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nilaymodi123

27 karma · joined August 25, 2017

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nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Sorcerer (YC S24) – Weather balloons that collect more data
Congrats on launching. I love this idea. Makes so much sense haha
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Awesome! Thanks for the find. Did you get a chance to try it out?
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Fundamentally different approaches to product and target market. We have no intention of building a service company or just being another conference tool. There are more than 100 in the market.

We're trying to create a new format that could only exist in the digital world. Fast paced micro-events throughout the year that keep attendees on their toes and help foster community as people get to engage more.

Doing one big conference at the end of the year is the old way of thinking. It's blindly taking the real world conference and making it digital. A movie has a different language than a play. We're trying to figure out that language as opposed to just filming the play.

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Thanks so much. This made our day :)
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
ON24 does a great job of all things enterprise data-related, but it's very complicated, quite expensive, not self-serve, and in our opinion, the user experience is highly outdated. Their default event pages have a very Web 1.0 feel and showcase this very clearly.

After talking to lots of people over a year, ON24 and GoToWebinar are usually the two players that most people strongly dislike. We believe that innovating on the actual attendee and organizer experience is the right long-term approach instead of merely collecting and analyzing some data points.

I'd recommend trying out Slingshow and comparing the two. It'll take you a couple of minutes to see the differences. We're far from perfect and have more work to do in terms of data, but we think we have something quite unique and delightful.

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
And yes, noted on the live interpreters point. Just to clarify - do you have multiple languages at the same time? Is it primarily ASL? Would love to learn more. Thanks!
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
That's a great question. Slingshow handles this pretty well. We have lots of customers in similar situations like the one you mentioned who use the product regularly. However, we have to do a better job of explaining this. We're working on having different ways to restrict the event upfront & giving you the option to remove the "registration page." However, you can still use it right now without your team having to register.

Currently, at the event start time, the Slingshow event page becomes the actual event, and attendees can enter using Google, Linkedin, or email even if they didn't register. There's no unique link that you only get when you register. It's all just one link, and the registration is essentially just an email capture + reminder email. There are many advantages of doing it this way (and some disadvantages), including being a good catch-all for internal and external use cases.

As far as you're concerned, your flow would be very similar to a Zoom call or Google Hangout. Just create the event, set the start time, email it out, or put it in Slack, and at the time of the event, your members/staff can enter the event. No registration is required.

However, you may still have concerns around members sharing the event, and that's what we're working on fixing next, for example, domain restriction, manually admitting people etc. But it's the same issue you'd face with using Zoom or Google Hangout as a link even with a password is still a shareable link. We recommend for now having the waiting room open and admitting people one by one (it's super quick in Slingshow with Cmd+K) or importing a list of emails as "pre-approved."

I hope this wasn't too confusing. If you'd like to give Slingshow a shot and still have questions, I'd be more than happy to jump on a quick call with you or send a short Loom to make this more concrete. Please feel free to create an account and message us on the Intercom, and we'll walk you through it. We have more work to do in this area to make it more intuitive, but we've think a lot about these different "entrance flows," so thanks for asking this question.

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Thank you! I'm actually super excited about use cases like that. Your examples reminded me of a startup that recently hosted an internal event called "Sales Armageddon" where they had teams in different rooms competing on how many inbound leads they could call and schedule a demo. There was a lot more to it including training but it was like a sales game!

Also, we currently don't have a video of the attendee experience, but you can scroll to the Blocks section to see screenshots. Feel free to create an account to check it out also!

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Hey this is my bad and I should have been more clear in the video. I was actually just referring to the product screenshots in the Blocks section below. Also feel free to make an account to check it out.
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Yup, our stage block is fully featured webinar software with everything from Q/A and raise hand to screen share. We are actually releasing uploading slides and playing videos directly in our product in the next few weeks. You can already do that by sharing your screen, but this will ensure a high resolution image and smooth playback.

And right now, the best way to get a demo is to sign up for free(no credit card required) and create an event that starts right now. We are thinking about adding a perpetually active networking block on our website, especially since people really “get it” once they experience the product. Or maybe just more gifs or videos throughout our landing page can get the experience across.

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Glad you like it! The attendee experience can be seen in all those block images we have throughout landing page. It is a little confusing since I imagine you were expecting another video.
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
Thanks for the shoutout!

Values can sometimes feel cliche, so we have tried to make them more memorable and thought-provoking by using short metaphors with a backstory. Appreciate your thoughts here, this is something we’re still thinking about.

nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
We are built on WebRTC so it is completely browser based. And the UI/UX changes depending on the current block you are in. We aim to be simple and interactive for even untechnical first time users. So if it’s currently a Stage block you just enter the audience and the other blocks have instructions embedded into the design to make it easy to interact with others.
nilaymodi123··on Launch HN: Slingshow (YC W20) – Easily build custom virtual events and webinars
OBS is a great tool for customizing your video feed and the virtual camera works great on Slingshow. But, as the platform we focus on adding custom, interactive elements to the stage like a nametag with clickable links and calls to action that can open a form or website inline. Beyond that, the event image, logo, and brand color theme the entire event including the stage.
nilaymodi123··on Getting Some Closure with JavaScript Closures
Awesome!