a community around something they're doing. The best way to build connections with someone? In person.
That's the type of event we're building for. One that's used to grow a community. And for that purpose, scanning barcodes sucks. It's un-human at the worst time, when you're trying to build human connections.
Hope that gives some background for our thought process behind telling the story the way we have.
Completely agree. People don't have a problem selling tickets -- that's been solved. People do have a problem growing their community. That's the problem we're solving. Events are a great way to do that and if THATs your goal, scanning a barcode is pretty robotic/off-putting. Selfie Ticket doesn't add an image into what you already show, it replaces the barcode with something a lot more friendly/welcoming.
Very constructive, thanks!
You're right that this won't be adopted by 100% of attendees overnight, but we try to nudge them in that direction in the UI (make it default over the barcode ticket, etc.). Even still, If 20% of your line gets through extra fast, it still makes a difference. And in a few months if that goes to 30%, 50%, then that's something.
But a key part of this is many of our events don't scan the tickets (doesn't feel right for them), so this allows them to do something better than collecting paper tickets or finding a name on a list, and it's fun for the attendees who chose to use it.
There are two types of people in the world. Those who hate QR codes, and those who don't know what they are.
You don't take the Selfie until 24 hours before (at most -- you can wait if you think you might sell it). Until then, there's a simple flow to email the ticket to someone else.
Couple things help this. Clock ticking, colors aren't known until late, it's part of the app (you could tap "back"). But honestly, many of these events we work with weren't scanning barcodes. They were just collecting the paper tickets (which obviously can be printed over and over again) because scanning felt overkill. It's not right for every event, but, think about a 50 person smoked-BBQ event at your local brewery -- they're having the event to build their community and scanning barcodes seems weird for them.
Thanks! Yes, fallback is the traditional barcode ticket.
Hackathons, yes. The selfie aspect makes it a fun/ceremonial part of the experience of the event. 1 day before, you get the email, you take your pic, and you get excited for the event the next day.
Some have used the phrase "explainer video" but I don't think that's quite right in this case. I can tell you (I'm the CEO of Ticketleap) it was the brain child of our super talented @bobhoranjr
TicketLeap (Philadelphia, PA) - http://www.ticketleap.com/info/careers
* VP of Marketing
* Director of UX
* UI Designer
* Marketing Designer
* Software Engineer
Free Phillies Tickets. Great Office Space. Free Rdio Subscription.
Must share our core values: http://blog.ticketleap.com/2013/03/04/our-core-values/
The $13.1B profit is the 4th best quarterly result in world history, the 2nd best in US history (Exxon Q308), and the best by far of any company outside of Oil & Gas. Not inflation adjusted of course.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_corporate_profi...
I didn't really code through any tutorials. I used them to learn and followed them but adapted the steps to my own project to the extent possible.
No pair programming, but that sounds like that would be a huge help.
Yes, I did know HTML/CSS. Not so much JavaScript, but I still don't do any of that by hand (not condoning, that's just my current experience level).
The pre-existing skills did help a bit, but HTML/CSS are not that hard to pick up. Add maybe a month to get up to speed with there. Twitter bootstrap is a good help in that area.
Thanks. Sure: My typical schedule on weekdays is getting home at 7, then spending time with the family until the kids go to bed b/t 8:30-9. Then from 9-12 or 1 I tried to spend as much time as possible on building the app. In my approach the "learning" and "building" were intertwined. I didn't make up much ground on the weekends, as I kept that to family time.
How consistent I was from that 9-12 slot went in waves. For a couple weeks in a row I'd be at it every night, and then I'd have a couple weeks where I wasn't as productive. The summer I went through a productivity lull for some reason.
I actually gave my dropbox username/password to someone just hours ago to login to my dropbox and upload a couple large files. This is definitely a better way. Thanks!
Quick and simple to make, thought I could make some money on referral fees, but went nowhere.
Failure, I suppose: browsers can do the same thing, with a little setup; and, more importantly, people seem to have a preference to navigate to each of these sites and search them directly.