Pair (YC W12) is a Path for the Two of Us

http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/23/pair-is-a-path-for-the-two-of-us/

by mpetrov • 14 years ago

212 73 14 years ago

techcrunch.com

jasonshen• 14 years ago

This is the cutest thing ever. Congrats guys - looking forward to seeing you at alumni demo day.

kalvin• 14 years ago

Oh my god, thumbkissing.

"A feature called 'thumbkissing' shows your partners thumbprints whenever they’re touching the screen, and both phones will vibrate if your thumbs are on the same place."

This is clearly the best YC startup ever. Hurry up on the Android app for those of us in mixed relationships!

mpetrov2• 14 years ago

We're working furiously fast to have Android ready ASAP. It's only a few weeks behind and is almost done. This is right now our #1 request, cross-platform relationships are in these days!

dfc2• 14 years ago

Is there any talk of a web based (ie not require app) version of the platform?

steipete• 14 years ago

Hm, you did realize that the comment sounded very much as being sarcastic, did you?

achille• 14 years ago

Tl;dr: the sexting app. I met one of the cofounders at the Stripe CTF meetup. They're a Waterloo U. Team, seemed like a sharp group. Pair was their pivot. Initially they had a 3D mouse based on the iPhone accelerometers.

phamilton• 14 years ago

Going from a 3D mouse to Pair seems like more than a pivot. It's more like a back handspring or some larger acrobatic maneuver.

Someone should compile a list of initial ideas vs pivots. It would be interesting to see how many groups had pivots this drastic.

bostonvaulter2• 14 years ago

Especially successful ones.

okstr2• 14 years ago

Haha, what can we say, we're just that flexible. ;)

fleitz• 14 years ago

Call me old school but I'd rather find someone who lives in the same city than try to maintain a relationship through an app. If you absolutely need to stay in touch with someone every minute of everyday it's probably better to just move.

The solution to working too much to be in touch with the partner you really care about is not an app, it's telling your boss to shove the job up his ass. That said, I doubt there will be any shortage of suckers who prefer to spend time at the office than with their partner.

drx• 14 years ago

Sometimes there's no alternative. Off the top of my head being separated by a visa situation is an example.

pook1e• 14 years ago

I'm currently living in California. My girlfriend lives in Ontario. Sometimes "just moving" isn't really an option.

Besides, I don't think this is /exclusively/ for long distance relationships. I'm sure there are some couples not in a long distance situation that would enjoy this.

wtn• 14 years ago

Ontario is in California.

http://www.ci.ontario.ca.us/

waterlesscloud• 14 years ago

People come in a very wide range of personalities. People have a very wide range of relationships.

This app, or one like it, will be huge.

dfc2• 14 years ago

It is old school to think that economic factors do not effect people's personal lives.

eli_gottlieb• 14 years ago

>The solution to working too much to be in touch with the partner you really care about is not an app, it's telling your boss to shove the job up his ass.

Agreed, but then there are those of us who formed solid, committed relationships before we had to or have to move and want to keep them alive. Even being on the other side of the same state from your fiancee is painful, man!

shadowfiend• 14 years ago

Being on the same side of the same state can be painful, considering many US states are bigger than many European countries.

lotharbot2• 14 years ago

> "Call me old school but I'd rather find someone who lives in the same city"

When my wife and I first met and started dating online (in 1998, before it was common) we worried that her grandparents wouldn't approve. It turns out, grandma and grandpa thought it was a cute reminder of their own youth; they had courted through letters. "Old school" indeed...

Sometimes, despite all your plans and desires, you fall in love with someone who circumstances don't permit you to spend as much time with as you'd like. Maybe you're finishing college, deployed to a combat zone, or tending to an ailing/dying relative. Or maybe you're just busy because you're either caring for your 4 kids, or making sure they have food on the plate.

Life is like that, and has been since long before you were born. Making it easier to connect to your loved ones is a good thing.

wensing• 14 years ago

maybe you're just busy because you're either caring for your 4 kids

Yep.

ebiester• 14 years ago

I've currently spent 3 months away from my partner, and have one month to go. This is not the first time we've spent more than a month away from each other, and due to circumstances beyond our control, it likely won't be the last. Being half way across the globe from each other, sometimes we can only talk for 5 minutes in a day, when one of us wakes us and the other is staving off sleep. Technology is exactly what has helped us bridge that gap, those quick WhatsApp "Thinking of You"s and the like.

There are times when short term sacrifices are needed. Technology helps make that sacrifice a little easier.

lallysingh• 14 years ago

Well, sometimes a two-sigma smarter/hotter/funner partner is an hour or two away. It's usually worth it, if it works out, you end up moving in together somewhere in the middle. If they're farther, then someone does a job hunt. If you're in software, you've got a decently liquid market for that.

njs12345• 14 years ago

Only an engineer would describe a partner as "two-sigma" :)

peterdelahunty• 14 years ago

It started with a thumbkiss i never though it would come to this :)

Tossrock• 14 years ago

Sounds like exactly the same thing as the South Korean produced 'Between' app, which is already cross platform. Not to say that they couldn't execute better, but it's not a novel idea.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.co.vcnc.and...

