Revolutionizing Social Media with Venn Social

Braeden: And we started this as an infertility support app. That's how this, this whole thing started. And then we realized the concept of wanting to connect with someone in your same ser- same situation, same lived experience is not specific to infertility. And so we broadened it to be more of a support group app for lots of support groups. And then we realized the concept of wanting to connect with someone in your same situation is not specific to support groups either. Yeah. People are searching and longing for connection nowadays, and they want to find their tribe, their people, their circle. And it's just hard nowadays. People don't interact and, and we're not as social as we once were. And so bringing back that community- Yeah, there's a need ... it's for everyone who's looking for a real community, not just if you're going through something, which you inevitably will, of course. Yeah. Everyone goes through something. Yeah. But just wanting to find friends in your same situations and being social again. George Wright III: Okay. Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And we're really glad to be in the studio today. We're here with, uh, Brayden and Madison Ferguson. How are you? Madison: So good Braeden: Very good Yeah George Wright III: It's good because we're able to get you down here, and you're really busy. You got a lot of things going on. And for those of you that are, um, listening for the first time, make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any episodes. But today we're gonna talk about a topic, uh, we got a, a married couple that is launching a business, uh, by the time this comes out, might already be launched, called Vent Social. And I wanna give you a little bit of an update on you guys, and we're gonna dig into your background as well, but, um, Braden and Madison, husband, wife founders of Vent Social. They're building a social media platform that's designed around connection instead of attention. And so there's some really cool, unique things they're doing, but they're bootstrapped, self-funded, um, launching without any investors. And, uh, the company's built from a, a, a pretty personal mission, and it's born from years of infertility, isolation, and a- and all these things I think most of you will relate to. So I'm really glad you're here today, and I appreciate you coming down to the studio. Braeden: Yeah. And side note, we just closed on our house last week. We sold our house to, uh, continue being bootstrapped. George Wright III: Right on. Yeah, this is the, this is the struggle, and many of you might be struggling as entrepreneurs bootstrapping, but man, these are things that are, uh, part of the journey, right? So, um, you know, most businesses start with an opportunity, but you guys actually started with a personal struggle. Mm-hmm. So I want you to kinda tell me a little bit of that story, and I don't know which one of you wants to start, maybe Madison. Sure. But tell me about this struggle, which is what created this opportunity. Madison: Yeah. Um, about three years ago, um, well, at that point, we had been struggling with infertility for about six years. Um, and I was looking on Facebook groups, looking on Reddit threads, trying to find people that understood what I was going through personally, because I really needed connection through the infertility, and I was going through one of our worst miscarriages at the time, looking for connection, and just could not find anyone that understood my situation specifically. And so that's when I went to Braden, uh, one night and was like, "Hey, like I need help. I... This is... We need to create something that connects these people." And then that's when the idea of the circles and the filtering questions and everything just kind of fell- Yeah ... into place after that. But that was the original. George Wright III: It's interesting 'cause people, um, there's a lot of problems that people are dealing with, but when you say you were kind of looking for connection, what were you looking for? Like, what was it that you were trying... You just wanted people to be able to relate- Yeah ... help you with, just support you. Yeah, I mean- So what were you going through there? Madison: I joined probably, you know, 20 Facebook groups that had the word TTC or infertility in the title, thinking that maybe I could find someone that understood, um, or was at least kind of similar to what I was going through so I could actually find someone. And I did. I actually did find someone. Um, and her and I, we connected. We sent ovulation tests back and forth over Messenger- Mm ... and it was a, it was so helpful for me in that moment for the little small period of time we connected. Braeden: Well, and the biggest difference is they were the same stage in their journeys. Yes. So had been trying for about the same amount of time. Uh- Yeah we're, had both had infertility, and we're both, both their cycles were almost lined up. Like We were pretty much in the same situations and sa- living the same versions of life, just in different areas. And that's where the mindset started to shift, and it was like, "Yeah, this is really nice." Like, why isn't this, like- Madison: Mm-hmm Braeden: why isn't this how this is normally? ' Madison: Cause I have support. You know, Brayden- Right ... would try and support me, my family and friends would try and support me, but no one really understood what I was dealing with. And so this girl that I found online, she actually did. So I felt more comfortable with her, even though she was more of a stranger- Yeah than my family, talking to her about my infertility because she actually got it. She understood. ' Braeden: Cause you're living the same situations. The commonalities are- George Wright III: Yeah ... through the Braeden: charts. George Wright III: Mm-hmm. Well, you made a really good point as well, because I think there are places you can go and get information very specific to what you're doing. You can even maybe YouTube conversation, you can see that people are dealing with it. Mm-hmm. But it's different having conversations with people while they're going through it, and it's totally different kind of support. And this could probably apply to, as we'll talk about, a lot of different types of things people are going through, whether it's anxiety, depression, um, you know, uh, uh, big