CHNL.it | @CHNLApp
TechFaster: We are joined today by John Wander The CEO of CHNL and Ameet Mehta the Director of Product Development, could you give us just a little bit of background, the history of the CHNL product and how it came to be and how we got to where we are today?
John Wander: Yeah, sure. Should we start, maybe give you just a little bit go further back into our background because that’s sort of how we sort of discovered the pain in the marketplace and how we came together to form CHNL if that’s okay.
TechFaster: Sure. Please do.
John Wander: So I’ve been around the internet for about 12 years working with startups. I’ve been an angel investor, had a seed stage VC fund and then played some operating roles and director roles for several startups, but some of them and all of them in the web space, but the ones that I got heavily involved with were in the digital media space, distributing digital media to the online stores, a company called Ingrooves.
I was also an investor on the board of a company called Filtrbox which was in the early days, like 2006, 2007, kind of like a Google Alerts where you put in key words searches and it would bring back anything that was being said about you across the social graph as well as the mainstream media back to your Filtrbox.
So having worked around the web and digital media and the web and just I’m a constant user of networks myself and always used the internet, I was having a frustration that there’s just too much content out there in too many places and I had to go to so many different places to get it and Ameet kind of shares also a unique background, but also shared the same pain which is how we actually came together and formed CHNL. I’ll let him give a…
Ameet Mehta: Yeah, just real quick. I’ve also been in the web space for about 12, 13 years as a designer as well as a developer myself and recently I was at another market, a VC marketing company called Topspin where we worked with a lot with artists as well and again, we would see the same constant thing where people are always sharing things in multiple networks and again how do I get all that information in one place.
I always forget that I have a LinkedIn account. Actually I always forget to check my Tumblr account and we were just like I just want to have it all in a singular place where it would be really easy just to get to and just be able very quickly switch between that’s very important and we kind of were just like skip on the status updates, just give me the rich content, give me the videos, give me like the articles that people are sharing and talking about and then really have a single place where we can engage in all those conversations, all through a single place without me having to go and remember to go to Tumblr or remember to go to LinkedIn or remember to go to even SoundCloud, what have you.
So that’s kind of where we started and we were just like, we just really want to build this really simple, elegant interface where we can just get all my social networks and all the content in one singular place and keep it very elegant and simple.
John Wander: Yeah. I definitely agree and one of the things that we adding to that whole like proliferation is that we – you often hear this word curation. It’s kind of a hot topic now, but we really believe the third phase of the web is user curated content and I’m sure all of us, we’re kind of in a bubble in this hangout right now, but we’re finding that it’s actually just reaching out to the average person now on the web and that it’s – we’re getting our news, we’re getting our entertainment through our friends on our social networks, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, YouTube, we’re pulling in content from everywhere.
So we really believe that because there’s so much stuff out there that we want to reduce the noise and CHNL helps to do that as well like Ameet was mentioning. So we really just share the same pain and I met Ameet through Jason Kadlec. Jason who’s not here with us but he was our first employee and one of the founders and he and I worked together. We know each other from Ingrooves, so 10 years ago he was our first employee. So that’s how we met and then I met Ameet. We recruited Ameet who designed the product, has a great background in that. But yeah, so it was really just to set out and solve that fragmentation pain of content across the web.
TechFaster: Of all the social networks, you guys talked about managing the different ones, which network do you think is the most influential?
Ameet Mehta: Influential in what sense? Well, we’re seeing the most content and links are being shared across is Twitter. Most URLS are actually being shared on Twitter overall whereas on Facebook you’ll have status updates or what have you. So definitely Twitter is the biggest one. However LinkedIn is actually really starting to come in on top.
John Wander: It’s really coming up. It really depends on the user. We’ve been getting, we launched around October 1st so we’re actually really new, but we’re seeing some exponential growth. But what’s really been interesting for us and actually validating is that we’re seeing users come in and they’re not just off in Twitter and Facebook. They’re off in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube.
SoundClound is really big because we have a lot of people in the music space loving music. Tumblr Instagram, Flickr and I don’t know if you guys saw, but about two nights ago which is why we all look pretty exhausted, but we launched some new features. We’re pulling in now new daily deals from Living Social and Groupon and soon to be Pinterest and your Google Reader and RSS feeds. That’s coming soon.
TechFaster: Great.