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id458035189?mt=8

kmfrk3• 14 years ago

And regardless, I'm sure the creators will be interested to learn from related experiments.

kirillzubovsky• 14 years ago

Do you by any chance know who was the designer behind 'Between' app?

Vaismania• 14 years ago

Congrats guys!

k3fernan• 14 years ago

The biggest problem I find with long distance relationships, especially across time zones, is the real time nature of it. It's blocking. Especially for two busy people.

I would rather record a small video (rather than video chat), write an actual email (rather than IM back and forth), draw a silly picture (than send smiley faces back and forth). If you could change it from feeling like a status report to a message in a bottle, it really does change the dynamics of a long distance relationship.

Funny enough I recently stopped dating someone because of the distance factor. Maybe Pair could have solved that "problem".

rdl• 14 years ago

This is disgustingly cute, but that's the point. I could definitely imagine people using this (it would eliminate a lot of one-word "hi" type SMSes...)

I wonder how they're going to handle migration between relationships.

dshankar• 14 years ago

I was skeptical when I read the TechCrunch article (I'm a skeptical, jaded bastard).

But my cofounder Sri and I downloaded it and started playing together. Few minutes in we were giggling like children and I now see the value in Pair.

It's perfect for those serious couples with useful features like task lists, built-in Facetime, ability to show "where you are" etc.

Good job!

apike• 14 years ago

My marriage definitely benefits when I take tiny bits of time to tell my wife I'm thinking about her. For example:

- Text her a random emoji

- Email her an image I've found (usually using our app Prism http://www.steamclocksw.com/prism/)

- Send her a Draw Something drawing

The point is to send a "unit of thinking about you" that's simple but unique enough that it's not mechanical (like a "poke" would be). Pair seems like it could bring this little habit to more relationships, or at least displace text and email for those who do this.

papercruncher• 14 years ago

How about a service that you could enter all these things in the morning and it would send them throughout the day? Like a Buffer for "unit of thinking of you".

I'm only half joking

kmfrk3• 14 years ago

This reminds me of a Dharma and Greg episode[1][2].

Scheduled spontaneity.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0559091/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rHyUeD5UrA

okstr2• 14 years ago

Funny enough, someone requested an API to set up a script to message their girlfriend. lol.

chime• 14 years ago

My wife and I just tried it out and loved it. We were giggling like little kids playing around with the app's features.

On a more serious note, the shared todo list is great! No doubt a lot of other apps have this but with chat, photo sharing, Facetime, and thumbkisses, this makes Pair an awesome app. I would've easily bought this for $2-4/user.

malandrew2• 14 years ago

Speaking of shared todo-lists, I'd love to see an app for roommates that handle all the todos of a household and break them down by common tasks:

(1) Food in the pantry - what do we have and what's finished (2) Bill paying (link into a service like WePay) (3) Major/large household purchases (4) Group chat for the household (allow linking of chat to the todo-lists and vice versa)

Bonus points if the app allows you to "connect" to neighbors you know well to know what things you are willing to share with one another like tools.

I'm not sure how well an app would work outside dense urban areas, but in any place where unrelated people live with one another and coordinate with one another, such an app would be useful.

badclient• 14 years ago

How do you deal with breakups?

thechut• 14 years ago

Can't wait to try this out... Bring it to Android!!

peterjs• 14 years ago

Are they planning to introduce a pro version of the application? Some multitenant upgrade? It could apply advanced machine learning techniques to identify which of your girlfriends/spouses is using the phone and hide all the other communication. Not that I would need it, but it could significantly lower the divorce rates :)

stfu• 14 years ago

Nice idea. Some form of "relationship manager", that keeps track for each "client" of the different stories.

kmfrk3• 14 years ago

Add a security feature with optional passcode and store the images in a way that hides them from prying eyes, and you're guaranteed a million billion horny college students as users.

Ben the Bodyguard[1] meets SMS/MMS for relationships.

Maybe we'll see fewer celebrity photos leak after this[2].

[1] http://benthebodyguard.com

[2]: This is a good thing.

jordhy• 14 years ago

Great idea. I suggest you build in audio messages to organize voicemails for your loved one.

asheeshbirla• 14 years ago

I've been waiting for something like this. Can you allow users to select photos, videos from the library during the on boarding process? Also, would be great if it could automatically pull in my instagram photos. :)

tersiag• 14 years ago

This sounds like a great app. Reading the comments makes me wanna try it, but I need an iphone + a man first...

