The BIG iPhone Announcement

**john** · June 30th, 2009, 06:05 AM

I May of 2007 gCaptain started with little fanfare but lots of hard work. My son Jack was just starting to walk and Cindy was pregnant with our daughter Eleanor. At that point my brother and I had put 2 seasons and countless hours into a skiing website that hadn't gotten more than 300 hits per day. We already struggled to keep the bills paid and the credit cards bills started mounting... I remember looking at a credit card statement totally over $30k and admitting to Cindy "Maybe this web thing wasn't a good idea."

Then a magical thing happened.... gCaptain started growing, fast. First pageviews started souring into the thousands per day, our first employee, Mike Schuler, walked through the door willing to move to San Luis Obispo to work for gCaptain for pennies and a slice of the dream. By the fall of 2007, with advertiser money showing up, I had quit my job at sea to start gCaptain full time! Life was looking good, the debt was starting to be paid off.... light at the end of the tunnel. Then the economy collapsed.

With the credit market sinking the bank loan we applied for was denied, 2 Major advertisers made drastic cutbacks and the credit cards pulled out all available credit. Much had to be cut including one idea that had it's origins here on the forum...

Last year New3M wrote this idea, just days after I was introduced to an iPhone developer by forum member Dave Hollier and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I can't give the specifics out yet but I can say that, through the help of this forum, the idea is finally a reality and today I signed a contact with the best iPhone development team in California!

I am truly excited by what we are about to build and can't wait to tell you all about it. All I can say is that we got funding for two apps that are going to help you navigate your ship, all thanks to the generous members of the gCaptain community Doug Pine and JonesAct and our friends at mgn.com.

Many thanks to all forum participants for making this dream, to bring together a community of professional mariners, possible!

-John

**jtweed1** · June 30th, 2009, 07:27 AM

Hey John,

Great news about your iPhone app development. We'll look forward to downloading it once it is completed...

We (the team here at CoracleOnline.com and ShippingPodcasts.com) also have a couple of apps in development for shipping folk at the moment and they should be in the app store very soon.

These are exiting times (although scary as well - we could use some funding to get through the list of ideas we want to work on!!)

Best of luck with it,
James Tweed

**Capt_Anonymous** · June 30th, 2009, 11:16 AM

Well, look who just walked into the room and ripped a big narcissistic fart. Holy crap, James! Go spam somewhere else.

**Capt. Fran** · June 30th, 2009, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by Capt_Anonymous

Well, look who just walked into the room and ripped a big narcissistic fart. Holy crap, James! Go spam somewhere else.

C_A, I really think it is your subtlety that I love most about you.

Your comment elicited (not elicked) a full on guffaw out of me. Thanks - I needed that chuckle!