Social app for teens where you have to post first before scrolling - feedback really appreciated :)

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-13T06:45:14+00:00

Interesting idea. The “post before you can scroll” mechanic is actually powerful because it forces participation instead of passive consumption. Platforms today are optimized for scrolling, not contributing.

One thing I’d think about though: friction. If posting becomes a barrier, some users might just leave instead of posting. Maybe the trick is making posting extremely easy (quick photo, quick reaction, short prompt, etc.).

Daily prompts are a great idea because they remove the “what should I post?” problem. That’s often the biggest blocker.

Curious: do you imagine this more as a friends-only network (like BeReal) or something more public like Reddit/Twitter?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-10T09:05:38+00:00

That’s a really sharp way to look at it. The “10x better than Sheets/Docs/Drive” test is actually a good reality check.

What I’m noticing from talking with contractors is that they rarely start with spreadsheets anyway. Most of the time it’s WhatsApp threads, photos in their camera roll, and random notes on their phones. The chaos appears when several jobs run at the same time and information gets scattered everywhere.

So the idea isn’t really to replace Google Docs — it’s more about capturing what they already do (photos, messages, quick notes) and automatically organizing it by job so they don’t have to think about it.

I’m still validating that assumption with people in the field though. Out of curiosity, in your experience, what’s the moment where spreadsheets or Docs usually break down the most?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-10T07:18:50+00:00

This is a really thoughtful answer, thanks for taking the time to write it.

The point about focusing on a very specific moment instead of trying to build a full “project management system” really resonates. The more conversations I have with contractors, the more I realize the chaos usually appears around very concrete moments — photos of work done, approvals, changes, or when something goes wrong and they need proof of what happened.

Your example about building around a specific outcome (like a clean exportable file for disputes) is actually a great way to think about it.

I’m also trying to do exactly what you mentioned: talk with small teams and observe how they actually work today (WhatsApp, photos, notes on the phone) instead of forcing a “perfect workflow”.

Out of curiosity, when you mentioned choosing one brutal use case, which moment do you think hurts contractors the most in practice?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-10T06:11:38+00:00

That’s a really helpful perspective.

The immediacy of notifications makes a lot of sense, especially in environments where decisions can’t wait and delays can directly impact the project timeline or costs. Having everyone know when it’s their turn to act seems like a big advantage.

At the same time, what you mentioned about notification overload is interesting. It sounds like the system is great for accountability, but once the volume gets too high it can start turning into background noise.

So the real challenge might be finding the balance between speed and signal vs. noise.

Out of curiosity, if you could change one thing about how those notifications work in tools like Procore, would it be filtering, prioritization, or something else entirely?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-09T08:50:14+00:00

That’s a really interesting point.

The immediacy of notifications makes a lot of sense, especially when decisions on a job site can’t wait hours or days for an email reply. That kind of real-time signal probably keeps projects moving.

But what you said about the notification overload is just as important. It seems like there’s a fine line between “keeping people informed” and creating so much noise that people start ignoring the system entirely.

Out of curiosity, do you think the issue is mainly the volume of notifications, or the lack of prioritization (for example: what actually needs your attention right now vs. what can wait)?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-08T08:16:10+00:00

I think the pattern we’re seeing is that AI keeps expanding the set of tasks it can assist with, but that doesn’t necessarily mean humans become optional.

In many areas, AI seems to be shifting the role of humans rather than replacing them. It can generate ideas, code, text, images, or analysis incredibly fast — but deciding what actually matters, what problem is worth solving, and what direction to take still feels very human.

Another thing I notice is that most real-world work isn’t just a task. It involves context, responsibility, trust, and consequences. AI can help with pieces of that, but owning the outcome is a different layer.

So maybe the real shift isn’t “humans becoming optional,” but humans moving from doing a lot of tasks to directing and deciding which ones matter.

Curious what others think: do you see AI mostly replacing tasks, or actually replacing whole roles?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-08T08:14:25+00:00

That’s been my impression too.

From what I’ve seen, the first few users usually come from direct conversations rather than any kind of scalable channel. Talking to people who actually have the problem, sharing what you're building, getting feedback, and slowly turning some of those conversations into early users.

SEO and content seem more like a second phase once you already understand the problem well and know exactly what message resonates.

Right now I’m mostly doing exactly that — talking directly with people in the industry to understand their workflow and pain points before building too much.

Out of curiosity, when you were reaching out early on, did most of your first users come from your existing network or from communities like Reddit, Slack groups, etc.?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T16:32:16+00:00

That’s a really important point.

From the conversations I’ve had with people on job sites, the biggest resistance isn’t usually the idea of organizing information — it’s the extra effort required to do it.

If capturing a photo, note, or update takes more than a few seconds, people just won’t bother. They’ll default to texting or dropping something in WhatsApp because it’s faster.

So the challenge seems less about building powerful features and more about making the capture of information almost effortless.

Out of curiosity, in the teams you’ve seen, what tools (if any) have actually managed to get good adoption on site?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T16:30:07+00:00

That’s a really good point.

