Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#1

Post by Ritepaw » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:21 PM UTC

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spreadvk.e...

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-new-elim/id6463781107

We know life can be busy. And we often struggle to make time for the people that matter most to us.

According to a Harvard study from 2021, "36% of all Americans [...] feel “serious loneliness.”" [1]

We created an app to help people focus on their most personal relationships and guide them through forming more meaningful connections with them, in the hopes to combat the "Loneliness Epidemic".

We just launched the first iteration - call it an MVP if you like - something to validate our ideas and get the conversation started.

We are looking for people to try out what we have built and share their thoughts. The functionality is very basic for now, but we are planning to expand based on our users' feedback.

Here is what you can do today:

* Tell us who the people are that matter most to you

* Get daily reminders to reach out to them

* Send them virtual postcards with over 50 handcrafted designs

[1] https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america

Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships
elim.app

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#2

Post by Ritepaw » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

Some implementation details:

The whole app is built in Flutter. It was a first time experience for us. Everything went pretty fast and smooth and the Flutter documentation is amazing! There are tons of resources out there that helped us solving our problems. We just needed to be a bit careful about the plugins. Some were pretty outdated or even unmaintained. But we made sure we encapsulated every plugin so we can easily replace if necessary.

Dart is a language we felt immediately comfortable with. It didn't feel too dissimilar from Java.

For now, our app is client-side only. There is no server. Which is nice. Cause it removes complexity and we can leave all the data on our users' phones. Nothing is sent to us, or any other 3rd part. This is something we are pretty proud of and hope we can keep up for a long time.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#3

Post by stenius » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:02 PM UTC

Congrats on the launch!

What features are on your roadmap to make it more CRM than personalized greeting cards?

There's also https://www.monicahq.com/, an open source personal CRM that doesn't allow you to directly engage with people like elim allows.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#4

Post by ano-ther » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:06 PM UTC

Ritepaw wrote: post #2

Some implementation details: The whole app is built in Flutter. It was a first time experience for us. Everything went pretty fast and smooth and the Flutter documentation is amazing! There are tons of resources out there that helped us solving our problems. We just needed to be a bit careful about the plugins. Some were pretty outdated or even unmaintained. But we made sure we encapsulated every plugin so we can eas…

> Nothing is sent to us, or any other 3rd part.

Thank you. Good design choice. The privacy policy was the first I scrolled to in the AppStore.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#5

Post by esafak » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:08 PM UTC

My use case is keeping tracking of business contacts, but not as a salesperson, which is who business CRMs target. I have not seen many CRMs address this application, and I don't know if you care to. Here are some features I'd like:

* Make it easy to keep track of what I've been discussing with a person, and the last time we communicated. Set reminders for following up.

* Allow me to enrich information -- people, events -- with metadata such as tags, and query them with a conversational interface.

* Integrate with all my communication tools. Maybe create a plug-in system so users can help out.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#6

Post by sneak » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:25 PM UTC

Thank you for not including telemetry or other surveillance in your app. It's rare these days and appreciated.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#7

Post by kilroy123 » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:29 PM UTC

Congrats on the launch! I love the focus on local data only.

I've tried several different CRMs to help remind me to keep track of friends, family, and acquaintances. The problem I have is I have thousands of contacts from tons of different sources and from over the years.

From Google, old phones, LinkedIn, Apple, and people in emails who aren't contacts. I would love an app that could consolidate all my contacts into one place as seamlessly as possible.

Then help remind me to get in touch.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#8

Post by edoardo-schnell » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:34 PM UTC

Ok but why call it "eliminate"? Sry the bluntness

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#9

Post by TeMPOraL » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:46 PM UTC

edoardo-schnell wrote: post #8

Ok but why call it "eliminate"? Sry the bluntness

I read it as Elim, as in Elim Garak, a famous tailor from a relatively well-known sci-fi show.

That isn't really any better in terms of connotations, though.

Re: Show HN: A “CRM” for personal relationships

#10

Post by aeturnum » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 9:06 PM UTC

I've been looking for automated help with the kinds of problems this app claims to solve for some time. I've done the usual HackerNews thing of finding imperfect solutions (currently a series of overlapping periodic tasks in todoist) and considering making my own service.

I understand this is very early, but right now this feature set feels like an anti-product. The idea that I would get "daily reminders" of every relationship I am tracking (At least twenty people, but perhaps as much as hundreds depending on how widely you cast your net) is less of a promise and more of a threat.

> * something to validate our ideas and get the conversation started.*

This potential user would like to hear your ideas for how to deal with this "at scale." The high points you describe here seem out of sync with even mildly busy adult lives.