Ask HN: OpenLoopz: location-aware task management - advice needed
2 comments
Nice website design and idea. I will checkout the app on my phone later and provide more feedback. Are you integrating with any calendars?
Thank you for your interest and feedback. Yes, it's not on the short list at the moment but I am definitely planning to add integration with Google Calendar and other calendars in a future release.
The app and the website both look beautiful. good job on that. Unfortunately i am not a huge fan of todo lists. but i wish you really good luck. the project looks really promising but i do not know how much potential it might have.
http://www.openloopz.com
I would appreciate it if the HN community could give me some feedback on the app and a little advice on what to do next!
The first version of OpenLoopz was conceptualised way back in 2008 when I purchased my first Android device (the lovable G1) at around the same time I was reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. OpenLoopz was born. While the initial release received a decent amount of interest (14K+ downloads overall) and maintained a 4.5 rating on the Android Market, the project was always a learning experience for me and it showed in the quality of the final app. I received a great deal of positive feedback for the underlying concept, but understandably, the majority of users would not consider committing to OpenLoopz fully without support for some kind of server-side sync feature.
I always envisaged expanding OpenLoopz into a full service complete with a web-app, sync and support for other mobile platforms such as iOS, but in the early days it was always a bit of a pipe-dream to be honest. I had to maintain a full-time job and for a good while I was only able to work on OpenLoopz now and then when I had some free time.
At one point around a year ago, I decided it was time to get serious. My brother became involved and we half-heartedly went down the investment path for a while without any success. Despite setback after setback I decided to commit to the project and took several months out from my day job to work full-time on OpenLoopz, living on my savings. Unfortunately, it all ended in disaster (http://goo.gl/LIlhe), but it was a great learning experience and I have come back much stronger this year (and hopefully a little wiser!).
Now that the Android app is finally released, I am looking for advice on ways to generate funds so I can potentially work full-time on development of the web-app/sync feature. As crowdfunding seem to be all the rage at the moment I have been researching the various services. Unfortunately, I cannot use KickStarter as I live outside the US (I am based in County Durham in the UK). Out of the alternatives that support the UK, Indiegogo looks like the best to me so I am in the process of putting together a campaign on there - I figure it’s worth a try! I would be very interested to hear from others regarding any experiences using alternative crowdfunding services and/or advice regarding other approaches to generating funds.
I am looking forward to any advice I can get from the HN community whether it’s constructive criticism/feedback regarding the app or advice on crowdfunding (or both!).
Thank you, Paul Drummond