A social network like Instagram, but owned by users and creators

Josh G Gulati @josh_gulati Maker 📌 As a finance expert who spent a decade valuing company shares professionally, I was deeply interested in understanding wealth generation on social networks: where it came from and who benefitted? It became clear that creators & users play the most important role in supporting share price of companies like Facebook (now Meta). India is their biggest market. And 9 out of 10 countries where Facebook is used the most, are in Asia or Africa. But majority of wealth they create went to a few share holders in the US. This feels very unfair. *Wealth💵 generation by Creators* We further realised that social networks now were less about ‘social’ and more about ‘media’: creators these days are like film starts in a movie: they bring people through the door, keep them engaged and create wealth for networks. But creators get nothing back. In these films, actors get paid nothing as all wealth is held by shareholders. *Scale of wealth creation* By our calculation 🔢, Facebook alone created over $450bn of wealth, that's more than the GDP of 150 countries but most of it went to a very few shareholders in the US. This is unfair. All creators we spoke to, talked about their hard work that gets nothing in return as social networks keep all the cash. *This is going to get worse* Under pressure from shareholders for more money, social networks recently started selling "blue tick" verification. This came as shock to many but was somewhat expected to us. Social Networks will continue to squeeze creators to get more cash. *Purpose of ChatWise* ChatWise was built with a single purpose to equalise wealth and power. Me and Abhijit (a software engineer who led technology teams for large banks in London) joined forces and a team of 20+ passionate developers. *Fundraising experience* We thought it'll be hard to raise money for something like this with global competitors with deep pockets but we raised significant sums of money in two different rounds from smart, professional London based investors who could see the vision, the purpose and simply said "If this happens, it'll be good for the world and I want to be part of that". One investor actually gave us more than we asked for (for a bigger stake in the company). *Product Development* - Over 100+ versions built -Android ChatWise app has been tested by 75k+ users from 18 countries via a referral scheme - 500+ interns have directly worked with us from top B schools in India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the UK - Tech team includes ex IITians and experts who previously worked at global social networks - Apps are now on Google and Apple playstore. -800+ 5* feedbacks, and our apps are still referral only *We're launching👏 ChatWise Messenger* on Product Hunt: "ChatWise Messenger" is like Whatsapp or Signal. But users will take equity stake in this business. This is to showcase our technical abilities. *How many shares are available for you?* 70% of all current shares, 18 billion in total. It'll take us 2 years to give them. A founder led committee will look after it and a fair process that will only reward those who support ChatWise project. As founder, I own 84% of the company. Majority of these shares are now have been legally set aside for the community (see legal documents on our website) *What can you 🫵do?* -Support the project, be an early adapter, play bigger role, get your shares early! -Download the app, use referral code:ph100 every hunter gets 100 free shares today. Scheme closes midnight Pacific time! -Join our committee that will oversee dispersal over the next 2 years - Are you a creator? Join our team and give your views on how AI is helping content creation on ChatWise Social Network - Be the early creator or ChatWise. Gain quick followers - Invite 10 friends and get 200 more shares Become a ChatWise Builder like us.