I try to create simple java App on Heroku. I following step by step from http://samuelsharaf.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/create-a-simple-java-web-app-using-maven-and-upload-to-hero
I kept running into the same problem. The sample python application ran fine, but mine did not. I logged into the dashboard and noticed that the web dyno count for my app showed zero. So I bumped it up on the web gui (i.e., strech the slider widget until you get a non-zero count.) and that worked. My dashboard also showed the heroku ps:scale web=1 dyno at zero, and I left it as zero.