EREFUNDO• 14 years ago

One day someone will create an app with a neural interface via blue tooth signal and you can make out with your girlfriend in a shared dream...lol

malandrew2• 14 years ago

Next up: Path for Families

(I'm actually being serious here. I could see this working, but probably not in the US where the concept of the nuclear family is much weaker. In Latin America or some European markets this could work quite well. There's probably an Asian equivalent to Path for extended families as well)

ajaymehta• 14 years ago

Hold that thought for just a few more days. :)

ghuntley• 14 years ago

The App has a few language choice issues.

http://db.tt/l1PKD0hd

Notably There != Their.

read_wharf• 14 years ago

Minor point: there is already pair.com. Maybe only people on HN would be at all "confused" by this, everyone else being unaware of that category of business, much less a specific one. But pair.com might take it a little more seriously.

aen• 14 years ago

Trying it with my wife. Liking it so far.

skbohra123• 14 years ago

Ah, we applied to YC10 with same idea for http://closest.in :) That's how it goes.

phmagic• 14 years ago

can I have multiple pairs? I guess that's not the point but would be nice to keep track of the "in the works" ones.

d2ncal• 14 years ago

http://theicebreak.com / http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/couples-better-relationships/... is a similar app that we launched a few months back.

kalleboo• 14 years ago

A suggestion: Make a better (cuter) icon. I scrolled right past it in the app store search results because it looked like a spam app. Now that it's installed it looks like a server remote control control app or something.

jwpeddle• 14 years ago

Agreed. I scrolled past it and actually thought "oh, must not be indexed yet"

prawn• 14 years ago

Pitched this rough idea to my wife the other week and she showed me some relationship timeline (shared wall between two users) in Facebook so I discarded the idea. Looks like I was onto something after all.

BlackShirt• 14 years ago

The shared TODO list is great, a shared calendar would be good. An option to sync with 3rd party online calendar is even better.

I never managed to get my wife to regularly check our shared Google calendar, too much apps to check for her. A simple app which handles all the couple tasks in one place is a great solution.

tanish2khn• 14 years ago

while I am busy doing another startup, here is I can offer from my personal experience of using such platforms:

- first up, you need to give users assurance that they own the data. Allow them to export data anytime and that too in a beautiful way. I would hate to loose such memoirs shared with my loved one, just because you failed to raise another round of funding. (Data persistency can well be the primary reason, why people still uses emails; It will always be there.)

- how about a personlize gifts on their anniversaries from the service ? you have good amount of data to personalize the gifts. seriously, surprize me here!

- I have been using tumblr for last year on same usecase. following stats will help you: march - we get separated by distance. april - 111 posts, may - 74 posts, june - 39 posts, july - 36 posts, august - 11 posts, september - 33 posts, october - 60 posts, november - 23 posts, december - 1 post.

Post distribution: [70% pictures - 10% links - 15% text - 10% videos/music].

where pictures, are of one other, old memories, places we visit, things we spot. where links, are interesting find of the day. where text, are short letters, quotes. but no chatters.

- Now, I would need an information overview of my content pretty much like tumblr or more, with posting abilities of Path or more.

- Tumblr isn't built for game dynamics here. She is posting 80% of content and i 'heart' 50% of her content as a feedback to her. A game dynamics which involves more participation from not-so active member of relationship? we are NOT talking about games or chatters(messaging or whatsapp), but subtle or even funny push notifications if she has posted and i have not yet viewed to begin with.

- an instapaper functionality, so that we can share things from anywhere on Internet, by just sending an email to the account.

- avoid becoming a messaging app, for love sake ;)

all the best!

jeffreylo• 14 years ago

What differentiates this from Duet (https://vimeo.com/32088268)?

zack12• 14 years ago

Can i have multiple login account support so that i can manage my multiple relationships?

Tichy• 14 years ago

"you’ll get an impressive range of options for how to stay in touch"

Except for actually staying in touch, unfortunately :-)

jaredsohn• 14 years ago

You can find a FAQ here: http://support.trypair.com/customer/portal/articles/443672-f...

One interesting aspect to this service is because it only allows you to actively pair with one person at a time, it doesn't support people with multiple partners (those in the beginning stages of dating, the polyamorous, and cheaters).

If this app became popular enough, I could see a partner requiring the use of this app to make infidelity more awkward, although it could still be worked around by having multiple phones with an app on each one.

lotharbot2• 14 years ago

> "it doesn't support people with multiple partners"

Or with multiple loved ones who don't qualify as "partners".

Like, for example, a deployed soldier who wants to keep in touch with his wife and his kid. Being able to "pair" with each one might be really nice.

Void_• 14 years ago

Okay so if I'm getting this right, it's basically iMessage but with "thinking of you button."

So yeah, that's useful. I mean I'm sure girls consider pressing a button a very romantic gesture. Must be also very enjoyable for the guys.

Somebody please make TechCrunch with articles about innovative projects.

tumultco• 14 years ago

Small thing: on the http://trypair.com/ site, I tried clicking the play button several times expecting a video demo until it scrolled up beyond the initial screenshot.

_gd3l• 14 years ago

So how does it generate profits?

csel• 14 years ago

Can I use this with multiple partners? Lets say I have 4 relationships all at once, can I have 4 separate accounts?

wangjiahua• 14 years ago

How does it handle breakup? Does it keep the "path" with ex and make current GF upset, or all those "pair moments" is gone with her.

Pair (YC W12) is a Path for the Two of Us

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