Good day hunters - I'm Assaf, the CEO and co-founder of https://yes.no. Thanks for taking the time to check us out - Q&A is what I love, so I'll be available all day for any and all questions...
We're super excited to be launching our crowd interviewing platform on Product Hunt after going live on web, Android and iOS!
*Why?*
Most of us have questions we'd love to be able to ask our heroes (and get answered), but there isn't always a simple way to do so. I myself had a question for a musical hero of mine, Samy Birnbach (Minimal Compact vocalist and lyricist), and I dedicated a lot of time and effort to get my answer. I realized that a lot of people have the same problem, that others would benefit if this interaction had been in the public realm, and that my hero enjoyed engaging in meaningful, respectful Q&A. And thus, https://yes.no was born.
*Who are we?*
We're an 8 person startup, having just launched our web version and gone live on both Google Play and the App Store in 11 languages (with 20 more to come!). We are currently working hard to recruit interesting experts and public figures, with some good results so far! Check out Nobel laureate Alvin E Roth.
*Why are we different?*
- We focus on the person, rather than the question. Sites like Quora help you find the best answer to your question, by sharing it with the community. On yes.no however, we want to connect you with a specific person that you have a question for. So you can ask your questions to a professor, or your favorite actor, or an entrepreneurship guru, and get authentic answers.
- Time is no object. Many popular AMA services (like Reddit's) have been providing a platform for interesting people and their fans to connect through Q&A during one-off events, which don't provide an opportunity for continuous dialogue. On yes.no, users create profiles that they can come back to as and when they feel like it, just as they would on other social networking sites.
*How can we improve?*
We currently have a few thousand users, but we are constantly looking to provide a better experience and are still learning how to provide the best value for our users. What do you think we can do to improve https://yes.no?
Always feel free to contact us directly: Assaf Levy, CEO: assaf@yes.no, Jonathan Doron, BizDev: jonathan@yes.no
@samir_doshi@atlantis76 Hey Sam and thanks for the question, it differs from one hero to another but in general we have very good response rate and willingness to use yes.no. Further, we have a nice amount of hero's that are active and answering question on a regular basis.
What are the chances someone would even reply to you? This is another platform for 'tech celebs' to get bombarded with questions? What would entice them to sign up?
Why couldn't people just tweet them questions?
Often people do reddit AMAs or even Product Hunt LIVE Chat's where people can ask them things (understand that this is a specified time-frame though).
Is this platform a sort of ever-lasting, open AMA?
People just use Quora for this type of thing, no?
@bentossell seems more collated/orderly than quora from my usage of it.
as you say, this is ever-lasting. also, only certain people get invited to do reddit/product hunt amas. anyone can be asked questions via this
@bentossell Hi Ben, thanks for your feedback and for your questions. Great points.
So, we are emphasizing the importance of the upvote in our platform. This is a simple mechanism for identifying the most popular and trending questions, that eliminates duplicate and spam questions that some stars inevitably attract. We want to promote the idea that answerers can choose, let's say, the top three questions to answer each month, which will in turn increase the quality and value of the content.
Other than this, we are not focusing solely on 'tech celebs'. Whilst this is where we have started (as it's near and dear to us), yes.no is a platform for connecting heroes from all industries and corners of the world with their respective audiences. A platform like ours is more suitable for this type of interaction, generating easily searchable and categorized content.
AMAs and sites like Quora both have their value, but yes.no is distinct from the former in that it is not a one-time session, and the latter in that it focuses on the person being asked, rather than the question itself.
Hope that answers your questions! Would welcome any more :)
@_jacksmith I don;t use Quora so wasn't sure...
yeah but I'm just not sure what motivates the person to answer the questions... Another platform to maintain
@bentossell I've tried this platform for a while, and actually found some sincere answers on controversial topics (political issues). So, it's not just about techies and an overall nice platform to get direct (but short) answers without the usual fluff around it.
@atlantis76 Yeah I just used 'tech celebs' as an example as that is what I know.
How many people have you approached to be answerers that have said no rather than yes? What do you pitch to them as the benefit of them maintaining this platform and answering questions?
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