Preston ¬‿¬
@prestonattebery
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App advising, designing, etc. Past: CEO, @smirkgames
Joined March 2010
buddy of mine did nothing for 3 months then got a job and girlfriend on the same night.
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I want a finance app with three numbers:. - what I spent today.- what I spent this week.- what I spent this month.
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Once everyone can make an app, we will remember that the hard part about apps isn't making the app.
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People don't realize Nikita spent 7 years making apps, raising 200k every few months out of desperation. before getting a hit. You don't have that dog in you.
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1M views. people want this app.
I want a finance app with three numbers:. - what I spent today.- what I spent this week.- what I spent this month.
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Open sourcing this idea, here's the blueprint: . I think it needs:.- chart of this month vs last.- category summaries .- running list of all transactions. good luck!!
1M views. people want this app.
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checking in 10 years later.
How many yrs until native mobile apps as we know them don't exist? 10? No more installing. Mobile browsers/OS will be different beasts then.
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@ace_your_ecom only need 3 features: .- 3 numbers.- chart comparing this month vs last.- breakdown by category ranked.
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I've been working a simple step tracking app to help me hit 10,000 steps for the day. All you have to do is fill up the circle
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PMF or die was an interesting concept. I think it proves that you can't pressure cook apps. You have to let them breath and only press in when they're working.
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chatgpt soon
if you want to attack google’s core, hire the man who built google’s ads business
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I think we are almost done with big apps. What's left:.- beautiful tracking apps.- coding apps.- games.
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in an early market, engineering is differentiation . in a late market, design is.
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Rainbow has a unique opportunity to be the first crypto social app. - turn the wallet into a profile.- transactions into notifications .- add feed of token purchases/NFTs from friends
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there's a reason Dribbble failed and it's not because it's bad.
Big news for designers. A few of the biggest platforms in the design space reached out about this concept. The possibility of something like this being built is now highly likely. Here's my vision:. Twitter is, and always will be, a phenomenal place for designers to connect,
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I would like to propose a new way to do startups: . Not venture-funded.Not bootstrapped . A secret third thing.
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Here's how we should do startups in 2025:. You need a financial arbitrage. Zuck had Harvard--tuition and housing paid for. Spiegel had his dad's house in LA with a private chef. Life expenses = zero. But you are probably not that lucky. So you need to find a way to live for.
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We should probably start asking why there have been no successful social apps in the past 5+ years.
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IG took 8 weeks to code.FB, 2 weeks.Houseparty, 8 weeks. A social app that takes longer probably won’t work.
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Humane vs Tab. $241M vs no money.200+ vs 3 guys.apple vets vs hackers . the result?. the whims of consumers and whether they want to talk to an LLM all day.
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Introducing Smirk,. a new way to make and play on your phone. out now!!
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i find it interesting that the three most important apps of the decade (instagram, snap, musically) were not started by computer science guys but art guys.
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@skymutsuko you have no expectation of privacy in public . its in the constitution (literally written in philly).
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Friends, some bittersweet news about Smirk:. We're no longer working on Smirk full-time. After three years of building beta Smirk, DubDub and SMIRK, it's time for a change of pace. I have come to realize that new social experiences only succeed in a low pressure environment.
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Here's the full list: . Friendster - 2003.Myspace - 2003.Facebook - 2004.Flickr - 2004.Youtube - 2005.Roblox - 2006.Twitter - 2006.Pinterest - 2009.Whatsapp - 2009.Instagram - 2010.Snapchat - 2011.Twitch - 2011.Vine - 2012.Mindie - 2014.Musically - 2014.Zenly - 2015.Discord -.
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You are one demo away from changing your life on Twitter.
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its never been a better time to be a hater.
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arc is the best browser by far. if that's not growing then the market is telling you something.
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I like to make fun of Tim Cook for not being able to ship a meaningful product. but honestly, what did Steve leave him with? . If Steve were alive today he would not be working on electric vehicles or AR goggles. He seemed pretty happy with his SL 55. He only did the iPhone.
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What happened at Smirk? . - raised $750k from two funds and angels.- 6mos recruiting a cofounder and building demos.- 5mos building first app in 2d multiplayer.- launch "SpriteFite".- 5mos rebuilding it as a 2d engine.- launch "beta SMIRK". - 2mos building an "obby" demo app.-.
