While it is healthy to encounter new beliefs, it’s imperative to go about this in the right way. We have all seen those debates where people are talking right past each other, not listening to a word the other person is saying. On the other hand, we have also seen two people talk out a disagreement and actually see the other side of the debate. Remesh wants to make this latter situation more common. They provide real 1 on 1 conversation with actually reasonable and well thought out presentations of any belief, ideology or dogma. Whether you want to bolster your own beliefs, or try to understand someone else’s Remesh is the site for you. Recently accepted into the Barclays Accelerator program in New York, Remesh looks to expand their opportunities.
Andrew Konya takes us through his new company, which is revolutionizing the communication of ideas.
What inspired you to start the company?
I was talking with Israeli and Palestinian friends during an outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestine in late 2012. They both lamented the inability of their governments to negotiate peace on behalf of the people — their thinking was “If only the citizens could negotiate for themselves maybe these situations wouldn’t happen. When two people are in conflict they can talk it out… if only countries could speak as one then maybe they could talk it out too?” I decided to put my PhD on pause and devote myself to solving the problem of allowing a group of people to speak for themselves, as one. After developing the core algorithms to make collective speech possible I realized making it work at scale would require resources and infrastructure. Thus, I decided to start a company and monetize the tech.
Tell us about the decision to apply for Barclays Accelerator.
We knew our tech solved the fundamental problem of quickly understanding what a group of people was thinking, and had identified over a hundred monetizable use cases, but had not decided which to focus on. Many of these use cases were in fintech and others were in large organizations. So, we saw Barclays + Techstars as the perfect environment to validate the value hypotheses around these use cases, pick the best, and execute on it.
Tell us about your product or service.
Our product enables a single, real-time, 1-on-1 conversation with an entire group of people where each group message is the result of a dynamic AI powered flash poll which takes about a minute.
How is it different?
It allows an individual to have a conversation with a group of people in the same way they would have a conversation with a single person. This means understanding what a group of people is thinking, is as simple as chatting with a friend.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
FIRST market is customer and employee research/engagement ~ $30b
What is the business model?
SaaS.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
>$50k MoM revenue
What is the one piece of business advice that you never got?
The difference between a delusion and a vision is execution.
If you could be put in touch with one investor in the New York community who would it be and why?
Lady Gaga, because she is challenged with engaging with millions of people on a daily basis and would bring a perspective on the one-to-many engagement problem which is not attainable from the average investor.
