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I'm Juliet Oberding, Maker of Dappity - a launchpad for Blockstack apps. AMA 🔥
My career has had some good twists and turns: lP, tech, litigation attorney negotiating multi-million dollar settlements; co-founder of a health tech startup working directly with patients; maker/product manager of multiple apps that respect privacy and digital rights.
I'm a Mom with two sons. I meditate, take long walks and wear my aventurine bracelet on the daily to deal with this roller coaster life in startups and tech.
Here to answer any and all questions about privacy and digital rights, transitioning into tech, having a family and being a founder, retaining patients as users and user development.
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Steve De Long
Hi Juliet, So what is Dappity? I went to you medium blog to learn more but I'm paywalled off from reading any new stories this month. I gathered it has something to do with "Distributed Apps" and helping people build them. I'm actually going through Dash by General Assembly again and have the book Hello, Web App as well. Always have aspirations to get to the point where I can build a tool or two. Hope you are well.
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@silverborne Great to hear from you! Dappity is a decentralized app that is a launchpad for Blockstack apps. You can think of it as a personalized App store where you can favorite apps you use everyday or organize into categories for productivity and fun. But you don't need to curate because Dappity recalls the apps that you have used. Been improving constantly since launch based on user feedback.
@abadesi Great question! Throughout my career as a lawyer I've been concerned about privacy and civil liberties. The legal side of my mind enjoys a deep dive into privacy, human rights and AI policy.
Building my health tech startup, furthered my interest in privacy and digital rights. A huge amount of patient data is stored in silos never used to improve the patient experience or find new treatments. Most patients are willing to release their personal data for research purposes. In the U.S., their personal data is most likely to be used to deny treatment.
While working with patients, I fell in love with user development. It is incredibly fulfilling to learn from a patient how a product can improve their life as they dealing with a lifelong chronic disease.
My cofounder @Terje and I started exploring blockchain early on. We saw that there could be some important implications for drug discovery research and healthcare generally but it is still a little early for blockchain + health.
Combining all of that together, we get to Dappity. It combines my love of user experience with my concern for privacy and digital rights.
Hi Juliet! I'd love to hear more about your transition into tech and becoming a founder. What have been your biggest challenges? What has surprised you on your journey?
@mgrady Thanks for this question!
I was working with developers and tech founders before becoming a founder. But there is a difference between having developers and founders as legal clients versus really understanding startups, the tech community or tech.
In my early days as a founder, I relied heavily on my legal skills while studying everything I could about startups. There is studying and there is doing. In startups, it's the doing that counts. Today, I've been a founder for 7 years and I feel like a different human being.
Early stage founders talk constantly about investment and VC's. It's a package that the startup industry sells - go to Silicon Valley and get investment. Become a unicorn! We all fall for this a bit. But the heart and soul of a founder is the hustle and metrics. A good founder deeply understands their users. It sounds cliche but good founders want to create products that people love to use.
My biggest challenge is moving faster 😅