Whereabout

Make the small world smaller. :)

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Launching Interests: Now find like-minded people on Whereabout!

Over the past one and a half months of our operations, we at Whereabout app have launched features that could make the app more user-friendly and enable people discovery in a smarter fashion. In an effort to provide a compelling context behind every conversation, we launch our major feature today i.e. interests.

Currently spread over 18 categories as varied as food to online gaming to art & design, it comes right at the onboarding of the user and takes in their interest—which we later use to help them connect with people with similar interests as them.

Unveiling the first look below:

Have you updated the app yet? Download Whereabout App Now.

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We’re Hiring at Whereabout & Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Apply!

We at Whereabout, a nearby friends of friends messenger (think of Whatsapp equivalent for LinkedIn), are hiring.

Here's Why You Shouldn't Apply:

1) No Funding: We aren't funded yet. We are in talks with investors. The money might/might not hit our bank in the next few months. Your package will be much below the industry average right now. You will be compensated generously in stocks however. Even when we get funded, your compensation won't skyrocket. It will be decent, not lavish like one of those hyperfunded start-ups. We will remain lean and humble. But if you stick by us for 2-3 years, trust me, you will end up financially and skillwise better than anywhere else you could have been. How can I be sure of that? It's quite simple, I believe in our team (My cofounder Ashish and me). If we commit our three years to something, we are going to turn it into something impactful. We don't like wasting our time, and we are always iterating towards a better and more useful product.

2) No Perks: We have no perks. No XBOX, no office lunches, no plasma TV, no booze parties in fancy pubs. Even when we raise money, we might just get a table tennis table but nothing more than that (okay, free beer cans maybe). We'll continue to be lean. Why? Here's why: at this stage, it's of great importance to attract the people with right intent. Because these folks will build the team further.  For us, your intention of joining us should be crystal clear—you believe in our idea and the team, and you think we can become big with your help. That's it. Everything else that can tempt you is bullcrap, and is actually harmful for our team.

Why do we say so? You might say Facebook has amazing work-culture, so many perks. True, but do you have any idea how (and why) was Facebook early on. Here's an excerpt from an interview of Facebook's Early Employee (and now a Silicon Valley billionaire) Chamath Pahalipitiya:

Don’t waste money on things that get away from your mission, which confuse employees about why they’re actually there. Meaning, the quality of the office and the quality of the food are all part and parcel of a lack of discipline, which speaks to the fact that the mission isn’t compelling enough. Because I can tell you what it was like at early Facebook: the food was terrible; we’d ship in lunch and probably two to three times a week the lunch had maggots in it. But we were there because we believed, and it didn’t matter.

3) No Big Team, Lots of Work: We are just two people right now, the two cofounders and everything we have built is in house. Every design, every line of code, every marketing copy written, every mail sent has been sent by the two of us. We will expect you to be a Super(wo)man. Master of many trades, instead of just one. It will be challenging, it will be painful and it will not be easy. It's not for comfort-seeking quick-money aspirants. It's for people who see the future, who imagine, who dream.

4) We Are Extreme: We don't know how not to get things done. We don't know how to shrug and say we're clueless about how to proceed. We don't know how to give up. If you go through our journey below, you'll realize what we mean by extreme and what we can withstand.

We are freaks and misfits who were forced to experience the world in an unusually challenging way. We have developed strategies to survive, and as we grow we find ways to apply these strategies to other things, and create for ourselves a distinct and powerful advantage. We don't think the way other people think, and hence we don't want people who are conventional. We want the crazy, the obsessed ones, people who believe they can make a dent in the universe.

5) We are not in for a short term, not in for money, no quick exit in sight:We are in it to create the next networking giant. Whereabout is not going to be one of those ordinary companies, one of those clones that India is known for. We have taken the first right step, and that is creating something truly original that people love. But we haven't got it all figured out. It's a new idea and it requires innovation. We are experimenting, trying to measure and iterate and design to suit the palettes of our users, providing them with a better and more fulfilling experience. The path to success is going to be brutal, quite harrowing. It will take a lot from us all. But when you attain that destination, you'll be blown by the sight you will see. The joy of climbing the Everest is to behold the view from the top. We can envision that view and we can't wait to get there.

Here's the Only Reason Why You Should Apply:

Audacious Vision: Imagine going anywhere on the planet and looking at people around, and Whereabout shows you who that person is, what are their interests and how are they connected to you. Imagine the entire world unlocked for you, on your mobile screen, a knock away from being connected to over chat without sharing phone numbers or adding to any social network. Imagine the impact such a product can have, how it transcends your first degree connections and makes the entire world so approachable and connected. Can you dream along with us? Does it excite you?

We are building a truly global social product with the help of a small group of people based in India. We are generous with stock options for people committed enough to stick for long, we're even open for cofoundership if you earn it by your commitment. If the first 5 points don't deter you, send two paragraphs about yourself and why you want to join Whereabout at [email protected] along with your LinkedIn ID. Our backend is in Python (Django), and we are hiring growth hackers, digital marketeers, iOS and android developers, Python mavens and graphic designers.

Make sure you have used our app before applying. Else, your mail will be vacuous.

[whereaboutapp-blog]

Introducing Stories & Featured Users

Hello.

It’s been one month since we launched and we are now a 5000 users strong community. In the past one month, we have seen phenomenal organic growth and have been elated to discover some really interesting users on our app.

