In the realm of software product development, the journey from zero to one is a quest to reveal and validate essence—the core truth and fundamental nature of a thing. This revelation and validation occurs as part of a rich and organic process.
A team's Fingerspitzengefühl—their intuitive grasp of a problem space or domain—informs the creation of a simple, loveable, complete product. This product deliberately targets a Schwerpunkt—a strategic focal point yielding outsized results in comparison to expended resources—and triggers "aha" moments in users. These moments of user enlightenment catalyse further engagement and adoption, generating market pull signals that validate the existence and/or intensity of an essence and lay the foundation for additional value-adding layers in the future.
So, obvious question: what's the essence of Subset? The answer: we think it's encapsulated in a phrase: "I saw this and thought of you."
It's no secret that our primary users are the nine percent of people online with a distinct attentional profile. Those who engage more deeply than regular consumers but less intensely than creators with an extrinsic motive. Those ostracised by the paradigms and playbooks that refute curation as a default way of being online and seeking novel cultural infrastructure.
These people whom we're building Subset for roam the labyrinthian corridors of the web, following their many interests to many different places. Along the way—again and again in the midst of their wandering—they will make connections between this thing and that person and attempt to form a bridge between the two.
Subset is for those bridge builders who see things and think of people. Its essence is the simple explanation given when something saved is shared with someone who'll care: "I saw this and thought of you."
