cvanvlack

6 ms·

1.
by cvanvlack 2y ago
Love that you can pull in other open source plugins. Super cool!
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Super interesting. My family are farmers. I got a PhD in physics, switched to startups and have one successful exit. However family is still a BIG value for me. I think a lot about the opportunity cost of time and I spent a lot of holidays
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Web app made! https://givetheperfectgift-app.web.app/
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Alright, now there's no account creation AND no app download. I had hoped using Flutter would pay off! I would only recommend trying on a mobile browser. The swiping doesn't work on desktop yet. https://givetheperfectgi
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
I think I got the web app version working! I had hoped using Flutter would pay off. Edit: I would only recommend trying on a mobile browser. The swiping doesn't work on desktop yet. https://givetheperfectgift-app.web.app&#x2
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah! I found your thing when I was looking for options in the gifting space. For me it's the difference between wanting to outsource and wanting to optimize. I was never comfortable with the outsourcing because I never felt like it wo
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I originally had generic tags that people could add but no one would ever add a unique tag. It just kept on pushing the suggestions more into the realm of the mediocre rather than into th
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Looking for one to add to the app now. lol
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
It's lower on the mobile website. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wk5-TrIPbpk
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah, part of the reason I came up with this is that my family keeps asking me about gift ideas for my wife and kids. I know what they like. I can answer that question. What I have struggled to answer is what's out there that matches w
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Using Firebase for the backend.
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
&&&&& &&&% && &&&& &&% &&
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Thank you so much! I will definitely check it out!
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah, I'm starting to scrape Etsy (there are definitely some on there already). Shopify stores seem like another big opporunity. It could potentially be the biggest mall in the world and yet I can't find the Shopify stores in my o
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
You're welcome! The framing I have been thinking of is search engines/Amazon are great when you have a keyword. What seems to be missing is a product discovery engine. How do you search for something that you don't know exist
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Oooohhh, I am super curious by what you mean by this. How is gifting culture different outside of North America?
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
I totally respect that. As I have been talking to people, I have noticed people who are frequently shopping and checking out products are WAY more ahead of the game because they are exposed to more ideas. I hate shopping so this was my way
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Thank you!! There's a lot that's still clunky about it but hopefully I can make it so that it continues to earn a spot on your phone.
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Thanks for the website feedback. I honestly just put it there as a placeholder and was working entirely on the app. Then I realized that for showing on HN the website is the right way to go so I tossed something together. I'll put a .g
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Oh man, this reminded me of something super retro about passing around the same gift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9qSKZuvC4&t=1928s
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Not sure for the plans for open source. Technically I am creating an anonymous account using Firebase. I've half built the capabilities to allow people to convert the anonymous account into a real account so that people can use the sam
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
The push notifications were so I can send notifications as I add products that match the tags. When someone adds something super specific, there might not be anything in the app that matches it and because we don't have any account cre
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Love the idea! However this will require much more integration to make sure I am showing the right size compared to just scraping. I'll put it on the roadmap!
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
That's fair! I've used Google for people who I am close to and those listicles have routinely fallen short for me. I think this is more to try to answer questions like "What do you get for the golfer who has everything".
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
I'll play with Flutter today and see how easy/hard it would be to add web. I know the formatting will be brutal once you switch to a desktop browser because the whole idiom for interaction changes. Maybe it won't suck too bad
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah, I can start looking into how to pull that information too. I know there are even broken links in there as merchants are changing their images/redirects that I haven't purged. All in time! Thank you for taking the time!!!
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah, I got sick of trading cash back and forth with people. It started to seem pointless. Plus, I have young kids who love birthdays/Christmas and the excitement of watching them watch someone else open a gift is WAY less if it's
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
BEETS, BEARS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!!!!
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Yeah, there are lots of places in the app where if something goes wrong, it's a failwhale. But I figured better to get it out there and if no one cares then why worry about the failure cases?
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by cvanvlack 4y ago
Thanks for the feedback! No account creation necessary. Just an app download. I know that with Flutter you can also make web apps so I'll see how hard it is to switch it to a web version to lower the barrier to entry even further.

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