Nyoombl launches to make your conversations public

Nyoombl does to chat what LinkedIn did to resumes

Home tele-conferencing site Nyoombl (pronounced "Nimble") debuted Friday, though as of yet the site is still in private invitation mode. Users can request to be invited to the site, with the first 100 users to place their email on a waiting list given instant access.

Nyoombl describes itself as a hybrid between YouTube and Skype. Nyoombl users can have real-time video-interactive conversations with other users. But the site has a strong social networking element, in that conversations are simultaneously broadcast live on the main site, as well as archived for replay. Users can log on with their Facebook accounts and choose to interact with other users, or broadcast alone.

All broadcasts are required to take less than 7 minutes. The current suggested applications are for interviews and/or public debates. Users are required to have an email through a provider that also has video chat like Gmail or Yahoomail.

Nyoombl founder and CEO Oladayo Olagunju introduced his product at DEMO last spring, and since then Nyoombl has generated a lot of positive buzz. But the proof of the service's long-term viability will come from reviews after Friday's limited public opening.

When demoing last Spring, Nyoombl had a TV-to-TV feature, which used a camera connected directly to the television set. The small handset-sized camera was called the Greypfroot, connected via coaxial cable. But the Greypfroot has since been phased out, and Nyoombl no longer features the TV-to-TV feature but functions only through webcams, with Olagunjo telling VatorNews that the company is going in a "new direction" in this regard.

VatorNews talked to Nyoombl Olagunju to learn more:

VatorNews: What does Nyoombl do? What is the appeal for the general user?

Oladayo Olagunju: Nyoombl is conversations in public. We democratize conversations by allowing any two people (just 2) to take their conversations public...be it debates, interviews, dialogues, etc while the world watches on, listens and learns.

And this is not chat. It's discourse. Nyoombl is Conversations in Public. Just that. Very basic. It's controversial but it is our solemn conviction that it's the right thing to do. The most useful conversations and dialogs in society are, sadly, never heard because they're between two ordinary people or had over coffee or at the dining table.

Think of a mix of Skype and YouTube (i.e. live conversations for the entire world to listen in on, watch, and learn). This is not a communications tool, not made to replace telephone or Skype... Broadcasting should not be only for the elites.

We're doing to conversations what Linkedin did to resumes, what Facebook did to pictures, and what Twitter did to thoughts. Resumes, pictures, and thoughts, were once hallowed and private. It's actually pretty basic. 

How do you make money? What is your business model?

Money is secondary. Nyoombl is free to users. We have no business if our users are not truly able to have or view meaningful debates and conversations in public, and in a fully transparent way. There's a point we have to get to, at which we'll then need to worry about monetization. However, we're not there today. For now, engagement and growth are key to us. Just those.

What are your success metrics?

Success for us is when a fisherman in Arkansas is able to have an honest yet civil public debate with his Congressman...or when a New York seamstress and mother of two, Jane, can use Nyoombl to converse publicly with her Calfiornia based sister at 7pm every Thursday evening thereby enlightening their audience/viewers on how to knit a patterned scarf or where to get affordable textile. When everyday people start using Nyoombl to reach the citizenry in that way, then that is success for us. 

How did the company start?

It started out very basic. I wanted to solve my own problem. My family and I are spread over three continents. I'm based in the United States. My grandmother is based in Nigeria, and my parents and others are based in England and Nigeria. I wanted a way I could talk to my grandmother but also have my parents watch or listen in. It was tough.

Grandma is not into the entire Skype/Google voice thing. So, I created a sort of webcam for TVs so that she'll never have to worry about Skype on PC. With the TV webcam, I could Skype her and my parents, with their own TV or PC, could watch me an grandma talking...from miles away. Anyway, friends saw this TV webcam here in Palo Alto and told me they needed it so that while tutoring one student, they could have the other students tune in live from any location.

Then I realized that this truly was about democratizing conversations and making meaningful dialogue accessible irrespective of platform, location, or social status, and that it was best not to limit sharing such valuable conversation to just my family or to a small classroom of 30 pupils. So, I said, "Well...I'll just try to strip off the hardware part of it and make it a basic website since the Web offers frictionless distribution to people all over the world."

Do you have investors? Can you disclose who they are, how much they've invested?

Yup...we're just seed funded right now, amazing team of four, and will actually be releasing the precise funding details shortly, but I can say that the primary investor is a former Facebook executive & Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Kelly. He's awesome and shares the vision.