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My take is that social is in its end-game. There's probably only one social media left, and maybe one messaging app. Bereal, Dispo, and Popparazi didn't work because they were Instagram all over again. New socials need new mediums. And audio is too boring for social media,.
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every app founder that raised millions and hired before pmf is deeply regretting it . they're trapped with a failing product without the flexibility to try new apps.
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the obby app is ready 🫡. its called DubDub. play obbies, make obbies, share with friends!. available everywhere:
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a big funding announcement feels good because it:. - validates your ideas.- proves competence.- signals talent and other investors . The only antidote is realizing VCs and peers aren't your customers. Money won't save you and talent won't figure out your problems for you.
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social apps are uniquely hard because the market is demanding . it expects something extremely specific, yet completely unknown at this given moment.
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We came up with a novel way to program video games:. Just pick a trigger (like On collide) and an action (like Camera shake) and preview instantly. Script without scripting.
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I think we are getting alot closer to accepting that spatial design is the next "thing"
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if your friends tell you "I'm not the target audience" they hate your app.
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Why did I raise? . - left VC backed startup.- had family, needed income.- didn't even consider freelancing.- capital was easy (2021).- leverage to find cofounder. bad bad bad.
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you don't need a designer . you need a product lead who can design.
After advising 50+ consumer companies over the last year, the one thing that separates those who can execute and those who can't:. Having a full-time designer in the room at all times. I've met with countless companies that have raised millions—and even one that has raised.
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Evan went to malls and handed out Snapchat flyers . Jack went to raves and set up booths outside . Zuck begged friends for their email lists and emailed everyone.
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I know basically no one working on new social experiences.
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a short history of collage apps: . - egg by Facebook NPE - 2020.- Monet - 2021.- Collage by @vidythatte - 2021.- ID by @amoamoamo - 2023
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Jobs would have shipped this.
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the golden era of app psyops (early 2021). - poparazi @ $135M.- dispo @ $200M.- clubhouse @ $4B.
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we built an obby app!. its Fall Guys meets Roblox. you jump and dodge and double jump--don't fall!!
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@zack_overflow they're trying to be fullstack Lua (except for engine). one language for front-end/scripting on every platform (RIP).
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@thewillwitt you do realize a large portion of products on amazon are sold by small businesses?.
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How to raise for your consumer social startup: . - Don't. - Tweet demo's and get angel inbound .- Ask former founder's for checks.- Keep your day job, do consulting .- Fight everyday to work on it and make it work. Raise with traction. Let them chase you and close.
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I love seeing how the biggest apps in the world were described at launch
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Raising money is a debt on your future. Sometimes that debt pays off, other times it kills the creativity required to pay off that debt.
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consumer social is not hard. it's impossible. as in, there are only a small number of ideas that will ever work. it's not up to your execution.
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I'm not sure how interesting these are but I've started to make little games about life in SF
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In 2007, Steve Jobs demo'd scrolling for the first time. Now, it's all we do 💀
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wow.
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started a new substack to talk about social apps. Calling it Social Studies 📕✨. first up: Media vs Messaging Apps
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pretty clear divide: . designers and artists hate AI and don't want their work used for training . devs don't care (and use it daily).
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- there are only two apps.- there are no vertical social medias.- twitter is the last text app.- instagram is the last photo app.- tiktok is the last video app.- gaming is next and last social media.- no new apps for close friends.- messaging isn't media.- live will never work on.
The best social founders I know rarely give concrete advice on ideas. “Maybe.”.“It’s worth exploring.”.“I have no clue.”. Be cautious of people who give consumer advice in absolutes. Human nature is too fickle to encapsulate in a set of rules.
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there should be a walking app where you can compete with friends.
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adopting stories into instagram was probably the single biggest product mistake they ever made.
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no way.
A tweet asked for a simple finance app: Two hours later, it existed by @nandoprince93.
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Two things:. - Games are the next medium of expression.- Games are too hard. Our solution to this is Smirk.
@prestonattebery is building the foundation for a more meaningful and creative relationship with our phone — beginning with games.
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Skeuomorphic is not happening. Nice try though. The Airbnb icons look awful.
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