YAKiT

Great question @rrhoover! Started with wanting to create a cartoon about a man and his talking tapeworm. Figured out quickly that even though we had funny people with great scripts, and talent in illustration, that putting them together as animation was extremely technical, time consuming, and expensive. At Startup Weekend were introduced to the Microsoft Kinect, and the short of it is, we created 'performance-based animation' where you move, speak, and create a cartoon in real-time. Sample: We worked on that for a while, went through the Microsoft Kinect Accelerator (TechStars program), turned down a sizable acquisition offer, and kept plugging away. One big thing that kept scratching the back of our brain was where creativity decides to find you, isn't always readily available when you're ready for it. So we changed our thinking from "animation in the living room" to "animation in the pocket", where we can quickly capture the humor, personality, and imagination on the go - AND IT'S FUN. So fun, that creativity just becomes a by-product of the playful experience. Through hundreds of hours of customer development and about 48 product sprints, we arrived at the next stage of YAKiT where people can entertain and inspire each other with their freak'n weird creations. I could go on, but let me hop over to grand master plan. Impact wise, I'm really setting out to capture and unleash creativity in ways that have never before been possible. The BHAG is to help create a generation of MacGuyvers; people who use creative thinking to develop leadership skills, solve problems imaginatively and connect with the world around them in healthy and productive ways. If you're interested in the depths of what helps drive me, feel free to check out the TEDx talk I gave last June, which I believe you link to above. (thanks for that!). I'm also working on sharing the 2nd part of the story that leads directly to Freak'n Genius. High level, it touches on the power of anonymity and the future of storytelling, which was inspired by my experience being the GEICO Gecko mascot at a sporting event. :)

@FrankDenbow @BrianMa - Thanks for the supportive words! @rrhoover - I'll have to check into Mindie! I don't see it as a problem if it's *easy* to create a good good YAK (yak / yakit / yak vid all work). Did you mean it's a bit *difficult*? If so, I totally understand what you mean. I won't lie, YAKiT is weird, and there isn't really a largely understood concept that animation is something very accessible yet, so it's a bunch of people learning to walk for the first time. This is one of our challenges. As people use it for the first time, they learn their way into it, which is why we spent so much time and energy on the real-time feedback of animation, both with reacting to the voice, and with the animated sticker/overlays - to just make it so you light up and have fun, even though you might not know wtf you're doing. We added a well thought-out tutorial around the most complicated part of the app, cutting out the mouth, but other than that, it's play to learn. Without much context, or even *good* examples to follow, it's both new and rudimentary with what people think they can do with it. But as long as they start off by playing with it, that's the most important part. I personally like that there is a level of discovery to what you can do and see how this type of creation can fit around your messages or ideas. It means you can get better. If it were a 1-button press to something super pro and amazing and there was no room to grow, I don't believe that'd be as rewarding, and although we *may* end up with more traction, it wouldn't solve for my BHAG - constantly trying to find that balance. That said, we're always trying to make the creation process simpler, and more fun. We've thrown around lots of ideas about how to "put it on rails" to get a good story out, and let up as the user goes along, but ultimately, I'm pretty satisfied having built 'Play-Doh'. It feels like we nailed the super simple, fun to use, creative tool. And now with the community and Editor Picks, are showing what awesome things you can make with it. It's up to the person and their magical creative process to fill in the gaps. Hope that makes sense, thanks for reading!

@kylekesterson - welcome! Love the app. :) How did you come up with the idea and what's your grand master plan?

THAT is awesome, @kylekesterson! Love your mission, "to help create a generation of MacGuyvers." Also great, TEDx talk -- you're a fantastic storyteller which shows through in the product. I've actually thought a lot about "founder/product fit" lately and how important it is to be pragmatic about yourself and your team when building a company. I love that you created a "Kids" version of YAKiT. I recently downloaded an app that hosted similar anonymous UGC. I was immediately met with hate speech and penis doodles. As a 27-old-year male, I'm desensitized to this type behavior -- it doesn't usually bother me -- but in this specific instance it did. I was offended because I knew younger, more impressionable and vulnerable children and teenagers would be affected. Of course, this cruel behavior happens all the time inside of mainstream apps. It's sad. /end sidebar Anyway, back to the questions... :) What's your number one business priority right now and why?

Thanks! And I'm glad you brought up the abusive content you see in situations with anonymity. It's something we've thought a lot about - TTP - "time to penis", and how to prevent it. Even with the social version and public feed, it's been 97% family friendly, better than we anticipated. My thoughts are that we have two elements which are helping temper the dark side of anonymity and are revealing the playful side. One is tying it so Facebook login. Not everyone is a fan of it, but having it tied to you at the end of the day can help keep someone in check. (was also a quick win for our small dev team) And like you mentioned, there IS a younger audience on the app. However in the app you're AWARE there is a younger audience because their faces are all over the feed as they are playing too. You'd have to be pretty selfish and twisted to put that kind of junk in front of them. In the 3 times it's happened, I've been quick to catch it and comment with a very simple "Hey, not cool. Kids are on the feed and seeing this. If you want to make this kind of stuff, it's cool, please just flip off the 'post to YAKiT' option." So far everyone who I've sent that to hasn't followed up with anymore abusive vids. We're going through the app about 60x a day and have mod tools that remove it from being visible. Next feature is adding Followers, so your audience will let you know quickly whether or not they appreciate your sense of humor. Answering your question now about business focus. The first phase of this product has been obsessing over engagement. "Can a 3yr and 80yr old use it? Does it make them light up? Can people do something here that they really can't anywhere else?" We've nailed that, so now it's all about scale. (TELL YOUR FRIENDS!) With scale, opens up wonderful opportunities, including the many bubbling conversations with global brands and potential content/distribution partners that we met with while demoing at CES a couple weeks back. Also trying to keep up with the inbound requests on the investment front and even another acquisition offer. A little extra gasoline money could REALLY start to unleash what I have screaming at me from my sketchbook. It takes the little bit you see now, and elevates it to a really exciting and bizarre level that I definitely have not seen in the marketplace.

@kylejesterson - I empathize for you re: community management. :) The editor's picks you feature in the app are remarkable. Similar to Mindie, I'm impressed by "regular people's" creativity. That said, it's a bit hard (edited) to create good YAKiT's (is that what you call them?). Do you see this as a problem and if so, how are you going to make it easier/more accessible/higher quality?

Big fan of this team. The founder, @kylekesterson, is a stand up dude with a whole lotta hustle. Maybe we can get him in here to answer a few questions.