A solo entrepreneur's 1st startup
I'm super stoked to announce that our new website is up!
We've changed Refynr to focus on providing custom filtered Twitter feeds for conferences and events. We already have 2 conferences that have signed up, and more on the way. This type of branded dashboard is a big need, and so we hope to become a go-to source for such services. Here's our first custom dashboard - what do you think?
We decided on this name for this book:
"From 9-to-5 Peon to Living the Dream, A Solo Entrepreneur's Journey"Chapter 1: Can't get no...
https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/Jf3suGCJbyHChapter 2: Entrepreneurial spirit
https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/FQUJRt7dBAZChapter 3: Quitting my Job and Moving in with the In-laws
https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/JiCefKddqZGChapter 4: Deciding on a Startup Idea, and How to do it Cheaply
https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/VjtpQLtL192Chapter 5: Finding my Way with the Early Concept
https://plus.google.com/102177534078850027729/posts/3nDwyhjYfxX
Okay, I know you can already use the Google Chrome Refynr app as a near-native desktop app.
So, why put it in Adobe AIR?
What does it look like on my Mac?
Anyone else interested in this? We have a few small bugs to work out, and then the first Beta of Refynr Desktop may be available to test soon!
Here is an update we are very excited about. As of today you can start Buffering tweets from inside Refynr.
Refynr is a web app that allows you to filter out the clutter of your Social Media stream and save your most valuable tweets for later. So you get a new “refyned” feed of tweets.
You can create this personalized stream by setting up keywords you want to include, such as “Twitter”, “Social Media” and “Startups” in my case.
What has happened?
This awesome clutterless stream has now received a Buffer Button. It means you can Buffer those tweets right from inside Refynr.
Once you click the Buffer Button, the usual Buffer Box will appear and you can add the tweet to your Buffer. That’s it.
Why did we do it?
Joel and me have set out to start collaborations with many different Twitter tools to make publishing the great content you come across each day easy and effortless.
It was fantastic to collaborate with Aaron from Refynr to kick off a (hopefully) long series of further integrations.
We are currently involved in some great talks with other Apps and hope to surprise you with more integrations in the future soon.
Any more Apps you want Buffer to be integrated in?
For the meantime, do you have any other Apps you would like to see Buffer integrated in? Please share them with us below and we will try our best to work something out.
Check out Refynr here.
@LeoWid
Tags: Refynr, Scheduled Tweets, Tool Integration, Tweet scheduling
It's been an honor and a lot of fun to work with Leo & Joel to make this integration happen!
For over a month now, I've been using the BufferApp bookmarklets in all my browsers to Buffer my tweets, so that I don't have "blasts" of tweets (10 within 5 minutes), but can nicely space the articles I read into well-timed tweets. Much less chance of annoying my followers this way.
I tweeted to the @BufferApp Twitter guys that it would be great to be able to Buffer tweets from within Refynr. Joel worked his magic, and within a very short time we worked through the technicalities and now you can Buffer your ReTweets. It's very useful, to me at least, so hope you like it.
Honored to be on the home page, with a cool review!
A week and a half ago, I finally got out there and met some non-programmers with startups. In Austin.
For the first 8 months of creating my first startup, I've been working out of my inlaws house, practically hiding from the outside world, near Flower Mound, TX.
Hiding was great for keeping focus, but horrible for making *real* contacts - I've made a ton of "friends" on Twitter, Facebook, and via my blog, but it's not the same when you don't talk to them in person.
What did I do, and how did it go?
I was in Austin for 4 days, but found plenty to do!
Anyone else loving the Austin startup scene as much as me? ;-)
Ok, it ain't great, so don't say it is. But is this video good enough to put on http://Refynr.com as the demo?
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I work full-time on Refynr, but do some off-and-on contract work, part-time, for extra money. I'm using my life savings to pay for it so far, so it's much more than a hobby. I hope it makes me enough money that I can be my own boss for years to come.
· Is there any business model around Refynr, and what is it ?
I do not want to put ads on Refynr, because the whole point of Refynr is to get rid of stuff people don't want to see. So, I'm hoping people are willing to pay for it.
Sometime during the next few months of the Beta stage, I will start charging a small monthly fee, with probably a 15 day Trial period. I'm not a marketing or business person, as my background is mostly technical. I may need hire a marketing firm to help me for a while, but I will try to get as far as I can by myself.
However, just today a Twitter salesman called me to say that they would like me to help Beta test their new ad platform: Sponsored Tweets and Sponsored Accounts. It costs a least a few thousand dollars for 3 months, but I think I am going to do it to get more exposure for Refynr. So, I'm hoping that helps get more people to sign up. Refynr has nearly 400 users now, but I would like to have thousands of customers to make enough revenue to thrive and grow the business.
· What are your future projects, and will you work on further developments on Refynr ?
I don't have any separate projects planned for the future, only Refynr. Once I get a few thousand paying customers, I want to build a Pro version of Refynr for medium- and large-size businesses. They would pay per user, and Refynr would allow customers to set up company-wide filters that would restrict employees to seeing only certain topics on Twitter, Facebook, and possibly LinkedIn and RSS Feeds. I would consult with various businesses to find out what other features I could add to Refynr that would make it valuable to them.
· And eventually, which advice would you give to people wanting to create a service around Twitter ?
In case you missed it, Refynr.com (a web client for advanced filtering of Twitter & Facebook) is now free on the Google Web Store:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pgdcnajmdikalnkdjcmjihbaakmdkdge
It installs such that you can easily access Refynr in your Google Chrome browser (Mac, Windows, or Linux) any time, and it removes all the unnecessary browser chrome so that it feels like a native app (almost like on an iPad).
Please post a review, too :)
I don't know how someone at MakeUseOf.com found Refynr.com, but last night I started seeing tweets about "Refynr: Filter Your Facebook & Twitter Streams For Relevant Keywords". Some of the tweets were even in Spanish. Nice!
At the moment, it's listed number 1 (presumably cronologically) in the Social Networks section: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/cat/web-services/crowded-social-networks/
The direct link is here: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/refynr-filter-your-facebook/
From what I can tell, normally to get listed you have to submit your app at http://www.makeuseof.com/contact/ and pay if you more exposure. I didn't submit Refynr. Someone from MakeUseOf.com must have found it "organically" and posted the description. Woohoo!
I still know very little about marketing, but after this and being on http://betali.st, blogging, tweeting from @aqlong and @refynr, Facebooking, and using LinkedIn (where someone found me and invited me to be on a Startup radio show), I have a single piece of advice:
What do you think?
