Hacker News Reader

Comment by vyrotek | Hacker News Reader

I really love the idea and have been waiting for more apps to support these features!

That said, I'm a little concerned about the business model. What's preventing the popular (and sometimes free) platforms such as https://whereby.com or https://team.video from adding these features?

View on HN

Great question. One answer is focus. These companies seem to be focused on small business team meetings, and we are focused on creating social environments for networking and hanging out. Another answer is around where we want to take Rally. Video applications usually focus on making sure the connection works. Little thought has been put into what happens after a user is connected. This is where we believe there is an opportunity for multi video/audio solutions to win. Rally could not only emulate a bar online, but why not emulate a concert, a lounge, a standup comedy stage etc. There is a world of online events that need more engagement and social functions and I think Rally can solve for that. Ofcourse, this is just a 5 month old company saying this!

> These companies seem to be focused on small business team meetings, and we are focused on creating social environments for networking and hanging out.

Exciting! Can't wait to see how your product evolves.

You can add features but you can't really change your default behaviors without alienating your existing user base. If they're suddenly thrown into some wacky thing that they don't understand they will flood you with bug reports and subscription cancellations. So if you're approaching an activity from a fundamentally different point of view it's very hard for your competitors to clone.

Great point! One I totally should have said in my YC interview.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com