Our vision as a company is to let two people — who don’t yet know each other — but might have a common interest or a friend, engage with each other. To break ice, the storyteller in us started to find interesting users with great stories and feature them on our app’s search page. 

Imagine everyday you have an interesting person to talk to, who’s up to something interesting. How does it sound? Interesting, doesn’t it? 

For featured user stories, we have started a new blog as well, aptly named Whereabout Stories. Do visit and check the first featured story of a traveller who’s walking upstream along the Ganges to make people talk about the great river. 

We are keeping it really open and completely free. Anyone could write us at [email protected] with their story to get featured. We’ll do the necessary editing, and a telephonic interview. As long as it’s genuine, we are going to leave no stones unturned in helping expand your reach with our own marketing budget.  It’s a great personal branding and marketing tool, as we’ll send out emailers to all our users and promote the users on our social media handles. If it appeals to you, please apply. 

Check the app to see how it works. Hope to hear from you soon. :)

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Whereabout Announcement & Notification Board

Woo-hoo! Three big news items:

1. Launching Filters & Sorting: Now finding people is much easier.

2. We crossed 5000 downloads with a spend of less than 10000 rupees. 

3. We love you for all the love you have given us. We are launching a big feature next week called Interests, which will make it very easy to find like-minded people around you.

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION NOW

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The Reason Behind My Unfettered Confidence in Whereabout

I have been bootstrapping for almost a year now, with two pivoted (or rather failed) products in my pocket. During my 1st and 2nd products, I made very little noise. As I think of it, I didn't lack the confidence on the product to create the requisite buzz. But yes, both the earlier products lacked the wow-factor that Whereabout has—where you log in and it stumps you by unraveling people in your vicinity sorted as your 1st, 2nd & 3rd connections. Imagine, anywhere you go, you have so many resources unlocked in your vicinity—people you can be referred to, people who are safe to approach because you can do a background check via the mutual connection. So yes, the wow factor of our current product (and hence, the stupendous traction!) has definitely given me some confidence.

But more than the product, my confidence stems from the fact that for the first time in the past one year, I'm working with a cofounder who makes me believe in ourselves. There's nothing that the users desire that we can't do because the man,Ashish Singh, is by far the best, the most sorted and the most committed technologist I had the chance to work with. With him as our founding pillar, I won't be surprised if something big comes out of Whereabout tomorrow. I'd end up saying: ye to hona hi tha, Ashish jo saath tha.

I'd reiterate what I posted in February when Ashish had come full-time: "The single-most important decision that determines your destiny as an entrepreneur is finding the right cofounder. Right is a loaded word, and essentially comprises of diligence, commitment, ethics and humility. Nothing impacts your trajectory more. Either wait for the serendipity, or be one." Thanks Ashish for being the serendipity. Kuch acha to hona hi hai. :)

Here: Whereabout.in/app

Do go through our journey:

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How We Sold Our Start-up to Facebook & Skyrocketed Our Growth On 1st of April?

Hi, my name is Harsh Snehanshu and I’m one of the founders of the week-old bootstrapped start-up, Whereabout, a nearby friends of friends finder. In one line, we enable people to discover & chat with their nearby 2nd contacts bypassing the need for friend requests or phone numbers.

Our differentiation is this: our chat platform is comparable with the best of the best in the world, second only to Whatsapp. Yes, we are confident because we are technically quite sound. Really sound! Check out my CTO cofounder’s kickass profile. Anyhow, let’s get to the story first.

Last night, disappointed with India’s terrible loss at the hands of the West Indies, I returned to my room and started clicking the unread emails. One of the few mails was from Product Hunt, a website I frequent daily, and it read like this:

I was blown away. It was made using Clonezine, a website cloning software, and Product Hunt’s mail was about how to use such softwares to growth hack your way on the once in a year event April Fool’s Day. It was like a bootstrapper’s elixir. It was 11 pm, and I was totally caught off guard for not remembering that it was fool’s day an hour ahead. I had one hour in hand and I had to craft something innovative. Well, this is what I did. The biggest eye-catcher: a Techcrunch article outlining our acquisition by Facebook for the April’s fools.

And then I posted it on the social media: on Whereabout’s facebook page, on myFacebook page (I’m a writer with a decent following) and ran an advertisement from our free FBstart ad credits. And slept.

We slept with 150 downloads of the app. When I woke up and saw the figures, the app had 296 downloads, and the entire night was abuzz with activity. Over 2000 messages exchanged. Friends had shared it across their social media, congratulating us. Overall, the post had reached over 12000 users on the social media. A dozen of my friends and relatives rang me up to congratulate, only to be left with an amused laughter.

By the afternoon, the torrent of usage had befuddled us, and I was forced to open up to friends that it was actually a prank, which sort of calmed people down and resulted in swear words with occasional splashes of “genius”, “brilliant, i fell for it”, “haraami” and more.

The entire process could have failed if our product sucked, but it didn’t. We have unknowingly created a product that users love to love, because there’s nothing like it anywhere. This is the response we got from the new users, who used the product for the first time in the past 24 hours. We were completely floored.

Five things that really helped make our growth hack work:

Timing: I posted the Techcrunch clone precisely at 12 last night, while India was busy mourning over Kohli and couldn’t even think that it was an April Fool’s Day hoax.

Serious Beginning: Telling a fake story requires you to do it with all seriousness. If you read the first three paragraphs of the story, it goes like this. My being a freelance journalist before came handy while pulling off the start. This is how it began:

Networking giant Facebook Inc. has acquired the innovative Indian start-up Whereabout in an undisclosed cash and stock deal. This news comes just a month after the Indian company launched its app on the Google Play Store and Mark Zuckerberg stumbled upon it by chance.

