Chapter 01
The old route
I picture a seller at a doorstep. The person answering can look at the product, ask a question and say no. That simple encounter gives me something to compare with today.
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Old Versus New
How did selling something useful become so complicated? I had to find out the expensive way.
I kept thinking about a simple test: put something useful in a person’s hands and see whether they want it. After years of building an app, why had reaching that moment become so difficult?
About this story: This is my personal account. The time and development costs come from my recollection of building the original app.
Before you start
What brought me here
- The old product route kept the test close: the customer used the product, the seller heard the answer, and a return visit had to be earned.
- The original Circle real-estate app was built to give one transaction a shared memory.
- According to the founder's account, the app took nearly three years and development costs approached five hundred thousand dollars.
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Chapter 02
The modern maze
Modern technology lets a small idea reach people far away. But I found that the work of getting noticed could grow until it crowded out the idea itself.
Read this chapterChapter 03
One transaction needed a memory
I knew the frustration of details scattered across a real-estate deal. I spent years building the original Circle app to help keep them together.
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The modern stack
I could measure more and manage more. Yet I was not always getting closer to the person I hoped would use the app.
Read this chapterChapter 05
More layers arrived
Every new service offered to make one part easier. Taken together, they left me with more to carry, and no clear end to the work.
Read this chapterChapter 06
The AI layer
AI gave me more possibilities. It also made one question more important: what, exactly, would this help someone do?
Read this chapterChapter 07
The invisible costs
I began looking more closely at what convenience asks of the person using it: attention, information, patience and trust.
Read this chapterChapter 08
The idea spreads
I had listened to many people about what the idea could become. I needed to return to what I wanted it to do for someone.
Read this chapterChapter 09
The old honesty, with modern reach
I could keep the reach of modern technology and still work toward a more direct relationship with the person using the app. Circle became my way of putting that hope into practice.
Read this chapterInside the story
The questions I had to work through.
- What did the old door-to-door product route get right?
- How did repeat orders and neighborhood word of mouth build a route?
- What did modern software improve?
- How can the modern stack separate a founder from the customer?
- What boundary does Circle place around AI?
- How does Circle combine old honesty with modern reach?