problems in business, catastrophic bankruptcies, divorce, things like this. There's so many things people deal with. And when you're in the moment, um, just listening to a video of somebody talking about it is not really the best thing, and having someone just support you is good, but not the same, right? Right. So this is what you're saying. Mm-hmm. So at what point did you actually feel like- This is something that w- could be a business. Like, in other words, it's something... Was it really that, that you just had this desire for other people to be able to have access easier to this? I mean, what was the reason for that? Well, and Braeden: where, where this all kind of started is she came and said, "Wow, this is amazing. Like, I wanna find more people like this." We looked and looked, and the problem with the current climate- Mm-hmm ... is that these other, other platforms and other, other opportunities group you based off of a topic. So infertility as a bucket. Okay. Okay, well that's great, but in that same category you've got someone who's been trying to conceive for seven months, and they say they're infertile. In- infertility diagnosis isn't until a year medically, but they have joined the group because they feel like that, and they're saying, "Oh my gosh, it's so hard for us that we're, been trying for seven months." And then there's the other person, we're in Utah, right? There's the other person, "I've been trying for my eighth kid, and we're, it's, we're not having it yet." Yeah. And it's like, yeah, those, those situations are unique to them, and they're hard for them- Mm ... but it's completely different than our situation. And so we've morphed it around and, and what we realized with the business is that people are looking for connection, and they're looking to connect with people in their same series of life. Yeah. And we started this as an infertility support app. That's how this, this whole thing started. And then we realized the concept of wanting to connect with someone in your same ser- same situation, same lived experience, is not specific to infertility. And so we broadened it to be more of a support group app for lots of support groups. And then we realized the concept of wanting to connect with someone in your same situation is not specific to support groups either. Yeah. People are searching and longing for connection nowadays, and they want to find their tribe, their people, their circle, and it's just hard nowadays. People don't interact and they're, we're not as social as we once were. And so bringing back that community- Yeah, there's a need. Mm-hmm ... it's for everyone who's looking for a real community, not just if you're going through something, which you inevitably will, of course. Yeah. Everyone goes through something. Yeah. But just wanting to find friends in your same situations and being social again. George Wright III: You know, it's interesting because I, I think if, if most people think about it, um, they're not just looking for the result or solutions, right? Like in infertility you might be like, "I, I, I want a result." Because what they're struggling with is the emotions they're dealing with in the period of time during the specific phase they're at. So this could be even why a lot of, uh, business networking groups people get tired of because they're going to network, but everybody's at different phases and levels of where they are. And every- well, this person's talking about growing, this person's just trying to get over a huge obstacle they did, and they wanna know When you're in the moment, what do I do then? Braeden: And the other one's trying to sell their business. George Wright III: Correct. It's- Braeden: Someone just started and someone's trying to sell. George Wright III: Yeah. Braeden: Completely different situations. George Wright III: So we're losing connection, um, through social media and media and, and digital overwhelm, but we also don't just want connection, we want specific connection. Yeah. And so that's, that's, that's true. So what made you decide to do this together as a married couple? Or maybe before we even talk about that, um, you decided to just kind of bootstrap this and bet on yourselves versus go out and raise some money and do some things like this. You found this need, it came out of your own purpose and mission and drive, but you decided to do this yourself. Why, why did you decide to do that? Braeden: We've seen what happens with the other platforms where they have to optimize for investors, they have to optimize for shareholders. We, we are not comfortable with that. So we are mission first, f- we are mission focused, and that is the first thing that comes is connection and community and being able to help as many people as possible find their people, helping end the loneliness epidemic that's happening right now. And we're not willing to let anyone else have a say in how that gets taken care of or how, you know, oh, we need to optimize more for money over here, or we need to, we need to make more money for this. We're not willing to let that influence what we're doing. George Wright III: Yeah, you wanted to be able to make decisions that were right for the mission you were trying to accomplish, which doesn't always happen, not just if you have, um, investors, but if you have partners, right? So it's, it's a lot of that. So, um, w- did that bring up a lot of fears in what you guys wanted to do? Mm-hmm. Like, what was the... What, what came up? Because this isn't an easy decision, "Okay, we're gonna do this ourselves and go all in." What kind of fears did you have come up from that? Madison: Um, I, we are, uh, slightly seasoned in the entrepreneurship world, where we've started businesses together in the past. And b- I had a lot of those beginning fears then, so going into this, jumping into this one didn't feel as scary because we've already been working together for so many years. Yeah. And so, um, some of the fears were, wow, this is the biggest that we've tri- this is the biggest chunk we've bit off. George Wright III: Yeah. Madison: But I do believe that, you know, when we s- stay strong to each other, we can make it work. That's what we've done in the past. George Wright III: What have you done to, um... It sounds like you've prepared yourselves for the fact that this is gonna be a, this is gonna be a, a, a journey, and when you bite off a mission