What's behind the name?
Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
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Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#22Sounds exactly like what Socialfly was doing several years ago. (Different Socialfly from what you'll find from a Google search now. I couldn't seem to find any trace of the Socialfly I'm referring to online.) Anyway, I did find that service helpful so I hope Dex works out.
Thanks for the note! Curious to hear more about Socialfly if you have any more info -- there have been a lot of attempts at a Personal CRM and always interested in learning from past examples.
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#23Oh my god I have had the same idea and have hacked on the first pass.
Yes. Keep going ! It's a good idea.
1. Tiny bit confused over whether I was signing up or logging in.
2. I can't read their names on my phone (portrait mode). Landscape is ok. Maybe reduce the font size or something
3. What's the algorithm for displaying the recommend "get in touch"? Some people are friends I have a beer with some Inhomestly can not recognise
My idea was to only recommend people whom I had replied to on email - the presumption being I must have wanted something
So perhaps in the info field show me their last email or two so I can work out who they are
Keep up the good work !
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#24An open-source alternative, Monica, has been discussed before: * (2018) "Monica – Personal CRM, Remember everything about friends and family" -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18318547 * (2017) "Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family" -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14497295
I've been using Monica for a couple of years now and I'm very happy with it for my personal network. It's a great tool to remind me who is connected to whom and what to ask about before attending a party. The online version is here: https://app.monicahq.com/register
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#25Funny coincidence, just today I was toying around with Monica and looking around for another person CRM. I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of features in Monica. What I want is this, reminders to stay in contact with someone. I want a notification to appear on my phone saying something like, "hey you told us to stay in touch with Bob every month, click to open WhatsApp and message them." Or slack, text, email, etc. I…
Automation is definitely an area I've thought a lot about -- it's the most common feature request by far. If you actively use your calendar, Dex does a reasonable job of integrating your calendar events with your records. Email is on the roadmap.
We've built the Chrome extension as a temporary substitute, but full automation is definitely the eventual vision. Unfortunately the more interesting channels (Messenger / Facebook) don't have accessible APIs so integrating with them has been an ongoing challenge. Would appreciate any automation suggestions as you try it out!
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#26What's behind the name?
It's meant to evoke 'Rolodex' but not directly :)
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#27Do you have a privacy policy? I don't see anything on your landing page, or in the web app.
Yup, the privacy policy is on the start page (https://getdex.com/start) and can be found at https://getdex.com/privacypolicy. I'll work to make it more clear!
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#28https://github.com/dexidp/dex is an existing project which was part of CoreOS's commercial kubernetes offering.
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overall: Dex isn't open source, but integrates with your Google Calendar, has a Chrome extension that integrates with social media workflows. We're definitely solving a similar problem, and in the past I was a user of Monica until I found it too much work to keep up with. Monica notably does have more fields and performs functions (like journaling) that Dex does not.
Keep up the good work. Some HN types beg for freeware and yet wonder why they cant escape the rat race. Quality software should be rewarded and should not be free of cost.
Free =/= open source. What these HN types you are so aggravated by are asking for is open source (not free as in beer) software, which some (like me) consider an ethical imperative.
Re: Launch HN: Dex (YC S19) – personal CRM that reminds you to keep in touch
#30Oh my god I have had the same idea and have hacked on the first pass. Yes. Keep going ! It's a good idea. 1. Tiny bit confused over whether I was signing up or logging in. 2. I can't read their names on my phone (portrait mode). Landscape is ok. Maybe reduce the font size or something 3. What's the algorithm for displaying the recommend "get in touch"? Some people are friends I have a beer with some Inhomestly can no…
Appreciate the product feedback -- it's super actionable. We haven't completed a full-on email integration yet because we want to be relatively conservative and make an email integration opt-in (but to come son!)
The algorithm is primarily focused on your calendar data and when you've last had an event (if you don't use your calendar, these recommendations might not be great but will get better as you snooze/check off people)
I like your idea on emails that you've actually replied too - will consider that for a future release!