OK, I haven't had time to download the app, but was curious about the description
> PIZZA COMPASS IS THE EXCITING NEW LIFE-AFFIRMING IPHONE APP THAT HELPS PIZZA GET TO YOUR MOUTH. CREATED BY A HIGHLY SPECIALIZED TRAINED TEAM OF PIZZA EXPERTS. EXPERTS WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, AND FRIENDSHIP.
The screenshots featured famous pizzerias...so is the data "curated" by the pizza-compass staff? Or does it rely on other APIs, such as Foursquare? In other words, is it similar to other locations (Google, Yelp, etc) services out there, except filtered by Pizza?
Cool design concept...but is it really a serious effort at an app/startup (i.e. there's a press kit, accounts for the pizza-compass domain)? The use case is pretty limited...that is, limited to the times when you want just pizza and are in an unfamiliar neighborhood. This is not a scenario that I've found myself in...I either eat cheap pizza as part of a routine at a place near work, or know exactly the fancy-pants pizzeria that I want to go to dinner for. Unless there's a lot of custom or well-aggregated data specific to pizza (such as, what kind of pizzas are there, price per slice, etc), it's probably not an app that I would ever use habitually.
This is really overthinking it, IMO. This app isn't a shot at Yelp or an attempt to disrupt the pizza space... It's a joke. You pay a dollar, you get a pizza compass. I think it's hilarious.
The quotes on their page about "life-affirming" and "some people might say this is the most important app... ever" tell me that whoever made this app just wanted to have a bit of a laugh.
Wow. It just goes to show how immune I've gotten to startup pitch ideas and their templates. The text that I copied and pasted is obviously a joke ("EXCITING NEW LIFE-AFFIRMING IPHONE APP") and yet my brain mentally skipped over it as just being thats-what-all-apps-said and tried to evaluate the technical part of an app.
I'm going to blame it on the all-caps throwing blinders on my brain this morning
When I say "joke" I just mean that the whole concept appears to be firmly tongue-in-cheek (or pizza-in-cheek, maybe). Though I haven't used the app I suspect that the tech behind it is pretty sound. I feel you on the hyperbolic marketing though, when every new app is a "revolutionary take on _____" those words begin to lose meaning. I have no connection to the app's creators or any actual knowledge about their intentions but I would assume that this is meant to be a jab at that kind of marketing.
Not that the app is a joke (not real), but that the app is a joke app (a fun app, made cheaply, not intended to "change the world", be the next Facebook, or promote a heavy business model).
The app is real, but they're poking fun at how simple it is. I can imagine their users are either often either extremely hungry and/or drunk, so extreme simplicity is a big plus.
Ah I think you misunderstood me... I was correcting the OP's analogy. He said "Selling humor on hn is like selling ice to Greenlanders", I said "No, Greenlanders have lots of ice already. HN users have no humour already".
Also interested in their business model and how they plan to achieve profitability. Any VC worth their weight wouldn't touch a startup like this with a 10-foot pole. We all saw what happened to Groupon and their approach in dealing with small and independent restaurants.
Why would I as a pizza shop owner want to join your network? Are there systems in place to ensure that demand does not exceed supply? How do you ensure that a certain standard of pizza quality is met by all members of the pizza network?
I'd like these questions answer before you get me to download your app to find pizza.
>Also interested in their business model and how they plan to achieve profitability. Any VC worth their weight wouldn't touch a startup like this with a 10-foot pole.
Zzzzzz. I find this reading is incredibly dense. What VC, profitablity, business model and such crap?
They made a fun app, they are selling it. They don't intend to become the next Instagram or whatever. They just want to sell their cheaply produced app and make a decent buck. Like thousands of developers out there. Isn't it obvious?
Not everything is a startup, looking for some VC, to validate some business model.
Most apps people use are made like this. Including games -- which don't wait VCs or have "business models" other than: release the game, sell copies, profit.
Of the top of my head, some examples of similar successful apps: iA Writer, Reeder, Letterpress, KitCam, Foldify, Soulver, Brushes, Camera+, Flashlight, Hundreds, Procreate, ...
These people are trying to exploit the pizza market by taking advantage of desperate pizza workers and forcing them to join their walled pizza garden with promises of absurd profits. It's a shame that people are endorsing this very obvious and pathetic attempt to use pizza for their own success.
But look at the growth! Yesterday I had one pizza, and today I have two. By the law of extrapolation that makes pizza compass the fastest growing company ever with a roughly 7.5X10^107% annual growth rate!
