Sung Kim ·
Just signed up on a site called CoFoundersLab.com and emailed whole bunch of people that look like investors. I tried to find developers, but I didn't see any iOS or Android developers...
Seriously, why are all the entrepreneurs in this freaking town business developers? Where are all the developer entrepreneurs???
Sung Kim ·
I decided to name my app "Gestures" since it's a gesture-based camera app, and it also rhymes with "pictures."
It turns out "Gestures.com" was taken... so I decided to take the next best thing and bought "TheGestures.com" and whipped out a website in 3 hours, using one of the Squarespace.com templates.
I'm not completely happy with it... but it will have to do for now... I gotta sleep at some point, right?
Sung Kim ·
Here is my stab at redesigning Google+ for mobile:
Sung Kim ·
Finally getting around to emailing everyone I met at the Digital Dallas event... Each email took me about 20 min to write, review, and revise. This alone could be a full time job.
Sung Kim ·
A friend of mine introduced me to an angel investor who used to work for Facebook, and he was one of the main people who handled Instagram acquisition (It's really nice to have friends who are really well connected).
We got on Skype, and I walked through my camera app wireframes with him and explained my concept behind it. Walking through the wireframes isn't a big deal, but I'm having trouble explaining my concept smoothly without stuttering or sounding stupid, so I put together a script and literally read it on the call... like a robot.
The call went pretty well, and he gave me some good insights, but he couldn't come on board as an advisor because he's an advisor for another camera app that's currently in the market.
Sigh... I could really use a drink... again.
Sung Kim ·
I decided to go to a networking event called Digital Dallas: http://dddallasdumbo.eventbrite.com/
Now that I have an Android developer working on my app, I thought I should probably go out there and get some investors and other developers to work on the iOS app. But I've never really been to these networking events before (I didn't even go to my high school reunion).
Once I got to there, I felt like a little kid who lost his mom at a mall... I just randomly walked around, grabbed anyone who looked like an investor or developer, and showed them my camera app concept video on a iPad mini:
I don't think I never talked so much in one day in my life...
But almost half way into the night, all I found were:
Then I saw this one guy who looked like an investor, but he was talking to another guy, so I waited for him for about 20 minutes. As soon as he finally finished talking and started walking away, I grabbed him, and I was ready to tell him all about my project.
Then all of a sudden, my wife brought a guy to talk to me. Then this guy and the investor guy started talking, and the investor guy's cab arrived, so he had to go...
I was so mad, but I didn't say anything because she was trying to help me. I was tired and bummed out. It sucked so bad – having to work up a courage to talk to complete strangers hoping that it won't be awkward, only to find out that it is awkward and that they can't wait to walk away from you...
On the other hand, my wife is a people magnet. People just come up to talk to her even though they have absolutely nothing in common with her, and one of them turned out to be VP of Match.com and an angel investor.
So I got excited and tried to talk to him about my idea, but my brain wasn't working anymore. I kept stuttering and could get the right words out of my mouth... I was just too tired. But he took pity on me and gave me his business card.
Sigh... I could really use a drink.
Sung Kim ·
I shared the wireframes of my camera app concept with my developer.
I thought I had it pretty tight and polished, but he pointed out some issues in the Gallery view.
I wanted the thumbnails in the gallery to extend beyond the screen edges and not be restricted by the screen size. So in order to do that, should I set the max number of columns in the gallery, or should I make it fluid and let the number of columns change based on the number of images in the gallery? I decided to go with the first option because it seemed a little less chaotic. If I'm wrong we will just try the other option. It's just the part of the process when you develop something that's outside the norm.
Also I had a gesture that allows users to tap two thumbnails at once to select all the thumbnails in between. If I tap two thumbnails in different rows, does it select all the thumbnails, even the ones outside the screen? I decided it makes sense to select all the thumbnails even when they are outside the screen. If users can instantly pinch in and out to see more or less thumbnails, having selected thumbnails off the screen shouldn't be a mystery... right? RIGHT?
This is how I see it. When you are exploring uncharted territory, the worst thing you can do is to do nothing and waste time. Just make the best judgement call and move on. If I'm right, it will be awesome. If it's a mistake, I'll find out sooner. If it's a fatal mistake that kills the project, well then... I guess I wasn't smart enough to see it coming, so I don't deserve to be successful at this shit.
I guess we will find out when the prototype comes out and test it.
Sung Kim ·
There is a couple of app developers at my work, so I just grabbed one of them and asked him if he would be interested building a camera app with me.
I'm not really interested in making money off this camera app. I wanna get traction, get investors, and build the whole new operating system and a new device. So I told him that he could keep all the money if we make any money from the app in exchange for his labor. He liked the idea and decided to come on board.
Sung Kim ·
Someone at the TEDxSMU event approached me and asked me if I was looking for investors to develop any of the concepts I presented. That got me thinking about actually building them.
So I searched for people who could actually build a devices I showcased in my concept, and came across this link: http://ecologylab.net/research/zerotouch/
I was pretty excited and contacted one of the guys on that team, but all I got from him was bunch of no's... No, it's not possible. No, it's too expensive. No, I don't have time. Well... to be fair, I guess I wasn't too prepared to answer some of his questions about getting investors and stuff... (Come on. It was my first time. Give me a break...)
Only thing I got out of it was that I can't just start building a device... I kinda knew that, but I was hoping I was wrong. So I decided to take baby steps and start with building the camera app first.
Sung Kim ·
Since I couldn't get to show my concept visuals at the TEDxSMU event, I decided to put together a video of it and email it out to everyone I met at the event.
