In the Stream
A few weekends ago (it always seems to take a few weeks to publish these posts for some reason), I went to a brunch organized by a well known entrepreneur-turned-investor to bring entrepreneurs together to share ideas. (The idea being that in New York the concentration of consumers and industry has enabled some amazing startups, but for some reason not as close of a community as the valley. I agree). Anyway, in conversing with the friend that invited me to the brunch, I commented that I really liked his new startup, specifically because the service didn’t pull me out of the stream of my normal workflow.
A lot of services have popped up recently that allow people to connect, socialize, and generally interact in more efficient ways - and in ways never before possible - because of the increasing number of phones that support location-aware, robust internet functionality. One of the more popular examples is Foursquare. The problem I have with Foursquare, and the reason I don’t use it at the moment, is because I have to actively think about notifying my friends of my location, and open up the app to do so. Many people have turned this action into habit, and it’s really not that big of a deal, but for some reason I just can’t remember to do it, and the app has therefore gone unused. (That said, I do see significant value in the notion of “checking in” and controlling your location data as opposed to general location-publishing apps).
We looked at an investment with a similar issue recently on the enterprise side, and try as I might to bring myself to use it - because it is a great tool - it just takes an extra degree of thought (and memory) to open up, and I end up not using it. Perhaps this is not a real issue for the early adopters and gadget lovers, but certainly when a company attempts to reach a larger audience this issue becomes much more significant. Will it prevent the company from being successful? Probably not. But it’s certainly one more obstacle to overcome.
Some apps, like Foursquare, have done a great job integrating with other services (offering “publish to…” links and the like), making it much easier to include in a person’s daily stream. But for me, it’s just not there yet.
Juventas Fugit is designed and written by Justin Wohlstadter, who, when not writing in the third person, can be found in a coffee shop talking about startups, thinking about the future of education, and generally procrastinating something important.
- Passions: startups that positively affect the world, education innovation, good design, learning, and meeting those with an equally insatiable curiosity.
- Play: director of product design at Enterproid and partner at BOLDstart Ventures.
- Previously: built the early-stage venture arm of Penny Black. And many other crazy, less successful ventures involving fire extinguishers, measuring philanthropic impact, and creative spaces.
- Pedantry: most of the important stuff I taught myself or learned from friends, but I’m fortunate to have (barely received) degrees from Harvard and Oxford. At Oxford I wrote my dissertation on how internet innovation will disrupt access to higher education.
- Procrastination: can be found on Twitter, Linkedin, AngelList and other web spaces, and be reached via email at my first name at this domain.
