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Amity | Messaging App, comes out of 'stealth mode'

Mac

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Is there any tips on how you guys received media attention? Or is it just by sending emails constantly?
 
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codo3500

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Is there any tips on how you guys received media attention? Or is it just by sending emails constantly?
I think a lot of people go 'shotgun approach' sending generic emails to a stack of journalists; rather than working out who your ideal journalists are (based on their previous stories), and trying to build a relationship prior to you actually needing anything. It's time consuming, but you start to get a feel for the "Who's who" as far as journalists go in your industry.
 

kkompoti

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i today found out that facebook live video is using the same thing you do with emojis. αμιτυ.png
 

toxicrain

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the catch to a successful messaging/social app is to have all your friends on it, and unfortunately its extremely difficult if not impossible to be done with a new app :(

the app looks cool, congrats on getting to this stage, but i don't see it going the distance and I don't see a need for another messenger in the market. features are not unique, and can be copied fairly easily. (the little emojis flying on the video were first done by periscope btw)

the only way i see for your app to break out is if someone famous joined (justin bieber did it for instagram) and started broadcasting through it, or something controversial happened around your app (leaked sex tape of donald trump) which will keep your app in the headlines... otherwise it will be lost in the charts, like thousands of other messaging apps.
 
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Scot

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Well damn. This is depressing. I went to check it out on the App Store to see how it was doing. 0 reviews. I think this is a case of just horrible timing. It launched weeks before IOS 10 which completely overhauled the messages app.

Hope I'm proven wrong!
 

devine

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Well damn. This is depressing. I went to check it out on the App Store to see how it was doing. 0 reviews. I think this is a case of just horrible timing. It launched weeks before IOS 10 which completely overhauled the messages app.

Hope I'm proven wrong!
Well, that was expected.

It happens when a start-up is nothing but a circle-jerking.
Guys have a whole team doing what has no need on the market and offer nothing to the market.
 

Scot

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It's a beautiful app. And if it had come out around the time as WhatsApp, we could be talking about a $1bn acquisition. But timing just sucked.

Is there a need for it? That's really for the market to decide, but so far, the market isn't talking.
 
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devine

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It's a beautiful app. And if it had come out around the time as WhatsApp, we could be talking about a $1bn acquisition. But timing just sucked.

Is there a need for it? That's really for the market to decide, but so far, the market isn't talking.
"What if" is meaningless.
I just opened their website once again and there is so many things done wrong. They would fail even if they launched before WhatsApp. It's just uninviting and showcases no real reason to download the app.

For now, removing the spotlight from all this fancy and useless stuff will make them do better. If they put an emphasis on "request" feature and develop this idea into something worthy - they will get their cut of the pie.
Feel sorry for these guys, must have spent a lot of cash on something that doesn't work and was never intended to work.

Maybe I seem rude with what I say, but real world is even more rude.
 
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kkompoti

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the request function is great for one specific audience:
jealous people and their loved ones.

example:
a-babe i am with my mates chilling
b- requests photo
a- no
b- ends relationship or starts a huge fight..

don't get me wrong. this function is your moneymaker.
 

devine

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the request function is great for one specific audience:
jealous people and their loved ones.

example:
a-babe i am with my mates chilling
b- requests photo
a- no
b- ends relationship or starts a huge fight..

don't get me wrong. this function is your moneymaker.
It's not limited to this specific audience only.
This kind of approach wouldn't make them a penny.

If @codo3500 wants, I can come up with a fully reworked prototype within 35 days, based on this particular feature.
We can talk privately.
 
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Last edited:
G

GuestUser155

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This thread is a good example of three things:

1). Don't operate in a vacuum. Total secrecy, why? You need people like @devine to tell you where you're going in the wrong direction so you don't waste two years driving down to a dead-end.

2). Don't wait to polish your product before releasing. You don't know what reactions the market will have to the features you've created, so why waste the time to polish them to shine? Barebones and get it out as fast as you can to start getting a reading of where you stand.

Two years. Hot damn.

3). "Attaboy"s only go so far. It's great and all to be a mother-figure and unconditionally support each other, but then how would this forum be different from any other casual friend? Being blunt will give them temporary pain to avoid a more long-term one.

I don't know anything about your product, so all I can say is: Good luck.
 
G

GuestUser155

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Also, I see him posting about function over beauty (Howard Roark style) a lot.

So, @devine can you recommend a text(s) that will let us avoid the pitfalls of poor design?
 

Kabylfx

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Well damn. This is depressing. I went to check it out on the App Store to see how it was doing. 0 reviews. I think this is a case of just horrible timing. It launched weeks before IOS 10 which completely overhauled the messages app.

Hope I'm proven wrong!
I don't know about the app store but it seems to be doing pretty fine on play store. Averaging around 10000 downloads and 180 reviews.
 
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devine

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This thread is a good example of three things:

1). Don't operate in a vacuum. Total secrecy, why? You need people like @devine to tell you where you're going in the wrong direction so you don't waste two years driving down to a dead-end.

2). Don't wait to polish your product before releasing. You don't know what reactions the market will have to the features you've created, so why waste the time to polish them to shine? Barebones and get it out as fast as you can to start getting a reading of where you stand.

Two years. Hot damn.

