Shout

Exchange Anything with the people around you

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Exchange Anything with the people around you

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Shout was first hunted in January as a very different product. The tagline submitted was "A marketplace to sell spots (in line, etc.)." @gentlemanbasil @ZReitano - what inspired the change and what are the strongest/most interesting use cases you're seeing with Shout today?

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@rrhoover @gentlemanbasil @rrhoover @gentlemanbasil. Great question. We have always had the goal of connecting people and allowing them to exchange in a trusted environment but we needed to learn about what mattered most to people when making interacting with complete strangers. So we chose a specific and very narrow use case—spots. Spots are time-sensitive, fluctuate in value, and require a great deal of trust to exchange. Through this process we were able to learn a great deal and have since removed a cash option, added identity checks, process payments and hold funds in escrow, and have user-ratings for both sides of an exchange. We are continuing to learn what matters most to our community but they started to explore beyond the product and so we needed to accommodate their creativity. The most prominent use-cases are the sections for which we have categories but just this week have seen Shouters meet up to have a catch, deliver flowers to a loved one, give up a dinner reservation under the cancellation policy for free, get Beyonce tickets, and help someone in their building move! Also, as Eddie mentioned, Alexis is going to be having office hours and is offering them up on Shout for free (we love free Shouts). We are striving to build a community with a pay it forward mentality that facilitates unfettered and spontaneous exchanges.

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12yr ago

@ZReitano To complete that, people have been using Shout most often to make last minute plans with friends (finding restaurant reservations, tickets, access to events, etc.). We're working hard to promote the platform as a way to reach out and share something tangible with the people around you. Someone's playing catch with a stranger on Shout today... No joke!

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12yr ago

@rrhoover It may also be useful to note the app works in NYC at the moment. This is again our need for focus on the platform so the community can take shape :D

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12yr ago

Lydia

@ZReitano It's very interesting and I'm wondering if one use case will be more valuable, and work better to build the community... When you look at Zaarly, it was first "Buy and Sell everything from people nearby" and now, they focus on Home Service. I think It is how they grew up a very loyal community. We have currently the same question in mind building Enquire where you can "ask anything". Hope to see you on Thursday!

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@SoleneMa Sorry for the rant but it is something we have thought a tremendous amount about. Shout's and Zaarly's (V1) vision are very similar but I think we are approaching it differently. Here is the lens through we which we look at Zaarly and their evolution. I would love your thoughts. 1. Use When you first opened up the first version of Zaarly, it asked "What do you want?" This had a paralyzing effect on users. You could just as easily answer a happy life and two kids as a cronut delivered. Users need to know exactly when to open an app (e.g. a cab, a hotel room). There are simply too many things competing for their attention for a company to say "Request Anything." (And this may be one of TaskRabbit's own problems). We think a user needs a subconscious trigger. In our case, for better or worse, it has been—"What am I doing tonight?" Once in the app, we want to keep them here for many different reasons. A tremendous amount of eBay's growth was due to people going to the site for high-demand/limited-supply goods and then staying for common second-hand items. 2. Distribution Density is the name of the game. If we want to have the types of exchanges that both we and Zaarly dream of: a bike pump in the park, a translator in a foreign city, a better seat mid-baseball game, help from a neighbor—then starting in a specific city to work out the essentials of inter-personal synchronous transactions is crucial. Doing this at the right pace is very important. We often wonder if Zaarly simply expanded too quickly. They had great success at SXSW. We think it was because they tested it in a pre-defined trusted community, where people were predisposed to interacting and exchanging. These individuals had very complementary resources and needs. What if they solely went after those to start? 3. Nature of Post We have seen first hand the benefits and drawbacks of requests. They are awesome because when they come true it is the equivalent of making a wish with your phone, it's magical for the user. They are a true representation of need/desire and, they help educate the rest of the community (sellers) in a big way. We have seen users Shout for a few items and, although they may not get satisfied, these items are on the sale side the following week—sellers adapt and respond to market-need! The downside is that they go unfulfilled very frequently, and we risk disappointing users. On Shout thus far, requests are half as likely to be successful and the requesters that have their first Shout fail are less likely to Shout again. Unfortunately, without a high success rate, it can disappoint many users. But it's so key for users to express themselves (for us to learn about our users) and something people (and us) love about the Shout community. 4. Timing Improvements in technology, proliferation of mobile devices, and the growth of the sharing economy both logistically and socially.

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12yr ago

Great product! Loving the new tickets option. Looks way better than stubhub; I like that I can interact with other fans. But won't that make the market illiquid?

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@cphito I think I understand what you're asking but please let me know if I answer a different question. Currently, when someone requests a Shout, it is taken off the feed and the two Shouters are put into a real-time chat. Originally, we thought the exclusivity and intimacy of the interaction would be best for efficiency. However, we learned through our beta and early public release that many people were simply chatting to ask clarifying questions. The problem is that this removed the item for the general public, which does harm liquidity. We thought about a seller being able to have multiple chats but this seemed clunky. So in the upcoming version we have replaced part of the flow with a posting board. Meaning, each Shout will have a public posting board but in order to enter into a private chat, you must complete (i.e. purchase or accept if it's free) the Shout. Then you and a fellow Shouter are given your own chat. We think this will increase liquidity because Shouts will remain on the feed longer, questions can be answered and viewed by anyone, and the seller will not have to balance 6 or 7 on-going chats about a single post. What are your thoughts?