like that, you have to stay committed to it. You can't just let, uh, all of the, the lack of progress happen. Mm-hmm. So what do you guys... How do you structure... I mean, as a married couple, what are some of the biggest advantages of doing that together, and what are some of the disadvantages, and how do you structure that time together as entrepreneurs? Braeden: Great question. Madison: Mm-hmm. Braeden: Um, the reason that we work so well together is that we both trust each other to do our jobs, and we have very complementary skill sets. So where she is the creative person, she can, she can create an idea out of nothing, and I, I simply cannot. I can tweak an idea a million times to, to optimize it and all those kind of things, but to create something, that is all her skill set. And so she is the creative engine of our business. She's the soul and the heart of what do we do. I'm more of the technical imple- implementation, trying to make sure everything works. That's more of my side. So we have very complementary strengths, and we both trust each other to do the jobs that we're doing. George Wright III: So you've, you've identified your strengths, though, and you understand how that works, and they are complementary, right, so it's not carryover. Um, h- w- have you, because you've done some things in the past, have you already identified there's some things that you guys struggle with when working together? Madison: Uh, we've had to set things in place where it's like, "Okay, I'm talking to my business partner right now, not my husband," or vice versa, "I need to talk to my husband right now, not my business partner." And we've had to say like, "Okay, put on your husband hat," or something. Braeden: Because e- even if there's disagreements happening in the marriage or with the business- Madison: Mm-hmm ... Braeden: vice versa, if it's a- Yeah ... if it's a disagreement between business partners, that's great, we're still husband and wife, so- Yeah George Wright III: Well, that's gotta be the hardest part. Battle another- How, how do you separate... Because there's a couple of schools of thought. I've, I've, I've met couples who their business is their life, um, which it, it is if you're, especially if you're bootstrapping. But how do you separate marriage, family, business? Uh, what have you guys done to really feel like it works for you? Madison: The balance can be difficult, for sure. Um, I think for me it's really trying hard to stay with- within my like, what I know best, but also my house responsibilities that we've decided that work best for me, things that he's decided work best for him. And then honestly, letting that go. I'll be like, "All right, you know what? That's his problem. Let it go." And Yeah ... I just focus on my things. And us focusing on each other and then trusting each other, I think is what kind of helps me through. George Wright III: You both said that now a couple times is like, you know, when you can trust, y- you, you clearly identify what you're good at, what you're not, maybe what your roles are. Mm. But then you trust that the other person can get it done. And so, I mean, what does that, Brady, what does that mean to you as far as just letting it go or just feeling comfortable and confident that that stuff's getting handled? Braeden: It's a good combination because I know the, just the way my brain works. I have... Once I delegate, as long as it's to a trusted person, I can check it off in my mind of that has now been taken care of. That's no, it's no longer an open tab in my brain. That's closed and associated with something else now, and I know it's being taken care of how it should be being taken care of. If there's, uh, communication is key obviously with a lot of these things, but if there are questions, hey, we, we come together, talk about what we need to do, where we, what the direction we want to go. Um. George Wright III: Yeah, 'cause that's a, it's a real team effort. It's, it's, it's a co-founder role- Yes ... because it's different if you have a family member that comes to work for you, and it's like you're doing work for Brayden, but he knows that you're running the household or vice versa. Um, you're partners in this. Mm. And so it sounds like you've, you know, it's never completely figured out, right? Mm-hmm. And you're, you're struggling through it, but everybody, everybody will figure that out. But it does sound like you've been able to create some really good, um, direction and, and barriers and, and also responsibilities. So let's talk about social media. What's broken with social media right now? Braeden: Social George Wright III: media. Yeah. Social. Is that it? Well, that's the answer, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's the punchline? Yeah. Because engagement, uh, when you say... I'm a marketer, so when I talk about engagement, it's usually now views and comments and things like this. But true engagement is- Attention, it's all attention-based ... you wanna be meaningful relationships. Yes. Mm-hmm. Right? So talk to me. Give me your... I wanna hear from both of you on this, like what's wrong with social media right now? Braeden: Well, I ki- I, I was bullied as a child. I have a very anti-bullying stance, and for me, I think that, uh, there's a couple things wrong with social media. Um, one of them is that it's not social. Social media is not social anymore. It's attention-based. They're, the companies themselves have piv- pivoted to AI, and they've pivoted to attention algorithms. There's nothing social about it anymore And you don't know who you're talking to, you don't know if it's a bot, you don't know... And it's, and we've trained, the traditional platforms have trained people to be mean. Ooh. Where it's go, "Oh my gosh, go look at the comments. There, you know, I see something cringey come across my feed. Oh, the comments? I know those are going to be mean, but they're probably funny. Let's go check them out." And- Like George Wright III: trolls, Braeden: right? Yeah. And it, it, it rewards and celebrates the fact that people are being mean to each other, and no one really likes that, but it's fun watching from the outside, kind of like a car wreck. Or it's like- Yeah ... "Oh, I want to watch this, but I don't, I don't like it really, but it's fun to be involved in." It's a mob mentality with social media that I think is just wrong. George Wright III: