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twitter ➚We believe that corporate work doesn't make sense anymore. We are building a platform for the global creative network.
Corporations are an artifact of a previous era when a centralized mediator was necessary to organize labor. The internet has lowered transaction costs, meaning it is easier for the right people to find each other directly. The importance of companies will fade as these decentralized connections become more efficient.
Remote work is incompatible with the hierarchical structure of a corporation. If the future is remote, the nature of work has to change as well.
An open network where anyone can collaborate with anyone.
Creative peer-to-peer work increases freedom and meaning.
Each chat combines the ephemerality of a messenger with the persistence of a filesystem. Anything sent in the chat can be saved to the filesystem so you don’t lose content. Files and comments added to the filesystem appear in the chat so everyone stays updated. The two sides have a complementary symmetry. The filesystem exists inside the social context of the chat, so you don’t need to resend links, nor ask to edit a doc, nor check email for comments. We’re trying to combine communication and collaboration at a fundamental level. This is necessary in an asynchronous world where you are moving across multiple collaborators and projects. We envision that Area will eventually become a collaborative computer.
Area puts tools inside a social context instead of the reverse. These standardized tools enable instant collaboration, without having to decide on a stack of software. In a centralized structure, like a company, this is unnecessary, as a set of software can be enforced.
Decentralized networks fail when they don’t operate on common protocols. The transaction costs of forming connections become prohibitive when rules are constantly negotiated.
Many messengers mistakenly let you view all content you've sent, but this is not useful because *all* information is equivalent to *no* information. The content is also not organized or collaborative. On the other hand, many apps add chat to their product without realizing that it needs to be primary to be valuable. Adding chat to an app doesn't automatically make it a messenger. The chat and filesystem need to be combined in a very specific way.
No. However, we joke that we're a web2 company for a web3 world. When we use the terms “decentralized”, “peer-to-peer”, and “protocol”, we are referring to the social layer, not the technical. We believe the concept of a DAO has been misconstrued to mean a gated community. DAOs are permission-less smart contracts that align people in interesting ways. The platforms that people collaborate on to produce value for DAOs have to be socially permission-less. The necessary incentives are already baked into the smart contract.
No. However, we believe the value of the collaborative element of creative work will become increasingly important, regardless whether AI tools are used or not. Additionally, as AI becomes commoditized, its value will accrue to the lowest layer in the stack.
No. We believe VC money creates perverse incentives.
Most productivity apps are offered to individuals for free, and then sold to companies. This seems fine at first, but when products make their revenue from companies, they deviate from the needs of actual people. These products become deeply bureaucratic as the customer is a corporate manager, not the user. To avoid this, we charge a small fee for a few extra features, and bigger file uploads. There are unlimited chats, friends, and files on our free tier.
We are a small team of engineers, designers, and musicians.
You are a musician, designer, founder, filmmaker, or creative. You are someone who wants to spend more time on something you actually care about.
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