[HN Gopher] Show HN: Pesto, a Digital Workplace
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Show HN: Pesto, a Digital Workplace
Author : dsaffy
Score : 74 points
Date : 2022-02-01 16:44 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pesto.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (pesto.app)
| sergiomattei wrote:
| How is this any different from existing solutions?
| addajones wrote:
| More animations and drawings to make it look cool and exciting
| and hip. lol.
| d0100 wrote:
| We've been using Pesto since it was pragli
|
| Works well but there is no message history search, it is worth
| using since it's free
| dsaffy wrote:
| Hey there - there is a search button that allows you to search
| messages. Is that not working for you? Reach out to us via the
| Pesto team chat in the app for support on this.
| figassis wrote:
| This looks interesting, but show me the pricing and stop with the
| signup, it's free bs. If it's now, it won't be later. Google
| showed us that.
| dsaffy wrote:
| We plan on introducing a paid tier soon. Think Slack / Zoom
| pricing, free tier + paid tier model. We haven't totally
| figured it out yet.
| Jpoliachik wrote:
| They gave a good explanation as the first FAQ
| groby_b wrote:
| I can't imagine many companies that would rely on that - an
| unknowable future cost in the budget, with only a month
| migration warning if you can't afford it is not a reasonable
| proposition.
|
| I mean, yes, pre Ramen profitability, saving every cent
| matters. But there are already calendars, chats, VC apps in
| the free space that are more likely to stay around than a
| startup without income.
|
| I wish Pesto success, but I think they'd be better off
| setting a price soon.
| Jpoliachik wrote:
| Yeah I imagine they're still building and experimenting -
| and early adopters should treat it as such. Better to set
| no price rather than guess incorrectly and advertise the
| wrong price.
| [deleted]
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This is meant to be constructive feedback: This almost looks like
| it's supposed to be a game for kids. I'm not seeing how it'll
| help me. I know it's intended to allow me to work with my remote
| team easier, but I don't see how exactly. I picked up something
| about rooms and possibly screen sharing (It gave me vibes of
| someone seeing my screen on demand though - I hope not?)
|
| This "Present your authentic self" bit, showing a cartoon emoji;
| what is the appeal? Am I supposed to make a cartoon of myself? Do
| I have to?
|
| Sorry if I could answer these myself if I read more. I suppose my
| feedback is that I don't want to read more because what I've seen
| isn't compelling enough.
|
| Having said that, I'm glad to see work is being done in this
| space. Good luck pressing forward - there's a ton of progress to
| be made and real productivity gains to uncover.
| emptysongglass wrote:
| As a counterpoint to the extremely negative commentary I'm
| reading in this thread, I _like_ "the present your authentic
| self without turning on your camera" bit. Sometimes I don't
| want to wear a shirt (or pants!) at home or don't want to be
| surprised absently rubbing my jaw in thought or making a weird
| face.
|
| I love to see innovation in the space of remote work tools and
| I can confidently say Slack and friends ain't it. I want a
| experience of serendipity-making leveraging some of the same
| mechanisms physical office goers make use of.
| p2hari wrote:
| We had used something similar teemyco [1]. But as most of you
| mentioned here, I think privacy is a big thing. Also as an
| introvert, I do not like such solutions which might mandate to
| have constant online presence. 1. https://www.teemyco.com/
| technotarek wrote:
| Visual learner here... Demo video please!
| gadders wrote:
| Or screenshots at least.
| ipnon wrote:
| This sort of thing would have been a research project a few years
| ago. It's exciting to see the Web evolve. Broadcasting realtime
| text and video are now building blocks we can rearrange in
| innovative ways.
| james_in_the_uk wrote:
| WebRTC is great for this - and has been available in building
| block SDK form for some time (eg Tokbox). When I last looked it
| had codec issues cf the client side tools eg Zoom. Not sure if
| these have been solved yet?
| SjorsVG wrote:
| I think it looks nice.
| sno6 wrote:
| As someone who works for a remote company, I'm excited by the
| idea of more casual communication tools. Creating a zoom room and
| sending an invite just feels so.. formal.