John Wander: But interface is really a key. Back from the Filtrbox days it was really easy to use and simple and I remember when we were in discussions we ended up getting acquired by Giant Software and you guys probably know Giant, but one of the things that I know they really liked about it was that it was easy to use and it was simple to use and if they’re on the path of building something, but they thought this was better, so they acquired Filtrbox and I think Ameet has – one of the biggest challenges we’ve had because it’s such a sophisticated product but it looks so simple and easy to use. I’m in awe on how he’s been able to make it so beautiful and we call it like stupid simple to use.
TechFaster: Yeah and I would agree with that. That brings me to my next point because that was one of the things that I was immediately struck by when I looked at the interface. The simplicity of it, the clean kind of the large chunky navigation blocks which I love and the light colors and it was such an easy experience. You’re ultimately battling for my time on the internet and if it’s for eight or 10 seconds and I’m starting to get lost or confused on what’s happening then you’ve lost me. I want to abandon it and that wasn’t the case with the CHNL product. It was very intuitive, very easy to figure out. I think somebody age range from 10 years old to 65 could figure it out. So I think you guys really hit the mark there. Ameet, can you tell me a little bit about your process and how many iterations do you think you went through to get to this point?
Ameet Mehta: No. definitely iterations we’ve done quite a bit.
John Wander: You’ve got a calculator?
Ameet Mehta: So my process has been, I definitely start, literally when I’m drawing on the process I draw a lot of things out on pen and paper and kind of wireframe a lot of things out. But we’ve actually had another iteration this whole product and that we released a couple of, like six months ago and that actually was really a much more cumbersome product and it didn’t have as many bright and lively colors. It was a little more darker and we did a lot of user testing. We got a lot of feedback from people and it just really was like exactly what you said…
John Wander: It’s a lot of great technology but too much work to get into the app.
Ameet Mehta: Yeah. It was exactly what you were saying. It was like exactly opposite what you were saying, but it was really kind of hard to get to. So we’ve had some really conversations with people and we got beat up a little bit about it from users and we took that to heart and we were like, you know what, let’s get back to it and I decided just to kind of scrap the whole thing and just come at it at a very minimalist approach which it was almost always all those online design ethos anyway. I just want to be a very minimal and very clear faced with just spacing and the colors and we kind of just ended up with this and it’s so funny because the most simplest products take the longest time to figure out.
It took so long to be able to shove everything into just like three little blocks and still we’re working on some scale related things and it’s going to change a little bit, but not too much. But we’re able to still keep the same kind of look and feel of it and still add more feeds and new features to it and we’ll still continue to scale. I think that’s going to be, is one of the more challenging pieces of it too.
TechFaster: Sure. I think you guys did a great job. My former life is in UI and usability and I think – I know. I’ve been through the pains of that and I immediately have picked up on this is going to be a problem. But I didn’t get that sense at all. So that’s great.
John Wander: That little meeting we had was with, we got a chance to show earlier on to Robert Scoble. Actually you guys know Robert. So we met Robert at his house and yeah, he’s an avid user of all kinds of products as you guys know and the first thing he said, “I like it. It’s a lot of great technology. It’s too geeky. I can’t stand the interface” and we were like a deer in headlight at that point.
So Robert is a geek and he’s like it’s too geeky and he really rattled our cage, but in the best possible way because he wasn’t the only one giving us that kind of feedback, but we learned so much from that private beta. I can’t stress enough for any startup that to go through that experience because it was painful for us because we literally had to go back into the lab for three months, right?
Ameet Mehta: Yeah, three months.
John Wander: Three months before we could come back with something and thank God we did because this like you said we’re getting a response that you had Ryan and our other users and we’ve been collecting a lot of testimonial since we launched this product and it’s been rewarding to see and it paid off by just being able to be patient and go back and doing it right and really listening to the feedback, because sometimes we can listen to ourselves too much and listening to that feedback, even though we hated going back and not being able to launch it for another three months is painful, it was the best thing we possibly could have ever done for sure.
TechFaster: I can imagine. That’s really helpful, good insight.
John Wander: Kudos to Ameet. It was a lot of hours for this guy right here. We’re grateful.
TechFaster: I bet. Well, that’s great. I’m going to defer to Andrew now. Andrew has got a question for you and then after that we’ll let you guys get back to work. I know you’ve got a ton going on and we really appreciate you taking the time to sit down and talk with us and if you can talk to Robert Scoble, tell him I’ve been calling him every day for the past couple of weeks and I’m going to continue to do so.
John Wander: Problem is you and everybody else has.
TechFaster: I know. I get that sense.
John Wander: Yeah. He needs to reduce some noise himself I bet. It was funny watching his Twitter feed though because we met with him in his house and his Twitter feed was like, it looked like a moving highway, a moving conveyor belt underneath, just go flying by. But it was definitely an enlightening meeting. But yeah, we’re happy.
