Just goes to show you that there are some who know how to put a site together and then there are those who haven’t a clue.
Thanks for the post and the introduction to Anyvite.

Morgan > It wouldn’t be difficult for Evite to implement this technology. They would just have to kiss goodbye to their display ad revenue, that’s all.

And that’s the kicker isn’t it? Anyone can solve a user-related problem with a few lines of code, but that doesn’t automatically make you the better company in this world of rent, bills, overheads and shareholders; especially when you’re not actually generating revenue.

Not blaming them - it’s a cool little Y-Combinator project, no doubt - but it’s a bit much for Techcrunch to claim they are “taking on” Evite when right now they are a world apart in terms of business model.

Hello lawsuit. Name is way too close

Simple design and concept

How do they make money?

Sounds like a great idea, but they look like they need a better Identity/logo. I’m always available for help in this area.

Dejavu… except anyvite is more complicated.

Personally, I like http://www.pingg.com/, even if their RSS feed for your event breaks after the first day. At least they have an RSS feed!

Both anyvite and coordinatr are well made and could be really neat little features for some business. The programmers and designers did a good job. And the marketing people are doing their, and nothing is wrong with that either.

But, Jason, how can sites with non-existent traffic “take on” a growing, well-funded, reportedly profitable site that is as much of a household name as any other top Web brand and is a top 1000 site? - It takes a LOT more than some cool features.

Not to mention, as Dave correctly put it, the definite lawsuit in the future if anyvite is successful (can you imagine a successful airline called Kontinental, or a successful soft drink company called Koka-Kola?)

All I’m saying is that to be a real success and a powerful alternative to eVite, they should have some unique distribution channels, some products/services that eVite would fail to emulate, some major PR/marketing much beyond Techcrunch because eVite is what comes to pretty much everybody’s mind when organizing events.

All this said - good luck to anyvite and coordinatr - and I will give both a shot an recommend them to others as alternatives if i like them.

@ Sturman - yuppp….
http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....aganda.com

YA RITE its simple… no logo.. no CSS.. WTF.. this loooks decade and half old .. Thanks but NO thanks.. i ll take evite

@yongfook you should imagine how a business model is layered on top of user adoption. So the key to achieving a business model is scale. Anyvite is naturally viral, so if they can get adoption and demonstrate ease of use there are plenty of opportunities for business models.

Of course evite has a business model - it has scale.

“It’s no secret that Evite sucks.”

It just happens to be the leader in its field and profitable.

Just because it’s the leader doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. AOL used to be the leader in its field too.

Hey CI, have you tried using evite to set up a poker game, bball with some friends, a house party, or dinner with friends? Way too painful. I’ve played around with anyvite for a bit, and it’s just plain easy.

Simplicity is beauty. It’s a cool product, and no doubt they’ll keep iterating and improving.

Are they facing some steep odds? Of course. It’s a startup. That’s our world.

you probably should have used 123 Sample Street, instead of someone’s address

@Andrew

It’s an apartment building in Los Angeles. Nobody will mind Although it would be pretty funny if a bunch of TC readers showed up and had a BBQ down there.

It’s amazing how much TechCrunch feeds Ybomb startups. Keep on bombing away with those shitty products that aren’t really companies or startups. Oh wait, and some of the entrepreneurs get scurvey! Nice!

Dan,

AOL is a top 10 Web property in terms of traffic with a multi-billion $ valuation, whether it “sucks” for you (and me) is besides the point - people like us believe that Windows “sucks”, so what? - The point is that you can’t “take on” a successful, profitable, growing, large, well-funded company that’s a household name for millions of users by simply offering some neat little features - that’s not how Google took on Yahoo, not how Amazon took on BN, and not how Facebook took on MySpace.

Evite has shortcoming, so do (gasp!) Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, and everybody - but just like these 4, Evite keeps growing (and actually makes $).

Kinda fun! It’s no crush3r tho.

CG

I smell some haterade @stirman & @ig

Auston, read my lips… i mean my post - i liked anyvite, i am actually trying it right now - what does “haterade” got to do with it? :p

I agree Evite sucks. I’d gladly move on, but my friends ( not necessarily techie people ) are aren’t overly experimental. Evite works for them, and it’s the only site they know that does what they do. In this case, first mover advantage has served evite quite well.

These ‘Web 1.0′ companies, like evite, are giving me the same feeling as ‘old media’ these days, which is “why bother”.