As part of the acquisition terms, Whereabout will work as an independent app and the founders will shift base to Facebook’s Palo Alto office in California. With this acquisition, Facebook intends to tighten its focus on the local networking space, where apps like Tinder are already steps ahead. Mark Zuckerberg, speaking on the acquisition, said,”Whereabout is solving a great need — of enabling discovery and interaction of 2nd connections with a tap of a button. The team is committed and promising, and the product vision is just great. It’s awesome to have those two guys on board.”

Started in 2016 by two IIT Delhi alumni, Ashish Singh and Harsh Snehanshu, Delhi-based Whereabout had enabled 2000 local connections and 5000+ messages within 3 weeks of its launch. It did so with an innovative feature called knock, which allows users to knock on the doors of nearby friends of friends (you actually get a Ding Dong sound!), and once responded to, it straightaway sends you to a chat screen.

3. Subtle Ending: Most people don’t read till the end and we exploited that during our article. It became funnier and weirder as one proceeded, at one time, even quoting me saying the following:

“With this acquisition, Whereabout stops being a threat to Facebook, which it was becoming. Mark was paranoid that we would throttle them, and steal all their users away, as we were doing in the past couple of weeks. Have a look at this graph, we had already taken 8 users away from them, who spent all their time stuck on our app, chatting with their nearby friends of friends. It was not too far when this 8 would turn into 8 billion, given the fact how much users loved us. So Mark made a tough call.”

The last line would have conveyed that it was an April Fool’s prank, but less than 1% people reached there.

4. Inclusion of our personal story infographic: The best story is one that immerses the readers emotionally. We included the personal agonizing story of our journey (below).

5. Having a great product: This is the most important bit. The entire hoax could have totally bombed had our product not been good, but the case is: we have built an awesome product, something that competes with the best of the best in the world. That’s what gave us the confidence to pull it off, that’s what made our users even take the news seriously. We have taken Neil Gaiman’s famous advice “Make Good Art” to our product and I’m sure it’d reflect if you use it once.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Today has been a good day, and the busiest. By now, we have got 200+ downloads without spending a penny, and a reach of 17000 people. And tomorrow, we will have to come up with newer and more creative ways to hustle, and innovate on our bootstrapped budget.

To end this article, I’d like to quote a conversation that followed between me and one of my friends.

Friend: This was brilliant! But…what if Facebook sues you for using their name?

Me: Well, then I will thank Facebook for not learning from our government’s mistakes and creating a Kanhaiya Kumar out of our beloved Whereabout.

Reach us at [email protected] with any feedback, advice or help; and do check our website that is structured as an investment deck.

Until then, have fun reading our entire article here: Facebook Acquires the Indian Friends of Friends Networking App, Whereabout.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Over the past few months, we have been collating the common questions asked by users on Whereabout. Here are a few of them listed so that it is easy for you to navigate.

1. My search feed doesn’t show up anyone. It says “Finding Folks Nearby” and doesn’t load. How can I fix that?

-> Check if you have a good internet connection and your GPS is on. If they are and it still doesn’t work, try closing the app and reopening. It will work. If it doesn’t work even then, knock on our cofounders Harsh Snehanshu/Ashish Singh’s doors and they will be at your service.

2. Are you guys hiring?

-> Yes, we are hiring. But as we are not funded yet, our compensation will be below the industry average. However, if you still join, we will be happy to compensate you generously in stocks. Read more here.

3. What’s the possible use cases of Whereabout? What all can I use it for?

-> A singer found a nearby tabla player. A professor uses it to network with her students without sharing her number. A cricketer found a nearby cricketer. We found our iOS developer through this app.

You can use it for anything you wish for. We have seen our users using it for couchsurfing, hiring, marketing, networking, meeting new people and making new friends, and also for networking with their nearby colleagues and college mates.

4. Why is there no gender filter?

-> For the same reason why there’s no gender filter on LinkedIn or Facebook. We don’t want to evolve into a dating platform. Our vision behind starting Whereabout is to address all the use-cases in the local scenario, instead of just dating. We won’t add gender filter. If your sole purpose is dating, we advise you to go to Tinder.

5. How can I be a featured user?

-> Just write to us at [email protected] with the subject line “Featured User”. Share your story and we’ll feature you.

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Why start-up employees should be educated about “Pivoting” before they are hired?

Enthusiasm, followed closely by skills and humility, is the key driver we look for in a prospective employee. We are a seed stage company. By seed stage, we mean that we have an idea and a rugged MVP out on Google Play and we are reaching out to our prospective customers, one by one, very slowly, testing our hypotheses by measuring their reaction and counting the uninstalls and understanding whether our hypothesis works or not.

We, the cofounders, closely monitor the reaction and the usage, whereas our employees who are remotely developing the product might not be aware of the “measurements” we are doing. Right in midst of the process of their development, we butt in and say: “Hey, we have data to show that the idea you had been hired to work for isn’t really working. We are pivoting to a new feature which we believe has greater potential to work.” Imagine what happens to the morale of the employee who has worked tirelessly on the previous feature suddenly being informed that his work is being put on hold, if not completely discarded and now he has to restart from scratch. Yes, it hurts. And this is what happened yesterday, when we chose to completely pivot the check-in product to a discovery product instead.

