MV Community,
I would be immensely grateful for any feedback on the app we built to make streaming decisions WAY easier.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mindgrapes/id1561247199
Elevator Pitch:
When average Americans sit down in front of their TV, there are too many choices. We waste an unforgivable amount of time bouncing between Netflix, Hulu, etc., foolishly searching for the perfect movie or series. To compound the time wasted, add a spouse.
MindGrapes lets friends rate and recommend movies and series. Since 64% of people get their streaming recommendations from friends, we are here to help start the conversation, “What’s on your MindGrapes?”
Love this Clark. There was something similar prototyped for Movies, and unfortunately (best I recall), the founder was a lone developer who then didn’t do much more with it in the way of promotion or building a team. I could be mistaken of course, but when I knew about it and tried it, there were no plans in his mind… and alas, I can’t even recall the name of it now, which I take as an indicator suggesting that indeed, he didn’t do more with it.
Great elevator pitch (wonderful example of starting with why!)
A little advice? Just my opinion mind you, I don’t think “Since 64% of people get their streaming recommendations from friends,” is the compelling turn. We’ve seen a lot of studies over the years that have uncovered that while yes, friends make recommendations of what people watch, play (video games), or listen to (music), two things are also true:
- That tends to be a younger age group fact. You may find that older people tend to disagree.
- Why do older people disagree? This is the more important and notable advice… studies have shown that generally, while friends make recommendations and find similar likes, that biases people to THINK that people like what their friends like. And what studies have shown is that’s not true. Friends may happen to have some shared interests and certainly friends talk about shows, causing recommendations, but by and large, likes are very personal preferences.
I recall a LONG time ago, Netflix toyed around with social recommendations with this notion in mind, that we’d like to watch what our friends like to watch (and of course, Spotify still has similar functionality wherein we can see what our friends like in music). Netflix killed off the effort because it wasn’t valued.
Don’t misunderstand that advice as negative feedback! I think you really have something here. Just a recommendation that the “friends” turn in the pitch, is where you’ll lose people more than find support because, more people than we think will probably think, “I don’t like what my friends like so… eh…”
Lean in the spouse point more. Family. BECAUSE whether spouse/family like the same things or not, isn’t a matter of recommendations; rather, it’s very valid that families have trouble finding shared interests so they can watch things and enjoy together.
I dont use apple 🙂
But good idea and pitch. Good luck!