The ‘Idea’ is magic, if we fail it’s on our inability to execute alone.

Im willing to go on the record today and say that what we’re working on has all the potential to be in the top ten social networks in the world.

Now thats a big clam to make and you might rightly or wrongly at this point think “what an idiot” but its what I believe, the practical applications for a network that connects local voices is never ending and truly valuable.

Since relaunching Orca, its clear that we’re onto something, maybe thats just me? but I feel it. The response has been warm and pleasant but not yet hot and exciting, it also appears that calling it a ‘relaunch’ was dramatic as there will need to be many more along the way if until we hit the sweet spot.

We launched a social app, these things are hard! It’s a location based social app, the hardest! You could have 50,000 users dotted across the UK and for most people that login for the first time its like walking into the worst party ever, a party where the mum and dad are still loitering around putting cheese and pineapple onto cocktail sticks and mini porkpies and sausage rolls onto plates. You get the idea, It sucks.

Currently we’re testing out the app at our home University of Teesside, we’re on-boarding users and learning how they interact with the app, we’re using the outreach to speak to users, ask questions and most of all look for the inconvenient truths even when they hurt. which they some times do, a lot. At times it feels like an exorcism actually.

Me: Hey, you download the app the other day how are you finding it?

User: Ermmm yeah its good.

Me: You’ve deleted it haven’t you!

User: Yeah, erm, sorry, Its like yikyak so I deleted it, I liked it but yeahhhh.

Me: Okay tell me more about why you deleted it *he says politely while removing the dagger from my chest*

Once you’ve removed said dagger, there is almost as much to be learned from users who don’t like what your doing as there is from the users that love it. The challenge is too keep listening even when it hurts.

Through the outreach we’ve learned that people see significant value in what we’re working towards, some are visibly thrilled and excited by the concept however the challenge is then delivering a product that matches there expectations. How do we do this? We have to be utterly unique and we have to have active users in abundance right across the country, currently we have neither.

You might think this reads negatively? Don’t be fooled, I’ll refer you back to my opening paragraph

Im willing to go on the record today and say that what we’re working on has all the ‘potential’ to be in the top ten social networks in the world.

I have 100% confidence in what we’re working towards yet I’m a realist and I see no value in writing paragraphs of sales waffle, after all I write as much for myself as I do for you, the reader. We’ll have to adapt and overcome quickly and consistently but our team is strong, being honest about where we are and where we want to be only motivates and helps prepare for the work thats still ahead.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, dyslexic so apologies for the typos etc.. These are my words so I’d rather just let them flow with the go. Please do Tag, follow, like, kick or lick what ever it is you do to communicate. I’d like to hear from you. Also download the app here: http://bit.ly/GetOrca