When we revealed this to our android developer, his enthusiasm plummeted. The question boiled down to “Why? This idea is not why I was sold for, not why I joined you guys.” I went into a damage control mode, and tried to convince him. It’s our job as an entrepreneur to educate the employee about how often does the idea pivots in a start-up at a seed stage, after all, we have to make the idea fundable as soon as possible. I cited examples of Instagram, which started as a location sharing app with the option of sharing photos, and pivoted the other way round when they realized that the posts with photos had 10x the engagement. Though, he nodded and sort of calmed down, things had gotten out of hand. A day later, he called and excused himself from the job citing health reasons. This is a huge moment of learning for us, and while we hustle to learn android development ourselves, and make things work, we carry with us a fundamental understanding of how important it’s for the founders to educate our prospective joinee about the activity that a start-up works for:

“The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.”

~ Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

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Starting-up in times of cholera!

When the funding market is in downturn as if struck by cholera, such as now, it's the best and the worst time to build a start-up. 

Worst because: funding is difficult. You won’t get funded just for the idea. You actually need either traction or revenue to convince the investors. The money is there; however it’s being bet in a regulated fashion. And without funding, shit happens. Employees will leave, your idea won’t work, your cofounder will desert you, your savings will go down the drain, your self-belief will be tested and shaken at every moment. 

Best because: It separates the wheat from the chaff, the grind tests your character as you know you get money only when you have something valuable. Many would perish, and give up in the chase of money instead of customers. At times, I felt like that too. Thankfully, either an iteration helped soothe me, or a user’s belief in what we were building revigorated me, or a complete pivot reinforced the hope. Being bootstrapped is tough, and iterating with whatever little resources makes a lot of people give in, and give up. If you somehow manage to persist, stay lean and iterate — shunning the features that don’t work, — fast and find a product that users love, as quickly as possible, you’re set.

Being the eternal optimists that we are, we feel it’s the best time to build the start-up, and that’s what is keeping us going. Hope to surprise you with our newest release on the 3rd March. We think we have hit the jackpot, finally brought in a feature that surprises you and can potentially make you fall in love with the product. Eerily, we thought so a couple of times before too, but after two wrong guesses, we have a slightly better idea about what doesn’t work. 

As Edison said, you only have to be right once. After 8 months of bootstrapping, we hope this is the time. Else, we’d continue iterating and follow our motto, the absolute start-up mantra below:

And keep pivoting.

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New Office, Yo!

In February, our cofounder and CTO Ashish Singh joined full-time and Harsh’s meagre writerly 2BHK flat in Khirki Village was turned into a makeshift office. The room was cleaned up (after a long time!), a mini whiteboard was bought and chairs and tables were borrowed from relatives and neighbours. This is what we could do with the limited resources we had:

MyFootprint’s first office. Harsh’s apartment in Khirki VIllage.

What followed was a week of intense discussion on the vision, mission and values of the company we were building being 2000 kilometers away until now (Ashish was serving his notice period at Belong.co in Bengaluru, where he was a Senior Software Engineer, while Harsh was in Delhi, working full-time).

View from Harsh’s balcony, and the unmissable lemongrass tea

While this development was quite enchanting, especially because the co-founders could design and develop over a breathtaking cup of lemongrass tea (that Harsh loves to make), the kind of synergy and focus that one anticipates in a dorm room startup was amiss, since Ashish’s home was in Ghaziabad and every couple of days he’d have to return home. In a start-up, it is said that:

Product, design and technology should sleep together,

and this was what was not happening. Ashish takes care of the technology, Harsh takes care of the design and both of them together create the product roadmap. Considering the distance between Ghaziabad and Malviya Nagar, clearly, the so called “sleeping together” was not happening, so this is where the founders felt the need of a more professional workspace and a 24x7 immersion into the startup. All the coworking spaces they approached had fees that didn’t suit the bootstrapped budget. Rather than spending 7k per seat i.e. 14k per month, the same money could be spent in marketing.

We decided to reach out to universities who could lend us their infrastructure. Luckily, Harsh was a part of the Young India Fellowship programme and he approached the Center For Entrepreneurship (CFE) of the newly set-up Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana. We owe it to Arihant Jain and Priyank Narayan of the CFE for incubating us in record time of 10 days. From 10th of February, we are on campus, have been given a workspace and also free accommodation. The state of the art facilities at Ashoka with WiFi enabled campus not only ensure that we work hard, but also play and party. Besides, the feedback and networking opportunity with over 600 students is a great boon that shapes our journey. It has already pivoted our business idea from just check-in to discovery of people living nearby (we push the update in early March!). The founders of Ashoka, Vineet Gupta and Pramath Raj Sinha have been super-kind to endow Harsh, an alumnus of the YIF, with a considerable stipend, which is the greatest support our start-up could have got in these gruelling times. So now, it’s been almost two weeks since we are on campus and we have zeroed in on our branding, the entire product design is done and Ashish is busy developing and deploying the APIs for our star android developer Dhruv to render on the app. Harsh is now focussing towards content and social marketing, and this is the first post among many posts to come. He plans to write one daily.

Have a look at our new space.

Ashish at work. This is where we sit at CFE, which is open 24x7.

Our makeshift office, grass and the sun. So what we don’t have lemongrass, we have grass!

View from the CFE floor. A day long work is often complemented by a dozen of rounds of the cricket field, or a game or two of Volleyball.

Our room at Ashoka’s Men Residence.

