
Show HN: We're building a virtual meetup platform - tryvenu
https://app.venu.tv
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oehpr
a "Virtual meetup platform" confused me. I signed up thinking this was a
platform where my coworkers could meet up to discuss things, an alternative to
meet or zoom.

But this is actually a premium access streaming platform. You sell tickets for
events or seminars or whatever. take a cut of the tickets and host the event.
Good for things like training seminars or whatever.

I think that kind of makes the introduction page a bit of a fail, It seems
every person who makes the introduction page for their product always suffers
HARD from the curse of knowledge. You MUST spend a huge amount effort clearly
explaining what your product is and is not. There is simply no latitude for
flowery bullshit language like "Explore a world of limitless experiences. Use
our platform to discover what drives you. Bring your passions; we'll bring the
community." Users don't have the patience to read this, and you don't have the
time to be speaking it.

That said. Maybe this is something that only matters for posts like this one.
Where the people coming to your site are likely in your target audience. Maybe
the bulk of your customers will be coming from referrals which will never even
see the introduction page. Maybe it's not worth worrying about?

Well. Best of luck anyway.

~~~
abraae
> But this is actually a premium access streaming platform. You sell tickets
> for events or seminars or whatever. take a cut of the tickets and host the
> event. Good for things like training seminars or whatever.

This is not an easy problem. It's always intriguing to me how hard it is to
write a clear description of your own product that explains WTF it really is.

Yet someone external (as above) can often cut to the chase with a pithy and
useful description.

I genuinely don't know what the reason is. In this example, I guess "premium
access streaming platform" are not words the marketing team would like (maybe
it sounds a bit porn-like ?).

Yet it is certainly way better than "virtual meetup platform", because it
clearly conveys who pays what and for whom.

And this is as clear as a bell "You sell tickets for events or seminars or
whatever. take a cut of the tickets and host the event. Good for things like
training seminars or whatever.".

But again, that's kind of language that the marketing guys/gals might eschew
as overly informal/familiar - even though it encapsulates beautifully why I
might want to investigate this product.

~~~
disrael
Its definitely not solely a marketing speak problem. There are only two of us
at my startup and we've had at least 10 revisions just to get the above the
fold text in place. The below the fold we are still working on and will have a
new revision soon.

Yet even now if you told me what we do is not clear I would not be very
surprised. I mean sure it seems clear to me but how could it not since I
already use the product myself?

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tryvenu
We're building a virtual meetup platform in hopes of bridging the gap between
in-person and virtual experiences.

We're running open beta now, so any opinions / feedback is welcomed :)

[https://app.venu.tv](https://app.venu.tv)

~~~
ve55
I looked at it for a few minutes and it seems like it is mostly focused on
there being a single presenter at a time, and then an audience for them.

In order to better replicate the benefits from meetups and conferences in real
life, I think being able to allow users to more organically interact with each
other sounds like a nice feature to work on.

Is there anything like this, or anything planned like this?

~~~
agranok
Hey, I'm part of the team at Venu! Initially we only supported the single
streamer. Recently, however, we introduced support to have multiple people
share their screen and present at one time (as long as they're invited as
organizers for the meetup). We're in the process of updating the verbiage on
the site to better reflect some of the updates we've made in the past few
months!

Eventually we have plans to introduce breakout sessions or another way for
viewers to be able to communicate more privately.

~~~
ve55
That sounds pretty cool. It definitely seems like a lot of work was already
put into it, but would look forward to that too. Nice work!

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ishcheklein
Congrats! Looks like a pretty crowded space already (can be a good sign -
problem is not solved yet). Curious how do you differentiate yourself from
other players in this space - tulula, Airmeet, run the world?

We've been trying different tools recently for our needs (we are building
opens-source tools for ML - DVC.org, CML.dev and naturally need a solution for
online meetups). I liked tulula and I liked a regular Zoom for smaller events
where anyone can stream a video, talk if needed, etc.

In your mind what would be a killer feature to compete with Zoom long term?

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anoffvu
Reminds me of [https://hopin.to/](https://hopin.to/) ! I’m a huge fan of what
they’ve been able to build. Their user experience is bar none for this kind of
stuff!

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zkid18
> Venu isn't just another live online events platform. We felt like existing
> platforms missed an important aspect of events: discoverability

I'm a bit concern about this statement. It sounds like a standard marketplace
model, with people's attention on one side and events on the other. As a user
what will motivates me to explore events on your platforms but not on
meetup.com or even instagram or facebook?

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rexreed
What are you using for streaming technology?

Can you allow multiple simultaneous presenters from different locations?

What are your price points?

What are your attendee limits?

What sort of presentation content do you support?

Why are you calling these meetups instead of online events?

~~~
agranok
Hey, Dillon at Venu here!

I'll try to answer in order:

\- WebRTC for video/voice and Websockets for chat (built on Phoenix LiveView)

\- Yes, people can setup sessions to allow for up to 17 simultaneous
presenters from all over

\- Still haven't settled on price points. We are going to be using the beta to
help decide. For now we're footing the bills ourselves so all tiers are
currently free.

\- 17 simultaneous presenters, no hard limits on number of attendees it is up
for the organizer to decide how many tickets they want available!

\- Organizers who are streaming are able to share their screens / application
windows / webcam.

\- We go back and forth, open to feedback. We use online
meetups/experiences/events internally. Since we're all developers our content
probably isn't the best at the moment!

~~~
rexreed
I'm interested in giving this a test. I'll drop you an email and coordinate.

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jvictor118
This is awesome. While I agree with @oehpr on some of the details, I love the
idea of marketing it specifically for the purpose of running events. Using
Zoom for that seems klugey.

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martinrue
Is the name inspired by the imperative Esperanto verb by any chance? Se jes,
saluton, bona elekto :)

~~~
edgarvaldes
I think it is simply "venue".

