Secret reborn. but apparently smartly executed without all the negative vibes, although the app is about stress. i like they remained discrete, far from the hype and really built a product in line with the promise
@ourielohayon Thanks, Ouriel. We've iterated a TONNE over the months and have learned a lot from our beta community (over 3,000 people). @chrysb, co-founder of Secret, recently Tweeted something out that generated an exchange worth highlighting:
https://twitter.com/chrysb/statu...
A reply to him: "Yes. People are quick to knock anonymity, though I think it's more of a product challenge than a "people suck" one."
And then his response: "It certainly is a product challenge :) A very human challenge..."
We whole heartedly agree with both of those points! Anonymity is an incredibly difficult human challenge and one that we've been learning a lot about. We've been fortunate to have the lessons of Secret and other similar apps to learn from. We've also called in support from product experts such as @arainert and Rachel Nash, who was an early product designer at Timehop. They've been invaluable at times.
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@ourielohayon You're absolutely right. A completely different tone than the other anonymity apps. They felt slanderous and cold, where as this one seemingly aims to improve lives. I will be curious to see how they handle the trolls, and the tone itself as the mass market jumps into it.
Everyone wants to be cool under stress. Can we crowdsource this problem? Koko hopes to answer this question. Koko is a social app that uses an innovative form of crowdsourced cognitive therapy that was developed at the MIT Media Lab.
The app is based on the simple idea that we can be stronger together. Wrestling with our own mind can sometimes feel like a losing battle. I've used a few mindfulness apps like Headspace prior, but what's neat about Koko is that there's not only a feeling of helping oneself see the brighter side but more so, helping someone else - that's special.
We should have founders @fraser, @RobertRMorris, and @kareemk for an AMA.
Awesome concept. And definitely focuses on the problem solving portion of the brain that entrepreneurs love to exercise -- while letting us help someone else who really needs it in the process. Excited to see where this goes.
@johnmgannon one of the coolest things about the app? The people who provided the most help on the system appeared to benefit the most. It's good to be good.
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I've tried Ethan & 7 Cups of Tea, which both have similar use cases. How do you plan to differentiate? Also, what inspired the name?
@ak310i Good questions. The apps you mentioned offer emotional support in a 1-to-1 chat experience. Our app, by contrast, looks and functions more like a social app (you can post, you can reply, you can lurk on content).
Users in our community get short-term emotional support (as one would get on the apps you mentioned), but they also learn enduring techniques to build resilience against stress, anxiety, and depression. The concept for our app has also been rigorously evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Repeated use of a web-based version of our platform was shown to convey significant psychological benefits.
As for the name, we like how it sounds and we like the fact that it has 'ok' embedded within it.
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I've tried Ethan & 7 Cups of Tea, which both have similar use cases. How do you plan to differentiate? Also, what inspired the name?
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This looks like a great entry into the stress reduction and mental health support genre. I really like the idea of the community helping and supporting each others. Great job!
Thanks for hunting this Dave! We’ve been working on this with a beta community for the past 10 months and we’re excited to get more feedback on it. This project started as a way to manage our own stress and it kinda blossomed out from there in some unexpected ways. We’re happy to answer any questions...
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