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12yr ago

@ZReitano That sounds like a good solution! But I wonder if on a phone screen that might be a bit much...will I be able to scroll down to see comments?

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@cphito Of course :)

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12yr ago

@ZReitano Great. Looking forward to the new version!

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12yr ago

@ZReitano @rrhover Back in Dec / early Jan of 1999 I made dinner reservations for Valentine's Day at all high-end restaurants. Table for two, best view, the whole package and sold the reservations *each under a pseudonym* on Craigslist for $100 each. Let's just say I made enough to pay for a quarter worth of tuition, books, and a new laptop. #IMMAHUSLTR

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12yr ago

@Nadia_Yun sounds like you came up with 'ReservationHop' 15 years ago then ;) http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03...

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12yr ago

@_jacksmith That's exactly why I decided to become an entrepreneur and startup founder. I was so sick and tired of seeing others execute while I'm twiddling my thumbs yelling "I totally thought of that first!" e.g. Vending machines for ballet flats in Vegas. Clip in hair extensions.. Thanks a lot Jessica Simpson!! #HUSTLR

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12yr ago

@Nadia_Yun This is an amazing story. Valentine's day has been pretty influential for us as well. This year, we went around NYC delivering anonymous roses (dressed up as ninjas) and man, I will never forget it. It felt so good doing a favor for someone, without external reward or recognition (blog post: http://goo.gl/SMCsvv ) and that's been something we think about daily while working on Shout.

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12yr ago

@Nadia_Yun :D

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12yr ago

@WesMagness awesomeness!!! I wish someone gave me a rose on Valentine's Day :(. Love it! It's human, authentic and creates lasting emotion. While @starbucks we did similar surprise and delights: Holiday we had magnetic red SBUX cups attached to top of NYC Taxis. Anyone who stopped the Taxi "HEY you left your latte on your hood" or other choice phrases.. lol were given SBUX gift cards as a way to reward kindness or what I say a "good lookin' out".

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12yr ago

Podpage: Podcast Websites

Was so confused. Saw "Exchange Anything with the people around you" but when I opened the app, it only showed stuff in NYC. I'm in SF so NYC is clearly not around me. Does the app use location at all?

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12yr ago

@mulligan Hey Brenden. Sorry about that. We are only in NYC right now but working hard to get to the Bay Area soon. We're playing with location within a given city to help people find things (e.g. routing opportunities to Shouters), and we've been experimenting with integrating entirely new geographies (which is why one can post in SF in v 2.1.0), but we've chosen not to use geographies in the feed yet. At this point in time, we're focused on getting the feel for Shout right: the appropriate mix between exploration and efficiency, between being a marketplace and a community. In time, you'll be shown the feed most relevant to where you are, with the ability to manually pick a different feed if you want to see what else people are Shouting for around the world. Our hope is that Shout communities will reflect the environments they grow in (Shout as a snapshot of human exchanges in a given area). But again, we're being very deliberate in how we want to grow the platform as lack of focus seems to be the constant risk with such an inherently horizontal platform, and we want to make sure content is digestible within a given geography at this point. That being said, you're entirely right: we should make that much clearer in the UI (we didn't think too many people would download outside New York :b). v2.1.1 coming right up! If you have any other feedback, we'd love to talk! henri@useshout.com

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12yr ago

I'm struggling to see where "exchange" comes into this. Isn't it just "sell anything to the people near by"? exchanging for me would give the idea that it's a non-monetary exchange

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@_jacksmith Great question! The reason we say exchange is because when someone posts a Shout, they have to make the binary decision between whether to attach a price or offer it up for free (not simply choose 0 as a price). We have seen a great deal of fun free exchanges since we launched late June. For example, two Shouters have met up in Central Park for a catch and a coffee shop has offered free joe to engage with their neighborhood.

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12yr ago

@ZReitano got it

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12yr ago

StartupCTO.io 22 – Jud Valeski

Got my hopes up that they were using bluetooth to be able to talk to literally the people around me, instead of relying on a popular user base. I can only talk with people that have signed up for shout...

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@miles_matthias this is a very interesting concept. We are working on something to enable people to interact with the community, even if they haven't signed up (should be out in next two weeks). What is your email? I would love to get your thoughts and discuss your bluetooth concept in greater detail. My email is zachariah@useshout.com

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12yr ago

StartupCTO.io 22 – Jud Valeski

@ZReitano miles.matthias@gmail.com :) one of the things that has stuck with me over the years is a story about grassroots organizers in unstable / oppressive countries using bluetooth to communicate with their neighbors and organizing themselves without their governments being able to censor / stop them. wish i could find the article...

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12yr ago

@miles_matthias Would love a read as well! Only similar thing I've seen has been http://denovogroup.org/main/rang... Looking forward to talking :D

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12yr ago

Gyroscope

Very cool concept. What caused you guys to come up with the idea?

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12yr ago

@myusuf3 something we'd been thinking about for a while. It's crazy there's no easy way to leverage a digital community at large in your physical life. Epitomized for me when Zach and I got stranded at the airport when our flight was overbooked and everyone refused (obviously) to take miles to let us on the plane. Not a good use case, but we were so frustrated we had to go through Delta to reach out to other passengers that the idea of exchanging with people in close proximity, in real-time, to help one another out came back yet again!

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12yr ago

Gyroscope

@gentlemanbasil Nice, I hope it picks up in my city.

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12yr ago

Health Guide

@myusuf3 Thanks Mahdi. What city is that?

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12yr ago

Gyroscope

@ZReitano Ottawa, Canada. :)