I know I’m an early adopter, but like, why would anyone use a service like evite that requires you to give so much?

Moving forward it’s all about making it as easy as possible to get and keep users on your site so they can see the valuable advertising. The novel shine has worn off for most users, and sites like evite are looking so lame.

@5 Yeah, what’s up with that logo/branding, or lack thereof. The colors are so wrong, and that’s just a start…

Jason ,
I disagree evite does not suck! It is not like twitter. It is good.

And that is the reason why it is still popular. There are lot of them

Eventful
Imthere
Madeit
Mypunchbowl
Partee
renkoo
Skobee
socializr
upcoming
zvents

But none are close to evite.

I am also looking forward to switch from evite, but not able to find the correct one.

Probably Google should come up with it’s own one. gvite.com

cheers, Nag

i agree with nag

First Posterious, a simpler-tumblr now anyvite, a simpler Evite. I’m beggining to pick up on some patterns in the companies coming out of the Y Combinator incubator. Are they intentionally seeking startups that do things in a dead simple fashion? Does Paul Graham know something that the rest of us should be picking up on? Or is he just rolling the dice on a hunch…

Evite sucks. But this sucks too, for the reason that it will never be profitable or make any money. It’s a different, perhaps worse kind of suck.

pls, not everything from Y combinator has to be covered. pls stop kissing this a

Don’t forget Presdo! I’m kind of surprised it didn’t get a mention as a competitor, considering they got such a glowing TC review not that long ago.

@sd: agreed. YCombinator funds a lot of fluff.

Wait a second. I lived on Landfair.

“[Evite] just happens to be the leader in its field”

Nope. Facebook Events is killing it.

no one figured out how to beat evite….many ppl say to me they r taking on evite…i just laugh at them

@yongfook you should imagine how a business model is layered on top of user adoption. So the key to achieving a business model is scale. Anyvite is naturally viral, so if they can get adoption and demonstrate ease of use there are plenty of opportunities for business models.

oh please. one of the value propositions of anyvite is that it doesn’t drive you to the site to see the invite. so that means there is no potential display ad revenue. what else could they explore, then?

- “premium” invite fees. no thanks, I’ll just use evite.
- ads in my mail. no thanks, I’ll just use evite.

The sooner you idiots stop equating users with profit the sooner we can all get back to making real businesses.

I am getting pretty sick of the blatant Y-Combinator plugs being spewed out of TechCrunch. We get it: Paul Graham has figured out a way to get young, talented, and self-sacrificing hackers to sell him a huge chunk of their companies for $15k. Wow!

Apparently, he’s also figured out a way to get TechCrunch to write about every last piece of garbage Web 2.0 ZOMG web application he funds.

Please stop. Let’s focus on the innovation, not who scratches your back.

i’m a fan. easy to use, simple and clean. will be my event creator of choice going forward and solid alternative for non fb users

Is it just me or is every TC reader just a bitter YC reject? Flaming startups doesn’t really make you seem any smarter to anyone. Just makes you seem like an ass who never got laid because of your terrible personality.

There’s a better way, people… constructive feedback! Try providing some if you’re so smart. What would you do differently if you were running Anyvite? Here’s mine for what it’s worth…

I like mobile micro-coordination angle. It’s still hard to get ~5 people together for impromptu meals or drinks. I often forget to jot down the location. Locations change at the last second when people are in the subway and not in front of a computer. People always flake. And throughout all of this, I send and respond to the same texts over and over again, and inevitably always forget someone who ends up at the wrong place. I don’t understand why people have to call and ask where I am when my phone already has GPS/triangulation and should be able to broadcast that info to people who need it. I don’t understand why changing last minute details sucks so badly. I don’t understand why I have to do all the planning if I start an event. If someone other than the organizer gets to the bar first and thinks it’s lame, they should be able to tell everyone to meet at the one nextdoor instead. Just some food for thought. Hope this helps.

@38

For your information, I’ve had plenty of success launching startups on my own, all without the help of Paul Graham and silly incubator. Also, nice going with the personal insults: my sex life is obviously material to this discussion and I’m frankly embarrassed that it didn’t occur to me to cite my coital frequency earlier on. Kudos to you, sir!

Oh- and next time, if you don’t agree with my opinion, please do so without sounding like a complete and utter douche bag (that is, try to convince me that I’m wrong by using sound, logical argument– not the length or girth of your ePenis).

