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Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people I just arrived back in Cape Town after an inspiring and enlightening trip to Silicon Valley and New York. The biggest learning over the past few weeks is the need to be as focused as possible. Focus on a single proposition, user and market is vitally important to having a successful app. Since releasing Pashash on the App Store a couple of months ago, we've been trying to discover where the right fit for our app is. Because we were building an app for the huge real-world shopping market, we started looking too broadly for who the right target customer may be and what they would be using our app for. We think we've figured it out now though, and over the next few weeks, you'll see a renewed focus on building the very best app to share your cool buys with. We're feeling more confident than ever. Happy holidays. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Presentations My last week in Silicon Valley was very eventful. I was fortunate enough to be selected to present Pashash at the Silicon Valley Newtech event (pic below) with three other awesome startups: Lyft; Webpop; and Libon. I've been presenting at every opportunity I've gotten and have been able to introduce many people to Pashash as a result. The experience has been a great way to get the word out there and attract feedback from a large number of people. I'm in New York again now though, and am bummed that we had to turn down an invitation to present at the PARISOMA Mixer for Retail in San Francisco this coming Wednesday. That said, the show must go on and there's a bunch of important people I need to meet here too. Sport Shoppers and Haul Videos I had the most fascinating conversation with Kathy O'Donnell, a Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University on Wednesday. We're looking to get some of her students involved as interns at Pashash, and she turned out to be conducting incredible research into a specific community of shoppers she terms "sport shoppers". These are people who see shopping as a sport and challenge themselves to find great deals and unique finds. She also introduced me to the idea of haul videos, which are videos posted to the internet by people after they've come back from a shopping trip. These people obviously care a lot about shopping and we'd like to introduce our app to them as soon as possible. A new version of Pashash was released on Monday. It includes our awesome new set of filters and allows you to add a description of yourself to your profile. It's all very cool. What's cool too are the awesome mentions that Pashash got on both Standard Bank Bizconnect and GirlGuides.co.za (thank you Zaa) during the week. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people This week we've started looking harder at the reasons people share things on other apps. Foursquare is a good example of a business that gets users creating content by employing some clever gamification strategies. We're thinking about implementing some elements of this ourselves and have created a quick survey (only two questions!) to try and understand why you Check-In. Please have a quick look and share it on. Many of you have told us before that you'd like photo filters to be included in Pashash. Guess what, we're in the process of integrating this into the app now. It's courtesy of some cool functionality provided by Aviary and should be in the App Store in the next two weeks. In the meantime, check it out below. On a strategic level, we're making some changes to focus our app more on the things that everyone's really passionate about: sharing and discovering great deals. We've got some cool plans in store, but you'll have to watch this space to find out more. Have a Pashash week! Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey last week. Getting feedback from our users is really important in terms of guiding the direction we're moving in. I spent a lot of time speaking to potential and current users this week. Black Friday and the resultant queues was an excellent opportunity to pound the pavements and hone in on what people are looking for. The key features that were mentioned were as follows: 1. Filters to make their pictures look better. 2. Ability to share with individual friends privately. 3. Leaderboards and points. 4. Search and filter one's feed. Sort by price. 5. Follow people with similar interests and be followed. Do you agree/disagree or have anything to add? We're always looking for more input so please pop me a mail with your thoughts. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Thank you all for the continued support. I would really appreciate it if you would fill out the following quick survey on your experiences with Pashash so far. This week was really exciting for Pashash since, after much hustling, we were featured in a major US tech publication, PandoDaily on Friday. I also had the immense privilege of presenting to a group of about 300 investors and entrepreneurs at a Silicon Valley event on Saturday. We're definitely gaining momentum now and I'm focused on trying to get a little more media coverage on Pashash, particularly as we enter shopping season. I've spent a fair amount of time in shopping areas and malls interviewing potential users about Pashash. It's been tremendously useful, and really interesting to understand how US users differ from those back home in South Africa. In terms of the app, we're submitting a new version to the App Store today (it'll take about two weeks to process now). The great thing about the new app is that you don't need to log in with Facebook (check out the screenshot below). Thanks as always for all the awesome support. You guys are Pashash :) Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Whew, it's been a busy week in Silicon Valley. I've been knocking on as many doors as I can, and attending some of the many networking functions that happen every evening here. South Africans in the Bay Area have been particularly gracious with their time and, amongst others, I was fortunate enough to meet with Vinny Lingham (Gyft) and Pieter de Villiers (Clickatell) this week. I also bumped into Michael Weiksner, CEO of Tip or Skip, and had a particularly insightful conversation around increasing user engagement. The picture below is from a presentation I did at a Fashion + Tech event on Wednesday. On the development side, things are really exciting too. Lawrence is working on allowing users to login with an email address completely independent of Facebook (watch this space). The biggest news though, is that our rockstar intern, Andrew, will be rejoining us from today to continue work on the Android app he started a few months ago. He's a smart dev with a tenacious drive, and we're extremely privileged to have him back on board. Getting Pashash on Android is important too, and we're very keen to take advantage of some of the relationships we've developed by being a part of Google Umbono. That's about it from me. Please let me know what you think of Pashash and if you have any suggestions about how we can improve the experience for you. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people I've just finished my first week in Silicon Valley. What I love about this place is that everyone dreams really big. I'm surrounded by people who are all also working on cool, game-changing ideas and there is a real spirit of possibility here. I'm getting great feedback on Pashash all the time, and although we've been working on it already, we're generating some good ideas for increasing the engagement and recognition we provide our users with when they share great buys. During the week, I had the privilege of meeting with Roelof Botha from Sequoia Capital. It was tremendous hearing the thoughts of someone as smart and as plugged in as him on our app and our strategy. We also continue to engage with Donovan Neale-May and the SABLE Accelerator. They have been very helpful in helping connect us with both potential partners in the retail space and the right counsel to advise us regarding taking investment in the US. There are so many events to attend here and it looks like I am going to stay in California for a little longer than initially planned. It's my last night in the Hacker Fortress though, and tomorrow I move up to San Francisco. So much is happening. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people The latest version of Pashash was released on Thursday. There are some big improvements so please update your app and send through any feedback that you have. I've just gotten to Silicon Valley from New York (just in time to miss Hurricane Sandy). Other than having an allround amazing energy, the tech scene in New York is growing significantly, due in large part to government initiatives promoting entrepreneurship. I attended a few tech meetups and spoke to a bunch of people involved in the tech and media industries. The feedback was positive for our app, and it seems like the market is right for us. That said, there is still a lot of work that we have to do in order to build a community there.

