Hello Hunters!
Thanks @_jacksmith for hunting us!
We've developed a system that allows you to follow people's private conversations among their trusted friends, without knowing who they are.
Before getting to how, here's why.
I previously cofounded ITtoolbox, an early knowledge sharing community. We had millions of users and were named one of 20 companies to disrupt the information industry for our work in online communities before being acquired for $59 million.
My vision had always been to connect the knowledge of an entire population. But I was disappointed to learn the model we helped advance, which prevails today, tends to get about 1% of users sharing their knowledge, while 99% don't. So I started asking those who don’t share their insights online, “why?”
After talking with many, I learned most of us prefer going to select friends for advice, rather than strangers. These conversations are trusted and private (no reputation risk, no trolls and zealots). And when our friends ask us for insights, we’re happy to help.
This pointed to 3 problems I wanted to fix.
1. These private conversations aren't optimized for shared interests.
2. They aren't available for others to learn from.
3. The best responses could've come from people we don't know.
How do we fix this?
At it's core, Rushline is a new kind of messaging platform for friends, with just enough structure for high-value collaboration around shared interests.
Then we do something really cool, something we’ve received multiple patents on. We remove personally identifiable information from these conversations and make them available to the public, matching relevant people to them who can help.
There's an awesome implication of this. You can now be a fly on the wall, following private conversations among trusted friends as they talk freely about #topics you’re interested in. And you can join in when you have something helpful to add.
I’ll be here all day to answer questions and look forward to your feedback.
To see how it works, sign up to follow conversations on any #topic you're interested in, from startup advice to product news or something personal. Available on web and iOS.
Dan
P.S. More info at our intro blog post https://medium.com/@byDanM/intro...
My experience suggests that mass audiences don't understand online privacy, much less dual-mode experiences. Who is your target audience, and in user testing, what kind of comprehension did people have for the product? If they understood it, did they feel comfortable/confident enough to want to use it?
@chrismessina regarding target audience, ultimately I believe it's a mass communication tool. Early on, we're targeting a small number of demographic/use case pairings, startup and product management topics being one.
User comprehension was one of the biggest challenges of our beta. We found Rushline challenges deeply held expectations of privacy and how conversations work. We did finally get through, keying off the ability to follow other people's private conversations.
Here's a video mashup of the user comprehension during final message testing (audio required). Not production grade, my apologies, just something I put together for the team.
http://bit.ly/2eFxTBx
Regarding comfort level, there was a split of enthusiasm and apprehension. Apprehension was generally overcome through a successful experience.
@paul_shuteyev thanks! If you register, there are several marketing related topics you might benefit from following, they appear in step 2 of registration.
I was an early beta tester of Rushline and I'm excited to keep using it as it expands. I found it very easy to use, fast to log in, and what I liked most is that I could solicit "group think" from people I trust and choose, while also having the option to bring new people into the conversation. It's definitely a different way of sharing ideas and asking for advice, but I do believe it's the smarter way and will take off.
@bydanm -- how do you envision this can be used in niche communities like groups with special interest? Will it replace chat?
@aly_saxe thanks for the question and for being part of our early beta. You all helped us validate key assumptions and identify important gaps too, much appreciated.
We spent considerable time contemplating the niche community angle and ultimately found it was too dissimilar from the bigger vision that drives us. It was the easier sell, smaller opportunity sort of thing and we had to choose one or the other.
I don't see Rushline replacing chat. I see it as a special purpose communication platform replacing conversations that currently happen between friends either offline or scattered across various tools (e.g. email, SMS, phone--mostly due to privacy preferences) and moving them to a single, more convenient platform while adding substantial value.
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Presentation starting from showing patents? I thought Product Hunt is about improving industry, not promoting more "patent for clicking a button" nonsense. EDIT - when I wrote it screenshots were taken down ;) lol
@sielay Having trouble with sequence uploading images, everything was in reverse order. Definitely not my intention--that was supposed to be the very end of the deck. Stay tuned.
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I am very interested in trying the app. I wish you the best. In any case, it seems that you have bigger fish to fry. Good luck!
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