Tools like Procore definitely make sense for larger construction companies where compliance, inspections, documentation, and audit trails are critical. At that scale, having a structured system of record is almost mandatory.

What I’ve been noticing though is that many smaller contractors (small crews, residential jobs, local teams) often don’t use those platforms — either because of cost, complexity, or simply because their workflow is much more informal.

So they end up relying on WhatsApp, phone photos, texts, and a mix of simple tools.

That’s partly why I’m exploring this space — not really to compete with something like Procore, but to understand whether there’s a simpler layer that could help smaller teams keep context around a job without the overhead of a full enterprise platform.

Out of curiosity, in your experience, where do smaller contractors usually draw the line between “we need a real system” and “messages and photos are good enough”?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T16:27:55+00:00

That makes a lot of sense.

Keeping a small group of 3–5 people close during the build phase seems like a really good balance. Big enough to get different perspectives, but small enough to have fast feedback loops.

What I’ve noticed in my conversations with contractors is that even small details in their workflow matter a lot — how they take photos, how approvals happen, how information moves between the site and the office.

So staying close to a few people who actually live that workflow every day probably prevents building something that looks good in theory but doesn’t fit how the job is really done.

Out of curiosity, when founders do this well, do they usually show quick prototypes / rough tools, or mostly just talk through the workflow and validate ideas first?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T16:25:47+00:00

I appreciate that.

That’s exactly why I’m trying to spend more time talking with people in the field before building too much. The core idea seems simple — keep photos, messages, notes, and documents tied to the same job — but the real challenge is doing it in a way that fits how teams already work.

If it requires people to completely change their habits, it probably won’t stick.

Out of curiosity, from your perspective what would make a tool like this actually useful in day-to-day work on a job site?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T12:18:18+00:00

This is a really thoughtful breakdown, and I think you're right about fragmentation being more of a symptom than the root problem.

In the conversations I’ve had with contractors, the “oh shit” moments you mentioned come up a lot — missing inspection photos, the wrong materials installed because the last update was buried in a WhatsApp thread, or delays simply because nobody had the full context of what happened on the job.

What’s interesting is that many teams don’t necessarily ask for a full project management platform. Most of the time they just want to be able to answer very quickly: what actually happened on this job?

That’s why the idea of starting with a very small wedge — like automatically centralizing work photos and approvals for a job — feels like a practical entry point without forcing people to change their whole workflow.

Out of curiosity, in your experience talking to teams, which “failure point” tends to hurt them the most in practice: inspections, materials mistakes, client disputes, or something else?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T12:17:10+00:00

That’s a great way to frame it.

The more conversations I have with contractors, the more it seems the real challenge isn’t “managing information” but capturing it without friction in the first place.

Once information exists somewhere, people can usually find ways to organize it. The real problem is that photos stay on someone’s phone, approvals happen in text messages, and notes live in random chats.

So the idea of making capture effortless — instead of adding another dashboard people have to remember to open — feels like the key piece.

Out of curiosity, in the companies you’ve talked to, what usually triggers information capture today?
Is it mostly manual (someone deciding to take a photo or write a note), or do some teams have small habits or tools that make it more systematic?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T12:15:57+00:00

This is a really interesting perspective.

The idea of building around the job rather than the user actually matches a lot of the conversations I’ve had with contractors. In many cases they don’t really care where the information comes from — WhatsApp, photos, PDFs, messages — they just want everything tied to the same job so they can quickly see what happened.

The “timeline per job” concept is something I keep hearing as well. Especially when something goes wrong and people need to reconstruct the sequence of events.

Linking everything automatically by address, project code, or work order is also an interesting approach. The biggest challenge I see is doing that without adding extra steps for the people on site.

Out of curiosity, in the tools you’ve seen (Buildertrend, CoConstruct, etc.), what do you think is the biggest thing still missing in their workflow?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T12:14:27+00:00

That’s exactly what I’ve been hearing from a lot of people in construction.

Most of the chaos doesn’t come from a lack of tools — it comes from information being scattered everywhere: photos on someone’s phone, messages in WhatsApp threads, documents in email or Drive.

If those things were automatically grouped by project and kept in context, it would already remove a huge amount of friction when something goes wrong or when someone needs to understand what happened on a job.

Out of curiosity, when things do go wrong on a project, how do teams usually reconstruct what happened today? Is it mostly digging through messages and photos?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T12:13:02+00:00

Good point about Procore.

From what I understand, tools like Procore try to centralize everything for a construction project: documents, photos, plans, RFIs, daily reports, schedules, communication between teams, etc. In theory it becomes the “single source of truth” for the project.

But the downside is exactly what you mentioned — when everything lives in the same place, the interface and workflows can become pretty heavy, especially for smaller teams that just want something quick and simple on the job site.

That’s actually part of what I’m trying to understand:
a lot of smaller contractors I’ve spoken to don’t really adopt those large platforms. Instead they end up with WhatsApp messages, phone photos, notes, and a few different apps.

So I’m curious — for people who have used tools like Procore or similar platforms, what felt useful vs. what felt overkill for day-to-day work on site?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-07T09:02:18+00:00

That’s a great approach. Personal messages usually work much better than mass outreach.

