I've been releasing iPhone apps for the last four years, since 2009, a little more than 6 months after the app store opened.
At first, honestly, the app store was better than a lottery ... it was an ATM.
I'd release an app and -- BOOM! -- $1200 a month would come streaming in. Seriously.
Things have cooled off A LOT. There's a lot of competition that adds a lot of noise to app store search results.
My focus has always been on finding a unique niche / rabid group of loyal fans ... finding out what they want ... and then giving it to them. Building a brand around that niche. Then launching multiple apps in those verticals. With this approach, it's still fairly easy to make $10/day/app. I'll still get the occasional breakout hit that has 5K+ downloads a day. But it's not like it was.
Do I do any marketing? No.
What I've found separates the successful app developers (those that at least make their money back) from those that aren't successful isn't marketing. It's this: intelligent market selection.
The people I know who's apps don't go anywhere don't do any market research. They release an app that would be useful for their own idiosyncratic life ... and no one else.
If you cut through all the YC hype ... the most telling thing, imo, is that Dave Morin invested. This pretty much guarantees that Pair and Path won't step on each other's toes ... and that Pair will benefit from Path's learnings and eventual discovery of the right way to monetize.
The other negative signal is all their talk of doing "massive" things. Did fb ever talk this way? Not to my knowledge ... they just DID things. Lot's of hype / cockiness on this one.
I am completely underwhelmed by this. Not impressed. At all.
I fail to see what this adds to the social network landscape that's unique or can't be easily replicated by FB, G+, etc. Just seems bland. Like white bread.
Headline should read: Spammy app gets rewarded for heavy-handed, spammy tactics.
"Nice guys" or not, the founders are douche-marketers ... and it's a pity to see such things pay off, even if in a suboptimal exit.
Money isn't everything.