17 12 / 2012
Pashash Weekly
Hello Pashash people
I just arrived back in Cape Town after an inspiring and enlightening trip to Silicon Valley and New York.
The biggest learning over the past few weeks is the need to be as focused as possible. Focus on a single proposition, user and market is vitally important to having a successful app.
Since releasing Pashash on the App Store a couple of months ago, we’ve been trying to discover where the right fit for our app is. Because we were building an app for the huge real-world shopping market, we started looking too broadly for who the right target customer may be and what they would be using our app for.
We think we’ve figured it out now though, and over the next few weeks, you’ll see a renewed focus on building the very best app to share your cool buys with. We’re feeling more confident than ever.
Happy holidays.
Faheem
10 12 / 2012
Pashash Weekly
Hello Pashash people
Presentations
My last week in Silicon Valley was very eventful. I was fortunate enough to be selected to present Pashash at the Silicon Valley Newtech event (pic below) with three other awesome startups: Lyft; Webpop; and Libon. I’ve been presenting at every opportunity I’ve gotten and have been able to introduce many people to Pashash as a result. The experience has been a great way to get the word out there and attract feedback from a large number of people. I’m in New York again now though, and am bummed that we had to turn down an invitation to present at the PARISOMA Mixer for Retail in San Francisco this coming Wednesday. That said, the show must go on and there’s a bunch of important people I need to meet here too.
Sport Shoppers and Haul Videos
I had the most fascinating conversation with Kathy O’Donnell, a Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University on Wednesday. We’re looking to get some of her students involved as interns at Pashash, and she turned out to be conducting incredible research into a specific community of shoppers she terms “sport shoppers”. These are people who see shopping as a sport and challenge themselves to find great deals and unique finds. She also introduced me to the idea of haul videos, which are videos posted to the internet by people after they’ve come back from a shopping trip. These people obviously care a lot about shopping and we’d like to introduce our app to them as soon as possible.
A new version of Pashash was released on Monday. It includes our awesome new set of filters and allows you to add a description of yourself to your profile. It’s all very cool. What’s cool too are the awesome mentions that Pashash got on both Standard Bank Bizconnect and GirlGuides.co.za (thank you Zaa) during the week.
Faheem
03 12 / 2012
Pashash Weekly
Hello Pashash people
This week we’ve started looking harder at the reasons people share things on other apps. Foursquare is a good example of a business that gets users creating content by employing some clever gamification strategies. We’re thinking about implementing some elements of this ourselves and have created a quick survey (only two questions!) to try and understand why you Check-In. Please have a quick look and share it on.
Many of you have told us before that you’d like photo filters to be included in Pashash. Guess what, we’re in the process of integrating this into the app now. It’s courtesy of some cool functionality provided by Aviary and should be in the App Store in the next two weeks. In the meantime, check it out below.
On a strategic level, we’re making some changes to focus our app more on the things that everyone’s really passionate about: sharing and discovering great deals. We’ve got some cool plans in store, but you’ll have to watch this space to find out more.
Have a Pashash week!
Faheem
26 11 / 2012
Pashash Weekly
Hello Pashash people
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey last week. Getting feedback from our users is really important in terms of guiding the direction we’re moving in.
I spent a lot of time speaking to potential and current users this week. Black Friday and the resultant queues was an excellent opportunity to pound the pavements and hone in on what people are looking for.
The key features that were mentioned were as follows:
1. Filters to make their pictures look better.
2. Ability to share with individual friends privately.
3. Leaderboards and points.
4. Search and filter one’s feed. Sort by price.
5. Follow people with similar interests and be followed.
Do you agree/disagree or have anything to add? We’re always looking for more input so please pop me a mail with your thoughts.
Faheem
19 11 / 2012
Pashash Weekly
Hello Pashash people
Thank you all for the continued support. I would really appreciate it if you would fill out the following quick survey on your experiences with Pashash so far.
This week was really exciting for Pashash since, after much hustling, we were featured in a major US tech publication, PandoDaily on Friday. I also had the immense privilege of presenting to a group of about 300 investors and entrepreneurs at a Silicon Valley event on Saturday. We’re definitely gaining momentum now and I’m focused on trying to get a little more media coverage on Pashash, particularly as we enter shopping season.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in shopping areas and malls interviewing potential users about Pashash. It’s been tremendously useful, and really interesting to understand how US users differ from those back home in South Africa.
In terms of the app, we’re submitting a new version to the App Store today (it’ll take about two weeks to process now). The great thing about the new app is that you don’t need to log in with Facebook (check out the screenshot below). 
Thanks as always for all the awesome support. You guys are Pashash :)
Faheem