I'm now staying in a Hacker House in Silicon Valley. There are 13 other people inside this mansion in the Los Altos Hills. I am sleeping on a mattress in the lounge with people from four other startups. This is not uncommon here and within a few hours of arriving I was already invited to a group review session for Y Combinator at another house. The community is huge, vibrant and accomodating. Today, I'll be starting my first day at the Innovation Endeavors offices. Please share Pashash with your friends and keep posting those great finds. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Boy has it been a busy week. The Google Umbono program (which we've been a part of) relaunched with great new partners, 88mph, on Wednesday evening (picture below). Pashash was featured on the eNews Tech Report in South Africa and the UK on Thursday and on Friday, I got a small mention in Fin24. The coolest thing was that Pashash reached as high as the #5 Lifestyle App in the SA App Store and we've seen close to 40% of our total downloads in the last 7 days. I arrived in New York to start my US trip on Friday morning and have been demoing the app relentlessly. On my phone is a slightly more advanced version of Pashash that is scheduled to be released early next week. Not only have we revised the look and functionality of the Item Pages, but we've also introduced a Recommended Feed which is based on a combination of your location and the categories that you like. We'd like to think that Pashash is getting smarter and it's a cool bit of customisation that we hope will make your experience even better. We've had a lot of people asking for more login options (currently we only offer Facebook login), and that's top of our priorities too. Watch out for login with your email address soon and please keep the feedback coming. Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people We released the newest version of Pashash with Notifications last Thursday and we're already putting the finishing touches on the next update which should be arriving on your iPhone as soon as Apple has approved it (about two weeks). One of the big improvements we're working on is providing a whole lot more information with less clicks than before. Redesigned Item Pages Check out the new items pages below. We've brought the shop information onto the same page as the picture and added a few handy buttons below to help you find the item or shop you're looking for. It's focused on exactly what our users have told us they want to see. We're always looking for more feedback, so please let us know what you think. US Trip My tickets are booked and I fly out on Thursday afternoon. We're looking at cheap, effective ways to get things done in the US and there are some interesting options available. Airbnb is great, and I have also stumbled across some cool initiatives that cater specifically for entrepreneurs trying to enter the market. The benefit of these options is that you not only get to save on costs, but you get a head start on networking with the community. Startupstay is basically Couchsurfing for startups, and they're also projects like Silicon House (which I've just been accepted into). This is my last newsletter from Cape Town for now. You'll receive the next one from New York. Look out! Faheem

Pashash Weekly

Hello Pashash people Notifications I'm really enjoying testing some of the new features we're planning to release at Pashash in the next week. The big change is that you'll now get notified about who's Liked your items when they do that. It's actually pretty cool because it gives people who share great buys a nice bit of immediate social feedback. You could say that it's a virtual pat on the back. US Trip I've also been busy getting things lined up for my trip to the US. I am flying out next week and plan to spend time in both Silicon Valley and New York. We've always been focused on targeting a global audience and the goal of my trip is to build awareness about Pashash with consumers and the tech community in the US. Thus far, I have been massively encouraged by the openess of everyone I've been in touch with, and friends of both myself and Google Umbono have been extremely helpful with making introductions. It looks like the next couple of months are going to be another steep learning curve. I'll try and blog much more regularly to keep you a part of it. Stay tuned! Faheem

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