View from our hostel balcony. In the midst of the wilderness

And if you’re on campus, drop by and say hi to us at CFE (we’re found there between 2 pm to 4 am barring the lunch time) or at 707 in Men’s Residence in the morning. Knock on our doors on MyFootprint to find us where we are.

[whereaboutapp-blog]

The Search For That Elusive Repeat User Of My App!

Hello.

My name is Harsh Snehanshu. I’m the co-founder of MyFootprint, a two-week old app that helps you find friends of friends around you and rewards you (with exclusive deals on food & more) every time you visit your friend’s place.

While I’d like if you download our app and use and help increment our downloads by one so that when I go to the investor after a few months, I have a number respectable enough to quote and win their trust and get their money and shove advertisements down your throat to get your download once again after you have uninstalled it. But I don’t really want you to download my app. There’s no point, really. Because you are not my target user. Because you won’t stick. I know you. I know you because I am you.

My target user is one who finds this app because their friend recommended, and uses it because their friends use it and someday, recommends you to use it and you use it thereafter because that friend of yours uses it. My target user is your friend, who will save me from shelling out thousands of dollars every month to Mark Zuckerberg’s bank account to get to you. Finding that elusive power user is the quest that I’m after.

Now that we have defined the problem, let’s look at some ways we could solve it. I have three ways in which I can find that user:

1. Easy way—deluding myself: Like most newbie app founders seated under the scrutiny of their investors, I can give people cashbacks for every check-in at a friend’s place that they do on my app. It can get quick traction, repeat usage, daily active users and so on. But, there come three questions:

(a) Where’s the money coming from? Is it sustainable? No. We make money by providing leads to hyperlocal businesses and apps like FAASOS, Hola Chef, Yumist focussing on home delivery of food. The only time we can sustainably give cashbacks is when our users make a purchase through above-mentioned partners post check-in. As of now, the proportion of users doing it is 40%.

(b) What kind of a user-base am I craving for? Imagine if Adam D’Angelo offered cashbacks for writing on Quora—what would be the quality of Quora users be? Do I really want to have users who are driven by cashbacks? Absolutely not. These users won’t stick when cashbacks stop. Instead, I could invest that amount as a reward for referrals.

(c) This is the most important question, imo: will I be happy as a founder in having chosen the easy way out, knowing within that it’s not the best use of my mind and resources? No.

So, economically, strategically and ethically, point number 1 doesn’t really work for me. Let money not be the incentive why people come, because my vision with this company is not centered around rewards, but hyperlocal discovery and networking. And for that, the better the quality of users, the more trust MyFootprint will earn from them.

2. Midway—reaching out to the targeted users:

Now that I have dismissed the first case, there’s the second way which can give me decent traction. Directly reaching out to my targeted users. So who is my targeted user?

My targeted users are those who socialize, who hang out at each other’s places, who order food from outside, who go watch a movie. The demographic is primarily urban population between the age group of 15-30. As a bootstrapped start-up, FB and Google ads are not affordable. So what do we do? We go to the ground.

The age group 15-30 can be broadly divided into 15-21 years aged student population with little disposable income, and the 22-30 years aged working population. The ease of reaching out to 15-21 years is much higher than the latter, as less incentive is more for them, and if I onboard interns from colleges, it’s going to help reach initial traction. Since ours is a friends of friends discovery app, college campuses make it easy to spread the word.

For the working population, B2B marketing is a weighable option, but the navigation through corporate bureaucracy requires slightly higher investment of time as well as money. So to reach them, I would rather use free-but-effortful content marketing. The very fact that you have reached till this point of an article of this nature makes me assume that you are most likely between 22-30, and now you know about MyFootprint.

3. The tough way—innovation: This is the most difficult but the most effective method. To hook the user, suprise the user every single time. We know this. But we haven't yet figured how to do this. And the only way to figure this out is to focus all our energies here. Find a creative way that surprises the users, and makes the user talk about us.

Let’s delve deeper. Think of the viral products to have come out of India. Have you heard of Bobble App? It makes stickers out of your face which you could send over chats. Bobble has seen the fastest growth among consumer social products in India. How come? First was its novelty. Nothing like this existed before. Secondly, it tapped the core lingo of the North-Indian youth with personalized stickers for every emotion expressed over chat. But the real growth hack for Bobble was to release the chat widget that stood on the shoulders of the giants like Whatsapp, Messenger and Hangouts and let you send stickers.

We, at MyFootprint, are right there in the novelty segment. Nothing like this exists. Which makes it difficult for us, too. Making an app to be used while socialization requires behavioural and cultural shifts, which takes time and efforts. It would have been a lot easier if we had any role model to copy, if someone else had done the hard work for us. But then, I wouldn't be doing this in all probability.  

Anyway, so here's what we have in store: our next sets of features (due this weekend) tap the core characteristics of our preferred audience, offering something really cool. Besides, we have cracked exclusive deals with some of our partners such as Dominos, FAASOS, Yumist, Housejoy, Rentomojo etc. that is bringing the users back to us. Somehow, we are yet to figure a growth hack as kickass as Bobble’s that could skyrocket our growth. While Bobble could be a fad, we want to build something long lasting. Therefore, we have constrained ourselves in the tougher zones 2 and 3, where something original has to come out. Else, we die.

Thanks for reading. Don’t bother downloading MyFootprint right now. Wait for the day when one of your friends makes you download it. Till that time, keep meeting friends and paying much more for food than you could have after checking in on MyFootprint. ;-)

P.S. This is how my place looks on the app. Feel free to drop by.