|
| With that said, I'd love it if there was a quick, real life demo
| on the site to show how this tool actually works, i'd guess that
| it would help more with conversion than an animated GIF.
|
| All the best.
| dsaffy wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback.
| [deleted]
| james_in_the_uk wrote:
| The concept sounds on point. I do understand some of the reaction
| in this thread. The cutesy graphics are a bit much for me
| personally and may not differentiate you sufficiently from other
| insufficiently professional tools e.g. Discord. I am speaking as
| someone who has tried to bring Discord into a community
| organisation (non-profit) and faced resistance based on branding
| rather than functionality.
| markstos wrote:
| Just because you come to work dressed as an avatar doesn't make
| it professional attire to wear a dog on your head.
| abletonlive wrote:
| Out of all the critiques I've seen about Pesto, I think this
| one is probably the worst I've seen.
|
| So should slack only limit us to having professional avatars
| too? Looking at my 2000+ employee organization, it's all pretty
| much split between "professional" and "unprofessional" avatars.
| And what if your startup is something like Chewy? Then coming
| to work with a dog hat is probably pretty professional
| actually.
| mmanfrin wrote:
| I'm reasonably certain the comment you are replying to is a
| joke.
| [deleted]
| sidhuko wrote:
| Looks like an enterprise version of discord.
| 0des wrote:
| None of this stuff speaks to me, just looking at your website.
| Yeah its cute and it's on-par with trends but just give it to me
| straight in the first sentence- im busy, and already in my
| workplace so lets start there.
|
| If it's chat with a bupbupbup attached, then tell me its a chat
| with a bupbupbup attached, if you're trying to do 'its a discord,
| but for _programmers and startuppy types_ ' then say that
| directly.
|
| Shoot me straight next time, today you lost me.
| dsaffy wrote:
| There are parallels to Discord; the HN audience knows Discord
| well and so if we were only trying to appeal to this audience
| we would probably market it that way. A large chunk (possibly
| the majority) of our existing users don't know about Discord
| though and it doesn't make sense to purely market it in
| relation to that.
|
| There are also some noticeable differences, particularly: -
| integrations are focused on work products, eg calendar, rather
| than what games you are playing etc - rooms (similar to Discord
| voice channel) can be shared on a calendar for guests - we
| prioritize different things in screenshare (quality over FPS,
| since it's for work not gaming)
| e12e wrote:
| So it's Teams, but without office 365?
| 0des wrote:
| I'm sensing that I'm speaking to the person that wrote the
| overly verbose copy I lamented above. Please hear my cries,
| just get to the point ok? I'm not trying to be mean or angry
| or anything like that, but I'm a person with money who buys
| things, often just to support them. Your website actively
| thwarted my attempts to support it by the laborious
| interface. Had this been 3 or 4 years ago, sure I'd be
| captivated by the design long enough to stick around and try
| and suss out what the marketing speak and round edges are
| telling me, but right now in 2022 it looks like everything
| else out there. If you don't be different, then at least get
| to the point about why being different doesn't matter.
| drcongo wrote:
| I had to come to the HN comments to find out what this
| actually is, I was completely baffled by the website.
| dsaffy wrote:
| I am the author. FWIW I totally understand where you are
| coming from; I'm not happy with our explanation of "What is
| Pesto?". We will take our own pass on refining this, and
| I'd also appreciate if you tried it and gave me your
| thoughts on it. Right now "digital workplace" is the best
| we have.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| What the heck is a "bupbupbup?"
| justusthane wrote:
| Parent just means "chat plus X", I think. Chat plus video.
| Chat plus rooms. Chat plus bupbupbup.
| 0des wrote:
| lmao this guy doesn't know a bupbupbup
| terminatornet wrote:
| i think that's the mcdonald's theme, ya know "bupbupbup i'm
| lovin it"
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| >but just give it to me straight
|
| Like pear cider that's made from 100% pears?
