We were constantly having troubles finding files and information in our team. That’s when Wildan, our CTO, proposed an idea of building a search engine that could scan all of our apps and find any needed data with a simple title or keyword search.
Within just two weeks, we developed a working prototype that allowed us to integrate apps like Google drive, Gmail, Slack, Notion, Sigma and more to search through them with ease. Though it looked rough around the edges, we were more concerned with obtaining validation.
We reached out to ten companies and were thrilled to find that they all said yes, even paying for a full year upfront. With ten paying customers onboard, we started our private beta in which we got overwhelming support. Oh, we also decided on the name — Klu.so :)
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@sandradjajic 👀 Wow, that's impressive! I love how you were able to turn a common problem into a successful solution. The fact that you got validation and paying customers so quickly is a great sign. So, what's next for Klu.so?
PS: What a cool name :)
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I started the project as I was going through the pain myself and have seen others struggling with the same. In my case, it was scheduling meetings internally with a group of people across different timezones. I was doing product management for 8 years, and given that more than half of time goes into meetings (not proud of it), I was scheduling lots of meeting everyday with different stakeholder to collaborate cross functionally. I realised that scheduling is a multi step process, which includes lots of to n fro and takes up lots of time especially if you are scheduling >10 meetings in a week.
I drew the analogy from an executive perspective that they have never have to go through such pain because they have an actual human being helping them for the same which is their EA in most cases. But not everybody in the organisation, not even senior folks in mid sized company have an EA to do this job for them. When I saw my VP Product in 1000+ people company going through the same struggle, I realised that there is something can be done here. And so I picked the phone and had a chat with 50+ people to understand this. What I found this is can be distilled below
- This isn't the problem people looking out for a solution.
- It's not game changer but yeah giving EA to every senior manager will save their time for sure.
So, I'm onto building Jarvis- AI executive assistant for every manager.
It's been almost two months of me building this and I'm loving every second of this journey. The best part is learning curve is so so steep that I keep on wondering why I didn't tried this before. I am determined to launch a closed alpha by April 15 to get the initial feedback. Stay tuned.
My advice for the folks who are still thinking to take the plunge, I would say you have to be in crazy love for the problem to enjoy each bit of this journey and just keep going :)
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@nomadpm 👏🏼 Impressive! It's amazing how a simple pain point can inspire such a brilliant idea. I can't wait to see how your AI executive assistant - turns out.
Keep up the great work and best of luck with the alpha launch in April!
That's invaluable advice there.
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I've always enjoyed world building, and making games was the next logical step for me. It seems like for every decent mobile game out there today, there are 10 with scummy business practices. I wanted to make a simple but decent game that doesn't try to push IAPs or ads in your face.
I studied art at school but have been teaching myself to program since I started this journey.
Being able to create something from nothing and share it with others is the most incredible feeling. Knowing that someone enjoyed a thing that I made is amazing.
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@alanvitek Great to hear that you're pursuing your passion for game development while also striving to create a positive user experience. I studied art too.
Self-teaching programming is a great step. How's your journey with that going?
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@nareshmeetei it’s had its ups and downs! I released the first version at the end of 2019 and every year I challenge myself to learn more to add new features to it. This year something finally “clicked” and I’m starting to really get a grasp on the logical aspect of things and learning to make systems. Tbh, ChatGPT has been an excellent copilot in teaching as it can help explain coding principles within the context of the scripts I’m trying to write. And it’s also great at parsing documentation and finding relevant information more quickly than I can Google for it. For example, Unity’s documentation doesn’t always include a code example, so once I find the syntax for something I then would have to go find someone on a forum who’s written more in depth about it. Chat helps bridge those two aspects really well. One area I struggled with was learning how to use Apple’s Game Center APIs within Unity - and Chat helped a lot with that.
Honestly, I work and felt to get the best out of growing, and be ahead of the curve. Working on a project that helps me achieve this to excel and help at the companies i work with more efficiently, consistently putting in the time to not be a bottle neck as much as i can and always use this time to ask questions that i never get a chance to answer during the work day.
It allows me to also experiment with new tech in my own time and just coming out that little bit better and over time having as much comfort talking about topics i wouldn't normally engage in out of not knowing if ill bring benefit to the conversation even if i know that no question should be a wrong if learning is the end goal of the conversation.
Plus, because Im more introverted and always behind the computer, I can use it to get out of situations i am not ready for without others questioning which is a perk at times so my interests always seem to generally get time set aside and i get to work on projects.
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@toreanjoel Love the dedication to personal and professional growth through a passion project! It's great to have a space to experiment with new tech and improve skills without pressure. Plus, being able to escape uncomfortable situations is always a bonus 😄
When I was younger, it was all about the dream of money and stature. But, as I've gotten older, it's much more about exploring my passions and pushing technology into new realms. It's more fun this way for sure!
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@brady_lewis1 That's awesome to hear! What kind of passions are you exploring in tech these days?
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We started because we had a problem we wished to solve which we have personal experience in. As we looked around we noticed many others had the same issues so we saw a potential market. Being brand new to this journey there was so much to learn and gain from it we got excited at the prospects. Along the way seeing ourselves grow in skill and character, it keeps us motivated to keep taking risks and growing. Additionally, getting to meet so many interesting and helpful people is an inspiration as well.
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@graham_gameshelf 👍 That sounds like an exciting journey! It's always great to see personal experiences turn into something that helps others. And the learning process is a plus too!
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What started the project was pure pain. What drives it is seeing other people's pain go away when using Cinebody
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@travis_page That sounds interesting! Can you tell me more about Cinebody and how it helps people with their pain points?
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@nareshmeetei Video production is brutally slow, archaic, and expensive. You have to spend 100's of thousands of dollars, wait months, and physically send camera crews/hard drives. Cinebody uses phones to prompt filmers what to capture, that gets sent to the cloud where editors anywhere can make quick turnaround edits for ~$1k in less than a week.
Love such questions, as there are always so many interesting stories! We are also started TheSprkl for our internal team purposes. For many years on almost all the projects there was a conflict between developing fast and creating good UX/UI. We wanted too make a solution that can reduce a cost but not the quality of the work. That's how we've created our design framework. Passion - feedback and results we see from using it - want to give more flexibility to the community as well.
And what about you Naresh?
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@oxana_ivanova 👍 Sounds like you found a way to tackle a common problem in the industry and now you're eager to share the benefits with others! Can't wait to see what kind of impact your design framework will make.
As for me, I love using design to solve real problems and make a difference in the world. When I started my project, I saw a big opportunity to improve the design quality of B2B products and make them more user-friendly. Today, what drives me is the satisfaction of seeing my work make a positive impact on people's lives. I love hearing from users who say that my designs have made their work easier and more enjoyable. It's what keeps me going and motivates me to keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible with design.
I was inspired to start InterviewJam as I needed a personalized and efficient way of preparing for behavioral questions in Interviews. After conducting several interviews as well, I noticed that people were missing out on opportunities due to the lack of communication about their value add. I wanted to build a product to help people tell their stories, and prepare efficiently.
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@mayaa.17 Sounds like you're helping people put their best foot forward in interviews! What a great way to make a difference.
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In the era of information explosion, a product was needed for summarization, so I developed Glarity.
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@charles_ 🧐 I'm curious, how does Glarity stack up against other summarization tools out there?
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Chatbase
Rumi.ai
GAIM.AI
TheSprkl
InterviewJam