Yeah, it's so much about, well, first of all, social media is a business. We got, people got to remember that, which is why you don't want to take on investors and things like this. But it's also a business that is 100% focused on attention, and I learned this. So I had, uh, Donald Trump speak for me at, at some events for a while. Um, we were doing these big, huge stadium events, and he made a comment. He says, "Attention is just attention. Good, bad, or indifferent." And that's the problem is that attention bad, it can actually outweigh good attention. Yep. Fake attention is still attention, and so attention is what it's optimized for, not connection or social- Or good. Or goodness ... or good. Right. So people are really actually more lonely, even though they might be doom scrolling or whatever, right? Mm-hmm. So Madison, what are your thoughts? Braeden: Yeah. Well, and they've been, real quick, they've been trained, the creators have been trained by traditional platforms that they have to embrace the negativity that people will bring to them. Because if they want to do well, they have to have thick skin because people are going to be mean, and they have to embrace those, that meanness- Yeah ... if they want to succeed in social media. George Wright III: Yeah, say things that are polarizing you here, right? And so why, why would you want to do that if you're really just looking for connection, right? Madison: Right. George Wright III: What are your thoughts? Madison: I really think what's broken with social media is that there's no value in the content, most, the majority of the content anymore. What you're watching is you're doom scrolling or someone smashing a gallon of milk in the grocery store and think that it's funny. There's no value there. So going back to finding a social media where every time you scroll, it's valuable content. There's something that you connect with that you love to see, and you're connecting with these people. You're following their journey. They feel like friends, but you're also actually making real connections. Um, that's what I thought, that I feel like real social media is missing, and that's what Ven Social is bringing back to the table, or bringing back to the drawing board with that. George Wright III: Yeah. No, that's great because you're right, because really- Current social media platforms are compounding the problem. If you're, if you're trying to get connection, you're trying to be social, you're trying to talk to real people about real things- Mm-hmm ... everything about social media is actually making that harder to do. Braeden: Mm. Yeah. George Wright III: You can't even control if you're gonna get a true comment coming through to your profile- Madison: Right ... George Wright III: or anything. So you're g- you're getting gated as to what you see, you're getting gated as to what you can say, and it's all based on attention, not solving the problems. Madison: Exactly. George Wright III: Right? Braeden: And if you try to be connective, if you try to be vulnerable at all, the trolls and the mob mentality just shuts that all down completely, and you, you... There's a lot of mean comments. When you're trying to find connection and be vulnerable, the meanness just shuts that down. Madison: And, and the algorithm will show it to the people that are commenting the mean things to people like them, so it's just a snowball of trolls- Yes ... that Yeah ... end up just getting so bad, or it's like, "I was actually trying to be vulnerable here." And it, it, everyone feels less connected. George Wright III: And, and well, and less, um, comfortable being vulnerable. Yes. Right? Exactly. Less comfortable because you d- you know for a fact you're gonna get attacked- Mm-hmm ... by somebody who doesn't even know your actual situation, and they're gonna do that not even because they care about attacking your situations, 'cause they want attention. Madison: Mm-hmm. George Wright III: Right? So I'm curious though, because building a business that ultimately will create a benefit for your clients, you still though could have said, "Well, I'm gonna lean into and figure out how to use that to our advantage to help people," but you decided, "I'm gonna challenge the, the, the status quo. I'm gonna challenge and not build a social app. I'm gonna build a platform that can really build." What made you decide to go head-to-head? Was it strictly because you just wanted a better result for your clients and mission, or do you have other reasons that motivated you to kinda go against the typical social Facebook group and try to make it as, as clean as possible? Madison: Yeah. I f- I think the biggest reason, uh, for me is I'm excited to use this app myself. I'm looking for connection. I'm looking for real people to connect with. So I, I think us building this, sure, there's, there's ways, like we understand the business side of it, like we need to make money, but there's also the mission which is we're mission focused in that way of we just wanna find, we wanna help so many people find connection, 'cause I can't be the only one feeling this way. George Wright III: Yeah. Oh, no. And not even just in that topic, right? Madison: Mm-hmm. George Wright III: Um, so this is probably a good time to just say like, so what is Venn Social? Tell me what is it? Braeden: Ven is the first troll-free, actually social, social media platform that is connection based. George Wright III: Awesome. Well, so it really incorporates your mission as well as giving a place for people to, you're saying, truly connect- Mm-hmm and create relationship. Um- Braeden: Yep, that's the entire concept. Everyone needs connection, and we are the place that is optimized for connection and realness and authenticity Madison: and- Being a real person When people get tired of, of our social media, they get tired of the scrolling and the doom, the doom scrolling, the, the no connection, people that take a break from social media can come to us, and it actually feels like a vacation from the other- Yeah big apps. George Wright III: Yeah, 'cause the, so the million-dollar question is can technology really strengthen relationships? And so I, when we were talking before, you talked about these circles. Maybe that's a good way to kind of explain it. If Ven Social is a platform you can actually connect, and it's based around technology, which usually makes it harder, uh, to, to get