The advantage for me is being able to snap video without holding anything in my hands. Sure, I could do that with a Go Pro but with these I just throw them on. I find the video quality to be good enough... the few moments I've captured have been so outstanding that I don't really care that it's not 4K.
I don't have the cloud processing features enabled for photos/video on these. As far as I understand, the photos and videos aren't used for training data. I also don't publish these photos anywhere on social media.
I have the first generation of these, and as far as I know there isn't a screen. The sweat issue is sensitivity to the side controls — the glasses think I'm changing the music, volume or whatever and I'm just wearing them and doing nothing. This was an issue early on but recently I went on a ride for 90 minutes and didn't have this issue.
I don't really use them that way. I don't wear them 24/7, just specific situations. Also, there's an LED light on them that clearly indicates when the camera is recording vs. when it isn't.
It seems like there are a lot of negative comments about Meta's glasses which is surprising to me as a regular user. I bought these both in clear and sunglasses and I love them. I've recorded some of the most amazing videos of my baby with them. Listening to music is fantastic as it's different from regular headphones since you can still hear the world around you — I've even done a few longer bike rides with them and it's been great. I haven't enabled any of the AI or smart features on the glasses, although I've been meaning to give it a try. Some things I don't love about them is the proprietary charging cases, the battery life seems to degrade over time (not totally certain though), and they're sensitive to sweat. Overall I think they show a ton of promise.
I started with an API called Pwinty which turned out to be pretty expensive so I ended up basically recruiting a print shop partner based in the US.
I've actually been looking at releasing a 4"x6" photo printing API of my own since we've developed some pretty neat shipping tricks as well as the ability to print on both sides of the photos.
Yes it is tough. It’s been mostly word-of-mouth growth. I’ve run lots of experiments and most of them don’t pan out. Like, recently I tried mailing a bunch of old school cassette walkmen with the above voicemails on them to the media along with a letter and sample photos (“just press play to hear it straight from happy recipients”). I sent 15 boxes and haven’t heard back on any. It feels like the kind of service that would do well on the news/etc so I’ll just keep trying!
I'm working on NanaGram (https://nanagram.co). The tagline:
Text or email your photos and we'll send 4x6 prints to your loved ones.
It doesn't provide the majority of my income (yet) but by far and away it provides the majority of my life's meaning. I haven't crossed the mental hurdle of sharing all my numbers publicly yet but let's just say it is turning a profit and there are thousands of happy NanaGrammers.
I got started on it at my grandfather's 94th birthday party when by brother 1-uppped my gift of live lobsters with the gift of "InstaGrandpa." He prototyped it the night before and asked me to help build it.
Working solo is a challenge for many reasons. One thing I did early was automate the customer feedback loops. I set up an automated loop to collect customer reviews (https://nanagram.co/#happy). Collecting feedback from grandparents is a bit tougher so I set up a phone line for them to dial in and leave voicemails (https://nanagram.co/#happynanas). I get a couple voicemails and reviews each week and it's like maker fuel.
Another big challenge is fighting isolation. I like to practice deep work but there's a fine line between deep work and isolation. I would've given up a year ago if it weren't for the advisor-like support from my brother and my friend Dan. I did YC Startup School last summer and that was huge as well; I remember sharing with the group that I was on the edge of throwing in the towel, then last December MRR grew by over 2X. The next big thing I plan to change in my life is adding weekly volunteering.
I just transferred 9 domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap. I transferred about 15 a while back after the whole elephant hunting incident.
fyi: when you transfer a domain, you're actually getting an entire year renewal + the existing time left on the domain. Using one of the coupon codes from Namecheap ("XMASJOY" or "SOPASucks" or "BYEBYEGD"), it's around $5 on average per domain... less than it is to renew at GoDaddy.