Sung Kim ·
I went to work the next day and sat at my desk all bummed out. Then my co-worker came up to me and said, "Congratulations!" I was like, "What?"
He said I got selected as a speaker for Big Design Conference in October!
I checked my inbox, and I got this email waiting for me.
HOORAY!!! XD
Sung Kim ·
So TEDxSMU Finalist audition was tonight.
Everything was ready. I memorized my lines and practiced in front of my family, friends, co-workers, and even some random people. I even bought the new PowerPoint for the TEDxSMU event organizer because she had an older version that couldn't run my visual heavy presentation file.
I thought the worst case scenario would be me stuttering on the stage and people laughing at me. My mom even joked that I should just do "Conan dance moves" if I mess up.
Well... my worst case scenario in my head didn't happen. An unthinkable happened instead – the projector froze. And I was only 2 slides into my 20 page presentation.
While they tried to fix the projector, I was asked to wait on the stage in front of 150 audience members in the deadest silence, and everyone started whispering. It was getting really awkward, so I did something I never thought I would – I made a joke.
I just opened my mouth and started talking, and everyone started laughing. I even danced... the Conan dance. It was great... for 30 seconds. Then they told me they fixed the projector and wanted me to start over. Well... it wasn't fixed.
So I decided to give my visual presentation without the visuals. It was going well until I got to a point where I was supposed to point something specific on my screen. I was completely stuck and told the MC that I can't go any further without the visuals. He told me I should just summarize my presentation and wrap it up. So I did.
When I finished, I got the standing ovation, but I couldn't tell if it was because my presentation was great or because they just felt bad for me. At the end of the show, they picked out 2 people to speak at the main event in October, and I wasn't one of them. So I'm guessing that standing ovation was out of pity.
As I was driving home, I thought of all kinds of things I could have done to save the presentation and make it even better. But I couldn't think of it earlier because I was so set in stone with the script I had memorized. When I couldn't think of a way to stay on track with the script, I just gave up.
The biggest lesson I learned today wasn't overcoming my extreme stage freight, but realizing that – there is always a way out. And that new way could potentially make your situation even better than your original plan, but I gave up too easily tonight when I thought I hit a wall.
I'll never forget this night and the lesson I learned...
Sung Kim ·
My company wrote an article about me, and it received about 50 likes over night!
http://blog.rockfishdigital.com/2013/06/13/digital-innovation/the-next-mobile-experience/
Sung Kim ·
Apple made an announcement about their up coming event where they will release iOS7 and showed some screenshots.
This timeline view of the iOS 7 Camera app looked a lot like the camera app gallery section I was working on...
And this screen shot looks a lot like the home screen of the operating system concept I was working on... I'm not even sure what that screenshot is for. Does it just look similar or work similar too? I wonder...
I guess I'll find out when they release it.
Sung Kim ·
I got the confirmation that I've been selected as one of the 11 finalists selected out of 70+ submission to do a live audition for TEDxSMU!!! XD
Sung Kim ·
Last week, I found out that TEDxSMU is having an audition next month. It says I have to submit a short video of myself talking about my project.
I thought it was gonna be a piece of cake because I had a pretty good script with some help from my co-workers and good friends, so I just had to read it... or so I thought.
At first, I kept stuttering because I was talking so fast without breathing (That's what I do when I get nervous). It took me over 2 hours to get my first recording... and it gets worse.
That recording came out to be completely useless because I was using my laptop's internal microphone, but my computer got over-heated, and the sound of the computer fan over-powered my voice.
I tried using iPhone headset, but every time I said a word with "t" or "p" in it, it caused the audio to pop.
And I had to turn all the air conditioning off because the recording way picking up the ventilation noise.
So after about 5 hours being stuck in a steaming hot room in the middle of summer in Texas, I literally curled up in a ball and almost cried... (I might have actually cried, but no one saw :q)
After about 12 hours of wrestling with the recording and another 3 days video editing, I finally got the video ready. It's not perfect, but this will do for now...
Sung Kim ·
My co-workers told me I should submit my idea to whole bunch of conferences, blogs, and award shows. Apparently there is a lot of them:
So I've been putting my idea together into some what "formal" documents and 30 page powerpoint presentation.
I've never really done public speaking before in my life. The last time I was on a stage, it was at my high school talent show to impress a girl I had a crush on. -.-;;
Also I have a stuttering problem which gets worse when I get nervous. The fact that English is not my first language doesn't really help me with my confidence level either.
But I know that I would regret it for the rest of my last if I didn't pursue this opportunity.
Back in high school, I might have looked silly dancing on the stage to impress a girl, but I have no regrets because I did something many people only thought about doing.
Once again, I'm gonna do it and do it right... It can't possibly be more embarrassing than what I did in high school... right? -.-;;
Sung Kim ·
My video received more than 400 views in less than 2 weeks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z588c69Ldg
It's not the freaking Gang-Nam Style video with 1 billion views, but it's something. :)
Sung Kim ·
A friend of mine forwarded me a link from BusinessInsider.com. It says I've been selected as one of the top designers in technology industry, and I'm right behind the lady who designed Google Glass!!! XD
Of course, this is based on my past work experience and has nothing to due with my current "Morning Dew" project, but it definitely feels like the beginning of something.
Sung Kim ·
After seeing some drastic change in results just by using some popular keywords in the video title on Youtube, it got me thinking what else I could change to get more attention on Facebook.
So I tried including the details about the concept in the images:
These were pretty much the same images I posted a couple of weeks ago, but this time, I've received significantly more responses than last time, simply by including the details as a part of the image.