[whereaboutapp-blog]

Privacy Policy

WHEREABOUT PRIVACY POLICY Last Updated: Dec 22, 2015

Whereabout, registered as Flatabout Solutions Private Limited. (“Whereabout,” “we,” and “us”) respects the privacy of its users (“you”) and has developed this Privacy Policy to demonstrate its commitment to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices about such uses and disclosures. We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully when using our application or services or transacting business with us. By using our website or application (our “Service”), you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please refer to the end of this Privacy Policy for information on how to contact us.

Information we collect about you In General. We may collect information that can identify you such as your name and email address ("personal information") and other information that does not identify you. We may collect this information through a website or a mobile application. By using the Service, you are authorizing us to gather, parse and retain data related to the provision of the Service. When you provide personal information through our Service, the information may be sent to servers located in the Singapore and countries around the world.

Information you provide. In order to register as a user with Whereabout, you will be asked to sign in using your Facebook login. If you do so, you authorize us to access certain Facebook account information, such as your public Facebook profile (consistent with your privacy settings in Facebook), your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationship interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your Facebook friends who might be common Facebook friends with other Whereabout users. You will also be asked to allow Whereabout to collect your location information from your device when you download or use the Service. In addition, we may collect and store any personal information you provide while using our Service or in some other manner. This may include identifying information, such as your name, address, email address and telephone number, and, if you transact business with us, financial information. You may also provide us photos, a personal description and information about your gender and preferences for recommendations, such as search distance, age range and gender. If you chat with other Whereabout users, you provide us the content of your chats, and if you contact us with a customer service or other inquiry, you provide us with the content of that communication.

Use of technologies to collect information. We use various technologies to collect information from your device and about your activities on our Service. Information collected automatically. We automatically collect information from your browser or device when you visit our Service. This information could include your IP address, device ID and type, your browser type and language, the operating system used by your device, access times, your mobile device’s geographic location while our application is actively running, and the referring website address. Cookies and Use of Cookie Data. When you visit our Service, we may assign your device one or more cookies to facilitate access to our Service and to personalize your experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your activity on our Service, such as the pages you visit, the time and date of your visits and the links you click. If we advertise, we (or third parties) may use certain data collected on our Service to show you Whereabout advertisements on other sites or applications. Pixel tags. We embed pixel tags (also called web beacons or clear GIFs) on web pages, ads, and emails. These tiny, invisible graphics are used to access cookies and track user activities (such as how many times a page is viewed). We use pixel tags to measure the popularity of our features and services. Ad companies also use pixel tags to measure the number of ads displayed and their performance (such as how many people clicked on an ad). Mobile Device IDs: If you're using our app, we use mobile device IDs (the unique identifier assigned to a device by the manufacturer), or Advertising IDs (for iOS 6 and later), instead of cookies, to recognize you. We do this to store your preferences and track your use of our app. Unlike cookies, device IDs cannot be deleted, but Advertising IDs can be reset in “Settings” on your iPhone. Ad companies also use device IDs or Advertising IDs to track your use of the app, track the number of ads displayed, measure ad performance and display ads that are more relevant to you. Analytics companies use device IDs to track information about app usage. Information collected by third-parties for advertising purposes. We may allow service providers, advertising companies and ad networks, and other third parties to display advertisements on our Service. These companies may use tracking technologies, such as cookies or web beacons, to collect information about users who view or interact with their advertisements. We do not provide any non-anonymized personal information to third parties. Some of these third-party advertising companies may be advertising networks that are members of the Network How we use the information we collect In General. We may use information that we collect about you to: deliver and improve our products and services, and manage our business; manage your account and provide you with customer support; – perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our or others’ products, services, or content; – communicate with you by email, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us or other third parties; – develop, display, and track content and advertising tailored to your interests on our Service and other sites, including providing our advertisements to you when you visit other sites; – website or mobile application analytics; – verify your eligibility and deliver prizes in connection with contests and sweepstakes; – enforce or exercise any rights in our Terms of Use; and – perform functions or services as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.

Job applicants. If your personal information is submitted through our website when applying for a position with our company, the information will be used solely in connection with considering and acting upon your application. We may retain your personal information, but only for the purpose of considering your application for current or future available positions. This information, which may include your name and contact information, prior education and experience, and other information you provide to us, may be shared with third-party service providers retained by us to collect, maintain and analyze candidate submissions for job postings. In all circumstances, we may perform these functions directly or use a third party vendor to perform these functions on our behalf who will be obligated to use your personal information only to perform services for us. Also, if you access our Service from a third party social platform, such as Facebook, we may share non-personal information with that platform to the extent permitted by your agreement with it and its privacy settings. With whom we share your information Information Shared with Other Users. When you register as a user of Whereabout, your Whereabout profile will be viewable by other users of the Service. Other users will be able to view information you have provided to us directly or through Facebook, such as your Facebook photos, any additional photos you upload, your first name, your age, approximate number of miles away, your personal description, and information you have in common with the person viewing your profile, such as common Facebook friends and likes. Personal information. We do not share your personal information with others except as indicated in this Privacy Policy or when we inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your personal information shared. We may share personal information with:

Service providers: We may share information, including personal and financial information, with third parties that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include fulfilling orders, providing customer service and marketing assistance, performing business and sales analysis, ad tracking and analytics, member screenings, supporting our Service functionality, and supporting contests, sweepstakes, surveys and other features offered through our Service. These service providers may have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but are not permitted to share or use such information for any other purposes.