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| kareemm wrote:
| Looks interesting. Would be good to see:
|
| 1. How exactly it works
|
| 2. How it's different from existing remote work tooling (Slack /
| Zoom / Google docs / Miro / etc)
| dsaffy wrote:
| The core concept is "rooms" - like Discord voice channels, only
| way more flexible and built for remote workers. They can be
| traditional video conferencing, lofi spaces for hanging out, or
| 2d spaces with spatial audio.
|
| The goal is to give teams a flexible workplace consisting of a
| series of rooms purpose-built for their workflows.
| brailsafe wrote:
| I've seen a few digital workspace/virtual or spatial
| room/workspace apps out there, but I couldn't imagine a less
| pleasant way to work. It seems to me--though I'd be curious if
| anyone who's not a manager feels differently--that it takes all
| the worst aspects of being at a physical workplace, and ruins all
| the best aspects of remote work
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Too mockup heavy with no actual screenshots. No pricing.
|
| I have no interest in my coworkers knowing I am listening to
| inappropriate music. I definitely don't want them freely glancing
| at my screen without permission.
|
| Animated avatars don't seem to be taking off in the workplace.
| Hell even outside the workplace my friend group usually wants to
| see real faces.
| dsaffy wrote:
| You can't look at screen share without permission - this is
| clearly something we screwed up in the landing animation. It's
| supposed to show Katherine sharing her own screen.
|
| Pricing is coming soon and will free tier + paid tier (think
| like Slack / Zoom pricing).
| thirdlamp wrote:
| I like the gather.town concept more just judging by their
| websites. Does anyone have experience with both and can share how
| they compare?
| emptysongglass wrote:
| I'd also appreciate a rundown between these two or others in
| the same vein. I'm shopping around for a solution that's more
| digitally "present" than Teams for our company.
| browningstreet wrote:
| Why's everything moving and jiggling? No thanks.
| [deleted]
| rootsudo wrote:
| I like the cutsey style.
|
| Surprised to see Japanese and a Producthunt Leaderboard.
| dsaffy wrote:
| We have a lot of Japanese users (organically, over 25% of our
| users) so we internationalized.
|
| ProductHunt leaderboard was a weekend project for me... I won't
| lie, there's not much connection, just some fun.
| vincentmarle wrote:
| Looking at the GIF demo, am I correct to understand that you can
| view Katherine's screen by clicking a button, even if she's not
| voluntarily sharing? That seems to be a violation of privacy...
| ghostly_s wrote:
| This was my immediate read of it as well, and left a bad taste
| in my mouth. Didn't help that the FAQ mostly addresses
| variations on "how do I disable the default behavior of letting
| people join me to meetings without asking."
|
| Honestly I get the intent, but I think the parallel to "open
| door" in a physical space needs to be made more explicit. Even
| in meatspace it's not an acceptable practice for a group of
| people to walk into someone's open office and start a
| conversation without asking if they are free, first.
| dsaffy wrote:
| Hey Vincent - the GIF is supposed to show Katherine joining a
| room and sharing her own screen. You cannot force Katherine to
| share her screen.
| bosie wrote:
| That GIF is not clear to me either. I don't even get what the
| concept of a room is supposed to be? Or to to phrase it
| differently: how is this different than slack?
| dsaffy wrote:
| We are focused on rooms, which are audio-first spaces, not
| text conversations like Slack. Rooms are flexible
| containers that can be as simple as a traditional video
| conference, or more sophisticated, eg walk around on a map
| or listen to lofi music.
| enduser wrote:
| I signed up for this to check it out. It's a really amazing feat
| of technical execution. Congratulations for pulling it off! I
| hope you gain traction and evolve this into something lasting and
| impactful.
| getcrunk wrote:
| How did they make that animated screenshot gif thing. Is their
| some cool tool I can use to do that? I don't want to program css
| animations for it.
| dsaffy wrote:
| We used Lottie
| junon wrote:
| They're probably using SVG animations. CSS animations here
| would be masochistic. There are slews of programs for doing SVG
| animations.
| blueprint wrote:
| what would you say are your top 2-3 choices of tools?
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