I really like the way the video was done, i.e. the video background keyed exactly to the page background, but IMO the video itself smacks of trying too hard. I think they tried to ape the Dollar Shave Club vibe and I don't think it went over.
The secret here is to go to the Grimaldi's in Manhattan (20th and 6th). I have been there many times and have never once stood in line. Whatever the delta is between the Brooklyn location and the Manhattan location, it surely isn't 30 minutes of standing around.
When I visited New York I went at 11.30am, there was no queue and the pizza arrived quickly. But by the time I was eating it, I looked out the window and the queue was already stretching a whole block!
Ok, HN, I'm obviously missing something so please enlighten me. Why is this on the front page? I thought that it might be a joke as some people suggested , but it's not, there's an actual app that you can download on iTunes. So... I just don't get it. Why is this important?
I think it's a fine example how someone takes a novel idea like this, charges 99 cents, and probably ends up making a nice dollar off it. No one ever asked for it, but a lot of people will want it.
Everyone is always asking to get their problems solved but it shows how you don't always need a problem.
i vibe with their humor in this app and the marketing so i'm going to purchase it. if for nothing else, so they can do more cool/funny/fun shit like this!
i made a one page app that might help someone decide which craft beer to drink after getting their pizza from this compass. oh and it insults you a bunch.
launched it last week and spread on the internet tubes. people responded to it positively and it's received a shit-ton amount of attention for a fun side project -- over 2 million unique views and counting.
Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Shitty Fucking Beer.
Drink Only Good Beer.
This is great art. It's the kind of art that makes you question your beliefs, the kind of art that makes you consider things in a different light; the kind of art that makes you question your existence and the futility of the world and capitalism.
I don't have sound at work so the video just appears to be a man waving a pizza slice around before I got bored and gave up. Is there anywhere on the site where it says what it does in writing?
I assume you're being sarcastic since there's a picture of the app showing a slice of pizza pointing your way towards a pizza place. And the name should be a dead giveaway.
Either way I think it's a terrible example of the decadence of western societies.
1. Search for nearest pizza place (probably using Foursquare)
2. Pizza-looking-compass-needle points to said pizza place
3. Distance updates as you're pulled towards pizza
After watching the guy in the video, I think I will pass on pizza today.... No thrills , but it would help if they would have had a sexy model instead :)
Luckily the type of pizza will be determined by where you live and not the app. So whether you want a Detroit, Chicago, New York, or Italian-styled pizza, you'll be okay.
Writing this made me realize it's time to dig deeper into pizza history.
Wow! My guess, reading the menu, is that they are blending their own Provel cheese out of the three cheeses it's formed from. If so, then it's probably pretty close, but not quite, as the factory-blended Provel somehow seems to meld the base cheeses slightly differently.
But however they are doing it, I'm delighted to see it showing up in California. Thanks for sharing.
As someone not from St. Louis, I can confirm that Provel cheese is indeed repulsive. My friend swears that it is manna from heaven. I swear that it is burnt plastic.
It's okay in moderation but like any cheese food, it's more of an aside than a main thing. It's okay raw in small quantities on a strongly flavored Italian salad and okay on pizza as long as you put bacon or something on it and are not only tasting cheese.
It's like a block of Velveeta, it's okay if you're using it in a dip and throwing tons of peppers and other stuff in there but to cut it up and stick toothpicks in it? Kind of curdles my stomach. Provel is the same way.
> PIZZA COMPASS IS THE EXCITING NEW LIFE-AFFIRMING IPHONE APP THAT HELPS PIZZA GET TO YOUR MOUTH. CREATED BY A HIGHLY SPECIALIZED TRAINED TEAM OF PIZZA EXPERTS. EXPERTS WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, AND FRIENDSHIP.
The screenshots featured famous pizzerias...so is the data "curated" by the pizza-compass staff? Or does it rely on other APIs, such as Foursquare? In other words, is it similar to other locations (Google, Yelp, etc) services out there, except filtered by Pizza?
Cool design concept...but is it really a serious effort at an app/startup (i.e. there's a press kit, accounts for the pizza-compass domain)? The use case is pretty limited...that is, limited to the times when you want just pizza and are in an unfamiliar neighborhood. This is not a scenario that I've found myself in...I either eat cheap pizza as part of a routine at a place near work, or know exactly the fancy-pants pizzeria that I want to go to dinner for. Unless there's a lot of custom or well-aggregated data specific to pizza (such as, what kind of pizzas are there, price per slice, etc), it's probably not an app that I would ever use habitually.