Other Situations. We may disclose your information, including personal information:  – In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. – When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our Terms of Use or other agreements or policies. – In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy. Aggregated and/or non-personal information. We may use and share non-personal information we collect under any of the above circumstances. We may also share it with other Match Group companies and third parties to develop and deliver targeted advertising on our Service and on websites or applications of third parties, and to analyze and report on advertising you see. We may combine non-personal information we collect with additional non-personal information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated, non-personal information, or personal information in hashed, non-human readable form, with third parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis or other business purposes. For example, we may engage a data provider who may collect web log data from you (including IP address and information about your browser or operating system), or place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable you to receive customized ads or content. The cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to data you voluntarily have submitted to us (such as your email address), that we may share with a data provider solely in hashed, non-human readable form. To opt-out of cookies that may be set by third party data or advertising partners, please go to http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. Third Party Websites There are a number of places on our Service where you may click on a link to access other websites that do not operate under this Privacy Policy. For example, if you click on an advertisement on our Service, you may be taken to a website that we do not control. These third- party websites may independently solicit and collect information, including personal information, from you and, in some instances, provide us with information about your activities on those websites. We recommend that you consult the privacy statements of all third-party websites you visit by clicking on the “privacy” link typically located at the bottom of the webpage you are visiting. How you can access your information If you have a Whereabout account, you have the ability to review and update your personal information within the Service by opening your account and going to settings. More information about how to contact us is provided below. You also may close your account at any time by visiting the "Settings" page for your account. If you close your account, we will retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and recordkeeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, enforce our Terms of Use, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of our Service or our users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties' policies. – Your choices about collection and use of your information – You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of our Service because such information may be required in order for you to register as user; purchase products or services; participate in a contest, promotion, survey, or sweepstakes; ask a question; or initiate other transactions. – Our Service may also deliver notifications to your phone or mobile device. – You can disable these notifications by going into “App Settings” on the app or by changing the settings on your mobile device. – You can also control information collected by cookies. You can delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings. Click “help” in the toolbar of most browsers for instructions.

How we protect your personal information We take security measures to help safeguard your personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure. However, no system can be completely secure. Therefore, although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information, chats, or other communications will always remain secure. Users should also take care with how they handle and disclose their personal information and should avoid sending personal information through insecure email. Information you provide about yourself while using our Service We provide areas on our Service where you can post information about yourself and others and communicate with others. Such postings are governed by our Terms of Use. Also, whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information onpublicly-viewable pages, that information will be publicly available and can be collected and used by others. For example, if you post your email address, you may receive unsolicited messages. We cannot control who reads your posting or what other users may do with the information you voluntarily post, so we encourage you to exercise discretion and caution with respect to your personal information. Children's privacy Although our Service is a general audience Service, we restrict the use of our service to individuals age 13 and above. We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use personal information from children under the age of 13. Visiting our Service from outside the Indian If you are visiting our Service from outside the Indian, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. By using our services, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this privacy policy. No Rights of Third Parties This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any personal information relating to users of the website. Changes to this Privacy Policy We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we post changes to this Privacy Policy, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you check our Service from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in this Privacy Policy or any of our other policies. How to contact us If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email as follows: [email protected] Flatabout Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

[whereaboutapp-blog]

Terms of service

This Mobile App Use Agreement (the “Agreement”) is between you and Flatabout Solutions Pvt Ltd, having its registered office at 105, Jan Pratinidhi Apartments, Gurgaon, herein after referred to as “the Company”. Your use of the Company’s mobile app Wherabout herein after referred to as “the app” is subject to the following terms and conditions of use:

YOU AGREE TO READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE. THE APP, APPLICATION AND SERVICES COMPRISE AN ONLINE PLATFORM THROUGH WHICH THE USERS MAY TALK TO NEARBY 1st, 2nd & 3rd DEGREE CONNECTIONS OVER CHAT. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE COMPANY IS NOT A PARTY TO ANY AGREEMENTS ENTERED INTO BETWEEN USERS AND OTHER USERS. THE COMPANY HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE CONDUCT OF USERS OF THE APP, AND DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY IN THIS REGARD. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY AND ALL KNOCKS YOU DO AND RESPOND TO. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COMPANY RESERVES THE RIGHT, AT ANY TIME AND WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE, TO REMOVE OR DISABLE ACCESS TO ANY USER FOR ANY REASON, INCLUDING USERS THAT THE COMPANY, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, CONSIDERS TO BE PROPAGATING OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT FOR ANY REASON, IN VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS OR OTHERWISE HARMFUL TO THE SITE, APPLICATION OR SERVICES.

LIABILITY LIMITATION; EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IN NO EVENT WILL THE COMPANY BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF, BASED ON, OR RESULTING FROM THESE TERMS OF USE OR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF SUCH PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES UNDER THIS PARAGRAPH IS INDEPENDENT OF YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY AND SURVIVES IN THE EVENT SUCH REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OR IS OTHERWISE DEEMED UNENFORCEABLE. THESE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY WITHOUT REGARD TO WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM (A) BREACH OF CONTRACT, (B) BREACH OF WARRANTY, (C) NEGLIGENCE, OR (D) ANY OTHER CAUSE OF ACTION, TO THE EXTENT SUCH EXCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS ARE NOT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW. IFYOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY PART OF THESE TERMS OF USE, OR YOU HAVE ANY DISPUTE OR CLAIM AGAINST THE COMPANY WITH RESPECT TO THESE TERMS OF USE OR THE SERVICES, THEN YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SERVICES.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATED WTH YOUR THIRD PARTY ACCOUNTS IS GOVERNED SOLELY BY YOUR AGREEMENT(S) WITH SUCH THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS.

