Last weekend I participated in a Startup Weekend (Paris, France) with a friend where we pitched a simple idea. We wanted to create a cross platform application with the easiest file-sharing experience. Drag and drop the files on the avatar of the person you want to send them to. and voila, the files are sent.
During the weekend I posted on HN to get some feedback on our project and was happy to see we got some awesome feedback ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3780777 ). The testing page ( http://dl.dropbox.com/u/149780/Dropsend%20beta.jpg ) got more than 1200 Unique Visitors in 8h with a CTR of 21% ! By the end of the weekend we had a working prototype that was able to send files both locally and through the web.
Since we were just there to have fun and took SW more like a hackathon, we were really surprised when we were announced as the Winners of the weekend ( Ze winning pitch deck: http://speakerdeck.com/u/dropdock/p/dropdock-startup-weekend-winning-pitch )
After a lot of thinking, we decided to take the projet further and really launch the service, thus creating Dopdock!
We are currently refactoring the code, redesigning the prototype and adding some features ( Encrypted transfers, Send to non Dropdock users, etc ). The plan is to launch Dropdock by the end of April. That's where you come in, we need tech oriented / startup enthusiasts to give us feedback on our beta because we think you guys will be the ones benefiting the most from our service.
So take a look at http://getdropdock.com to watch a demo of Dropdock and why not signup for the beta if you like it! Any feedback is more than welcome, either on the landing page or the application.
If you have read up to this point, you get an extra thank you!
TL;DR: Took Startup Weekend as a hackaton, pitched a simple idea, won the competition to our surprise, decided to continue the project. Need beta tester! http://getdropdock.com/
Cheers, Syl
PS: My Tech co-founder blogged about the experience, you can read it @ http://maximebf.com/2012/04/startup-weekend/