Happy Sunday!
Welcome back to Founders Feature, a weekly newsletter all about the journeys of young startup founders.
For this week's edition, I interviewed Glo Robinson, Founder of Go Off!, a social experience platform for content creators based in the US.
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Here’s what Go Off! is all about:
🏠 The Basics
The Problem:
Social media platforms were built for exchanging ideas and now they’ve become a one-way microphone for the top 1% of users. In the growing creator economy, creators must build authentic connections with their fans to stand out, but existing social platforms just aren't cutting it.
The Solution:
Go Off! is a social experience platform that’s built to maximise audience engagement and provide meaningful insights to creators and their fans. Creators can host live synchronous text-based chats about their content with up to 10 fans per chat. After the chat is completed, we provide creators an infographic of their conversation with future content inspiration to enhance their engagement on other platforms.
The Team:
We have a core leadership team of four, but have fifteen other college students and recent grads that work part time with us, along with a team of industry advisors.
🚀 The Journey
How did you come up with your startup/solution?
As a sophomore at Boston University, I had a podcast, called Go Off!, and it was all about the unrepresented Gen Z perspective. I addressed questions like "why does our generation seem to love the show friends?" or "why don't young people vote?". A lot of my friends wanted to be guests on the podcast and I wasn't sure why because our audience really wasn't that big. What I found out was that they wanted to be on the podcast to make their voice heard, because they didn't feel heard in a lot of their opinions. From this, I decided I wanted to build a media company for Gen Z, but I was still figuring out my value proposition.
Around the same time, I had started to become a bit of a content junkie, consuming so much content. I love reading the comment sections on online articles, and noticed that I'd really love to meet the people writing these comments. This is when I got the idea for a live comment section, that people could use to socialise and meet people who consume the same content, and that's how the idea for Go Off! was born.
Why is this the right time for this problem to be solved?
Covid has brought us into a new normal, where people are prioritising how they want to spend their time more and are looking for ways to interact with people in the most meaningful way. This also applies to content creators interacting with their audiences. They are getting more and more tired of simply projecting, but are looking for ways to connect with their audiences in more meaningful ways. And that's where Go Off! comes in.
What is a recent success you are proud of?
We’re releasing our mobile version in November and we landed our first enterprise pilot with a fortune 500 company for early next year.
What is a recent challenge you have faced?
Deploying the product was definitely a big challenge. But overall, I would say the biggest challenge is maintaining the motivation and group culture in our team. We work across 6 different time zones, our team members are mostly part-time since we're still at college, and we're still unpaid. So, all of that means we need to work even harder to keep people engaged and working towards the same goals and mission.
What do you wish you knew before you started and is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?
I wish I would have known that Chat APIs exist because we built one from scratch and we definitely did not need to! Essentially, I wish I had a little more knowledge about the technical part of things because it would have made the journey a little smoother. As a non-technical founder, I started from the position of creating the best possible user experience and envisioning how people are going to feel when they use our app.
🧠 The Lessons
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
Redefine what success looks like.
Keep your vision and your big dreams alive, never forget about them, but sometimes, you need to learn to focus more on day-to-day things that are less exciting, but that are moving the business forward day by day. Learn to maintain that balance.
What advice would you give to other young founders?
Whatever you do, whether it's starting your own company or working for a company, as long as you wake up in the morning and are excited to do what you're doing, that is a success.
Also, if you do start a company, don't start it with the mission to have an exit, because that will limit you and your potential along the way.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
There are so many! Every day, I feel like I learn something new. But if I had to pick one: the only thing you (as a founder) have control over is your vision. It's so easy to get caught up with customers willing to pay for your product or a surge of unexpected growth, but at the end of the day, executing your vision is what matters because at least you will stay true to what you set out to do. And in the end, the best way to sell your product is by selling customers on your vision. What they're buying is your promise, a "new way of life, not the software itself.
✨ The Inspiration
Who inspires you?
I'd say other founders that are bursting with passion for their startups. When I'm stressed, I find solace listening to startup podcasts like "How I built this" or "Master's of Scale" to learn about the other hardships other founders and executives underwent to achieve their success.
What book do you think everyone should read?
Originals - Adam Grant.
What I love about this book is the fact that it candidly addresses the psychology of founders and the meaning of innovation. It made me realise founders tend to have similar personality traits and it truly taught me about how to process feedback and who are the best people to seek out advice from.