Use of the App signifies your unconditional agreement to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions of use, do not access or otherwise use of this app. 1) The Company may gather, process and use information and materials received from you (e.g., name, physical address, e-mail address) or collected through your use of the App for any lawful reason or purpose. 2) The Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, from time to time to change, modify, add or remove any portion of this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. Notification of changes in the Agreement will be posted on the App. 3) You will abide by any and all copyright notices, trademark notices, ownership information or restrictions contained in anyContent on the Web Site. You may not download and make copies of the Content and other downloadable items displayed on this Website. Copying or storing of any Content on the App for reproduction, redistribution or publication to third parties for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from the Company. All rights to the Company’s copyrighted materials not expressly granted herein are reserved by the Company.

4) The Company, at its sole discretion, may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the App at any time, including the availability of any Website feature, database or Content. Company may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or the entire Website without notice or liability.

5) Registered Users: Registered users of the App shall agree that all the information including registration details, profile information, local information, communications provided by them shall be true, accurate, current and complete and such information collected by company shall be the Proprietary Information of the Company. The Company reserves the right to verify use and modify such information without any intimation and prior permission of the provider. You represent, warrant and covenant that you shall not upload, post or transmit to or distribute or otherwise publish through the App any materials which: (i) restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying theWebsite; (ii) are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, offensive, pornographic, profane, sexually explicit or indecent; (iii) constitute or encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law or governmental regulation; (iv) violate, plagiarize or infringe the rights of third parties including, without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary right; (v) contain a virus or other harmful or destructive elements; (vi) contain any information, software or other material of a commercial nature; or (vii) constitute or contain false or misleading indications of origin or statements of fact.

6) You hereby agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company, and all its officers, directors, agents, employees, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees from and against any and all liabilities, claims, penalties, losses, damages, cost and expense (including court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, interest expense and amounts paid in compromise or settlement), suits or actions arising out of or resulting from any breach by you of this Agreement, including the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants. You shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any claim.

7) The App may contain hypertext links and pointers to the other World Wide Web Internet sites and resources operated and controlled by parties other than the Company. Links to and from the App to such third party sites do not imply or constitute an endorsement by the Company of any third party material or content.

8) The Company does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed or distributed through the App. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information shall be at your sole risk. The Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to correct any errors or omissions in any portion of the App.

9) The Company reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or government request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in the Company's sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of this Agreement.

10) The company Website, including all content, data, software, functions, materials and information made available on or accessed through the web site, is provided on an "as is" basis. To the fullest extent permissible by law, the company makes no representation or warranties of any kind whatsoever for the content on the App or the materials, information and functions made accessible by the software used on or accessed through the web site, for any hypertext links to third party web sites or for any breach of security associated with the transmission of sensitive information through the web site or any linked site. Further, the company disclaims any express or implied warranties, including, without limitation, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The company does not warrant that the functions contained in the web site or any materials or content contained therein will be uninterrupted, error free or those defects will be corrected. The company shall not be liable for the use of the App, including, without limitation, the content and any errors contained therein. To the fullest extent permissible by law, the company shall not be liable to you for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the use of or access to the web site or for any information obtained through the App, whether based on contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise.

11) By posting messages, uploading files, inputting data or engaging in any other form of communication (individually or collectively “Communications”) to the App, you hereby grant to the Company a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, unrestricted, non-exclusive, royalty free license to use, copy, license, sublicense, adapt, distribute, display, publicly perform, reproduce, transmit, modify, edit and otherwise fully exploit such Communications, in all media now known or hereafter developed. You hereby waive all rights to any claim against the Company for any alleged or actual infringements of any proprietary rights, rights of privacy and publicity, moral rights and rights of attribution in connection with such Communications. All the information collected including personal data, pictures photographs creative ideas, suggestions or materials shall be the Proprietary information of the Company and shall not be subject to any obligations of confidence, non-disclosure or non-usage. The Company is hereby entitled to unrestricted usage of the Information on a worldwide basis without compensation to the provider of the Information. 12) You acknowledge that Communications involving the App are not confidential and that Communications may be read or intercepted by others. You acknowledge that by submitting Communications to the Company, no confidential, fiduciary, and contractually implied or other relationship is created between you and the Company other than pursuant to this Agreement. 13) This Agreement shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of INDIA with respect to contracts made and to be performed wholly therein. In case of any dispute or difference arising out of this Agreement on any issue, if not resolved amicably shall be referred to a single Arbitrator if the parties hereto agree upon, otherwise to the two Arbitrators one each to be appointed by the parties to the dispute and the proceedings of the arbitration shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 or any of its statutory modification or enactment thereof for the time being in force. The venue of arbitration shall be NEW DELHI.

14) This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the Company and you with respect to your use of and access to the App. This Agreement supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and the Company with respect to the App. Use of the App is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all or any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. Any cause of action you may have with respect to your use of and access to the App must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of this Agreement, r portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give legal effect to the intent of the Agreement, and the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. A printed version of this Agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement or the App to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records generated and maintained in printed form by the Company. The failure of the Company to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor bar the Company’s right to enforce the provision.

(UPDATED on 2nd April, 2016)