It’s been roughly nine months since starting Spottah and we’re still hacking! It’s been tough, given that our team of five is spread across the country and, with full-time gigs, have to work nights and weekends. We thought we’d share our process for those who are in the same boat or are considering going down the same path.

Constant Communication is Key
With schedules that don’t always align and a sheer lack of being able to often meet in-person, we have pay extra attention to ensure everyone is on the same page.

We started out with ad hoc phone calls and email threads, but our back end developer was quick to suggest we do short, nightly phone calls, or “stand-ups,” as a way for us to share with our most recent updates and any other pertinent news. Not only have stand-ups been key for keeping up-to-date, but they’ve also been a great motivator for getting more work done. You are inspired to come to the stand-up with an update or task checked off the to-do list. These stand-ups take place every night between Monday and Friday for about fifteen minutes each.

We use Google+ for longer meetings. It’s a great way to see each other face-to-face, virtual though it may be. During design reviews, the screen sharing capabilities make G+ a must. Hangouts usually take place every Saturday and typically last an hour. We are currently in a redesign phase, so these Google Hangouts have been happening more frequently.

While these digital tools help tremendously, nothing beats meeting in-person. We’re lucky enough to occasionally get the entire team together, which means everyone coming out to New York from California, Chicago and Boston. During these team outings, we spend half the time working and half the time celebrating our success. Two months ago, for example, we tore through downtown Manhattan’s bars and restaurants on Saturday, and then met at NYU Stern on Sunday for a full-day working session.

Inspire Each Other
There have been so many milestones: The first time we saw a barebones, functioning Spottah; the first time we saw our completed logo; the first time we saw our live design (and now redesign); the first time we had an article published about our app.. All these moments have pushed us along and kept us going, and they’re all a direct result of our hard work and talent. As each of us have pushed Spottah along, we’ve inspired one another to work that much harder toward our goals.

Have Fun!
Cliche though this may sound, this is really the most important part. All of us working on Spottah have the understanding that we’re here to kick ass and learn as much as we can, and part of that comes with realizing that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over failures or take things too seriously. If you aren’t having fun, your heart is most likely not in it, and if your heart it isn’t in it.. Well, what’s the point?

Tools we’ve been using to get us along

• Spottah - We use Spottah for work and play. If we need to share a screenshot, we post it to our teams album, “Building Spottah.” This is also the album where we say thank you (thumbs up pics), send birthday wishes (pics of cakes), and capture the memories for our outings.
• FreeConferenceCall.com - Conference hosting service that we use for our nightly standups. It works just fine and it’s free!
• Texting - When it is too tough to get everyone on a conference call, we’ll do a text up. Everyone texts in their updates for the day.
• Gmail - For our never-ending email threads.
• Google Calendar - To keep everyone up to date with meeting schedules, etc.
• Google Drive - A great place to keep all of our pertinent docs, like PSDs and work-session notes, in one place.
• Google+ and Google Hangout - Essential when it comes to seeing each other face-to-face and sharing screens.
• GitHub - An excellent place to not only store code but to keep track of bugs, improvements, etc.
• Pivotal Tracker - A project management tool that helps us manage requests for improvements, bugs, and anything else we need to keep track of.

Last week, Bijan Sabet wrote a great blog about getting healthy and losing weight. The key takeaway: pay attention. Pay attention to exercise activity. Pay attention to caloric intake. Weigh yourself daily. In his quest to pay attention, Bijan uses RunKeeper and Lift.do, the yet-to-be-released app funded by the Obvious Corporation.

Bijan couldn’t be more spot-on. This past spring, I took the first step towards getting healthy: I admitted to being unhealthy. I was eating too much, not working out enough, and imbibing in a few too many beers.

I set a goal of running three days a week, then upped it to four, and am now at five. I replaced meat with fruits and vegetables. I weigh myself daily.

So far, the results have been positive. I started at 226 lbs and now weigh-in at 214 lbs. My next goal is 209 lbs. The best I’ve ever looked and felt is 198 lbs; though this was after a 14-day, 150-mile hike in which we thought we’d catch fish but didn’t.

I use Spottah to pay attention. As a joke, I started an album called “Congressional Gym,” a jab at the infamous pictures of Anthony Wiener and Chris Lee. In the album, which is only shared with two other people, I add shirts-off pictures with accompanying weights. It is inspiring to have people cheering me on and it’s interesting to watch my progression over time. I would NEVER post a photo like this to Facebook or Twitter, but on Spottah I know that only the people I trust have access to these personal photos.

