

My mission to solve the problem with Facebook, Google+ etc. - brandwinn

Now I know everyone has their own issues with the current state of social networks. Some have issues with privacy, some have issues with too many friends, some have issues with spam. My issue is with all the above, but more importantly I am sick of the fact that I look like everyone else and I don't own the content. I am being controlled and it needs to stop.<p>I am tired of feeling like I live in an apartment complex where I have no control over how things function or look. It's not even like a complex anymore. It's more like a prison.<p>Best quote in a long time...<p>"If you aren't paying for a product, you are the product."<p>Your data is being sold to advertisers so they can find sneaky was to throw their ads in front of your faces. And who is going to take the time out to actually go through on FB and customize your ad experience so they are relevant to you? Not me.<p>For the past year and a half I have been working on a solution to solve these problems and many others. It's been a very difficult journey. But I am so passionate about it that I will stop at nothing to see this vision come to life.<p>I have had my car repo'd, 3-day notices from my landlord almost every month for the past year, cell phone service canceled for good, family and friends giving up hope and not believing in me and to make matters worse I have a wife and two kids under the age of 4. For 6 months I had to ride around Orange County on a beach cruiser pulling a trailer w my two kids in the back. Not complaining at all, it was a humbling experience and we had a lot of fun with it. There have been days where we literally haven't had anything to eat besides rice. It's been the single most biggest trial of my entire life. But I'm pushing forward because life is too short not too.<p>The good thing is, I have a very talented team behind me. Also a bunch of influential people that are backing us and this idea. We are wrapping up our prototype and will begin seeking funding soon to bring on more incredible engineers &#38; designers.<p>My start-up's name is Seshn.com (http://seshn.com). Seshn is a network comprised of personal websites (not profiles) where content is aggregated to feeds that are based on interests/passions and people are ranked based on influence within those areas. Our people discovery engine will allow users to discover the top people in areas that interest them. It's very minimalist and the UI/UX is stunning.<p>Unlike Tumblr we are focused on full-blown sites and people only. Blogging and syncing your social media to automate as posts will be a big part of our network, but we also want the user to be able to tell a story about who they are through different pages on their site and we have made it so easy to do so.<p>Another huge thing is data and style portability. If I wanted to take my Facebook profile with me along with all my content and self-host it, there is no way to do that. Same with Tumblr, same with Twitter, etc. Our platform has 100% full data AND style portability so you can take everything with you to a new host if you chose to leave someday. The bad thing is you won't get the benefit of the network, but you will have all of your data and style in tact to go where you please.<p>We are about to solve a HUGE problem with the broken web design industry through an innovative approach to e-commerce within our site. I can't really tell you details on how this is going to work but it's going to allow people to have gorgeous sites that look like they paid thousands of dollars for them. Some say this problem has already been solved, but it really hasn't because for a completely custom look on somewhere like Tumblr or a self-hosted site, there is still a learning curve involved or you still have to shell out some major bucks for the design. These problems will be solved within our platform and we can't wait to show everyone how it works.<p>I have been reading some of the news here on HN about people's complaints with Facebook lately and I was inspired to let you know whats coming from Seshn. I've put my life into this and so have the rest of the members of our team.<p>I encourage anyone thinking about starting a business to just go out and do it. Don't worry about anything. Embrace the journey and embrace failure, because you will learn from the experience and it will be invaluable throughout the course of your life. Even live throws major roadblocks at you, figure out how to go around them, over them or through them. Don't give up!<p>Stay tuned for what's coming very soon. I know you'll love it. Coolest thing I've ever worked on and will inspire everyone to create more and consume less.<p>Thanks for reading!<p>Sign up for a beta at http://seshn.com or you can follow us here:<p>http://angel.co/seshn
http://twitter.com/seshn<p>-Brand
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dirkdeman
I feel you man, I really do. I share your concerns over the major social
networks, and I can see that you're really passionate about what you're doing
and where you're going. I can see two major roadblocks, though: getting users
to quit their Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Path is HARD. You're running
against some mighty big dogs, here. How are you going to convince users to
switch?

The other roadblock is monetization. If you arent't going to sell your users
data to advertisers, how are you going to make enough money to keep things
going?

If you figure these things out, you're onto something. Let us know how things
are working out, I know we all like to read about a coding guy with a crazy
idea who lives in a beach cruiser!

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molsongolden
Sounds like it will be worth checking out. Looking forward to the launch.

I signed up for the beta but the "spam our not yet launched product/service to
your friends and maybe you can start using it sooner" is getting old.

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brandwinn
I agree it's getting old. What could we do to make it better?

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fananta
I think just leaving that portion out would be a good start. If the service
garners enough interest from the user then they will genuinely tell their
friends/family about it without feeling like you pressured them to do so.

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brandwinn
Thanks for the feedback. I just changed the text to reflect your thoughts.

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israelyc
I don't like that you make me share before I get an invite.. It should be the
other way around - why would I share something and recommend it to my friends
before I tried it?

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brandwinn
See below... thanks

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danebaker
No offense but your product seems like a Tumblr clone. Not much to do with
social networking at all, it appears.

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brandwinn
No offense taken at all. Tumblr allows anyone and everyone to create an
account and participate on their network. Which is awesome. We are strictly
focused on people. Rank and influence in areas you are passionate about will
be a big part of Seshn. Also, Tumblr puts a strong emphasis on reblogging,
which totally makes sense for them. Not for us. We want people to put value in
creating original content themselves and not just sharing a bunch of things
that have been shared over and over again. That is so noisy. Thanks for your
comment. I really appreciate it!

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tbergeron
Registered for beta and saw Viagra ads right away. Enough said. It sounded
good but it blew it for me.

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brandwinn
Ha! What do you mean u saw Viagra ads? Where?

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tbergeron
At the bottom of the page, I returned but I can't see them anymore.

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AznHisoka
Seems like nobody here has any interest your world-changing product...

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brandwinn
Haha. I don't think it reached enough people to be honest and I didn't promote
it to anyone. I have been reading HN for awhile now but never made a post.
This was more of a test to see what sort of a response this got, without
putting any work into it. The problem with any pitch over a forum is that it's
sometimes hard to grasp due to lack of visuals and seeing it live. Regardless
of the lack of response, it really doesnt mean much. Pressing foward like
always...