personal, how do you do that? And it seems like maybe circles is one way to do that. Mm-hmm. Do you wanna explain what that is? What, what are circles inside the Ven Social platform? Braeden: Sure. So our answer to Facebook Groups, the, the problem with Facebook Groups is everyone, you know, the bucket of infertility. The problem is there are many different situations inside of there, right? So our answer to that are filtered questions. The basic concept of our circles, um, groups, circles, our, you know, our name is Ven, like a Venn diagram, so circles. Love George Wright III: it. Braeden: Okay. Um, the concept of the circles is that you pick a topic. Uh, let's use women's health as a, as a category. You click join, and it comes up with a series of questions for you to ask, and everyone answers the same questions. The very first question with that is what stage of life are you in? Trying to conceive, not trying to conceive, pregnant, postpartum, or menopause. Well, they're very branching, very different situations, and depending on what you answer, you're asked the next question- Mm ... and then the next question, and then the next question. There's a series of questions, and then once you're done answering those, you're put in a sub-circle with people who answered those questions the exact same way you did, so you know you have something in common. All those things you have in common with the people in your sub-circle, so you know you relate. You know that they're in your same situation because they're living the same situation. George Wright III: So through a series of questions, you're helping to facilitate matching in a very specific way. Um, and do you feel like that's gonna accomplish what you want as far as, like, the connection? And would it be... Would you be able to connect in, in different circles or just- Mm-hmm is it just one circle or- Madison: Yeah. Uh, that's a great question. We've got... So we're launching with the 10, that we have 10 different topics, like parenting, grief and loss, even faith and spirituality, body confidence and self-image. Like, we've, we've got a pretty big, broad group. Mental health. George Wright III: Okay. Madison: Physical health. Women's health. But from there, you can choose to be in as many circles that apply to you. You can be in all 10 if they all apply to you, but from there you're only put in one sub-circle because you're with the one person or the one circle or group the, of the people that answered the questions the same way that you did. Braeden: That matches your current situation. Madison: Yes. But we do want this app to grow with you in your different life phases. Mm. So we have a, um, a m- So George Wright III: you can move kind of into the circles, and you're growing- Right ... through the circles, right? Madison: Exactly. So for right now, I would be in a group of people that don't have any kids, but when I do have a kid, I can retake the quiz for women's health and then be placed into a circle with people with kids. But I can still access my previous group as a mentor. Mm. I have a mentor badge by my name. Everyone knows that I've been there and I've walked in their shoes. So I'm still fostering connections in both circles. George Wright III: I love that. I love that because what it does is it allows people that are dealing with multiple things. Look, as an entrepreneur, you know, I might have mindset and clarity questions, but I might be as a, as a, as a father, I mean, I'm a, I'm, I have eight kids and six grandkids, so, like, I have both now, right? So, um, but I might have different just needs, and I would... When, when I am looking for support and guidance in those areas, I wanna go specifically to that group of people, right? Right. Mm-hmm. You know, it's different than, like we said, networking groups, but if you just said a women's health Facebook group, I mean, you almost have to, like, look to try to find where you can get answers. So how does your algorithm differ How do you, how do you work it different from traditional social media feeds? Mm-hmm. So people know if they're gonna be talking, they're gonna be heard. Madison: Well, and that is something to mention too. We have the two sides of our platform. So we have the circles where you're placed with your people, but we also have the discover feed, which is very similar to a main feed where you can discover- Mm-hmm new people, find people, you know, that you're following. Oh, great. So there's the two sides of the app. ' George Wright III: Cause you might not be knowing what you're looking for, but you can- Right ... see and relate, which is why I think there are some benefits to social- Yep ... is you say, "I didn't even know that was a thing." No, but it is, 'cause I think about it all the time. Mm-hmm. Great, let's connect. So you have a discover, and then the circles- Braeden: Yep. George Wright III: So it's actually the homepage ... that are specific groups, right? Got Braeden: it. We, we, we have a homepage, and then we have the circles page. Got it. The circles page is where you can go for those specific categories. And like Madison was saying with the mentor concept, let's use business as an example. If you're starting a business, you have very different needs than someone who's selling a business. But as someone who's s- starting a business, when I'm no longer in that phase, I can retake a quiz and say, "Okay, I'm, I'm right now and I'm in the middle of a business." Great. Well, I can stay and have access to the beginning of business group- Mm so I can provide a- provide mentorship to those people, but I can have my current situation being addressed right now. As far as the algorithm goes, in our homepage, there, we are surfacing more of the value markers. So if you've chosen to follow someone, that's one of the common complaints right now is, "I follow these people, I don't even see their content." Well- Right ... you can, our algorithm surfaces the value markers of I've chosen to follow them, we're gonna show you them more. I've joined this circle, and so content and things that are happening in that circle will show up on your homepage. Um, people you interact with will show up more. People, your friends will show up more. And then the, the exploring portion of that where it's just random stuff that we think you'll like, but not stuff that you've engaged with yet, that is a very low portion of what our