Seeking feedback on my startup impartu

[elusivepeanut]

I'm building an online startup and am curious what you may think about it. We have a functional prototype and are trying to identify who the first set of users will be.

My initial idea was to build an online application that helps people find a mentor. I set out to build an eChemistry type of site. Students could match up with a professional in fields of interest, for example. Expecting mother's could match up with experienced Moms. An accountant looking to switch into marketing could match up with someone in the industry. Through the evolution of R&D, trial and error, etc.. the concept has evolved into something better. The vision is strong and very clear to me.

Vision: utilize technology to help people meet and exchange thoughts in a frictionless way
How: build a online application that would facilitate knowledge transfer over over a process that emulates native human interaction (video)
Differentiators: Allow asynchronous interaction for micro interviewing so that thoughts can summoned from external sources and then can be better organized and replayed on demand.

impartu is where people help people online over Video Q&A. Imagine being able to preview a person's personality type before contacting, meeting, hiring, or selecting them as a service provider. Looking up a dentist on yelp? How about sorting and watching your ideal candidates talk about why they got into dentistry and select the one who you relate to best.

I've completed 100+ in person surveys, and 100+ 1:1 interviews with many demographics and have found that many people would like to use the product to make better decisions in their life, but I haven't found the core audience who want's to be the first users start asking/answering questions.

That's the idea. The signup page is at www.impartu.com . We have a prototype for those of you who would like to try it. Impart U.. Impart Yourself..with the underlining notation that "I'm part you" & "you're part me" ... we're all humans on this pale blue dot ~ namaste.

Ask me anything, give feedback, offer ideas, share anything that comes to you, I'll check this frequently from 12pm-2pm PST and then will be back at 5pm PST for the rest.

tl;dr - I working on a startup and am looking for advice and feedback from my fellow INTPs.

 

[Cognisant]

What's in it for the mentors?

If it's "a sense of self satisfaction" what stops any old opinionated asshole going on there and giving out bad advice?

Not trying to shoot you down, these things just need to be considered.

 

[Cognisant]

Do I have to give you my email address?

Are you just gathering marketing information? You devious bastard

 

[elusivepeanut]

What's in it for the mentors?

If it's "a sense of self satisfaction" what stops any old opinionated asshole going on there and giving out bad advice?

Good question. I anticipate the value proposition for those who share their knowledge will be determined by what motivates them.

Some will altruistically enjoy simply helping people who are genuinely interested in learning/growing. Since they get to watch a person ask a question over video, they will be better able to respond to those who they resonate with.

Value propositions to mentors:

• Save time (We all end up answering the same questions over and over, "What do you do?" "How'd you get into this field?")
• Brand yourself as an expert online
• Increase ability to influence the decisions of people
• Attract opportunities to build relationships with new people on a personal or professional level.. this could range from a good friend, to someone who wants to hire you, to a journalist who wants to interview you for an article, etc

To address your concern of bad advice, we will refine our "helpfulness" algorithm so that we appropriately match you up to the types of people who's advice you're most likely to prefer.

In a general sense, if you don't like their advice, you can just move on. It's like being at a networking event or talking to someone in public. After all, bad advice is coming through many media channels anyway. Be smart.

 

[elusivepeanut]

Do I have to give you my email address?

Are you just gathering marketing information? You devious bastard

Haha.. we're only gathering information so we can contact people when the site launches officially. If you want to sign up directly to the prototype, go to beta.impartu.com . If you're feeling ambitious, feel free to ask me questions on there too. I'm Bryan Helms.

 

[BrainVessel]

Good question. I anticipate the value proposition for those who share their knowledge will be determined by what motivates them.

Some will altruistically enjoy simply helping people who are genuinely interested in learning/growing. Since they get to watch a person ask a question over video, they will be better able to respond to those who they resonate with.

Value propositions to mentors:

• Save time (We all end up answering the same questions over and over, "What do you do?" "How'd you get into this field?")
• Brand yourself as an expert online
• Increase ability to influence the decisions of people
• Attract opportunities to build relationships with new people on a personal or professional level.. this could range from a good friend, to someone who wants to hire you, to a journalist who wants to interview you for an article, etc

To address your concern of bad advice, we will refine our "helpfulness" algorithm so that we appropriately match you up to the types of people who's advice you're most likely to prefer.

In a general sense, if you don't like their advice, you can just move on. It's like being at a networking event or talking to someone in public. After all, bad advice is coming through many media channels anyway. Be smart.

I'm futhermore avoiding this because bulletpoints. Revolting.

 

[Grayman]

What about those who don't like video.

 

[elusivepeanut]

What about those who don't like video.

If you mean 'what about those who don't like to be on video', we anticipate most will be simply viewers. It will follow a youtube like model where most are viewers and some are bold enough to be content creators.

We've considered the idea of allowing people to submit questions via text, but we've decided to stay strictly video for now.

Thanks for the Q!

 

[The Gopher]

See I don't want to ask this question because I'm totally a mentor I just forgot my qualifications but how do you verify mentors are mentors... Can anyone sign up and say "I'm an expert mother" because it couldturns out they are actually aliens seeking to smuggle babies onto the galactic trade market.

 

[Analyzer]

You an INTJ

 

[elusivepeanut]

See I don't want to ask this question because I'm totally a mentor I just forgot my qualifications but how do you verify mentors are mentors... Can anyone sign up and say "I'm an expert mother" because it couldturns out they are actually aliens seeking to smuggle babies onto the galactic trade market.

You're concern is valid and our security team has considered this and a multitude of other threats. An algorithm will detect complex patterns that occur in vocal transmission when alien consciousness is channeling through a human being or hybrid clone. Since 'they' are translating impulse signals into our native language, we beleive that we can identify this with a high degree of accuracy over a fairly small sample.

tl;dr: alien alerts will be a premium feature

 

[Reluctantly]

How do you gauge whether advice is bad or not?

 

[elusivepeanut]

How do you gauge whether advice is bad or not?

The same concern goes for blogs, books, tweets, youtube.. someone created it, can you trust it?

The goal of impartu is to be a communications platform where you watch people being interviewed (giving answers to questions). If a guest on Larry King or Oprah was not interesting, you'd know and change the channel.

Find people who you resonate with on impartu and enjoy seeing them express their ideas. Or find people who annoy you and study their odd behaviors. Or find someone with a polar view than you and sharpen your perspective. When you find someone whom you admire then you will likely enjoy their blogs, books, youtube videos much more (we theorize).

It's not about the content as much is it about the person.

Does this answer your question?

 

[Reluctantly]

So is it kind of like youtube, but with a sophisticated algorithm that attempts to accurately predict what someone might like or not like? That would be kind of cool actually. I imagine google would love to have something like this.

 

[elusivepeanut]

So is it kind of like youtube, but with a sophisticated algorithm that attempts to accurately predict what someone might like or not like? That would be kind of cool actually. I imagine google would love to have something like this.

Yep! Thanks for the comment.

The objective is to help people see from perspective they prefer, when they want to see it, from whom they want to see it through, on any specific topic.

If any of you wild bucks want to give it a try, sign up and let's ask/answers each other questions. Or if I get enough interest here on the INTP forums, I could create a specific site at intp.impartu.com

just a thought.