5 ms·

Hi! Leap is spinning out of YC today as an independent company called Elpha. I'm the CEO and Co-Founder of Elpha and am here to answer questions. Thanks!!

mariedm 8y ago
Hi Cadran, congrats on Elpha and this new birth! I'm Marie and I also created a place to support women in this industry, Women Make. I was wondering, why did you change the name?
- cbcowans 8y ago
  Thank you, Marie! We landed on Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the notion that we want to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha and then shortened it to elpha from there.
  - mariedm 8y ago
    Funny, I'm actually French! Nice name anyway :)
  - jedberg 8y ago
    Did you have any concerns over brand confusion with Elfa, the shelving system owned by the Container Store, which markets itself heavily to women (and yes, I see the rich irony in that :) ).
    - kl2931 8y ago
      Ha, we chose the name Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the idea that we wanted to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha. We shortened it to elpha from there. Plus, the .com was available. :)
btilly 8y ago
FYI, the link in your profile to http://elpha.com/invitations/join-hn http://elpha.com/invitations/join-hn does not appear to be working.
- cbcowans 8y ago
  thank you! It should be: http://elpha.com/invite/join-hn http://elpha.com/invite/join-hn Just fixed it.
  - bla3 8y ago
    That page says "Hi there! Join, the springboard for women to excel in tech." It's probably supposed to say "Join Elpha, the..."
    - cbcowans 8y ago
      oop! Thanks for noticing. Fixing that now!
swampthing 8y ago
Congrats Cadran!
- cbcowans 8y ago
  Thank you!
soneca 8y ago
Congrats and good luck! Two questions: Would it be helpful for women in tech in Brazil? (wondering if I should refer it to my colleagues here) Is it for profit or non-profit organization now?
- kl2931 8y ago
  Thank you! And yes, many of our members are based outside of the US, and we'd love to have more international members to broaden the perspective and discussion topics. And we're a for-profit company. :)
  - stonogo 8y ago
    This looks to be a really great resource. I'm curious to know what your business plan is; I'm very interested in how to make a community platform like this sustainable without compromising user privacy. This is especially important when the community is focused on disadvantaged or minority groups, and I'm always on the lookout for the Right Answer. Have you written on this topic before?
    - cbcowans 8y ago
      Really good point and question! We don't have all the answers and it's something we're actively thinking about. Our goal is to focus on providing access and opportunities and use that as our guiding light. I think especially as members of those underrepresented groups, it makes it a bit easier to reason about what kind of products members will feel comfortable with. We are building for ourselves after all!
ForrestN 8y ago
Congratulations! Do you have a policy regarding non-binary or genderqueer people? And are there any steps you're planning to take to keep your community free of TERF transphobia? I'm curious about building a gender-based community in 2019.
- ForrestN 8y ago
  Woah! Even after so long on HN, I'm surprised by multiple downvotes for even a question that merely implies an interest in inclusivity for non-cis people.
  - sctb 8y ago
    There is little that can be gleaned from voting, especially early on. It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to. > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - ForrestN 8y ago
      Agree to disagree in this case, wherein I believe two or more people's gestures do communicate something real regardless of the eventual balancing out. Thanks for the reminder.
    - gammateam 8y ago
      > It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to. Then why does it rate limit the poster who might have spurred a discussion and wants to find out? They can't even post anymore until hours after the discussion died down even though little can be gleaned from the reason anyone downvoted them? There is some conflicting logic going around
  - lucisferre 8y ago
    It could be your use of the term TERF which is pretty loaded and has been associated with calls for violence against women.
efm 8y ago
I attempted to sign up a long time ago, when the only authentication was through FB, which I don't have. So, the email address is in your system but I'm not a member. I cannot sign in or up. Is this something you can fix? I would contact you directly for support.
- kl2931 8y ago
  Yes, please email us hi@elpha.com!

mariedm 8y ago

Hi Cadran, congrats on Elpha and this new birth! I'm Marie and I also created a place to support women in this industry, Women Make. I was wondering, why did you change the name?

cbcowans 8y ago
Thank you, Marie! We landed on Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the notion that we want to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha and then shortened it to elpha from there.
- mariedm 8y ago
  Funny, I'm actually French! Nice name anyway :)
- jedberg 8y ago
  Did you have any concerns over brand confusion with Elfa, the shelving system owned by the Container Store, which markets itself heavily to women (and yes, I see the rich irony in that :) ).
  - kl2931 8y ago
    Ha, we chose the name Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the idea that we wanted to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha. We shortened it to elpha from there. Plus, the .com was available. :)

btilly 8y ago

FYI, the link in your profile to http://elpha.com/invitations/join-hn http://elpha.com/invitations/join-hn does not appear to be working.

cbcowans 8y ago
thank you! It should be: http://elpha.com/invite/join-hn http://elpha.com/invite/join-hn Just fixed it.
- bla3 8y ago
  That page says "Hi there! Join, the springboard for women to excel in tech." It's probably supposed to say "Join Elpha, the..."
  - cbcowans 8y ago
    oop! Thanks for noticing. Fixing that now!

swampthing 8y ago

Congrats Cadran!

cbcowans 8y ago
Thank you!

soneca 8y ago

Congrats and good luck! Two questions: Would it be helpful for women in tech in Brazil? (wondering if I should refer it to my colleagues here) Is it for profit or non-profit organization now?

kl2931 8y ago
Thank you! And yes, many of our members are based outside of the US, and we'd love to have more international members to broaden the perspective and discussion topics. And we're a for-profit company. :)
- stonogo 8y ago
  This looks to be a really great resource. I'm curious to know what your business plan is; I'm very interested in how to make a community platform like this sustainable without compromising user privacy. This is especially important when the community is focused on disadvantaged or minority groups, and I'm always on the lookout for the Right Answer. Have you written on this topic before?
  - cbcowans 8y ago
    Really good point and question! We don't have all the answers and it's something we're actively thinking about. Our goal is to focus on providing access and opportunities and use that as our guiding light. I think especially as members of those underrepresented groups, it makes it a bit easier to reason about what kind of products members will feel comfortable with. We are building for ourselves after all!

ForrestN 8y ago

Congratulations! Do you have a policy regarding non-binary or genderqueer people? And are there any steps you're planning to take to keep your community free of TERF transphobia? I'm curious about building a gender-based community in 2019.

ForrestN 8y ago
Woah! Even after so long on HN, I'm surprised by multiple downvotes for even a question that merely implies an interest in inclusivity for non-cis people.
- sctb 8y ago
  There is little that can be gleaned from voting, especially early on. It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to. > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - ForrestN 8y ago
    Agree to disagree in this case, wherein I believe two or more people's gestures do communicate something real regardless of the eventual balancing out. Thanks for the reminder.
  - gammateam 8y ago
    > It's just plain noisy and you don't know what someone is objecting to. Then why does it rate limit the poster who might have spurred a discussion and wants to find out? They can't even post anymore until hours after the discussion died down even though little can be gleaned from the reason anyone downvoted them? There is some conflicting logic going around
- lucisferre 8y ago
  It could be your use of the term TERF which is pretty loaded and has been associated with calls for violence against women.

efm 8y ago

I attempted to sign up a long time ago, when the only authentication was through FB, which I don't have. So, the email address is in your system but I'm not a member. I cannot sign in or up. Is this something you can fix? I would contact you directly for support.

kl2931 8y ago
Yes, please email us hi@elpha.com!