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Congrats on the launch. I have to ask though... how do you plan to differentiate? As I'm sure you are aware, there has been at least 25 (likely more) of these e

Congrats on the launch. I have to ask though... how do you plan to differentiate? As I'm sure you are aware, there has been at least 25 (likely more) of these exact same web-based, 3D spaces platforms for remote work as an interactive alternative to Zoom. All launched since COVID, all offering pretty similar value propositions. Why should anyone use this over a competitor?

Uehreka 5y ago
I see this question asked a lot on HN, and certainly with good reason: Every founder should be constantly asking themselves this question. However, I think it’s important to also play Devil’s Advocate and note that some products succeed not because they differentiated themselves against competitors, but simply because a large number of people learned about them before learning about their (possibly better, possibly cheaper) competitors, and then network effects start to take over from there.
crummy 5y ago
I've tried a bunch of solutions like this and think the answer is that Spot.xyz is the richest (but still simple) experience. Here's my summary: * The world is easy to move around in and manipulate, which is rare for a 3d space (as opposed to Mozilla Hubs for example) * Video chat showing up on peoples heads is much nicer than in a separate section like Gather.town * Hear people per-room, rather than just volume attenuation is a better solution for larger meetings * The screen sharing on a wall is such a nice and intuitive way to glimpse content from afar but still be able to full screen it That said, my team is on Gather and we will stick, largely because we have team members on slow laptops and the 3d world of Spot makes the fans spin.
- gfodor 5y ago
  Would love your thoughts on my attempt at this space, jel.app, if you have time! It’s 3D but is designed to run well on low end laptops. It incorporates UX patterns from Slack and Notion and has full world building (voxels) and friendly avatars with lip syncing based on voice. No webcam used, on purpose. It does presume some basic gaming literacy. (I started the Hubs team at Mozilla and Jel is a derivative work from Hubs)
- Jommi 5y ago
  Your last sentence is really why I'm always bearish on all these 3d platforms. We are just barely able to do these concurrent chats on 2d, mostly because of advancements on stuff like webRTC. 3d is going to be at least 10 years out - and at that point ubiquitous VR/AR might already be a thing.

Uehreka 5y ago

I see this question asked a lot on HN, and certainly with good reason: Every founder should be constantly asking themselves this question. However, I think it’s important to also play Devil’s Advocate and note that some products succeed not because they differentiated themselves against competitors, but simply because a large number of people learned about them before learning about their (possibly better, possibly cheaper) competitors, and then network effects start to take over from there.

crummy 5y ago

I've tried a bunch of solutions like this and think the answer is that Spot.xyz is the richest (but still simple) experience. Here's my summary: * The world is easy to move around in and manipulate, which is rare for a 3d space (as opposed to Mozilla Hubs for example) * Video chat showing up on peoples heads is much nicer than in a separate section like Gather.town * Hear people per-room, rather than just volume attenuation is a better solution for larger meetings * The screen sharing on a wall is such a nice and intuitive way to glimpse content from afar but still be able to full screen it That said, my team is on Gather and we will stick, largely because we have team members on slow laptops and the 3d world of Spot makes the fans spin.

gfodor 5y ago
Would love your thoughts on my attempt at this space, jel.app, if you have time! It’s 3D but is designed to run well on low end laptops. It incorporates UX patterns from Slack and Notion and has full world building (voxels) and friendly avatars with lip syncing based on voice. No webcam used, on purpose. It does presume some basic gaming literacy. (I started the Hubs team at Mozilla and Jel is a derivative work from Hubs)
Jommi 5y ago
Your last sentence is really why I'm always bearish on all these 3d platforms. We are just barely able to do these concurrent chats on 2d, mostly because of advancements on stuff like webRTC. 3d is going to be at least 10 years out - and at that point ubiquitous VR/AR might already be a thing.