3). "Attaboy"s only go so far. It's great and all to be a mother-figure and unconditionally support each other, but then how would this forum be different from any other casual friend? Being blunt will give them temporary pain to avoid a more long-term one.

I don't know anything about your product, so all I can say is: Good luck.
1) It happens when people overestimate themself and their idea. In reality, they could share their prototype publically and no one would do anything in response for 2 main reasons:

a) There is nothing about it that is worth even a million of dollars. The main reason why their team believes it is called "sunk cost", peppered with illusion of potential value.

b) No major player on the market is interested in concepts and ideas that aren't executed yet. Until we don't see how well it performs, how significant the public response is and how it even fits a project long-term - there is no point in even thinking about it.

2, 3) This is a thin ice. I'd say, this is the main reason why people like me are in the industry: to make sure the project will perform well after its launch.

When I see something is destined to fail, I just kindly tell about it, like I did in my first message. But I see no point in sharing things that will determine the future of someone else's business without getting paid accordingly.

Once they know what failure tastes like - things can be negotiated. Of course if a perspective of wasting another couple of years on nothing doesn't look fine, otherwise I can't help much.
Also, I see him posting about function over beauty (Howard Roark style) a lot.

So, @devine can you recommend a text(s) that will let us avoid the pitfalls of poor design?
There is no compromise between beauty and functionality, it's just that beautiful things often have no purpose behind them.

I think the main portion of education here lays in learning how to look into things. Not to just see them, but to look into them.
Notice details.
It's not just about the visual aspect, as design has only one purpose: to deliver the substance.

What is Amity? What idea does this word convey? Is it strong?
Does it ring?

WhatsUp conveys the idea of communication excellently, because this is how communication starts for many people.
"What's up?" has become a common compound long before the app has borrowed it.
Amity is just a cool word that practically has a very weak meaning.

What their home page is about? Which feature does it showcase?
Unfortunately, all this fancy stuff has no value for a user.

As you see, I don't care much about design - you can't polish what is inherently wrong.
If you want to practice this kind of approach: just ask questions. Do people really want this? Does it have anything of substance to offer them?
How everything you read/see/hear help convey this very substance?
 

Mac

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I wouldn't jump the gun too early. Give it a chance.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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You need people like @devine to tell you where you're going in the wrong direction so you don't waste two years driving down to a dead-end.

One person's opinion doesn't make a market. I remember when Sal (@Likwid24) first launched his product. Several people laughed at it on Facebook.

I wonder what those people are doing now, several years later? Well I don't need to wonder -- they're doing the exact same thing: NOTHING. And Armchairing guys who are actually tickling the market and seeing what sticks isn't considered something.
 

devine

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One person's opinion doesn't make a market.
One person's knowledge is called expertise, not opinion.

There are two kinds of entrepreneurs:
1) Those who sail through trial and error with hit-or-miss decisions. They wait for "tomorrow's news" to see if they succeeded or not.
2) Those who already know what they will see in tomorrow's news, because they orchestrated it yesterday.

But this person will put it better than me.
 
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G

GuestUser155

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One person's opinion doesn't make a market. I remember when Sal (@Likwid24) first launched his product. Several people laughed at it on Facebook.

I wonder what those people are doing now, several years later? Well I don't need to wonder -- they're doing the exact same thing: NOTHING. And Armchairing guys who are actually tickling the market and seeing what sticks isn't considered something.

One person's insight can make all the difference.

Steve Job's didn't operate in a bubble and neither does Ray Dalio. They surround themselves with vocal, intelligent people, and not housewives (Facebook) and yes-men (Circle-jerk).
 

MJ DeMarco

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One person's knowledge is called expertise

You've confused expertise with speculation. If expertise validated an opinion as fact, every VC-funded venture would have a 100% success rate.

One person's insight can make all the difference.

Nice strawman. I never said one opinion wasn't important -- I said it doesn't make a market.
 

devine

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You've confused expertise with speculation. If expertise validated an opinion as fact, every VC-funded venture would have a 100% success rate.
I'm not confusing anything. Speculation is assumptions about how things will work.
I don't assume, I don't "maybe", I know.

I have met a couple of angel investors and VC's, pretty successful ones, and I wouldn't invest in absolute majority of projects they decided to invest in, because they are based off non-existent needs, their prototypes neglect basic principles of cognitive psychology and their teams have prima donna attitude. Much like the one from this thread.
If VC's would have more people who know, instead of people who assume, their success rate would be better.

For some people talks about tomorrow's weather is speculation.
Others know that weather forecasting is a scientific technology.
Same applies to business. It's just that first group thinks of expertise as just an "opinion", while second starts the dialogue with writing a decent paycheck.
 
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Random_0

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One person's insight can make all the difference.

Steve Job's didn't operate in a bubble and neither does Ray Dalio. They surround themselves with vocal, intelligent people, and not housewives (Facebook) and yes-men (Circle-jerk).

Steve Jobs was an excellent marketer
 

codo3500

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Hey guys,

Just jumping back in. We have some very 'interesting' news coming; I'll post as soon as I'm allowed to - but Amity is all systems go.

In saying that, I've actually stepped back to focus on my Fitness business (I've done an AMA in the INSIDERS about this, but it's 7-figure, and needs my attention to get to 8-figure). I'm still super tight with the Amity team, just taken a back seat because I was spreading myself too thin.
 

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