Postagram is one of my favorite apps of all time. If you’re not familiar, Postagram allows you to send a personalized photo postcard from your iPhone or Android phone to anyone on the United States for $0.99. Check out this video; it was made by a customer even more passionate than me!

I use Postagram when I truly want to thank someone. After a dinner party, for example, I send the host a picture from the night’s festivities with a little note. More often than not, the Postagram is proudly hanging from their refrigerator the next time we visit.

Postagram is also perfect for saying “miss you.” A couple of months ago, my wife and I moved from New York City to Boston. We have a great group of friends in NYC and one day we were missing them terribly. We drafted an “update” email but it was not capturing our emotions. So I pulled out my iPhone, selected the front camera, snapped a shot of us, and mailed off 7 Postagrams saying “Freezing and missing you in Boston.” Sending a physical card is simply more meaningful.

One challenge is that you can only send Postagrams of photos that you have taken. Nine out of ten times this is OK. But there is that occasional time where someone else takes the perfect picture. This recently happened to me. Someone uploaded a great dinner party photo to Spottah. I wanted to Postagram the photo to the host and thank them for the delish vittles. It wasn’t my photo, though, so I didn’t have it on my camera roll. Then it dawned on. I saved the photo to my camera roll by clicking on the “…” icon and then uploaded it to Postagram. Within seconds, I was sending the perfect picture to my friends’ mailbox.

Eventually, Spottah will integrate directly with Postagram (and other Sincerely products). But for now, this is a great work-around.

The more I use Spottah, the more I realize it does two jobs. First, Spottah is a social network. My friends and I, for example, created a “Current Status” album. It’s a fun space for us to share what we’re doing without blurting to the masses on Facebook or Instagram. As a result, the pictures and comments are incredibly personal. Other times, though, I turn to Spottah to organize my photos. Right now, as I travel across Europe, Spottah is doing exactly this.

On the train from my apartment to Newark Airport, I fired up Spottah and created a “Nolan Does Europe” album. As soon as I landed in Madrid, I began snapping away. There is so much to capture: monuments, paintings, street markets, tapas bars, new friends. Thanks to Spottah, I can easily caption a photo and add comments. For example, when I take pictures of art I write the artist and year in the caption. And if the piece really moves me, I jot down a comment to help me remember the moment. Spottah, in short, is so much more than a collection of photos. Spottah is a journal that reminds me of where I’ve been, what I’ve learned, and what I was thinking.

As I pack for Italy and reflect back on my time in Spain, it is amazing to see my journey come to life inside Spottah. I love that I don’t have to upload my photos after the fact. And as you can see above, I have all my Madrid photos organized neatly on the map. (Didn’t know about this feature? Simply open an album, tap the crosshairs icon on the upper right and, voila!, all the pictures are overlaid onto a map.)

Stay tuned to see how I use Spottah in Italy! I’m guessing there will be lots of gelato and leaning towers.

You met The Machyine. Now meet Spottah’s (app store, video) other rockstar developreneur. He´s the fastest cat in the jungle.

“Cheetah The Cat”
Nolan had a concept: An app for creating a trip-specific photo albums. Jon had a wider vision: Why stop at trips; what about albums for groups, events, interests? A concept, a vision and $1.95 will get you a cup of coffee. Enter The Cat.

The Cat took our vision, added his own touch and delivered a working product. It was December 2011, and we were about to present our concept to a packed room at NYU. We had PowerPoint deck. We had nothing. The Cat quietly asked for Jon’s iPhone, which he plugged into his MacBook. A few moments later, The Cat handed Jon his phone and said, “Here you go.”

And there it was. A minimal viable product. It was not pretty. Hell, it was ugly. But it worked. Jon created an album, added a photo, and invited The Cat. He accepted the album and added a photo. Viola! A collaborative photo album.

We ditched the PowerPoint and did a live demo. “How many of you would use this product in your everyday life,” Jon asked the room. Nearly every hand went up. And these weren’t half-assed hand-raises. Think third grade teacher’s pet that knows the answer.

Since that day more than six months ago, Team Spottah has been driving hard to build an easy to use, relevant app that is fast and reliable. The Cat has been behind the wheel; and no, not like Toonces. There is no part of the technology stack that The Cat can’t pounce on.

Like The Machyine, The Cat is always looking ahead. It´s been an absolute pleasure to work with someone who constantly questions the status quo and actively takes on additional work to make Spottah the best it can be. Ultimately, it´s worth it — especially when we get love mail.

The one problem with The Cat. He lives 3,000 miles away. We talk every night, G+ Hangout every weekend and try to meet in person every few months. It works, but it would be nice if our friend and partner lived and worked among us.