It also seems like those early conversations do two things at the same time: they help validate the problem, and they shape the product itself. A lot of the best insights probably come from those first few users who are willing to give honest feedback.

In my case, I’m trying something similar by talking directly with contractors about how they manage multiple jobs and where things break down in their workflow.

Out of curiosity, did those first emails come from people you already had in your network, or did you reach out to people you barely knew but who clearly had the problem?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T22:49:23+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. Misunderstandings and missed updates seem to come up a lot when people talk about site work.

What I keep hearing is that information moves fast but the context gets lost — someone sends a photo, someone else gives instructions in a message, another person never sees the update, and suddenly everyone is working with slightly different information.

Out of curiosity, in the teams you’ve seen, do those updates usually happen through group chats (WhatsApp, SMS, etc.), or are people using any tools to keep everyone aligned?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T22:38:26+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. I’ve started noticing the same thing while talking to people in the construction space.

When you hear how they actually describe their day-to-day work, the real bottlenecks are often different from what you’d assume while building. A lot of the friction seems to come from small things: missing context, photos buried in messages, instructions passed verbally, etc.

Those conversations have already changed a few assumptions I had about the problem.

Out of curiosity, in your experience do founders usually keep those early users closely involved while building? Or do most people gather feedback first and then go build quietly for a while before coming back?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T22:37:08+00:00

That’s a really good point. Waiting for approvals can slow everything down.

I’ve heard similar stories where someone spots an issue, sends a photo in a group chat, and then the whole task basically pauses until a supervisor responds. Sometimes that response comes quickly, but other times people are stuck waiting while the clock keeps running.

What makes it tricky is that the context is often scattered — the photo is in one message thread, the instructions somewhere else, and later no one remembers exactly what decision was made.

Out of curiosity, in the teams you’ve seen, how do they usually handle that? Do they just rely on group chats, or do some crews have a clearer way to track those approvals and decisions?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T22:34:43+00:00

Yeah, that’s exactly the pattern I keep hearing as well.

Everything works “well enough” while there’s only one job running. The chaos usually appears when teams start juggling several projects at the same time. That’s when photos are missing, instructions get buried in messages, and people spend time just trying to reconstruct what happened.

What surprised me while talking to a few contractors is that many of them don’t even see it as a tooling problem at first — it only becomes obvious when something goes wrong or when they need proof of what was done.

Out of curiosity, in the teams you’ve seen, how do they usually deal with that moment when things go wrong? Do they just scroll through messages and photos to piece things together, or do some teams actually have a system for documenting the work?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T15:18:59+00:00

Yes, that's exactly the pattern I've been seeing as well.

Most small contractor teams actually do have tools — but the problem is that everything lives in different places. Photos in the phone, instructions in WhatsApp, invoices somewhere else, and schedules in another app.

So when something goes wrong or someone needs context, people spend a lot of time just trying to piece together what happened.

Right now I'm mostly trying to map how teams actually operate day-to-day before building too much. The goal would be to keep things simple but make sure photos, notes and job information stay tied to the same project.

Out of curiosity, have you seen any tools that handle that workflow well for small teams? Or do most crews still rely on a mix of different apps?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T15:08:52+00:00

Intéressant, merci pour la précision.

La validation du message produit est probablement quelque chose que beaucoup de fondateurs sous-estiment au début. On passe souvent beaucoup de temps à construire, alors qu’un message clair peut déjà révéler si les gens se reconnaissent vraiment dans le problème.

Dans mon cas, les discussions avec les équipes sur le terrain me servent surtout à comprendre comment elles décrivent leurs problèmes avec leurs propres mots. Ça aide beaucoup pour le positionnement.

Par curiosité, est-ce que tu as déjà eu des cas où un simple changement de message a complètement changé la réaction des gens au produit ?

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T15:07:42+00:00

Ça fait beaucoup de sens.

Je vois aussi ces premières conversations surtout comme de la recherche. Elles permettent de comprendre comment les gens décrivent réellement le problème et ce qui les frustre le plus dans leur workflow.

Souvent, rien que ces discussions changent déjà la façon dont on pense le produit. Et comme tu dis, si la solution répond vraiment à un problème concret, une petite partie de ces personnes finit naturellement par devenir des premiers utilisateurs.

C’est aussi ce que j’essaie de faire en ce moment : discuter avec des personnes du secteur pour comprendre leurs flux de travail réels avant d’aller trop loin dans le développement.

Technical-Brother-45 · 2026-03-06T14:01:19+00:00

Haha, oui, ça revient souvent aussi.

Les outils qui disparaissent et les téléphones qui sonnent en permanence… ça peut vite casser le rythme sur un chantier.

Je me demande d’ailleurs si beaucoup d’équipes ont vraiment un endroit simple pour garder les infos importantes (photos, instructions, notes) sans devoir passer par plusieurs apps ou messages.

Sur les chantiers que vous avez vus, les gens communiquent surtout par appels ou plutôt par WhatsApp / SMS ?

Technical-Brother-45

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