##Goano Made with ♥ in IST

The story of Gencer, ##Goano and the people who make it happen.

It’s been 13.81 billion years since the cosmos began and Gencer joined just 28 years ago. He listened, watched, believed, consumed and waited. He came up with new ideas every day and one day he decided to make one of them happen.

We don’t live in a world of reality, but we live in a world of perceptions.

##Goano is a young startup aiming to provide people with a unique way to describe themselves using personal tags, as well as to discover new people & new interests. This is the story of tens of people who have dreamt of it, and dared to make it happen, sometimes without even being aware of what they were going through.

##Goano on web, on instagram, on twitter, on tumblr, on angellist

Gencer

• July ‘04: Falls in love with someone he’d never seen. That might have been the first insight for ##Goano.
• Oct. ‘05: Starts The Modern Way music blog, which then grew bigger with the contribution of some wonderful people.

Dozens said “Indie is what I need!” and joined The Modern Way. They grew it and had lotta fun together.

• Mar. ‘07: Gets his first professional job with a flawless 10 page interview.
• June ‘07: After watching Daft Punk live, believes in robots. 6 years later, with Random Access Memories, believes in humans as well.
• Dec. ‘08: Takes photos with his ##LomoLCA.
• June ‘08: Sends his first tweet.

Listens: ##SigurRós ##BarisK ##DaftPunk ##NicolasJaar

• Nov. ‘08: Translates the name of his first Tumblr blog from Icelandic: “The best thing god has created is a new day.”
• Jan. ‘09: Ece shows up!
• Mar. ‘09: Starts working hard at 41? 29!. Gets a business card created with tags.

He learned working till the morning with a talented team whose work has won many international awards.

• May ‘09: Tweets the moment by using only the keywords.
• Mar. ‘11: Is serving in the army when the idea of ‘Meeting anonymously’ comes to his mind, and he calls Murat to tell him about it. He also notes the idea ‘Online tag profile’ on his notebook.

Watches: Wonders Series by ##BrianCox, Planet Earth by ##DavidAttenborough and Cosmos by ##CarlSagan

• Aug. ‘11: One day in Kaş, he realizes that “there is the other side of the medallion”. Giant turtles swim in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Aug. ‘11: Together with Ali they become ##TanrıMisafiri and start a journey just with the help of people on social media. One of the dozens of people they meet, Yağız was working on his new iOS game in the meantime.

Some newspapers and magazines covered the story of Tanrı Misafirleri. A new adventure has not come up yet.

• Nov. ‘11: After hearing about the idea of ‘human project’ which was a more developed version of ‘Online tag profile’ Ali calls it ‘Wikipedia for humans’

Is your life based on a true story?

• Sep. ‘12: Lives in the ancient town of ##Aperlae for a while, listens to his inner self and comes back to share it with others.

An old writer he met in Aperlae told him that it is the excitement which always shows the right road, not excessive thinking.

##Goano

• Dec. 21, ‘12: If the ##MayanApocalypse isn’t the end of the world then it’s the start of a new era!
• Dec. 23, ‘12: One late night all the ideas merge into one: Tags! Hashtags! He wakes Taylan up to tell the news.
• Dec. 25, ‘12: After spending months of dwelling the idea in his mind, he begins sketching it for the first time.

The first 2 of the 53 screens sketched for the app, named ‘Secretly’ at the time.

• Jan. 23: Bang With Friends which had been coded over a weekend becomes a viral success. Its founders stay anonymous for about 6 months. One of them still is.
• Feb. 15: Arguments with Ali, Eren, Seren, Taci and Ömer on the idea continues for weeks. The idea improves and transforms.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.

• Feb. 22: Listens to the fortune cookie and Seda. He keeps going.
• Mar. 2: Turnes the sketches of 10Tags (the name of the app at the time) to an interactive prototype on iPhone.
• Mar. 14: The name of the idea becomes Goano: “Go Anonym.”

The word “passion” originates from the Latin verb patī which means “to suffer”. It doesn’t mean “fun side project”.

• Apr. 5: Leaves his current full time job to make Goano happen.
• Apr. 6: Starts working on Goano 24/7 in Hakan's office thanks to Nazlı's invitation.

Inspired by ##JackDorsey ##SteveJobs ##RayBradbury ##CarlSagan

• Apr. 7: Goano begins to transform into a platform rather than becoming just another idea for an app.
• Apr. 8: Personal Tag = ##DoubleHashtag

Life is too short to build stuff nobody wants.

• Apr. 10: Leaves all the notes aside. He believes in making every little detail perfect with the help of people.

The first logo of ##Goano was designed on Flash by Hakan.

• Apr. 20: Ece and Emir starts chatting with ##DoubleHashtags on the private Facebook group for ##Goano.

It was almost impossible because the dream was so big.

• May 4: Goano.co launches. The first tweet with a ##DoubleHashtag is sent on Twitter: ##now
• May 5: Blog.Goano starts telling: Why Goano?
• May 6: After will.i.am, Mariah Carey also believes in the hashtags and names its single #Beautiful.

Uses Google Docs, Todoist, Asana, Evernote, Trello, Workflowy, Blossom.io, Balsamiq, POP, Clear, LaunchRock, HaikuDeck

• May 10: The nerdy music band OK Go releases their game app Say the Same Thing, which makes use of words to connect people.
• May 14: The first ##Goano pitchdeck is ready.

A surprise for ##Goano from Ece while working on her new fashion collection to be presented in Berlin.

• May 16: Berlin based Digital Allee sends a hello to ##Goano.
• May 18: Yağız believes in ##Goano, starts coding the app right away.

Visits ##Wired ##TheVerge ##Vice ##PandoDaily ##inc ##FastCo ##Dazed ##Slate ##Vooza ##Medium ##io9 ##brainpickings

• May 27: Without knowing ##Goano, Sean Hollister writes his opinions about the possible revolution in social interaction on The Verge.
• May 29: The second ##Goano pitchdeck is ready.
• May 30: ##Goano publishes its profile on AngelList.

Revolution will not be televised, it will be tweeted.

• May 31: ##OccupyGezi dominates everything else for a month. It very gently and tenderly shakes the world.
• June 24: Without having a revenue model, Snapchat becomes a company worth $860 million dollars in less than two years.
• June 27: After Twitter, Instagram and Vine, the word of the year 2012 ‘hashtag’ is integrated into Facebook.
• July 19: Andrew Miller publishes the ‘Ode to the Hashtag’.

Our sense of self, the sense of being someone, really is a kind of an illusion.

The anonymous YOU described by ##DoubleHashtags!

You are Ano is ## is ##Goano

• July 28: The very first version of ##Goano is ready. Only a few lucky ones start using it and some of them can’t resist to share the news.
• In just about a month, only 50 users create more than 5000 tags and send 10000+ messages. Luckily the feedback is impressive.
• In order to catch their prey more easily, smart ones start posting their tags on instagrammm! ps: ##Goano loves ##Instagram!
• Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake abuses the “#Hashtag”.

## sightings on the rise! This one comes from Nürnberg, Germany.

• Sinan, Cenk and Ender “3 GIANT MEN” become the very first angels of ##Goano. They’re in fact national basketball players and together the Team ##Goano gets harder, better, faster, stronger!
• After months of extensive work, the lead magician, Yağız finishes coding for the final release version of ##Goano. Wooah!

The greatest gift you can give anyone is your belief in them.

• ##Goano continues to grow and to change the world only with the help of people who believe in it.

Who’s next?