Cyril Paglino
Founder of Tribe
Discussion
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
Hi my name is Cyril Paglino and I am the CEO of Tribe. When my cofounders and I started Tribe one year ago, we packed our bags from my native France and moved to San Francisco on a whim. I actually come from a non-tech background. When I was 15, I dropped out of high school to become a professional breakdancer. From then until I was 21, I travelled the world competing in over 60 countries as the vice champion breakdancer of the world. I retired from my breakdancing career at 21 to join the startup scene back in 2008. I sold my last company, a digital talent agency for top French celebrities, in 2014. Over the past year we have enjoyed our time in San Francisco, hard at work with my team building a video messaging platform suitable for anybody all over the world. I am excited to be here for this Product Hunt Live and and looking forward to taking your questions about tech, startups, the messaging space, traveling from Europe to San Francisco for its startup scene, and anything else you want to chat about!
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Austin Sandmeyer
@as_austin · Thinker/Student/Rockstar
Hey Cyril! I'd love to know a little bit more about how Tribe has become what it is. Did you set out to attack the video messaging world? Or something else completely?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@as_austin Hello Austin ! thanks for the question. We were just looking for an app that allows us to manage our daily conversations in a more meaningful way. We create Tribe cause we've seen a big need for asynchronous video conversations.
Austin Sandmeyer
@as_austin · Thinker/Student/Rockstar
What do you see as the largest challenge to Tribe in it's current form? How will you overcome this challenge?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@as_austin Biggest challenge is finding what makes a product change from "being nice/cool" to "being a necessary daily app to communicate w/ friends"
oty
@otymix · @oneTapVote | working on smthg new 🤐
Did you code for tribe or ohter product ? and was it possible to have the same (or at least a ) success for tribe if you have ever stayed in France ?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@otymix Hi Oty, thanks for the questions. I don't code :) I think being in the valley for us was a key to learn and develop the product. With a French background, we understood how tech works in Europe (and the French tech scene is awesome) but for understanding better our market, it definitely helps being here in SF.
Pierre-Marie Galite
@tsunaze · entrepreneur, mobile developer/advisor
Hey, French here o/. Do you have some kind of a routine in your daily life, like meditation and stuff. And since you moved to San Francisco, US; do you feel affected by the Trump for next Presidency? Extra question : Is it difficult for a french tech (mobile developer) to move to the US and find a job? I'm thinking about it everyday :)
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@tsunaze Hello Pierre-Marie ! thanks for the question. We live in a hacker house, so i make sur that i get out for runs and experiencing San Francisco as much as i can to keep a work life balance. Sports as always been super helpful for me and its big part of my life. I don't medidate :) About Trump, of course i'm affected, as all the Team. We've been following campaign at the office and it was interesting for us to observe the election cycle (with clever thougts from @ryanmorris55 haha).
Rahul Ramchand
@rahulr047 · Botmonster 🔥
Hi Cyril!
Rahul from the emails haha. Going to kind of repeat the question I have had for a while. :D
Would like to know have you seen problems with respect to requiring sound/volume to communicate on Tribe?
A sizable chunk of videos smartphones are consumed without sound and it's mostly cause of reasons such as
- being in a public space (read :work or friends)
- or even needing headphones to communicate clearly
- people look weirdly
Snapchat/Instagram and even Facebook kind of bypass this drawback by ensuring it's possible to add text on top of videos.
Have you faced this problem or do you see it as a problem? If yes, do you plan to adapt in any way?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@rahulr047 Hi Rahul, thanks for the question :) Video comes with pro and cons. Its faster to talk/record than Type. There is more emotions. More context. But as you mentioned, today, its sometimes hard to consume in public.
We are, at tribe, focusing on how we could reduce these friction. That's why we've added real time subtitles to check video when you're at school or in a meeting, or the "ears mode" that allows you to hear tribe like you're hearing a call by putting the phone on you ears.
We also think that behavior are evolving. 5years ago, it was weird to take a Selfie, right ?
Now you see people facetim-ing in the street, and its socially normal to do so.
The shift of behavior will only keep happening, in a good way for video. :)
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@jordy_ot Hi Jordy, we're around 100ko per second. We're lighter than Messenger, WhatsApp an even Snapchat. Big challenge for us in the futur to keep improving this topic :)
Pedro A. Wunderlich
@pddro · Designer, founder from Guatemala.
Hi Cyril, love Tribe, thanks for doing this. What growth strategies could you share with other startup founders? I'm also curious, how well has forcing people to invite at least one friend worked for Tribe?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@pddro Hello Pedro ! thanks for the question. Before focusing on big growth, the key is to find the perfect market fit. K-factor, retention, engagement. When these KPIs are Green, you can go big in Growth. few months ago, we've noticed that people joining Tribe without any friends on the app couldn't experience the magic of Tribe. We'd rather Users that are able to use the app the second day login for the first time.
Rory Bate-Williams
@rorybw · Founder of Boink
Hey Cyril!
What, if any, pressures are you facing to monetize Tribe?
I'm interested to hear your opinion on the difference between US/European investors here and what they advise about growth/monetisation?
Cheers!
Rory
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@rorybw Hello Rory ! thanks for the question. Monetization is a step ahed of where we are right now. Its super important, and it will be even more in the next few years, but right now we're focusing on product & experience. I'm not super aware about the European VC Scene. What i can say is more and more European VC's are getting more and more into consumer facing products these last few months.
Rory Bate-Williams
@rorybw · Founder of Boink
@cyrilpaglino thanks! Interesting and positive for Europe! 💪
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
What are the key differences working in tech in France to SF?
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CyrilPaglino
@cyrilpaglino · Building @HeyTribe
@bentossell Being in SF, we lost a lot of distractions due to being in a new place without the familiarity of France. We're more focus :) Also, being here where everyone talks about product out and about, we're able to always learn more about consumers needs.