Please tell us briefly about your background. HackerNoon Reporter: My background is in augmented reality. I’m passionate about products where users can share what they experience, and how they feel - this is something I was working on before I started Gossip, which is also augmented reality, just in a different way. Most of the time the content we are listening to augments our perception of reality. If we are listening to a funny story, we might leave a bigger tip to the waiter or grant an extra smile. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? It’s called ! Gossip Our product allows users to create and share short voice stories (30s or less) that expire every 7 days - because who wants to listen to the old stuff? What is the origin story? Back in January 2020 I was on treadmill listening to a podcast with Brian Norgard when the idea of Gossip came to my mind. Sharing emotions is something that makes every product truly great, and back then sharing emotions and experiences through voice was non existent. Back then we had Apple Music, Spotify and podcasting - none of those gave the opportunity to build relationships to the users. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? We strongly believe in voice being one of the most important parts of human communication. Gossip team is still very small - just 5 amazing people, and all of us are very passionate about the product we are building. Our mission at Gossip is to give people a fast, fun and engaging way to share their stories, ideas and emotions thru voice. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? Exploring different areas and reading about exciting things. I am a very curious person, so I am sure I would come up with something! At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? Our current goal is to understand what drives stickiness and engagement. We are looking at what content our gossipers are posting and how much engagement it drives. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? Gossip is a product built for creators - it’s a new way for the followers and creators to connect. We’ve done several collaborations with TikTok creators and it’s amazing to see how excited the followers are when talking to the creators and hearing them reply. What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? We are very excited about voice lenses, something we are working on at Gossip. Voice lenses is an upcoming feature in our product: using lenses, gossipers will be able to talk like their favourite character. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Read a lot, eat less and healthier, drink more water, exercise more. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? Do nice things to others and expect nothing in return - a lot of good things will follow. Gossip was nominated as in Startups of the Year hosted by HackerNoon! one of the best startups in San Francisco