But let’s not get carried away. You make a good point: my post was entirely negative; I should’ve offered up some good, solid, positive feedback. So here goes:

At least Paul Graham won’t be making his money back with this flop. The idea is tired– it’s a dupe, stupid, achieves nothing, and can’t make money. Entrepreneurs often take technologies that they like (which they’ll pretend to hate) and say to their buddies, “Wow! How is it possible that I can’t… bookmark… uh… my friend’s favorite colors… on Twitter?!!? THIS SITE SUCKS. I need to *do it better*.”

Unfortunately, more often than not, “doing it better” entails an extremely minor change that really doesn’t help make the service any more convenient or useful. Tell me, oh wise commentator: what is the specific bug that anyvite is fixing? What innovation does anyvite bring to the table that the other dozen+ online invitation websites don’t already do?

Hell, let’s visit imagination land and play some make believe. Suppose I was a very, very wealthy VC and that you were trying your damnedest to pitch anyvite to me– what would you tell me? Would you say, “GET THIS, you can send text messages and emails to organize events– oh, and did I mention (HOLY SHIT!) WEB 2.0 AJAX BLOGOSPHERE??!” Man, with a pitch like that, how *could* I say no? (pro tip: that was sarcasm.)

It’s either technology push or market pull; it looks like these folks are somewhere in the middle– neither a push, nor a pull. So, in my book, they’re a nothing. That’s my opinion; perhaps I’m wrong. Either way, I wouldn’t invest in this technology (after all, I’m too busy trying to think of ways to rewrite anyvite to help me get laid; duh.)

I wouldn’t use eVite, but I would use Anyvite. Ever try getting a group of friends together at once to hold a football pool? It is an incredible pain trying to coordinate everyone at once, and frankly I like the tool that gives me more flexibility in changes on the fly and letting others handle some of it. Anyvite has that in my opinion.

Am I the only person who sends invitations with Microsoft Outlook?;

That way it ends up in everyones blackberry or corporate device of choice.

How big is the market to add another player? First mover definitely has the advantage in such a niche.

Amazing how you guys write a glowing review about Pingg: TechCrunch : Invitations Done Right, and then forget to mention it in this article as a competitor.

Do you guys even know what you’ve written about?

Agree with 7, pingg is really nice.

The easiest way? Presdo is a lot easier.

@anyvite - nice UI

The problem with all the event sites mentioned in this post is they are all static and their only real value is to let others know where to meet and they go there and have a BBQ or a girl’s night out. ZZzzzzzz I have an idea that is more dynamic and makes a lot of money. Ever heard of Event Tourism? Of course not, I created it. Web3.0, here I come!

Have a wonderful day.

I’m with CG: crush3r is the way to go for me.

@ 38 TH - yes it’s just you. The rest of us are too smart to apply for Y-Combinator and be duped by schmucks like Paul Graham.

It’s comical how the standard Y-Combinator response to any criticism is “they must have gotten rejected”. It really cracks me up. Dude, I have no desire to ever get money from them or to get scurvey or live a crappy life.

This is just one of 200 companies in the evite competitor field. Get over it. It’s okay. Yawn.

What about Pingg?

Much prettier, easy to use and allows guests to contribute to the funding of the party.

Includes maps in the invitations and allows for offline invitations to be forwarded out as well. Use it tons, love the site.

Ummmm…. has anyone here actually tried Anyvite? Why not talk about the product itself?

I did - resume:

- excellent use of Ajax
- very easy to reg and organize things
- very easy to use
- very laconic and smart interface
- great integrations with other services.

Conclusion - I am going to use it, and good luck to you, guys! (Still remains to see how you will fight off Evite, but I’ll be using you vs Evite now)

Cheers
ig.

All of these sites are for sissies - that’s why I use MANVITE.

It’s simple, straightforward and crude, just like men.

http://www.manvite.com

@39

Joe, why so defensive? Or did you know @38 was specifically talking to you? Was it the “never got laid” part that clued you in ? Just wondering….

I don’t think I would use Anyvite at the exclusion of Evite - to me they serve different purposes.

Anyvite is simple, yes. It’s also ugly and doesn’t offer that feeling of a virtual invitation, it’s more a way to help plan an event. It could be useful for planning something like a bar night, where everyone needs notification of how plans are changing.

I recently used Evite to plan a party - I would have sent paper invitations but am abroad right now, so Evite in my eyes replaces a paper invitation. No discussion about time or place, just a good-looking “invitation” with the event details.