This Is Your Out — An eject button for awkward situations (pre-launch)

@eriktorenberg It all depends on the person using and the person they are escaping. Some people don't take any hints that the conversation is over no matter how clear they are, combine that with people who don't have the personality to just say fuck off in one way or another and there you go. Sometimes you just get into a situation where there is no viable reason for you to leave without offending someone or hurting their feelings. Sometimes there is no opportunity to escape (getting grilled by a boss or client) and you just need a reprieve. I'm all for bettering myself and you may be to, but that's not to say that there aren't a lot of people out there who wouldn't rather just have an easy way out and who will never work on actively improving those skills! I'll make more friends and money catering to them than trying to improve their social skills in tough situations :) You are in an interaction you want to escape. It comes down to 3 choices. You either: 1. Use your social skill to find a way out 2. Use a device or scheme to escape 3. Suffer through it and regret the lost time and experience emotional instability (boredom, frustration, embarrassment, anxiety, you name it) #1 requires effort, skill, bravery, opportunity, none of which may be available to the person (and may never be). #2 requires $35 USD with free shipping, #3 is pretty much the alternative if you can't pull off #1. It's also hard to step into other people's shoes if your personality just doesn't merit the need for a device like this (I've talked to quite a few who don't). I completely understand that. It's actually been interesting to see 2 friends who said they saw 0 use for it themselves eventually come back and say yeah they wish they had one now that they know it exists. I'm sure they didn't need it often, but even they saw the ones where it would just be easier.

@eriktorenberg agree. Itsa shortcut to managing awkward relationships. "I'm sorry but we'll need to finish this some other time" works most of the time. Wasn't there another app that came out recently to show you where people were that you wanted to avoid?

@SacBookReviewer ha, that would be clever if you could actually track everyone, would also make quite a funny video if you tried to avoid everyone!

@chronos ha! Well put!

@rrhoover I like how TIYO went hardware in order to stay device agnostic, it's cool to see 2 approaches to the same problem.

@rrhoover yeah you can be a little more discreet with it in your pocket too than trying to tickle your phone which could be mistaken for other bad looking things :)

@rrhoover Man the Tickle-lawyers are going to go crazy! I hear their legal team is legion.

@jlax True, there will be a saturation point, but until then it's well worth it! There are a number of apps that do what you say but the problem comes up when you are in a one-on-one conversation that you didn't expect. It would be pretty rude to pull out your phone in the middle of the conversation, "beep boop bop", and then 30 seconds you mysteriously get an urgent call. With a discreet button, you can hit it without anyone noticing and without planning. To boot we play a repeat-after-me script so you don't have to think up a convincing lie while you are panicked!

@chronos the app I am thinking about you would do it prior to the date. So the equivalent of telling your friend "call me at 7:30" before the date.

@jlax Yeah, even Kit-Kat has a promo app like that right now. It's interesting hearing everyone's stories on what they prepare or setup to get out of things. This just takes out the planning and lets you react to the unexpected.

@chronos I think it is a clever idea, especially your statement about having a BT button for the internet. That is an interesting idea. Triggering varied actions from the press of a button.

@jlax thanks man! Yeah no reason why it can't do other stuff as well! But much easier to market with a distinct purpose (and a useful one at that!)

@benparr agree it's not for everyone, and yeah, some people have crazy keychains, others have thin ones. I've run into people who said they'd use it 3 times a day and others who say once in a blue moon. I believe it may provide more value to women rather then men, they can also keep it in their purse separate from their keychain. If successful I'd love to build other form factors like a business card case that triggers when opened or a chapstick/lipstick container. I think some of the real value in the device is that you can use it when you don't know you are going to need it. It'll be the one time you take it off your keyring that you start cursing internally as you turn the corner into a new grocery store aisle and run into someone you can't stand.

@guygal Hey Guy, I know it's not for everyone, especially not for the crowd who visits this site, but it's a way to make some of our lives easier as you can shortcut situations and save time, and it's a reactionary tool to the unexpected. If you would never need a device like this, it's hard to see how it would be useful, and if you would never carry it, than even less so! Note that it would get over 2000 uses on a single battery though. Some people have less developed social skills, some people don't have the personality to say "No" or "Go away", some people have social anxiety. Some people would rather die than cause any conflict or make someone upset with them. If you don't fit that description, the utility for you is probably greatly reduced. There are 2 main value cases, saving time and avoiding emotional distress. Take dealing with someone you cannot stand, but are forced to from time to time at your job. You can't rock the boat for fear for your job or because of the office politics. You just want to minimize or escape the situation and get on with your life. Getting out of a conversation with an "old business friend" you run into on a casual walk through the park when they won't stop talking. Getting out of a heated conversation with a bad client to catch your breath. Escaping a boring meeting that is mandatory, but it wouldn't matter if you were there or not. Getting away from a guy who is hitting on you and not taking the hint. Having another mom sit next to you at the park and start talking your ear off about her "wonder" kids achievements. Maybe you take a meeting to mentor some entrepreneur, 5 minutes in you know it's going to be a total aggravating waste of time and you said you'd give him 30 minutes or an hour. I can go on with many cases and if you take the last paragraph about personality into account for the person in these situations, it becomes a lot harder to not end up sitting through crap. Sure there is other stuff you could do and I will have an API so you can do them! I'm curious what else you think it could do that provides more value? I do agree there is a huge novelty factor to it as well, but I think there are a lot of handy cases for when you're in a pinch and you just want to get the fuck out with no hassle, no rudeness, no planning.

@narekk Thanks man, glad you liked the vids! Radical honesty is great for certain people and certain situations, but those who use it don't need the help of a device like this! Many however just don't have it in them to be radically honest or rock the boat, this is for them!

@IndianIdle definitely true, but there are a lot of people who wouldn't wear a watch, be it smart or otherwise!

@orarbel yeah lots of fun ways to do it! The trick is how to do it stealthily in one one one situations :)

@chronos I can remember a lot of times in the past where I have pretended to receive a phone call to get out of an awkward social event/meetup. Neat, albeit probably niche, idea.

@tommaxwelll thanks Tom!

@EAWharton It's fixed and unfortunately hardware is damn expensive at the start. Engineering, moulds, certification, testing, manufacturing, and the actual cost for parts. Also minimum order quantities apply to even get started. I wish I could I could really drop it down! All I can do is ask you that you buy one (or invest in the company to offset startup costs)!