Listening deeply: getting to know you, developing products, advising startups

This is my last week at the Storia App by Selfish Inc's headquarters in San Francisco. After more than a year leading early growth, product strategy, community building and operations management of this visual story sharing app at RocketSpace, I’m moving on…

I’ve really enjoyed exploring a new realm of expression with everyone in the Storia development, design and product management team and the Storia user community, the gift of getting to know creative thoughtful people better through your creations in the app, sharing stories with hundreds of people around the world, and all the candid discussions we've had about our life and passions.

I also admire the vision of so many beta testers and content creators for this new storytelling service and its budding community. The feedback shared with me about shaping Storia as a technology that supports your life and most important relationships and pursuits has been insightful, and generous.

To everyone I've talked with in the past 16 months -- whether you used the app or not, whether you're on Android or iOS or only the web, whether we've known each other for ages or just met on the side of the road for a few minutes, believe me, we talked about it -- I thank you for your contributions to the development of this story sharing social network and want you to know that I was listening deeply.

Even as I move on, I'm looking forward to what Storia has planned, and what people everywhere are going to do with Storia in the future.

What's next for me? I'll be around, and engaging with you about where we're headed with content, community, visual storytelling, and all things digital media and startup.

I'll also be talking with startups about chief product or chief community builder roles, and consulting on product, operations, marketing, growth.

On June 4, I'll be holding a speed advice clinic for startup founders in San Francisco.

With CXO advisor visiting from London Shefaly Yogendra -- who recently exited her fine jewellery venture and has two decades of international business building, and has been named a top writer at Quora for the past three years -- in 20 minute slots, we'll listen deeply to your problem and offer possible implementable steps.

Let me know if you want to come that day with a question related to product strategy, content and community building, branding, market outreach, governance, global growth. We'll get you a spot, and tell you where we'll be.

Can A Visual Story Become A Book Proposal?

That's what Toronto celebrity chef Zane Caplansky and I are going to find out, and you're invited to join us.

We're collaborating at Storia.me (formerly named Selfish), the new visual storytelling service where I've been heading content and community for the past year, to create the foundation of a book about his adventures building a deli empire.

Zane's a great storyteller, and his quest for the perfect smoked meat sandwich has taken him on a personal and professional journey around the world, from dive bars and divorce into foodie business ventures on wheels and construction lots, and onto the shelves of Whole Foods and television shows judging donuts and national radio airwaves talking about what makes Canadian food uniquely Canadian.

He's changed his name and returned to his roots and now he's serving handmade, homemade Jewish deli food the way his mother and grandmother taught him, and sharing his biggest lessons about life and how what we crave -- yes, it could be a sandwich -- holds the key to our future.

It's a story we can all enjoy.

In fact, a major Canadian literary agent requested Zane's book proposal.

Two years ago.

Does that sound familiar?

It's a common story and nightmare of many promising writers. You're busy. It's a lot of material to get your arms around. It's overwhelming! It takes time to pick out a narrative, pin down the content you want to draw from when you start writing. It also takes time to compare and contrast other related titles.

So here's what Zane and I are going to try at Storia.me, with its topic-specific, ongoing stories and its moments of photo, video and text:

We'll start capturing chapter ideas for his memoir in an exclusive story, and in this collaborative story Proposing Deli Man we'll walk you through what we’re doing together. Kind of like a blueprint for how we're doing it.

If you're a writer you'll probably find it interesting in a behind-the-scenes-in-publishing kind of way (and you might want to try it yourself, right along with us).

If you're a fan of Zane's food and his life stories, you might like to see him put together this book like he puts together his lovingly made smoked meat sandwiches.

He'll also be sharing about this project on all his platforms -- like a media- and audience-savvy book author needs to -- and inviting people to come peek in and comment. That includes you. We want to hear your thoughts every step of the way.

"It's a good example of collaboration, as well as a brilliant idea and useful for me," Zane says.

We can't wait to get started. So subscribe right now to our behind-the-scenes story Proposing Deli Man, and Zane Caplansky's Storywhere we'll be capturing all the delicious material representing his story, and be sure you're following Zane too so you don't miss any new stories he starts.

