Jonno Riekwel

Bench - Rapid fire meetings to get shit done

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Michal Sadowski
Wow! Awesome tool, can't wait to give it a try!
Michael ANDRE
@socialmemos Hi Michal, thanks for your feedback :)
Jay Scott
Even when you’re not in the same room you still see exactly the same thing We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for making this a triumph for [bench].
Peter Synowiec
Great tool, I've been testing it for a while, and it's much easier to talk about stuff in Bench, than in Skype (like in Skype every once in a while I need to switch from sharing my screen, to viewing another person's screen, and vice versa - this is horrible). Thanks to Bench we can focus on one screen and act on the same files in the real time. Great job, guys!
Michael ANDRE
@peter_synowiec Thanks for your comment Peter. We stopped using skype a few months ago, it was too slow :)
Pocket Silbermintz
@entrepreter it looks like $1,99 a month until you scroll to find its $1.99 a month. The difference there is huge! :)
Jay Scott
@p0cket blame the Poles on the team @adamzielin. Long live the period. :)
Michael ANDRE
@p0cket @entrepreter You got us :D Amending typo right now. Thanks
Pocket Silbermintz
@augenblick75 @entrepreter Hope that helps. I just know that one character changed my opinion immensely. You guys rock!
Élie Slama
As a remote worker, I was looking for this kind of whiteboard app for a long time. You should just update your video to make it a bit more clear :) Good job !
Jay Scott
@elieslama Thanks Élie. Would love to hear what you think we should include in there so we can get it updated soon.
Michael ANDRE
@levibostian you are right, our video sucks big time. My first time recording. Please forgive my lack of talent and give it a try with your team. It will change the way you work, I guarantee :)
Chance Mayfield
@augenblick75 @levibostian Dude, I LOVE the video. Real people talking to each other is a great way to demo the product. I'm sure you'll change it in the future, but just thought I'd let you guys know. I'm signing up for the 1.99 promo you guys have going right now. Product Hunt is the best thing ever, I swear.
Chema
Did the demo the other day with @entrepreter great product endless ways to use it. Gave some feedback hope to see it and kudos!
Jay Scott
@deambulando Thanks Chema. Text annotations coming in the next release :)
Damian Samolej
This tool is awesome and I totally recommend it. It's better than Hangouts and Skype combined. I've been using it with my team for a couple of weeks and it works flawlessly! Just start using it and you'll fall in love!
Jay Scott
@damiansam Karolina says: Glad to hear you liked it since we last talked and it's really making a difference to your team.
Michael ANDRE
@damiansam we keep asking ourselves every single week how we managed to work without bench before :)
chris bell
Love the product! Wrote a mini article on it here with some more thoughts. https://medium.com/product-hunt-...
Jay Scott
@thisischrisbell thanks Chris. Love your work. Succinctly says exactly what we do and how we're different! Thanks!
Jay Scott
I haven't used skype for business in the last three months. Let me tell you why... There's just something different about [bench]. Hard to explain. But shit just gets done on Bench. I've done thousands of skype calls (I've sold to companies all around the world from little old New Zealand.) Skype was my home for the last 36 months. But for getting things done with my team, when we're not in the same room together, well [bench] has completely changed the game for me. I've never been challenged to work so accountably. I've never been so focused in meetings. I've never been so productive with a group of people I've never even met before. And that's the thing with [bench]. Other than Mike, Tom and Adam, none of us have even met each other. But our meetings are like best friends every day. Best friends...who get shit done together.
Umit Akcan
Actually it is boring to see new collaboration tools everyday but this seems promising. Good job.
Jay Scott
@umitakcn really grateful for your comment !! Let us know how [bench] works for you. We'd love to show you around.
Michael ANDRE
@umitakcn I know what you mean Umit. People are trying to solve remote collaboration problem since the dawn of the internet, but recently it's getting crazy :D
Fred Rivett
This is an area that's important to me as a future remote worker. Tools and services that enable remote team collaboration are going to become more and more vital as the trend for companies to allow and even encourage employees to work remotely increases. We need tools like Bench to push collaboration and lower the potential costs of going remote. All the best with the launch 🚀
Michael ANDRE
@fredrivett we are already there. [bench] team is spread across Los Angeles, Poland, Estonia and New Zealand. We are working remotely for years and decided to create a better tool for us. Good luck with your future remote work Fred.
Olly Wilson
@augenblick75 congrats on the launch - great to see that you're enabling remote workers around the world!
