Alex Yarde’s in-depth interview with Nadina Gulielmetti about her hot new crowdsourced relationship advice app-Jyst!
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Jyst is a brand-new crowdsourced, anonymous relationship advice app created by and for women. It combines women’s behavior (asking for and giving advice) with digital trends to provide a safe community where women can open up with each other and get instant advice and support.
I spoke with Co-Founder Nadina Gulielmetti about developing this exciting one-of-a-kind app.
Alex Yarde (AY): So Nadina, tell me a little about yourself and your new app Jyst.
Nadina Guglielmetti (NG): I’m a co-founder of Jyst. My business partner is Emily Listfield. My background is in digital marketing & social media. I’ve done everything from building websites to launching digital campaigns for global brands. Emily’s background is very different from mine. She has published seven books, was an Editor in Chief and a magazine executive. Our skills are different but complimentary which makes for a perfect partnership. Together we launched Jyst late last year.
AY: So what’s Jyst in a nutshell?
NG: Jyst is an anonymous, crowd-sourced, relationship advice app. You can log in and ask questions about your relationships and other Jyst users will respond. The app is designed primarily for women. The comments are positive, empowering, and non-snarky. We do find that we also have some male users and same sex couples.
AY: What most surprised you developing the Jyst App? Have you developed apps like this before?
NG: I’ve worked on apps before. One surprising thing we found is how extremely supportive the users in this new community are of each other – there is none of the judgment or shaming that sometimes happens with annonymous commenters on-line. Another thing we’ve found surprising is how “traditionally” women think about themselves and their relationships with men.- “Can I ask him out?”, “Is it ok if I text him first?” You’d be surprised, because you’d think nowadays women are much more empowered to do whatever they want.
AY: What was the catalyst for Jyst?
NG: It was a series of things. My co-founder dates and uses several dating apps. She would often ask me my thoughts on a confusing situation or text, but she would also ask several other friends their thoughts as well. So it wasn’t only my opinion she wanted! We started thinking there was something there. At the same time, I was taking the train home late one night and this young girl I didn’t know sits next to me and says, “Can I ask you something?” “I’m just having this really confusing relationship.” And she goes into detail about this guy and asks me my opinion. A couple of stops later she waves goodbye and gets off. She never asked my name, she didn’t know who I was and yet we had this very in-depth conversation. So we just kept getting these signs that this could be a very useful app for women. We felt that as women we like to get each other’s opinion, it’s how we’re wired. We also surveyed different age groups to see if this could work and got a great response.
AY: How has Jyst been received so far?
NG: We’ve gotten really great media attention! Oprah Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Refinery 29, Forbes among others so we’ve had some good traction. The majority of our audience has grown organically. We have had no advertising since launch and are growing consistently which is nice! We participated in an accelerator, Project Entrepreneur, in March. We also helped launch a book called “CRUSH.” We let their celebrity authors answer questions live on Jyst!
We’ve had some nice momentum.
AY: Where do you see Jyst going in the future? Are you expanding beyond dating?
NG: Yes. Our goal is relationships and how women think and talk about all types of relationships, be it romantic partners, friendships or work relationships. We want to look at relationships as a way to empower women in their day-to-day lives, how they relate to others and engage with their surroundings. We are still developing the app for Android devices and have some core functionality we want to tweak.
AY: How are comments on Jyst monitored?
NG: There is a flagging feature. Occasionally, you might have some inappropriate posts that people will flag and we take them down immediately. It doesn’t happen very often.
AY: How many people are signed up on Jyst?
NG: We have about 4,000. The growth is all word of mouth and expanding daily. What is amazing is the engagement rate is over 50% which is a great sign our users are engaged and keep using Jyst!
AY: It sounds like you’re really building a strong community. As you say, they’re coming back, they’re engaging each other, making positive connections, so they’re finding that “squad” virtually if not physically.
NG: Yeah! It’s very supportive and positive, it’s still anonymous. We are considering new features for our users to continue to make Jyst a key resource for them.
AY: So Nadina, what would you like the takeaway to be for people considering using Jyst?
NG: I would say Jyst is a great and growing super-positive community. If you have any questions about relationships, this is app to use, this is the place to go. Jyst is easy to use and you almost immediately get a response from somebody. It makes you feel so much better to know that you are not alone and there are empathetic people here on your side!
AY: Yeah, it seems everyone is on the same page! Thanks so much for talking with me about Jyst Nadina, it sounds awesome!
NG: Thank you, Alex!
Jyst is now available free in the ITunes App Store
Follow Jyst on Twitter: @iJYST
Follow the Blog : JYSTBLOG.ME
all art-Jyst
Jyst is an anonymous, crowd-sourced, relationship advice app. You can log in and ask questions about your relationships and other Jyst users will respond. The app is designed primarily for women. The comments are positive, empowering, and non-snarky. And they are defeatist. We speak so often as to how exclusion of women not only harms women, but men, yet we continue to create sexist and discriminatory entities that fail to recognize just the opposite, that either silence or outright exclude men. This app may help one “feel empowered” but what it is doing is just perpetuating an existing problem, stacking… Read more »