Stumbleapod
Podcast discovery platform
Wow, I did it! I woke up today to Stumbleapod being released in the iOS App store! A little over a month ago, I literally knew nothing about mobile app development. Today, I've got something out there in the app ecosystem =)
Sumbleapod isn't the prettiest app (I'm being nice). In fact, there are parts of it where I'm just flat out embarrassed that I made it. I'll just pretend I took advice from my good buddy Reid Hoffman in his Masters of Scale podcast where he said you should ship so soon that you should be embarrassed of your first release. I'm just following Yoda's advice here. But, I'm just really proud of overcoming so many obstacles on this journey and going from knowing nothing about developing mobile apps to having a crumb at the table. I can't even begin to tell you about all of the things I learned.
So, what's next - that's a great question. Stumbleapod was the "first pancake" for me in so many ways. You know, when you make pancakes and you grease the pan and the first one always turns out a weird shape and color? It's that, for me. I could spend my time on this pancake, making it pretty, and a lot more fun, get some users, and then try to generate some revenue by boosting certain podcasts in the stumble search. But, keep in mind that I spent about 5 weeks figuring out how to develop an app - and I'm a big idea guy. I had a new idea each of those 5 weeks! So, I could call Stumbleapod the first pancake in my journey of mobile app development as heading down this path and learning these skills has really opened up the floodgates in terms of executing other great ideas that are stirring about my brain. So, I'm waffling on what to do next (pancakes, waffles - have you had breakfast yet?) and I'm heading out to take my lunch break in about an hour where I'll retreat to a cozy cafe to work on a side project for an hour, so I should probably figure it out by then! Ha! =)
About two weeks ago I started developing a mobile app for Stumbleapod - I literally had never developed an app before this. I've spent all my time working on web development. But, I decided to give it a shot in react native as it was cross platform and I had some experience in javascript. Happy to report I'm halfway through my feature list and only getting faster at developing in this stack! I'm so pumped with my progress - especially because I literally had no skills or experience in mobile dev before this! But, it's working! Persistence pays. Looking forward to the day I get this out there. Here's a pic!
We're kicking off mobile app development. I think it's super important that an app gets built and launched quickly to be effective in the podcasting space. It works fine as a webapp, but if it's an app on my phone I'm more inclined to use it. We're focusing on the stumble functionality and 'your own private notes' first. Keep it simple, keep it narrow, build out from there. Can't wait to see how long it takes from this post to my "Mobile app launch" milestone =)
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Hey! Good luck with yout app! 2020 Is a perfect time to launch a mobile app. Mobile apps has been a priority for most businesses and COVID-19 forced everybody to go online. That's why we also hired https://rocketech.it to create an app.
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Hey, That's great!
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This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Wrote a little blog post announcing the Stumbleapod MVP, hoping I can get some traffic from it and some people interested in giving me feedback on overall use and functionality https://medium.com/@stumbleapod/stumbleapod-com-stumbleupon-for-podcasts-47d2731133e4
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you got at least one visitor in me.. ;)
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ok, i'm not sure if it's not working, or if there just aren't that many podcasts listed yet...
or maybe i did something wrong.
I started out by choosing around 15 topics that i'm interested in and the clicked the Stumble-button.
i landed on an episode of npr... all the categories i had chosen had disappeared from the search bar above the podcast...
then i clicked the right arrow to get to the next podcast and it worked but it kept showing me npr-episodes... nothing else..
then i went back and only chose the category "marketing" and hit Stumble again.
Then it showed me a GaryVee episode, i clicked the right arrow again and again and it kept only showing me GaryVee episodes..
________________________________________________________i think the UX generally could use a little work, let me know if i can help you with some ideas/sketches/mockups..
________________________________________________________also, i'd love the option to stumble through podcast CHANNELS instead of single episodes.. i'm more interested in finding channels with relevant topics and then looking for the right episode myself..:)
________________________________________________________i love the idea! kinda jealous even! 😜 will keep following your story :)
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Shiiiiiiit. a glitch! What kind of browser were you using? the 15 or so topics you picked shouldn't have disappeared from the search bar. That would give you the option to click stumble again if you didn't like the show stumble picked out for you. Garyvee is the whole reason I added that feature. I don't like his show and anytime his image popped up and podcast started playing, I wanted to hit stumble again and quickly find a new show rather than hit "back", pick out the topics again, and hit stumble again.
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The purple arrows give people the opportunity to sift through the episodes of the show they stumbled on. I made this because I stumbled on an awesome episode 1 of business wars podcast on Ford vs. Chevy and I wanted to listen to episodes 2-5 but didn't have a quick way to find them. This way I can always catch the next in a series. Maybe some more arrows on top and bottom for switching shows within the genres? I know it's not intuitive,...but maybe we could make it so? hell, idk.
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Yes, I would agree, the UI/UX respectfully blow. I've never been good at ux/ui. I even suck at picking out shirts. I think, 'damn, that's a hot ass shirt', then I buy it and realize I'm an average looking white dude with absolutely no business wearing a sleeveless t-shirt hoodie. I know my weaknesses, and my strengths, and am comfortable in them =) haha. Sure! If you get bored while drinking beers and pondering life, I'd love some help in that realm. Just started working on the mobile app, so it couldn't be a better time.
