Match with Your Ideal Cofounders & Startups
Hi all! My team just launched The Pond, a free, user-friendly matching app for entrepreneurs to find cofounders/team members, or startups to join. As we all know, finding a cofounder is often the most difficult part of getting a startup off the ground, so our app curates high-quality matches through targeted criteria and detailed profiles.
If you're looking to expand your startup team, or looking for a team to join, you should check it out! You can download it here: https://get.thepond.app/ih
Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments - we always welcome constructive feedback!
I really wish there was a website for this, rather than a tinder like app. Also I was going to download it but it says all my devices are incompatible. Is this some international limitation because I'm in France ?
With that said, I think the idea is great.
Hi @skflowne! We definitely plan to build a web-based version down the road - we launched with an app because of the matching experience we wanted to create. Also, yes, since we just launched, we are currently available in the U.S. and Canada only - however, we also do plan to expand globally down the road. I can definitely make a note to let you know when we are available in France! Thanks so much.
I am currently a Pro Shapr user. I am not satisfied, I guest because I like to meet people in real life. So if your app offers local meet ups, I will me more incline to join. The linkedIn requirement is also a no go for me. I wish you the best
Hi @bismich!
Since we just launched, our primary focus is on matching entrepreneurs with their ideal cofounders and startups. We highly encourage people to meet in real life after we have provided that initial introduction since that's a natural progression to growing a professional relationship, and we feel that the mutual interest/goal of looking for a cofounder/startup will make these in-person meetings much more valuable, however we don't currently host our own events.
Why an app? :)
Hi @YannickVeys!
We want the user experience to be a simple, intuitive experience which lends itself better on mobile than web. However, we will be building out a web-based version down the road.
You’re probably losing 90% of your potential audience? :)
Congrats on the launch!
Already installed and made a connection today.
I have to ask though, How are you differentiating from Shapr?
It seems like there are a lot of flaking there. It's easy to match with someone but then they never respond. Have you guys thought of a way to dis-incentivize that kind of behavior?
I had the same question. Shapr has been rather disappointing of late. A lof of people never respond back, some have profiles where they have text like "asdf atktm;e" in their descriptions which tells me they are either just exploring (which is of course fine but they could at least write that in their profile) or are not serious, some connect and they want to sell you something... overall the experience there has been lackluster.
Hi @Vacayyy & @joyed - thank you for this question!
We have spoken to a lot of Shapr users and they've all expressed the same sentiment about flakiness, only being on there to sell you something, lackluster profiles, etc.
We're differentiating ourselves in a few ways!
We're always open to suggestions via our Slack community!
https://join.slack.com/t/thepond-app/shared_invite/enQtNzM0NTQwOTc4NjI3LTdkYzNlMTEyMjMwMTgzMjQwZTUyMTg1ZjM2NWUyZjBhOTg3OGFhNDE4YWMwNzRhYmJkNzcwMjYyYTJlODcxNDY
@ThePondApp Thanks for the answer.
To me, 2 and 3 sound attractive but 1 is a non-starter. I guess I am in the minority, but in spite of what the general reputation of an app or website has been, I am never comfortable giving an app/service access to some of my key accounts.
If that was just an option, sure, that would be fine because I could bypass it and still go ahead and create a proper profile, but if that was a requirement, then I'd rather stay a non-user. Like I said, I guess I am in the minority but just wanted to say that nevertheless. To me, what might be better is, if you give users the ability to flag profiles for multiple pre-determined reasons one of which is flaky profile content and if there are enough number of users flagging a profile, maybe a manual inspection can determine whether that user profile still remains visible to others during their search.
Either way, wish you guys all the very best! :)
@joyed Thank you for this feedback!
Just to clarify, we aren't pulling any LinkedIn information that is not already public. We also don't get access to your login information (the API has you logging directly into LinkedIn for one-time access).
We do give users the ability to flag other users for negative behavior - but we want to head off any potential issues by having a relatively strict process for signup.
However, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, and we may look to incorporate other forms of logging in down the road!
@ThePondApp Yep, I do understand those implications :)
Congrats on the launch once again and wish you the best!
@joyed Thanks so much! We appreciate it :)
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