algorithm prof- Mm ... uh, surfaces. Most of it is stuff that you've chosen to look at- Got it ... as far as friends and groups and things like that. George Wright III: Yeah, it's glaringly different than, than most of the objectives of typical social. So, um, Madison, why do you think that transparency matters so much in social? Yeah. Like, what are your thoughts there? Madison: That's a great question. I really believe that the creators and people now are so, they wanna go viral, they have to just pretend like or guess what the algorithm wants. And so us having a transparent algorithm and like being transparent in that way with what we're looking for is gonna make it so much easier for people to be able to post and- George Wright III: Yeah ... Madison: know exactly what we're rewarding, uh, what we're wanting, what, what we're wanting to push at that time and that kind of thing. Was that your- George Wright III: Yeah, because you don't like, honestly... Well, besides communicating in a transparent way, which we'll talk about culture here in a second, but- Yeah I don't have a clue how people see or don't see stuff, and everybody talks about, "I figured out the new algorithm does this, new algorithm..." You don't have any clue what you can do, so you may be building up, if you're a creator, you may be building up an audience, and you literally have no idea what to actually do until everyone else has done enough to figure out at least the direction. Yep. And so you're saying you're gonna be very transparent as to what you're serving up and why you're serving it up and stuff. Braeden: We have a document on the home pa- on the, the settings page- Okay ... that says algorithm, and you can click on that- Right on ... and it tells you exactly what the algorithm is looking for. Madison: And you get a notification when it updates. Braeden: Yep. George Wright III: Well, um, I think one of the things about your mission-driven, which is why I wanted to fe- you know, kinda get you in here to interview is, uh, is very culture-based, right? And, and culture is really created by founders. Um, and, and, and y- you will be the culture that gets created into the business. So talk about Ven Code and why culture mattered at all for you and what that is. Braeden: So the Ven Code stems from my background as, as dealing with bullying when I was younger and not being able to be authentic, and I, I learned from a young age that if I don't act like myself and I act like people who are popular, I will be more popular. And that concept in a in adult form sucks, and that is- that's what's happening with regular social media is, oh, if I act like these other people, I'll be okay. What we're doing instead is the Ven Code, as an example, the very first screen you see on the app is the Ven Code, and the first paragraph says, "This app is not for everyone. This is an app for good people trying to connect- Hmm ... with good people. If that's not you, if you're here to troll people, go back to the other platforms. We're not leg-" So you're setting George Wright III: a code of conduct, basically. Braeden: Exactly. Okay, got it. The very first rule, as an example of the culture setting, is no direct personal attacks. You can disagree. You should be able to disagree as an adult. This is an adult-based platform. Yeah. Have real conversations with real vulnerabilities, and let's have, let's have some real discussions that doesn't turn into... And that, that could be, "I think this is the worst idea ever I've ever heard in my entire life." That's okay. That is okay. There's nothing breaking a rule there. If it turns into- George Wright III: A personal Braeden: attack ... "You're a bad mom and you don't deserve to have your kids." Yeah. Okay, well, that's not, that's completely different. Yeah. That's a completely different feeling. That's when we're attacking the person. Your personal troll George Wright III: opinion, you keep it to yourself. Braeden: Exactly. Okay, got it. And, and the Aura system kinda goes into that. The Ven Code is the- George Wright III: So it's your initial code of conduct- Yes ... to be part of this platform, and everybody needs to agree to that, right? Mm-hmm. And then the Aura system is what? Madison: That's the policing mechanix- mechanism George Wright III: of the entire platform. Like the behaviors? Okay, Braeden: got it. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's essentially a social credit score that is right next to your username, um, that's a scale from zero to a thousand, but every new user starts with 250. You can do things to raise your Aura. You can do things to lower your Aura. Ah. It's a social credit score. So you're George Wright III: measuring your behavior- Yep ... and your interaction. Braeden: So if you break a Ven Code rule- George Wright III: That's interesting ... Braeden: you lose Aura, but as- on the flip side, if I see that someone else broke a Ven Code rule, I can report them, and I'm helping clean up the community, as long as it's a verified report, right? Mm. Verified report that they broke the Ven Code rule, I gain Aura for helping clean up the community, and they lose Aura for breaking the Ven Code. George Wright III: So it's interesting because like anything else, what you focus on- Gets results, right? And so, um, monitoring it is one thing, um, but measuring it is something a whole different level, right? So measuring it, it's kind of like if we didn't have credit scores, people probably wouldn't even ever think about their credit, right? Right. But measuring it, you're like, "Oh man, I had a, uh, go down 5% or 10%," whatever. Um- Braeden: And you actively monitor that and try to keep it good. George Wright III: How do you create accountability? Are you trying to build that into the community so that accountability is inside the community? Or how do you... Is that, what do you do for community? Madison: Um, the community is going to moderate the community. It's like- Mm ... if everyone could see your credit score, because it'll be right next to your username, right next to your comment. It'll always be right next to your name of how much aura you have, because the community is telling you exactly how much they like your content or not. George Wright III: Yeah. Braeden: And it's not even just liking the stuff, it's upvoting. Yeah. This is, this is valuable stuff- Mm ... upvote. This is, this is bad, down vote. That