Like I said we’re really pleased that you guys got exposed to the product and we are friends with the Thievery Corp guys so we’ll tell them that. They’ll be happy to know that one of their fans actually discovered CHNL. They’ve been great supporters and use the product and it’s really, really nice to see.
TechFaster: Absolutely, that’s great. Yeah, that’s exactly what I was going to ask about. How did that partnership with Thievery Corporation come about?
John Wander: Well, there are four DJs on the team, myself included. I’m kind of a retired one these days because I’m knee deep in CHNL and a two year old as is Ameet.
Ameet Mehta: We have like records everywhere.
John Wander: But you can see some vinyl over here, but we all have music backgrounds on the team. Most of us, Jason Kadlec, User Adoption, is an incredible drummer. So I met Rob Garza about 10 years ago through another friend of mine, just through djaying. That’s the time I was djaying out on weekends and I met him and we were friends for probably like three or four years, but we became, it’s just something about having kids that makes you bond with one another, but as soon as his wife was pregnant and mine was, we kind of shared that experience. We became really close friends. So it was really, we got to use them early on just as some validation points because we were watching what they were doing. They’re like they’re posting stuff everywhere. I think they’re on Tumblr now too.
Ameet Mehta: Yeah, they are on Tumblr.
John Wander: But they’ve got stuff just everywhere and for them it’s hard for them just to post all that stuff, but it’s even harder for fans to get everything in one place. So we got some good feedback with them and then we have some other contacts in the music industry as well as Action Sports that we’ve been showing the product to lately and I think you’ll see some more endorsements come out, because those two verticals especially, sort of like the music space, the music and webby people kind of really overlap, especially in electronic music and then Action Sports, those two verticals seem to be on multiple, multiple networks and have the most paying for what CHNL can solve. So we’re finding a lot of traction in those two verticals for sure.
TechFaster: That’s great. Well, guys, we really appreciate your time and it’s been informative and we’d love for you to come visit us here in Charleston, South Carolina. I don’t know if you guys have ever been, but there’s going to be a big technology conference. It’s the inaugural year of it called Dig South. If you guys want to Google it and take a look, but they’re modeling it after South by Southwest. So it’s going to have a lot of music integrated into it and it’s a three day event and I think you guys might be interested. It’s beautiful in Charleston in the spring.
John Wander: When is that?
Ameet Mehta: What time?
TechFaster: It’s going to be April. Do you know really the date, Rob? I’m not sure. I’m from North Carolina, so I definitely come back for one of them. My parents live in Charlotte, but I live in Greensborough so I’m definitely in.
Well, I just found it. April 12th to the 14th.
To the 14th of April and it just so happens I had lunch today with Stanfield Gray who’s the organizer and the executive director of it and I think that it’s something you guys would be a great fit for. So just look at it.
John Wander: Yeah. Let’s talk offline about that because we’d be interested. I don’t know, we’re doing our – we did a big party last year. Actually Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation deejayed at South by Southwest and Jason Bentley, I don’t know if you know him from KCRW here in L.A, but we’re doing that same event this year at South by Southwest again and it was a great event.
We had anybody from like the CTO of Amazon there to just a bunch of great web people, Scoble and others. We would love to maybe do something there. So let’s talk offline and see how we can get involved because that’s one geographical area that we’re not really touching as much as we should and we’d like to.
Ameet Mehta: Yeah and if any of you guys have any feedback on the product that you would like to see I would really love to hear it because we definitely have a pretty large roadmap ahead of us and if either wanted to give it right now. We’ve been shooting this out to a lot of people and then trying to just get more user feedback, talking to people who are using it repeatedly, interested in what they want to see more out of it and just how it can better serve you and just also to repeat that, we did build this thing from cross advises and right now it really shows on the desktop. On mobile experience we are now kind of focusing to just really stick that. We’re kind of re-factoring…
John Wander: Yeah. Completely optimized.
Ameet Mehta: Just trying to completely get that optimized and really just make that one shine because we know a lot of consumption is happening tablets and mobile and we’re going to move to that area as well. But we really start on the desktop because for me I’ve got, if you look at my web, my chrome I’ve got like 30 tabs open. It’s kind of ridiculous. I’m sure you guys have been the same way. You’re laughing because you understand when I say the same way. So that’s kind of why we initially started with desktop and it does work everywhere. So really we are pushing that. But in general I’d love to hear any feedback that you guys may have and it sounds great.
TechFaster: Thanks a lot for taking the time to sit down with us today guys.
