[jstrafy]

Thanks, it's been a journey and appreciate the kind words!

Matrix is great, as I mentioned in one the replies, we were also building with the Ruby SDK and decided against in the end. Will update the site to reflect this & your comments.

#1 Very true, the value is determined by the users and the content they bring to the app. Because you broadcast to a specific audience, we've designed Circles to be a place for sharing things that you don't share on chat or social media. So far this has encouraged people to invite their closest contacts to the app. We also have ideas for discovery and single player features that we're building. Since you applied to YC with your version, what were your ideas around solving the cold start?

#2 Apologies for the mixed messages there! We finished the video whilst we were building on Matrix (E2EE) but our current stack has encryption at rest on our servers and anything you share in Circles is encrypted in transit with SSL/TLS.

#3 Great points and I hadn't heard this feedback before - think that you have a point.

#4 We are currently Angel funded but plan to continue to build Circles as a utility fuelled social network (as opposed to media), in this we will charge for premium features.