

Review my startup: Presence - trizk
http://www.presence.co

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destraynor
Honestly I don't know what it does. I presumed it was a joke website, like
<http://www.nakatomiweb.com>

My dad is dentist. He has a practice. In his practice every morning there are
people.

Can you give a concrete example of what exactly this tool will do for him, his
customers, or his office?

It looks nice, but I'm really stumped as to whats going on. I looked for
examples in the FAQ but couldn't find any.

Sorry if this sounds blunt, but I do believe it's an issue.

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trizk
I appreciate your candor. There are a couple of doctors who joined the beta,
presumably with ideas on how this tool can help them. Our thoughts are that
when a patient walks in they can check themselves in, and their check in can
easily be integrated into the clinics scheduling software via the API.
Furthermore, new patients can automatically fill out the (insurance/patient
info) form and submit it electronically on their phone. This would reduce
paperwork burden on the office manager and result in higher efficiencies. The
clinic can schedule appointments and personalize the users page with their
next appointment data, history and doctors notes, again seamlessly via
integration with their practice management software. We have not yet
integrated push notifications, but it is in the pipeline and I am sure you can
see the implications. We transmit everything over SSL and do not store this
kind of data on our servers so I would presume it would be HIPAA compliant.
The larger vision is that these types of applications become developed for a
wide array of verticals, and perhaps even monetized by their developers.

Based on feedback from a large minority of beta users we feel that the
software needs some tweaking to make it easier to leverage beyond posting
comments to your Presence. We are currently working on it and expect a new
release very soon. We agree that the examples in the FAQ (such as "How can I
use Presence?") may be too broad and we may need to provide much more detailed
use-cases. Once again, thank you for your comments, there is no need for
apologies, they were much appreciated.

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mikeyk
I read this last night and this morning and still can't quite figure out what
your app does. Focus your message, and provide some illustrations/scenarios of
how this would matter to someone real, and it will help the communication
aspect.

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trizk
From a technical standpoint Presence lets you slap a web application on top of
a physical location/object in order to enable that location with virtual
services. There are some examples in the FAQ, however we were thinking it
would help to be a bit broad in order to see what users will do with it,
instead of suggesting what they can do with it. For example if we say that a
restaurant may use it to remotely alert you when your table is ready, people
may at the very worst think this is targeted to restaurants and at the very
best think its targeted only to businesses.

Being so heavily involved in development for the past months it did not occur
to us that people would not be able to figure out what the app does. We will
have to find a good way to provide some examples without making the examples
restrictive. Thank you.

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bradhe
So its an API that exposes a store/restaurant/location to a central repository
of places (your application)?

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trizk
Yes, to a great extent. Store/home/mall/restaurant/doctor's office/etc. The
idea is that if these places are enabled with some kind of management of who
is accessing their services (and how), as well as proximity
information/control, it will open up a realm of possibilities for
business/human workflow efficiency and consumer experience.

Anyone can create a Presence with the Publisher app and add Presence managers
who can also manage the Presence using the Publisher app. User's can access
the Presence using the Explorer app and interact with it. Out of the box
Presence functionality includes the ability to submit and manage posts, users
and Presence parameters. The Publisher may define two gadgets/web (public and
internal facing) apps that users have access to via the interface button. The
Publisher is provided with non-personally identifying information on the
exploring user in order to tailor the user experience accordingly.
Furthermore, the Publisher is enabled with the ability to suspend abusive
users and the users are enabled with the ability to complain about presences.

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Geee
So does this mean that it tracks your location and offers location based
service? The explanation on the web site and the video is not good, although
interesting. Seems like a really nice service if it gets traction.

~~~
trizk
For privacy purposes, we do not traditionally track the location of the
client. Your location is used anonymously in requests to determine what is
around you and provide you with relevant data. When you attach to a Presence
(a user controlled location/object) then your location at the time you
interact with that Presence is shared, while still anonymizing your PI, to
provide proximity information to the Presence owner. This is helpful to
Presence service providers in that they may want to discriminate services
based on proximity to their location. Stay tuned for an update on both the web
site and application.

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xulescu
Nice concept, but I see the you restrict it only to mobile devices. I think it
would be practical for "traditional" web based clients too.

~~~
trizk
Absolutely! The beta is currently restricted to the mobile device in order to
test our MVP, however Presence will soon be offered to traditional web based
clients as well (see the screenshot in the features section).

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rradu
I'd say have less text, or at least split it up in bullets, and explain what
the service is by giving examples of certain use cases.

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trizk
Just out of curiosity, but did you feel that the video gave insufficient use
cases?

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rradu
I'm someone that usually doesnt have the patience for videos, and I suspect
I'm not alone. You need to grab the attention of all types of visitors.

~~~
trizk
Thanks for the feedback

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trizk
Awesome thanks!