Jay Scott
@olly_wilson @augenblick75 absolutely! hear hear!
Tom Charde
It's like InVision, ZURB Notable and Skype had a baby. And they named it Bench.
Michael ANDRE
@tomcharde We love your imagination Tom. Free bench upgrade is coming your way :)
Kazuya Nakamura
This is cool. Just signed up :) I usually use Google Docs to discuss idea with my team in Singapore and Vietnam. Google Docs works well with text but not so much with graphic. But what I like about using Google Docs is asynchronous communication. We are in different timezone and speak different native language. We need time to think and elaborate idea. We need time to give quality feedback. That's why we do not use Skype. I will try to see if this works for international team like us :)
Jay Scott
@kzynakamura thanks for jumping on a demo with me Kazuya. Things got a little wild on this bench. But loved the creativity from Ryun. :)
Gabriel Reynard
It seems to be an awesome product! Innovative, easy to use and modern.
Michael ANDRE
@gabrielreynard Thank you for your feedback. It's awesome to see hundreds of people using bench and setting up accounts :)
Austin Sandmeyer
I agree the video is not the best BUT I think that's an interesting product and tagline... I feel like a more appropriate one would be like "Sandbox (or Whiteboard) for collaborative meetings" 🤔
Michael ANDRE
@as_austin thanks for the input Austin. The massage is still challenging to us even at this stage.
Vartika
Cool product
Michael ANDRE
@vartikamanasvi thank you Vartika, please tell us in a few weeks how it changed the way you work :)
Roberto Scaccia
@augenblick75 @vartikamanasvi the change is already happening...new doodle art created by my dev team and powered by Bench ;)
Roberto Scaccia
@karolina_krolicka I surely will Karolina ;) negotiating the acquisition of the content with the creators at the moment...
Jake Cohn
Feel like I can't stress enough the clarity of the UX here. 'We all point, to avoid lengthy descriptions' as a headline on the website really says a lot. We frequently forget something like this when we're transferring real world human behavior to digital design. I think your awareness of things like this will really drive you guys forward and accelerate your growth. Truly seamless & intuitive as well :). Any plans to share your design thinking in more detail with Medium/Blog posts, etc?
Michael ANDRE
@leftearpod you made my day Jake. As the UX people we almost never get appreciated. When UX work is done correctly nobody notices it, they just use the product. I plan on posting on our design/product philosophy in the near future. Thanks for the encouragement. Cheers!
Abe Storey
This is an amazing tool that will IMHO become a staple for many teams @entrepreter. Love how, by default, there is no camera. So many tools have video by default and it just takes up resources and bandwidth. This is the interactive version of slack....on 'roids. :)
Jay Scott
@abe_storey really appreciated your time on the demo. Loved how you understood we were a complement to slack users. Something that can give you an edge in collaboration. :)
Michael ANDRE
@abe_storey @entrepreter I love when people pick up on the notion that cameras are distracting in 98% of collaboration meetings. [bench] is about stuff you need to discuss not about people faces.
Saul Fleischman
Thanks for the comprehensive demo @enterpreter - it's one I'm adding to my PH Startup Tools Collection and recommending to my generals!
Jay Scott
@osakasaul Thanks for the epic feedback session, your insights into your world are invaluable, and I really respect how open you were in where [bench] fits and doesn't Thanks for the extra support and encouragement!
Andrea Hill
Interested to try it out! One thing that isn't immediately clear though is whether what's shared is recorded or saved at all? (The mention of the secret link makes me feel it's not)
Michael ANDRE
@afhill Yes, you are right Andrea. We need to do a better job explaining how secure the service is. The whole connection between users and server is encrypted. The only way to access your bench is with the link. If you don't want others to have access to your bench any more you can 'reset' the bench. It will kick them out and change bench URL to a completely new one. Also the whole voice communication is peer to peer, it's not going through our servers at all - no recording there. And finally when you delete file from your bench or delete bench the content is erased from our servers. There is no way to recover it, even if that was a formula for converting coal into gold :D On the other hand we are working on the recording feature so users can record their conversation for a future reference.
Jay Scott
@afhill a couple people have mentioned that isn't clear, so we'll bring that into our messaging. Your [bench] a permanent space for your files and conversation. The only way anything disappears is if you delete it. Glad you had a play and got deep enough into the product to ask this question. Let me know if you want to jump into a deeper demo and I can show you some of the more advanced (and waaaaaay cooler features).