Whether it’s designing, coding, or answering emails, my productivity level at a coffee shop is through the roof. However, I’ve learned it’s time to return to the office when my attention drifts and I start people watching. Can you blame me? Here in NYC, it’s hard to find someone that doesn’t qualify as “interesting.” Even if they’re a plain-Jane on the surface, you’ll soon find out they’re an international DJ, accomplished photographer, seasoned marathoner, etc.
Everyone has a unique story to tell. Everyone has something they want to share with the people they encounter. It could be their alma mater, occupation, interests, the mundane details of their life, or that damn good selfie. Additionally, we know that people are happier when they feel connected to their community (👯), and a feeling of connection requires sharing (😊).
The problem: technology provides the infrastructure to facilitate a conversation with anyone, anywhere in the world, but it also isolates us and pulls us away from engaging in the present. Using social media, we don’t hesitate to forge new connections with people around the globe, but we still rely on serendipity to interact with people nearby.
What if you had enough information in real-time to effectively decide who you want to connect with before the opportunity slips away?
Introducing Firefly
Firefly is a directory of people nearby. You decide what gets uploaded to your profile and shared with those around you. People learn about you, and you learn about the people nearby. If you’d like to reach out to someone using the app, there are ways to do that, too. Our fundamental goal is to facilitate connections in the real-world.
Journey
For the past year, everyone asked me what’s taking so long to release the app. “Just launch it” and “fail fast” was their mantra. Trust me, I get it. I’ve been developing mobile apps for close to a decade (shout out to the Motorola e680i). The goal was never to see if I can ship another app, it was to solve a very hard problem once and for all.
I’ve wanted to build Firefly since the spring of 2010, exactly six years ago. The initial idea coincided with a full-time position as a mobile developer, so I didn’t have much free-time to dedicate to the project. I kinda hoped someone else would do it, because the idea seemed so obvious and useful to me.
I watched Highlight, among a dozen others, launch their app and quickly fade into oblivion. Despite all the failed attempts along the way, I never doubted the potential of the idea, I only doubted the timing and execution.
The timing for an app like this has never been better. Over the past few years, technology improved significantly and location sharing has become commonplace.
Distribution Strategy
Global virality is the goal of every company, but in this space, it’s the most foolish desire at launch. A sparsely populated user base doesn’t do a location-based social app much good. A dense set of users is a requirement for success.
A slowly growing densely populated user base is almost as bad. Where users and posts are the data, if there’s not much new data, then the platform seems stale and boring. Therefore, we were tasked with engineering a distribution strategy where network size and density grow quickly and proportionally.
Product
From the onset, it was our goal to create a utilitarian product. We want people to check the app frequently, as the people nearby could change every minute. This requires a lightweight and performant solution.
Over the past few months, we’ve iterated multiple times to remove all superfluous features. We’re launching with the minimum feature set required to help you expand your social graph in an exciting new way.
Next Step
I hope this set the stage for the motivation behind the journey, the product’s core focus, and the thoughtfulness put into the some of the bigger challenges facing launch.
The second part of this post will be published on 2/7/16 and will cover the product and deployment strategy in detail, as well as answer frequently asked questions. Thanks for making it this far. We’ll see you in part two.
Contact
Firefly is for iOS and launching in February 2016 in NYC. Keep up-to-date by following us on Instagram @discoverfirefly. You can contact me via email, peter@discoverfirefly.com.
Peter Spano, Founder & CEO, Art Projects, Inc.