is the, we're getting rid of kind of the like button concept of it. This is a community deciding whether this is valuable or not valuable. If you're a troll, you get down votes and you- Got it ... lose aura points. Mm-hmm. And there are consequences to that. There's real social consequences. If you drop below 100 aura points, there's a badge that pops up next to your name that says low aura user. Everyone knows you're l- you're a troll. Everyone knows you're a low aura user. Yeah. But if you drop below 50, you're restricted. You can't comment, post, DM, gift. You can't do anything other than scroll and take a reeducation course that says, "This is how you should be acting on social media," to gain a little bit of aura back to try and reintegrate. George Wright III: Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, um, I call it authority in the marketplace. When you know someone has authority, not just visibility. The, the difference for me in authority is, you know, Kim Kardashian has visibility. Brené Brown has authority. Difference, right? One, they both have visibility- Mm ... but one has credibility and one has a proven track record. So your aura score is saying, okay, well I'm, if I'm hearing and interacting with somebody that has a high aura score, it helps me to feel validated that they have some real, true, like, meaningful- Mm-hmm ... interaction, right? Yeah. Yes. So what role, I mean, we, we'd be crazy not to talk about this before, uh, before we're done, is what role do creators have? Like, a crea- is, there's kind of people that engage in social media, but then there's creators. Yeah. Mm. And you have creators that are gonna be coming and, and, and bringing their groups into these platforms and stuff. What, what role do you have with your, your platform for creators? Braeden: creator George Wright III: And how do you view creators, I guess is one way to say it, because lots of users and lots of interaction is great, but creators are kind of this other entity of, of, uh, user, right? Braeden: Yes, and the type of creators that we are fostering are those connective style creators who have not been well-served on the current platforms. We are not looking for the people who go and rage bait, the people who go and try to cause problems. That's not... They won't do well on our platform, Tra, quite honestly. And a George Wright III: typical creator on a normal platform, how are they not being served? Braeden: The connective style content creator on traditional platforms, they have to adjust their content to try to have these great posts- To maximize the algorithm ... and the try to get the attention of someone- The trending audios and that kind of thing that's, yep. They have to, they have to try and do some kind of dance trend. They have to try and do things that don't match what they're trying to do, that doesn't match the, the severity of what they're talking about. They're talking about a miscarriage, and they have to try and make it viral so they can actually get visibility. That's a mess. The, that- Right ... that shouldn't exist. And so what we, our pitch, our, our, uh, our value to co- content creators is that this is a platform that is built for connection. This is built for opti- it's optimized for connection. That's what our users are here looking for. So when the con- the connective style content creators are out there, they can come to our platform and actually create the content they want to naturally without having to try to adjust to the algorithms and all that mess. Mm-hmm. They can just be a connective style content creator and connect with their people in a much better way. George Wright III: If they're worried about that, um, because I would imagine, you know, uh, big creators that have built up a pretty significant platform, there, there's a lot of fear of, "Oh, okay. I, I can't ch- I want to change. I want to be more connected. I don't wanna have to do these things, but I don't wanna move." What do you say to those? Braeden: That's a valid fear. George Wright III: Like, can they build, can they build, uh, their community here and maintain what they have and, and, and still feel like they can do that, I would imagine? Braeden: Absolutely. Absolutely. We're not, we're not asking anyone to leave the other platforms. Our goal as founders is to make this app such a good place to be. We're not doing contracts. We're not saying, "Hey, you have to come be here." We want to make this such a good place with culture and with all the cool tools- Mm ... we have and all the amazing features. We want this to be a place where people naturally want to come to. And so as these big creators are on these other platforms, yeah, they're getting the monetization, they're doing these other cool things. As they start to see, "Hey, I don't, I don't actually even like it here. Like-" Yeah "... I can go to Ven-" Yeah. Yeah "... and I can do these amazing things, and I can really connect with people." And we will be launching creator monetization within about a year as we get ads rolling, as we start to- Nice ... start to grow- Yeah ... as a, as a platform. We want to make this so that this is the platform for the people. George Wright III: Yeah, it's actually a really good point because as a marketer, I never look at, um... And you know, even when I, when I work with, um, focus, clarity, and discipline for entrepreneurs, uh, the mindset of really successful people is not either/or, it's both. Mm-hmm. In other words, um, you know, maybe a lot of c- content creators are not actual true marketers, and they don't, and they don't realize this, but I'll, I'll just say it for, for the purposes of this interview. Um, it's just another channel, but ultimately creators have channels through a lot of things. It might be, uh, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, but To have a place to go that they can all then get a deeper relationship, uh, because a lot of people follow their creators in three different channels. Yeah. Um, and so it's really not, you're, what you're saying is really not a move, it's just a more deep platform for them to bring their community- Mm-hmm ... to go deep with. Exactly. Um, and I like that. I like that a lot. It's, like, typically instead of going from just a Facebook to a Facebook group, or a Facebook page with a lot of people to a group which is tight, you're still dealing with the algorithm. You're