
How 7 Cups of Tea (YC S13) Accidentally Grew a Community of 17,000 Listeners - ryanb
http://cmxhub.com/stumbling-on-community-how-7-cups-of-tea-accidentally-grew-a-community-of-17000-listeners/
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todayiamme
I tried out Seven Cups of Tea after reading this article, and I have a few
points of feedback.

From what I make of it, it's apparent that the business model is that of
"professional listeners" i.e. a few listeners charge for their service and
essentially become an online version of therapists without being therapists.
(although a few do appear to be trained as such and they charge their usual
rates, most of the people on the roster don't appear to be professional
psychologists)

This all fine and good, but the problem within the model though is that
there's a tension between the positive side vs. the revenue side: we volunteer
and help people who need a listener, but we try to nudge people towards paying
for these sessions. This manifests itself through these constant popup windows
while the listener is engaged in a heavy emotional conversation. Imagine
you're pouring your heart out to someone and things are at an emotional
juncture, and a sickly cheerful popup comes up on the screen cajoling you to
sign up or rate the listener. It feels horridly out of context and it takes
away the experience of the person within that moment. And this has happened to
me 4 times so far in around 25 minutes.

Of course, the thing is that 7 Cups of Tea needs to convert its users and it
needs to make that happen relentlessly, but the key over here is subtlety and
I feel that this design iteration, sadly, misses that. However - from an
outside perspective - it doesn't have to be this way. You see, anyone who
visits this website and connects emotionally with a listener experiences the
purest form of engagement - emotional engagement and a genuine empathic bond
with someone. If the person or the bond is strong, then there is no reason why
they won't sign up, after all the product has touched the very core of their
being. Of course they will sign up, if there isn't any friction! They're
hooked and they want to maintain that bond. They want to connect with this
person again and they want to feel that sense of connectedness again and
again. They want to feel okay again and again. So really the best thing 7 Cups
of Tea could possibly do is get out of the way and let people connect with one
another and let things flow from there.

In other words, this can be so much more. It has the ingredients of being so
much more. It just needs the right touch. A light touch.

~~~
7cupsoftea
Thanks for trying out the service and giving us your careful feedback. I agree
that we have lots to learn here. Some of this still feels clumsy. We are
constantly iterating on things and hope to get the right balance sooner rather
than later. I also agree that it can be so much more. It sounds like you have
some real insights here. If you are open, then please shoot me an email
(info@7cupsoftea.com) so I can better understand your thinking.

~~~
todayiamme
Of course! I'd love to help. I've sent you an email with the subject: How can
I help?

~~~
7cupsoftea
Thank you :)

------
nocman
The success of this venture leaves me asking some questions.

Have we become so isolated in our tech-centered world that we no longer have
friends/family/neighbors that we can talk to?

Does everything have to be done on the internet, where we can happily pull the
plug if we just don't feel like continuing?

I'm speaking as an American, and don't pretend to know much about other
cultures, so keep that context in mind. But it seems to me that over the past
20 years especially there has been a drastic increase in the isolation most
Americans have from the outside world. Many of us could not even tell you the
names of our next-door neighbors -- many not even the _last_ names of the
families.

Now, I'm a technical guy, and have been pretty much my whole life. Like most
people who read Hacker News (I would presume) I make my living working with
computers, and spend a great deal of my free time doing things with computers
also. I was the first in my family to even know about the internet, and I'm
the first one they call when they need help with anything computer-related.

I'm _not_ saying that computers are bad. I'm also not saying that "7 Cups of
Tea" is necessarily bad. I just think that a lot of us who spend so much of
our time using these remarkable tools (computers and the internet) should take
care to make sure we don't overuse them. Many things in life should be done in
person. The internet provides a filter to many experiences which can be _very_
useful, but I think in many cases it can also be a barrier to real
interaction.

I'd be happy to hear what others think about the subject.

~~~
7cupsoftea
This is a good point. In short, the answer to your question is yes. Many
people in America, and other countries, do not have friends/family/neighbors
that they feel like they can have an honest and open conversation with in
order to feel heard and understood. This trend has been happening for quite a
while and it seems to be accelerating rather than reversing. The question then
becomes what is the best solution for this problem? We think 7 Cups of Tea
provides a very good solution to this problem. Yes, it uses the medium of the
Internet, but it also provides people with a sense of real intimacy and
support that can be hard to come by in their immediate surroundings.

~~~
lowglow
Having a "company name" as a username on HN just feels so impersonal when
you're talking to us.

~~~
7cupsoftea
Sorry, not trying to be impersonal. It was just the name I signed up with when
getting accepted into YC.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Glenn (I presume?) - may be worth putting your name and an intro / overview in
your HN profile, to personalise it somewhat.

------
jseliger
_Getting people to volunteer can be one of the most difficult challenges a
community builder can face_

The word "volunteer" appears in the first two paragraphs but not elsewhere,
but I don't think it's the right word: most people in Internet communities
don't think of themselves as "volunteers" per se.

In the context of nonprofit and public agencies, which is orthogonal to the
main article but still important, many don't actually want volunteers—they
want money: [http://blog.seliger.com/2014/04/20/volunteers-nonprofits-
rea...](http://blog.seliger.com/2014/04/20/volunteers-nonprofits-really-want-
their-money-not-their-bodies/) .

~~~
carriemelissa
Hey there, I'm the author. I agree with you. These terms need to be clarified.
We decided to use volunteers in the intro to introduce the idea of what 7 Cups
is doing. While the members do technically "volunteer" their time, you
wouldn't usually use that terminology. Technically, they're just giving their
time to the community.

~~~
jseliger
Thanks for the reply—that makes sense. I think you should change the language
in the post itself, however.

------
lowglow
I've been following the author (@caremjo) for a while now. She's got some
really great insights on community that I think come very naturally.

She knows how to dissect and grow what your community needs. Definitely a
resource people interested in this subject should follow and tap into.

~~~
7cupsoftea
I couldn't agree more. She had a couple of great recommendations for us that
were really helpful.

------
brryant
Elated to see Glenn & team grow this amazing and much needed community to
17,000+. I definitely see this filling an important gap in our society for
years to come.

~~~
7cupsoftea
Thanks Bryant! I appreciate the support!

------
merrua
It does annoy me that they have a large picture of a young woman with her head
not in the frame. Unprofessional and looks like a bad stock picture.

~~~
herbig
Looks like we were thinking the same thing within a minute of each other. I
lost interest in the article immediately after seeing that.

~~~
eitland
Then I guess you didn't read about anonymous conversations?

For an article about conversations with people you never see a person without
a face doesn't seem to weird.

------
esMazer
how do they make money?

------
herbig
Why does the article start with a headless woman?

~~~
eitland
I think it is because it is an article about a community for anonymous
conversations.

In that case it is a good choice.

