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Upstream — The best way to grow your professional network
Upstream is what LinkedIn Groups would be if it was started today. Join communities, give and get help, attend events to meet other professionals, and spend meaningful time together.
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We've been running foundersfridaynyc.com on Upstream for the past couple months, and what's stood out is the pace of improvements. It's insane how much @ajt and team ship.
More of a general question; what's your process for shipping new features, and what would you recommend to other teams who want to ship more, faster? It seems you're doing a few things differently from others!
Anyway, I'm rooting for this to be the thing that LinkedIn *should* have been if it was invented in 2020. Considering LinkedIn hasn't released anything new to improve their product in about 10 years, thinking Upstream has a shot ;)
Thanks so much @nickabouzeid for hunting us.
Hi Product Hunt - We're excited to introduce you to Upstream!
I'm Alex, the co-founder.
Upstream is the best way to grow your professional network. You join communities, give and get help, attend events to meet other professionals, and spend meaningful time together.
Upstream is what LinkedIn Groups would be if it was started today. It's everything I wish I had when I was starting my career. Over the last few months, we have welcomed 40+ communities to the platform. The most popular experience on Upstream has been attending Upstream Events.
Upstream Events are the best use of 20 minutes while working from home. You can RSVP and attend an event, hear from someone smart in a sector you care about, and then be matched with a few people for five minute 1:1 video chats with people who share interests with you.
We launch today with a new Event format - Office Hours. A bit of history, my co-founder @BaconSeason and I met on virtual office hours on http://Ohours.org in 2011. Launching this feature brings us full circle. We know how powerful serendipitous meetings can be.
We have 30+ amazing people that have already scheduled Office Hours that you can discover in the app (from VCs, Founders, Reporters, etc).
We are building the “Third place for Professionals” where we turn to go interact with peers, meet new ones, and spend meaningful time together. Hit us up if you want to build a community, host Office Hours, make an ask, or chat. This is just the beginning.
We'd love to get your feedback and we're happy to answer questions!
This is the best professional networking platform/community I've used. After using it initially and meeting the founder @ajt I had to invest. My community is now over 300 active investors, I've run 14 events, helping to connect over 500 professionals using their digital speed dating functionality.
The next big thing.
Most virtual events that I have attended over the last few months have been weak on community/networking and were missing that ability to serendipitously make new professional connections. I have been using Upstream to meet new people and have been really impressed!
Been on Upstream since the very early days and have made so many new, quality connections, from VC's to Brand Managers. Alex has worked day and night, talking to all of his users, to make Upstream such a quality platform.
I can't express how happy I am that Alex and his team get to share Upstream with the world. Linkedin has dropped significantly in quality over the past year+, and I'm 100% confident that Upstream will seamlessly step into its place with a platform that solves creating meaningful connections, the right way.
Upstream has got to be one of the best "social networks" I've come across in years. I have been on the platform for a few months now (I was part of the first round of Beta users I believe), and check it literally daily. I've closed 4 deals (totaling over 6 figures) and have made a handful of new business friends through the platform.
My favorite feature? I've seen them all roll out one by one, but the one that knocked my socks off was the networking roulette - where you get matched with random people into a virtual one on one conversation and can make a new connection in under 3 minutes. The quality of the feature was so crisp and impeccable (from the video streaming quality, to the types of people you were matched with in the virtual meeting rooms) and its by far one of the best ways I've met new people and networked during covid thus far.
Kudos guys! Amazing work and I'm so honored to be part of this beta journey!
Upstream is the best tool I've found to bring together groups of people remotely and let them interact one-on-one in a low pressure way.
It's the closest thing we have right now to creating random high value interactions (like you'd have at a conference) with other interesting people.
It has been my favorite way to meet people all year. I also host the Serial Marketers community on Upstream and love it.
I've really enjoyed using upstream the past few months, met some awesome people, and am excited to explore Office Hours now! nice job @ajt @baconseason
I love the description that the team shared on Medium (https://joinupstream.medium.com/...), but it is difficult to test because, by design, the communities are closed. The onboarding experience is quite bad since you have to wait for approval to take part in anything that it's not the office hours.
Uncontrolled growth could destroy a curated experience such as this, but I would recommend to have, at least, one open community so new uses can enjoy inmmediately.
@fernandog Hey Fernando - thanks for this and yes it is purposeful as until this week we have focused on the admins bringing over their communities so they are by default in a community to start. It's a trade-off that, if we don't do, would destroy the quality of the communities.
And there are a few things you can do before being accepted into a community - 1) There is one public community - the Helping and Hiring community. But it is a paired down community (No community events). 2) You can explore Office Hours and host your own without being a member of a community.
We will 100% have a whole swath of public communities in the future - it's just a bit of a different undertaking and I'd first like to nail the private community experience first before opening that up. Hope this makes sense (and message me here or on twitter @ajt and I'll get you into whatever community you want)
@fernandog @ajt Awesome, thanks. You are right that nailing the quality of the experience is higher priority than growth at this time.
In any case, I saw that I already got accepted to a community, so I'll start playing now :)
LOVE this product. The Helping and Hiring community is amazing + the Office Hours are something that so many startup founders can benefit from.
Early beta user. Looked forward to seeing each update. The ability to test and iterate on the needs of the users was impressive. Excited to continue to attend events built on top of upstream.
Fortunate to have been an early user. Intuitive UI/UX makes coming back and participating in communities and events that much easier and ENGAGING. While IRL networking is non-existent because of COVID, @ajt and the team have made it simple, straightforward, and, dare I say, fun for professionals to connect. Lest not we forget, 'networking' is a dirty word usually associated with forced conversation, stale food, bland conference halls, and hard-to-find exit signs.
Upstream starts and ends with people and I'm confident this first entree into its founding is the start of something bigger and better.
I've been using Upstream for the past few months and met awesome people through it. Highly recommended for networking!
I really love all the people I've met so far at the Upstream events. Alex and his team have done an amazing job developing the technology, process, events, and community to make sure it's an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. In a world of "Zoom-fatigue," I look forward to my weekly Upstream events! Great job team!
Love this app! Already met some key candidates in the Covid Jobs community, and can't wait to join more "live virtual" events. Serious disruption in how virtual events actually connect "attendees" rather than just having everyone passively listen to a boring panel while they eat lunch. Well done!
Upstream was surprisingly fun, even in a very early version of the product. A bunch of people I'd known through chat or by reputation, suddenly connected to me 1:1 in a way that felt intimate and personal.
It's surprising how short an amount of face-to-face time is needed to change the way a relationship "feels", that much. Highly recommend.
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