Hi Rodinhooders
I was there in the last OH and pitched our anonymity app GossHip, and I learnt something very critical and it has really helped us convert into this avatar called Opinio.
When I was there standing in front of the crowd at the CREATE A STARTUP session, my legs shook like Presley. The crowd felt like a tiger ready to pounce upon me. But, then Alok sir started looking at our presentation and to be very frank, he was amazing. He completed all my sentences even before I could. The confidence in me grew and I said in my mind, “Come on Farid, these are the friendliest tigers you can get in the wild. Go ahead and grab this opportunity with both hands”
And so began, what I would call the real beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. In the air, I just said, we have ‘Anonymity at will’ in our app and bang, Alok sir loved it and he vouched for it like crazy… even though I remember someone telling me how much people are disliking anonymity in apps.
There were questions everywhere. “How is it better than Ask.fm or Secret.ly or Whisper for that matter???” and well, I just had one thing in mind “anonymity at will”.
Another question came in, “Why would I make groups in your app? Why do you want me to go through all that hassle?” and this time, I didn’t have any answer.
Another question came in “What do I gain out of it? Wouldn’t I get bored in due time ???” and well I was dumbfound again.
And to say again, Alok sir defended us saying… these guys are smart enough… I am sure they will figure out something. The event was great. I learnt that maybe I dont have answers to all my users and these people are really warm, but what would I do when I have another huge set of people jumping in, raising the same questions and asking for a greater experience?
We went back to our drawing board and well, we were sure the answer was anonymous chatrooms made available to people on their own. But what next ? Wouldn’t people get bored again and wouldn’t it die just as how Y! chatrooms did?
And then Asha ma’am ka mail aaya…
“Guys, send me your learnings from the session and tell about your whole experience and we’ll showcase it in the CAS category of trhs.”
“CAS category… hmmm… why do they have categories… just to organise things better or to add context to each post”
BANG! That was the moment… – CONTEXT… that is what is important… that is what makes people come to things… that is what makes sense out of gibberish… WE NEEDED CONTEXTUAL CHATROOMS WITH ANONYMITY AT WILL THAT GIVE YOU SOME VALUE while keeping the experience rich for everyone.
And so here we are… Presenting OPINIO, the contextual debate chatrooms app and platform at ouropinio.com
Opinio is our ambitious attempt to contribute to social apps and make the world a little more cooler…
Opinio lets you chat and debate freely. Advise people, question them and answer their doubts. Opinio is what we all needed from journalism and media. And yes, we are here.
WE WILL MAKE YOUR OPINIONS MATTER BY GETTING YOUR VOICE TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIME. The revolution begins now and the revolution begins here.
So are we Quora in a chat format?
One of the important aspects of my job as an early stage CEO is to protect my company from being “put into a box” too early. Leaving us unsorted makes investors, customers and employees a bit uncomfortable. It’s a part of human consciousness to classify things for better comprehension. Imagine explaining to your Asian parents from 1980-90s what work you do as an investment banker. Trust me, I tried. All I got from my family was “So, how do I open an account with your bank?”
No one can give a concrete reply for what we will be in the future for now. But there will be a time for having an extremely clear concept to lock in on, and what we will market against, hire against, build against.
From our desk, we’ll make sure that always
Opinio remains free. Opinio remains liberty. Opinio fulfills the vision of empowering your voice and making you free from the fear of being judged or being bogged down AND MAKING YOUR OPINIO MATTER!!!
YES, OPINIO WILL ALWAYS REMAIN AD-FREE.
Our Android app is live and running at https://goo.gl/5JSRPC We desperately need the feedback of this community and we hope we can build a SOCIAL MEDIA revolution, right here in India, right here from our awesome community.
Opinio lets you express your opinions on real topics with freedom.
– Engage in interesting debates with people from all walks of life.
– Discover people who you share a stance with.
– Have interesting conversations.
– Gang up with real life journalists, celebrities and actors on issues that matter to you the most.
– Rise in ranks and brag your achievements.
– Be an expert on topics you love and rub shoulders with the best in the field.
Thank you Asha ma’am and Darshan Sir for listening to all my useless banter and helping us build this startup 🙂
And thank you Alok sir for building this great place for people like us 🙂
Also, I’m really sorry for going into complete anonymity myself… but, decide kiya tha “Munh nahin dikhaunga jab tak kuchh achha nahin bana leta”. Thank you Rodinhoods
Waiting for your feedback and comments. Thank you guys 🙂
P.S. We are now VC funded 😉
Like us on Facebook at OurOpinio
Tweet to us at @OurOpinioWe are waiting for your feedback and comments 🙂
You can also give feedback to us directly at @frdahsan, @bhanuism, @ank_sac
Thank you Rodinhoods 🙂