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Channels first then you find the episode, you say, eh? That's an interesting idea..I like the idea of a user clicking stumble and BAM they're listening to a fresh episode in about 5 seconds. So maybe I test the idea that it autoplays the episode, but all the episodes are listed from that show somehow that allows the user to select other episodes or add them to their playlist for later...
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Thanks for following, and for the sweet <hr> posting theme (stolen!). I'll definitely keep posting. I think this is going somewhere if I can just execute the vision.
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I was on Chrome... haven't had any other issues.. :)
______________________________________________________I see, so I just did it wrong, i was expecting to get to the next random podcast when clicking the arrow :)
______________________________________________________" I even suck at picking out shirts. I think, 'damn, that's a hot ass shirt', then I buy it and realize I'm an average looking white dude with absolutely no business wearing a sleeveless t-shirt hoodie."
this made me literally LOL in public 😂
UI/UX: I'll try to get something ready this weekend :)
______________________________________________________You should definitely keep the stumbling-into-episodes.. i'd just like an additional option where i would only stumble into Channels and then maybe next to it there's a list of the episodes..
It could also show me the channel with a short description and still autoplay the latest episode with a list to choose next to it :)
______________________________________________________I also think this could go somewhere :) in Switzerland, where everything happens a few years later, podcasts are starting to pop up too.. and if you look at some of the podcast related products here on IH, their stripe-verified revenue has often been growing incredibly fast and consistently over the last year or so....
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Woosh! It's up. http://www.stumbleapod.com is your podcast discovery platform that will find podcast shows and episodes for you based on your tastes...soon. =-) Just pushed out a live version with some functionality to test this idea out. I'd love your thoughts and feedback on functionality for the next iterations. Obviously, its a quick and dirty MVP, so don't expect the moon and stars, YET!
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Hello Brian,
I looked for some interesting podcasts sometime ago, so I did this just by googling top podcasts about specific topics.
I tried your demo, and here is some feedback:
- It's very hard to read all these text blocks, maybe add some icons?
- It wasn't clear why some podcast was started playing, maybe just a list of podcasts and why it's recommended would be a better option?
But also it's not really clear for me how you are going to monetize this service? Or it's just for fun?
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Thanks anton, great to start to figure out how people find new podcast content - there are only SO many episodes of Indie Hackers to quench our undying thirst, no?!
- I like the bit about icons. I want to do that on each little button, maybe some gradient, too. But, I'll figure that out once I start doing a deep dive on styling later. Just got to get the tool out there, now.
- It's a play on Stumbleupon - the popular webapp that allowed you to randomly go to web pages. So that's just what you do, you click some interests, hit stumble, boom - podcast is playing.
Monetizing. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! I have a plan. It'll always be free to use. But I think there'll be a way to monetize through clever podcast promotions, once the audience finds the stumbleapod stage and likes it.
I went to one of my family members and had them use Stumbleapod - yes, there's a working version out there and if you want to try it then get on the email list! Well, I watched them as they clicked a couple of their interests (They chose "Christianity", and "Religion" as they like listening to sermons on their jogs) and hit 'stumble'. Their eyes lit up and their neck did that 'straighten up' thing where they were visibly surprised that one, it worked, and two, that it was so simple. 3 Hours later when I checked in, they were googling the church they had listened to on the podcast, actually thanking me for helping them discover new content and a new church! Just one data point, but man, it felt good to see someone find value in what I've built!
I've been working on this stumbelapod idea for a while now. Based on IH feedback, I decided to launch a quick and easy splash page at http://www.stumbleapod.com today to gauge interest and interact with future users to initiate some conversations ahead of launch!
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I'd bring the opacity of the overlay down to .85 or .84; and I'd add a media query to serve a differently cropped background image for mobile -- right now on mobile you get the back of one guy's head, which isn't terrible but maybe not the most exciting.
For the wordmark, because it's in a light-weight script, I think it should be quite a bit larger in proportion to the pictorial element. For that part, if you don't mind re-engaging your designer, you could do a stylized thumbprint for the microphone grill. I'd like to see the border around the mic element thinner and eliminated for the favicon (could be either just the s from stumbleapod or just the head of the mic). And color would be good!
I don't know if you need both underscore and italic for 'you' -- maybe drop the italic?
Reworked copy (feel free to keep or discard anything here):
'We'll get to know your likes and dislikes, and recommend new podcast episodes that fit your profile every time you click "Stumble!"
[then in a different font or weight or color:]
'You've actually found us pre-launch! Give us your email and we'll let you know when we have our launch date scheduled...and probably ask for your input along the way!'Maybe change 'Submit!' to something else? 'Let me know!' or 'I'm in!'?
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Wow thank you for this feedback! I love the idea around changing the logo, and have made this change as well as others based on your feedback! Awesome - you've made my day!
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I'm glad to hear it! The message comes across in a more dynamic and engaging way now -- to me, anyway. I think I will sign up :-)
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3 Comments
Congrats Brian, getting from start to launch is no small feat!
The best thing about design is that it can only get better. Pick a page to improve once every week or so and before you know it, the app will be gorgeous and you'll be a much better designer. Also, you'd be surprised how willing most users are to overlook design for functionality.
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The goal is to give myself a pat on the back and document what I'm up to. I'm not here to market or push product on people. That said, here's the link:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stumbleapod/id1488534477
;)