If you know anyone who would like to watch this unfold, or take part themselves, share this right now.

See you in the story!

Ahoy mateys!

As you probably heard somewhere, we launched the Selfish iPhone app in Canada last week.

Mobile Syrup says it's "providing a, well.. social element that has been lacking" from other visual story apps.

Now we have lots of fun Canadians coming onboard, including our spokesperson Jack Greystone who’s been on the cover of a Harlequin Romance, as a pirate hipster, if you like that sort of thing.

He just started his Selfish profile and first visual stories...

You can join us right at the website -- even if you're not in Canada, no iPhone required.

Take a dunk with us, the water's fine.

Make A Living Holiday Letter With This Collaborative Visual Story App

Note: This free tool is so new it's not in the app store yet. But I'm giving you a special link to download it on your iPhone, and make this story your whole family can enjoy and participate in. +++

Every year you send out a newsletter with holiday greetings, recapping the year's events, and spreading good wishes for the year ahead.

You craft it (at the last minute, just another thing on the to-do list), you scrounge for the right photos and agonize over the fonts and the formatting and the text, and you send it all the email addresses you can think of. It's done and gone.

This year, why not give yourself some breathing room and try a living Selfish story to recap 2014's most memorable moments in images and text and your hopes for 2015 -- and have fun with your friends and family while you do it?

It's quick and informal. You can start a Selfish story in 1 minute. Pick a cover image, a title, and your first moment wishing everyone a happy holiday. Anything you might decide to add after that is a bonus!

It's interactive: your friends and family everywhere can comment right in your holiday letter from their desktops, laptops, and mobile phones.

It's ongoing. You can start now, today, with that first moment, and share the link. Then you can keep adding highlights and chatting with your loved ones in the comments.

Download Selfish, a brand-spanking-new visual story app on your iPhone.  It's not even in the app store yet, so you're looking at the public beta before everyone else gets it!

It's free, as always.

Here's what you'll get when you start your holiday letter as a Selfish story:

• one easy link you can start sharing today
• one easy link you can send or post everywhere including Facebook, Twitter, email, Pinterest
• a gorgeous display of images and text all viewable on the web, or in mobile phones
• if you add more than one image to a moment, it shows on the web as a slideshow!
• just one simple seasonal greeting moment will work great, or
• you can add all the moments of your year if you're a detail person, at any time -- hours, days, weeks -- after you start your story. The link you share doesn't change!
• invites everyone on your mailing list to comment and talk to each other so your holiday letter comes alive

Get started right now

• Do a 12-days of Christmas or Hanukah or Kwanza or New Year's story, or
• Top 10 fun times in 2014
• Best image and happenings of each month of the year
• A moment for each family member -- add as many images and captions as you want. Don't forget Fido. He had a big 2014 too.
• Or, start capturing real-time just what you're doing this holiday: running errands, gazing at decorations, digging out ornaments in the attic, preparing special meals, enjoying the store windows, the snow on the ground, the lights, the trees, the presents, the crowds. What the season means to you. You may find you want to share your real-time holiday letter more widely by the end of the month!
• If you'd like the rest of us to enjoy your holiday letter too, add a hashtag in the text or comments on one of the moments: #holidayletter

Open the app on your iPhone and get started. Happy holidays!

On the road to Slush, the startup conference in Helsinki

In an ongoing, collaborative Selfish visual story, here's what happened this week at Slush, the massive startup conference in Helsinki, which I attended with the founders of Selfish Inc, Rostem Hairedin and Moody Fayed.

Pitching contests, Vegas-worthy light shows, avant garde gentlemen's grooming, Marimekko prints, exhibits and panels by Finns you've heard of, Finnish humor, a sauna in the sky, SuperCell's blowout after party, human androids and oculus rifts, meetings about user feedback analysis, bean bags, Estonian tech sisters, Facetimes home, spontaneous ice cream picnic with Istanbul Teknokent Turks, a party in a casino with RocketSpace mobile ad regulars Fiksu, Tune and Ad Colony.

View the story "On The Road To Slush" to see the details.