able to, like, take people into a, a more personalized relationship built group. Got it. Braeden: Yeah. I like that. And you can bring the benefit of then to these groups that have typically been well underserved- George Wright III: Mm ... Braeden: on these traditional platforms. Yeah. The disability community, the infertility community. There's lots of- Yeah ... these communities that are just not served well because they don't fit the mainstream. George Wright III: Yeah. Braeden: That's what we're built for. We're built for these niche communities to come and find their people, and as we get more and more users, our questions can go deeper and we can have more of them, so it just becomes a great win-win for everyone. So they can bring, these, these creators can bring this benefit back to their communities and say, "Hey, there's a place that's actually built for us-" Got it. "... built for connection, built for us to connect. Let's go there." George Wright III: Got it. I love it. I love it. And I know at the time of this recording, probably not at the time of the release, you're deep in the launch. You know, things are happening, so hopefully things are, uh, a- along as that happened. But Madison, I'm curious, what is your vision of what you guys wanna do with this? Madison: Yeah. I, I really see this replacing, um, the, your regular social media. So when you go on to, to have some time, instead of doom scrolling on something that doesn't really give you value, I really see Venn being the valuable content- Mm that you can connect with and actually want to go and see. Um, long term, I, I'd love to see this be up there with the big boys, you know? But at the end of the day, we're just trying to help people connect, and if we can even just help a few people in these certain niches that pe- they're needing connection, where Brayden was saying, you know, they're so underserved in traditional ch- uh, social media. I really feel like that we'll, we'll make it at that point. George Wright III: Yeah. No, it's, it's so true because at the end of the day, that's the stuff that actually goes the most viral. So I, I love that you answered it that way because I, I know you guys both have a pretty big vision of what's going on, but it is still back to the value base, to bringing value to every user- Yeah which is far beyond that. Do you have a, a, a couple comments you wanna make on where you see the vision of this thing going? I know you're a very detailed-oriented guy, too, so I'm curious- I am ... both of your perspectives. Braeden: So- We share the vision as far as, well, we share that entire vision. But what I also add to that is I do see this replacing other social medias because the other platforms are tran- are, have really transitioned fully away from being social. Yeah. And so this becomes the social media where we are able to spread, hopefully very quickly, where people are able to say, "Hey, there's this app. This is built for connection. Come over here and actually, let's actually, let's actually connect. Let's, let's be with our people." I foresee this growing very quickly. I foresee this being an actual value add to someone's day where they don't have to take a break from toxic social media- George Wright III: Yeah ... Braeden: because they can find real friends. And I've, I've told many a person- Mm ... I do think this will save lives. We have a mental health category. We, if, many people commit suicide because they don't have a connection. Like, that's- Yeah ... just the world we live in, is we're, people are so disconnected. If we can save even one person's life because they were able to talk to us, to a friend who says, "Hey, I understand. I'm in your same situation. Don't do it." Like, stay with us, be with us, and we have a military group coming out, and we have all these other cool things We will be able to save people's lives, and I think this will become massive because of the features and because of what it is, but I think it will become massive because of the value that we provide to the users and the connection that we have for everyone, and because of the community that our, our creators and our, our users and everyone will be able to create this community of people that people are looking for and people are craving. Yeah. And that's how this will grow. That's how this will become amazing. George Wright III: Yeah, it really isn't just a need you're try- It's not just a product you're trying to promote. It's a need that needs to be filled, and people are looking for that because they're lonely, they're disconnected. So, um, great. How can people connect with you guys, uh, besides the app? Like, what's the best way for them to connect, um, to be able to get more information, get the, the platform? What's the easiest way? Braeden: So they can go to the website, findmyven.com. We recently learned that- It's Ven George Wright III: with two Braeden: Ns ... Ven with two George Wright III: Ns, like Venn diagram. So findmyven.com. Braeden: Yep. Okay. We recently learned that Ven actually means friend in Norwegian. George Wright III: Right on. Braeden: So that's, that's a- Find your friend ... that's a happy accident. Exactly. There you go. Wow. Exactly. It's a happy accident, but findmyven, uh, .com. Uh, Ven Social is what it is on the Google Play and on iOS. Okay. And yeah. I love it. I love it. And, uh- Find us there yeah, George Wright III: and there's a lot of stuff going on. So, um, I appreciate you guys being with me today. I know this is, um, this has been very much something I think is on a lot of people's minds, especially in the news right now. There's a lot of, um, gating going on with social media. People are very concerned about it, and it's really taking people from the social media to social connection, right? Yeah. And that's what you're trying to do. So, um, great. Well, listen, if you're listening to this, make sure you do me a favor and share the episode. Um, and hit us up on The Daily Mastermind. You know, um, let us know what you're working on, what you're winning at, let's celebrate some wins, and even what you're struggling with, um, because I really believe that no matter where you're at in life, it's never too late to start creating the life that you were meant to lead, but you gotta take action. So appreciate you being here with me. Look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Have a great day.