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Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

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Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#31

Post by Ali_Jiwani »

gardaani wrote: post #30

Is this only about talking to other people or does it allow shared experiences, such as watching a movie, playing games or watching a concert together? I'm thinking about something like https://kastapp.co where people can do stuff together. It's easier to hang out with other people if there is something to do.

Kast seems cool. People have hosted watch parties on Rally to stream a sports game or a webinar but it's not our forte. Fun fact, our initial customers were standup comedians using us to deliver virtual comedy to their top fans. Might be something we go back to at some point.

I am also a big believer in the watch party space. Shared online experiences are an undiscovered opportunity in the consumer space. Happy to share more thoughts on this as well!

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#32

Post by wcarss »

Ali_Jiwani wrote: post #23
ConnorBowlan wrote: post #22

I think we've all seen various attempts to solve this issue over the years, but no one has quite figured out a decent UX to replicate the party experience. I'm glad to see you haven't gone the common & kind of intellectually-lazy route of moving an avatar around a virtual space. Am I far off in thinking that the core challenge would be replicating the transition between sub-groups? That moment where you'd like to mov…

We have been thinking about this A LOT. We actually have some ideas and I am happy to share them with you. Some include helpful nudges, permissions, a quick DM etc. Want to brainstorm or hear some more ideas? Happy to jump on a Rally call and throw some ideas around!

not a user yet, but: if you could "pay attention to" a second group, elevating their priority so you can see/hear them as well as your current group, then not have to 'hop' to them officially until you speak, and could have some ability to send your audio to that other group primarily for a moment -- that's pretty similar to turning your head a little and briefly joining a different conversation at a big table.

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#33

Post by thedrake »

Would be good to have a sentiment about the "room" that could be displayed and conveyed to others. An engagement or virtual clapping would show to others the temp of the room. Also a key thing would be to have a way for a small room to grow to a room of 3 or more. A way to discover new rooms that are interesting would be good. Another thought is to have a time minimum that a person would have to be in a room. While this is counter intuitive it would help provide bouncing and promote a minute or more before making a judgement. I see this as something that would be healthy and prevent room hoppers that never fully engage and a attention currency that is helpful to meaningful engagement.

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#34

Post by ignoramous »

gardaani wrote: post #30

Is this only about talking to other people or does it allow shared experiences, such as watching a movie, playing games or watching a concert together? I'm thinking about something like https://kastapp.co where people can do stuff together. It's easier to hang out with other people if there is something to do.

> I'm thinking about something like https://kastapp.co where people can do stuff together.

https://kosmi.io/ is pretty good at co-play and screenshare.

And there's the much simpler https://www.comeover.io/ built on WebTorrent (comes with all the limitations that entails wrt file sizes).

https://rally.video is something drastically different to those, but could very well implement the missing features, I reckon: it'd be über cool to host a virtual School, let alone host a movie night.

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#35

Post by ignoramous »

Ali_Jiwani wrote: post #15
vyrotek wrote: post #8

I really love the idea and have been waiting for more apps to support these features! That said, I'm a little concerned about the business model. What's preventing the popular (and sometimes free) platforms such as https://whereby.com or https://team.video from adding these features?

Great question. One answer is focus. These companies seem to be focused on small business team meetings, and we are focused on creating social environments for networking and hanging out. Another answer is around where we want to take Rally. Video applications usually focus on making sure the connection works. Little thought has been put into what happens after a user is connected. This is where we believe there is a…

> These companies seem to be focused on small business team meetings, and we are focused on creating social environments for networking and hanging out.

Exciting! Can't wait to see how your product evolves.

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#37

Post by Ali_Jiwani »

thedrake wrote: post #33

Would be good to have a sentiment about the "room" that could be displayed and conveyed to others. An engagement or virtual clapping would show to others the temp of the room. Also a key thing would be to have a way for a small room to grow to a room of 3 or more. A way to discover new rooms that are interesting would be good. Another thought is to have a time minimum that a person would have to be in a room. While t…

We aim to release something around 'room presence' this week. Eventually we will get to a feeling of answering which room is hot or not based on movement, laughter, etc.

Room discovery is definitely in the works. We thought about a public bar platform at one point. IE imagine going to a Japanese bar with your friends online and hanging out with them. It feels like an interesting consumer use case.

Minimum time is not something we thought of. That is interesting. Definitely some food for thought.

We're from Toronto and not only are we Drake fans but 'The Drake" is a popular bar in the city that used us a few times to host trivia and happy hours. I was very confused at first when I saw your username haha!

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#38

Post by Ali_Jiwani »

jbaudanza wrote: post #36

I really like this idea but I wish I could try it without linking my Google/Facebook/LinkedIn account.

As a guest you don't need to log in with your socials. For now hosts do but we are working quickly on a login with out socials solution. Stay tuned, and thanks for the feedback!

Re: Launch HN: Rally.Video (YC S20) – Dynamic video platform for social groups

#40

Post by Ali_Jiwani »

ponker wrote: post #25
vyrotek wrote: post #8

I really love the idea and have been waiting for more apps to support these features! That said, I'm a little concerned about the business model. What's preventing the popular (and sometimes free) platforms such as https://whereby.com or https://team.video from adding these features?

You can add features but you can't really change your default behaviors without alienating your existing user base. If they're suddenly thrown into some wacky thing that they don't understand they will flood you with bug reports and subscription cancellations. So if you're approaching an activity from a fundamentally different point of view it's very hard for your competitors to clone.

Great point! One I totally should have said in my YC interview.
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